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Reinventing management

"Manager", by courtesy of Cornelia Meyer-Sattler, 2009

"The Reinvented Manager" was the title of the January 2009 German edition of the Harvard Business Review. At this time, the global financial and economic crisis already had all relevant economies under its thumb. The automobile group Toyota, which is accustomed to success, has just ordered a halt to production for 11 more days in 12 German plants in reaction to the lasting drop in demand. Following IKB, Hypo Real Estate, various regional banks and Commerzbank, Dresdner Bank is now also looking for protection from the state. Such news is never-ending. The world still isn't sure how long this crisis will last and what consequences and victims it will claim.

After focussing on the topic of "shareholder value", ethics, responsibility and sustainability should now come to the fore.

Thus, it comes of no surprise that the world's guiding intellectual forces are searching for approaches for a reorientation of managers. After focussing on the topic of "shareholder value", ethics, responsibility and sustainability should now come to the fore. Some authors are calling for new codes of professional ethics, such as a Hippocratic oath for managers. Others are campaigning for the acquisition of social intelligence. This reorientation is definitely good and necessary, but it will still not be enough. These models are still based on the idea that the manager can and must solve all his or her company's problems, like a highly paid superhero. Although he or she is prescribed a new value system, after the economic catastrophe of 2008 was ascribed an overly biased value system, his or her role will not be lastingly redefined.

The CEOs have unlimited power over a kingdom, the extent of which they are unaware.

And yet there are signs that the role of management could also be open to reinvention. Large corporations performed their own research, which showed that the staff departments of management levels were well informed of the figures and, according to the German Stock Companies Act, they are obliged to list them. Even if in exceptional cases not even the precise number of all group holdings could be ascertained at short notice. There is however a completely different picture for topics that are unrelated to the German Stock Companies Act. Not one of the companies surveyed was able to provide information on the number of branches or sites worldwide. They simply didn't know. To put it plainly: The CEOs have unlimited power over a kingdom, the extent of which they are unaware.

In the case of eccentric company manager Richard Fuld, a prime example of the autocratic superhero, the failure to notice the conditions in his own "kingdom" led to the downfall of the long-standing investment bank Lehman Brothers. Former employees have stated that Fuld's autocratic management style led to him being cut off particularly from bad news and in the last few months leading up to the bank's collapse he no longer recognised the true extent of the crisis although he had predicted it coming several years before.

In view of these developments, managers are advised to examine their own role and to test innovative concepts.

In view of these developments, managers are of course advised to integrate ethics, responsibility and sustainability in their range of values, but also to carefully examine their own role and to test innovative concepts. The software genedecSuite gives managers the opportunity to reinvent their own role in decision-making processes, a particularly important field for companies. In conjunction with the expert database SkillScout, genedecSuite ensures that every decision process is automatically taken to the borders of the "kingdom" without the company management having to constantly sound out these borders themselves. By the collaborative decision process of genedecSuite, the entire company expertise is incorporated in the decision-making process. Thus, particularly in times of crisis that require many directive decisions, companies can lastingly acquire competitive advantages.

"Only those companies that tap into the collective expertise of all employees will succeed", John Chambers, Cisco

"I believe that only those companies that build collaboration into their DNA by tapping into the collective expertise of all employees - instead of just a few select leaders at the top - will succeed, as more and more market transitions occur at once", said John Chambers, who for 14 years has been the CEO of the world's most successful supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet, Cisco Systems¹.

1. Interview with John Chambers, Harvard Business Review,
   German edition, January 2009, p. 51