Bennett's Bug

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