ABSTRACT
Nothing succeeds like success; nothing fails like success. Each adage has its appropriate measure of truth. Achievements turn into failures; failures stimulate achievements. Amongst the diverse enterprises whose histories have been drawn upon for the purpose of this essay, those in the private sector have survived to face the problems of the twentieth century from the experience of a Victorian past.1 Those in the public sector have faced similar problems-and exhibited some similar failings and achievements-influenced the while by pasts contained within different organisational structures. In both cases, however, the internal difficulties, as well as the failings which were exhibited, owed much to the legacy of the past. In the interest of historical continuity, therefore, it would seem appropriate to consider the failings before the achievements.
