Marvin Bower (1903 – 2003)
American business leader, considered by the Harvard Business School as "the father of modern management consulting.
A business of high principle generates greater drive and effectiveness because people know that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence.
The performance of business leaders during the next decade will play a major role in determining not only business but political and social trends for a long time to come. Here are some of the principal reasons:
- Business leaders control the economic well-being of and stockholder.
- The course of business shapes public opinion.
- Business leaders shape public opinion.
So, in addition to his or her prime responsibility of managing his or her enterprise at a profit, the business leader of today is faced with new and larger responsibilities. And, at the same time, the job of managing his or her enterprise at a profit is increasing in complexity. Consequently, the imposition of additional responsibilities makes the nation’s task of developing an adequate number of properly equipped executive leaders a staggering one indeed.
The difference between a leadership and a command company can be very great indeed, because in a hierarchical situation, people who have concerns about reactions against themselves would simply not put forward negative information.
Decisions should be based on facts, objectively considered — what I call the fact-founded, thought-through approach to decision making.
Developing a company philosophy: ...
Establishing procedures: ...
I believe that leaders and leadership teams working together in a proper design will run the business more effectively than by hierarchical, command-and-control managing. But I can't prove that. And there are no models.
A business of high principle attracts high-caliber people more easily, thereby gaining a basic competitive and profit edge.
Providing control information: ...
Providing facilities: ...
Fourteen basic and well-known managing processes make up the components from which a management system for any business can be fashioned.
People should be judged on the basis of their performance, not nationality, personality, education, or personal traits and skills.
In large-scale organizations, the factual approach must be constantly nurtured by high-level executives. The more layers of authority through which facts must pass before they reach the decision maker, the greater the danger that they will be suppressed, modified, or softened, so as not to displease the "brass". For this reason, high-level executives must keep reaching for facts or soon they won't know what is going on. Unless they make visible efforts to seek and act on facts, major problems will not be brought to their attention, the quality of their decisions will decline, and the business will gradually get out of touch with its environment.
... for all the reasons we have discussed in these pages, judgments brought to the board by leaders are likely to be better than those coming to the board in a command company. Moreover, the effective working relationships between leaders and directors in a leadership company further ensures the exercise of sound judgments for such momentous decisions ...