Is the business and management advice we're bombarded with
every day better or changed in significant ways?
Only a few people that know me and knew Peter Bennett may
relate to the sense of yesteryear that overcame me as a 1963 Volkswagen 'Bug'
with that classic sea-foam green paint job rumbled past me while heading home
from my bike ride today.
Peter owned more than one of these iconic roadsters but it
was that sea-foam convertible that takes me back on the highway of time. Stuart
Cook had one too but his was white. Monique Mendoza's folks let her use their
red hard-top until we got broad-sided in the middle of the intersection of
Masonic & Oak at the Panhandle in San Francisco one dark, late night. The
guy that hit us came from the Haight-Ashbury at a much faster speed than we had
figured. No one was seriously injured even though the 'Bug' flipped on its side.
Mendoza's 'Bug' died that night but
Bennett's rolled on.
Bennett was the most creative writer, lovable, moody,
out-right hilarious guy I had ever met. This time with Bennett and Mendoza, et
al, was San Francisco at its best, circa 1970. Bennett though turned dark and
Mendoza moved on, as we all did. No one really knows what pushed Peter to the
edge of curiosity or despair when we learned that he took his own life just few
short years later.
This isn't about morbidity. This is about a question that
has been dogging me for the past month or so.
"Is the business and management advice we're bombarded
with these days better or changed in significant ways?"
The sight and sound today that reminded me of Bennett's
'Bug' provided the kick in the pants I needed to sit down and deal with it.
My business 'teeth' were cut on the writings of Peter
Drucker and Benjamin Graham (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Graham). My
dad's oldest brother, the financier in the family who is still alive today,
presented me with Graham & Dodd's Security Analysis [Graham and Dodd. 1934. Security Analysis: Principles
and Technique, 1E. New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
] when I embarked on my career in the securities industry in early 1981.
Notable investors alive today, Buffett, Gabelli and untold
others are listed among the many that were influenced by Graham & Dodd.
While the underlying principles providing support for Graham's understanding
and shared insights remain largely intact, few dispute that the nanosecond-type
speed with which markets move today has altered the once revered approach to
long-term, asset value investing that Warren Buffett would credit most of his
success to. That time-honored strategy is being challenged in ways Buffett
could not have imagined just a few short years ago.
Peter Drucker was (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker)
a notorious management guru of sorts. His 1971 book, Drucker on Management is
probably the first of his books I read. Drucker's first was published in 1939
and he continued to influence managers until his death at age 95 in 2005 at his
home in Claremont, CA, the same neighborhood Mendoza's 'Bug' lived in before it
met its demise.
Not everyone agreed with the positions Drucker took and he
out-and-out managed to irritate and sometimes anger those companies he
critiqued as case studies from the "how-not-to-do-things"
perspective.
Recently Stephen Covey left the scene but think of those
whose thoughts and management insights led many of us through the past 25 or 30
years; the likes of Maxwell, McKay, Peters, Autry, Welch, to name only a very
few. In many respects I've found the insight and advice that come from the 'old
school' timeless. The professors, if you will, from Graham to Covey are among
them. Dust off one of the old books and take a ride in Bennett's 'Bug'.
This is not to criticize the abundance of useful thought and
leadership techniques that have required re-tooling these days. My mornings
begin with a rapid walk down Twitter and LinkedIn Avenues. The traffic is fast;
coming and going at speeds difficult to judge. Few of us keep up. Not a day
goes by that something very new, very fresh and very fast, gives me the
sensation that I might have read something like it before. It's merely the
difference between Bennett's 'Bug' and a turbo-charged Passat - seat belts
required.
One can't help but be impressed with all this knowledge
flyin' around and the ease with which a question can be answered or a desired
executive skill set can be found. It's a fascinating time. I tell those I have
an opportunity to influence to read, apply, and share their abundance but in
the midst of all of this, take trip back now and then. The ride in Bennett's
'Bug' may be as classic now as it was then.
Jim Naleid
is a Life-long Entrepreneur,
Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates
and Regional TEC (“The
Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better
Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimnaleid
