Some big corporations on auto-pilot?

August 21, 2003

Is it just me, or is anybody else at the senior executive end of the food chain noticing that many companies seem to be floundering at the Executive level? Good news seems to be that there is a noticeable increase in activity for recruiting at the senior levels of corporate America.

Bad news, at least from my observations (gleaned during the interview process), is that most companies seem to be on some kind of autopilot.

Basic idea being that if I do not make any decisions, I cannot be blamed for a failure, which means that I am less likely to be the next one out the door. It seems to cross industry verticals as well as geographic boundaries. Maybe I am expecting to much, but noticing many managers but precious few leaders...

This relates to an article that I noticed recently in the HBR Working Knowledge newsletter called Understaffed and Overworked: What Now? This affects every level of management, not just those of us in the middle. As for me, I have a few thoughts on why this might be:

1. Complete aversion to risk caused by a soft upbringing in the Baby Boomer or Gen X era. Pain begets Drive.

2. Increased societal pressures from the ethics front and shareholder value area, thus stiffling innovation and reducing their roles to mere posturing and maintenance.

3. Lackluster education from the BS/BA level right through the business school where innovation and entrepreneurship are shunned and test scores, easily measureable metrics for US News, inflated placement rates at meaningless consulting houses (Andersen?) trump any attempt at molding creative leaders.

Got more? Put them in the comments!

From Dana VanDen Heuvel' blog at: www.danavan.net

We strongly suggest you bookmark our web site by clicking here.
escalate your sales to succe$$ - Start Business Blogging today

escalate.ca runs on the Businessblog™ platform. You are free to link to this site as much as you like.