ABSTRACT
The first syllable of management is MAN. For eons, laxity and management are at each other’s throat. An analysis of the history of business failures demonstrates that adverse events happen when management is too weak, indecisive, or lax. Contrary to whatever the theorists like to think and say, management is not a “be good” and “be loved” business–neither is it a science, for that matter. Tough decisions made by MAN are necessary because adversities, dilemmas, and difficult trade-offs crop up time and again. In management theory, Genghis Khan ranks high because he recognized that warfare was not a sporting contest or a match among rivals fighting in a ring. The company of the twenty-first century will be rich in professionals, and proportionally thin in managers, because the role of management is changing so much. Brilliant new ideas are often killed by management’s defective oversight–which is indeed one of the most deadly weaknesses of twenty-first–century management.
