Journal Reviews

Most successful leaders receive a high degree of guidance and support in the early stages of their career. But as they move up the levels they have to forge ahead with steadily decreasing sources of honest feedback. However even the best of leaders require accurate feedback because no one is immune from bad habits, bad judgments and mistakes. The world is changing continuously and subtly, leaders often keep using strategies that worked in the past but are not effective anymore. It’s very tough to understand the changes or the mistakes we make when we are in the midst of doing so.

Marketing Myopia is counted among the super successful articles of Harvard Business Review; it was published in 1960 and won the McKinsey Award that year. Written by Theodore Levitt who was a lecturer at the Harvard Business School, this article introduced a famous question to the corporate world which was, “What business are you really in?” The article theorized that most businesses, including the hugely successful ones declined after their years of glory because their focus was on the product rather than their customers.

Bosses need to rely upon managers and they also require them to be co-operative and honest. From their end, managers depend upon their bosses for guiding them in the right direction by setting priorities and them getting critical resources as required. Managing your boss might appear to be a strange goal because traditionally it’s the boss who directs the manager. It actually involves creating a productive relationship which also serves as a win-win solution for both boss and manager. 

Wherever human beings work together networks start growing spontaneously. People form networks for fulfilling their mutual self interests.  These informal networks help professionals to share ideas and also work together for their personal benefits. The members of these networks could range from research scientists who are working in related fields, to investment bankers whose clients come from the same industry. Large corporations with thousands of employees usually have hundreds of such informal networks whose members connect with each other through their mobile phones and community web sites as well through informal meetings in cafeterias.

Strategies involve making choices and it is the quality of the thinking that influences these choices which in turn determines the success of various strategies. When enquired about their decision making processes executives generally credit either deduction or trial and error as the method they used to make strategic decisions, however most of them are not aware of how often they use analogical reasoning.

The corporate world has been facing a series of crises since the past few years, from the economic recession to the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; various companies have found themselves in the eye of the storm with global media at their throats and public anger raging against them. These companies may be guilty or may not be as guilty as they are made out to be. Some of them like Goldman Sachs and Toyota are guilty but one cannot discount their positive achievements in past.

The author of this article has had over two decades of experience assisting companies in finding and recruiting employees for senior positions. He has come to the conclusion that too many companies have mediocre people occupying top or highly responsible positions. The problem is “serious, pervasive and very dangerous” according to the author, however he has also found that companies that suffer from such decision-making errors are usually not aware of the seriousness and depth of their problems.

Ten years ago McKinsey conducted a research called War for Talent which pointed towards an imminent shortage of executives. Today, that problem still exists and has probably become even worse. Companies now face the retirement of baby boomers, and are not sure about the talent that would be suitable for emerging markets. McKinsey Quarterly global survey in 2006 found that getting talented people was among the top objectives of managers, in 2007’s a second survey had over half of the respondents stating that they expected competition for talent to intensify.

A high potential employee is someone who is more talented than others, this is a fact that most business leaders realize but few talk about for reasons of political correctness. Ideally employees that show extraordinary potential should be treated differently. This not only applies to the compensation they get, but also to the opportunities and resources they are provided with by their organization. But there are many hurdles for doing this as supporters of equal treatment feel that all employees have talent in one form or another, and hence everyone should be provided equal opportunities.