06th July 2010 | Posted in Books, Latest news, Management, Opinion, Organisational Development
Confidence is a funny thing. At times of doubt or crisis, like the three little pigs, we retreat, lock the doors and hope that the big bad wolf won’t come and get us. As with individuals, so it is for organisations and no matter how often economist might tell us that spending is the answer to the problem, we hoard our cash, talk about restricting our trade with the rest of the world and hope that all the huffing and puffing outside won’t blow our house down.
Part of this retreat can be seen in where businesses look for management answers to their economic uncertainties. Like the little pig looking for their favourite cardigan and slippers in their house of straw, managers seem to be looking for the familiar in their search for management solutions to their doubts and fears. Japan has seen sales of Peter Druckers’ snappily titled “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices“, first published in 1973, top 300,000 in the last six months up from 100,000 in the previous 26 years. This appears to be on the back of the success of a novel “What if the Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team read Drucker’s ‘Management’” (we’re sure the titles sound better in Japanese) but the trend isn’t restricted to Japan.
It was only a few months ago that John Maynard Keynes returned from 70 years of ‘ho-hum’ from the economics community to become the guru of fiscal stimulus choice and now Friedrich Hayek’s 1944 “The Road to Surfdom” tops Amazon’s US bestsellers. Why? Well, looking for the data to support a decision already made is a well-known trait of managers and politicians alike and Hayek’s hardline free market views sit comfortably with Republicans right now. In Japan, ‘though, Druckers’ focus on clear and measurable goals, like the little pig’s slippers and cardigan, have a reassuring familiarity to at least make managers feel better while the wolf rattles the door.
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