"Twenty-five years ago,
management meant control. Managers put in controls, handed workers
specifications, and established formal structures that ensured that
people did what they were told. Companies operated alone, rather than
being part of partner networks or plugging their people into informal
relationships. It was an ineffective way to operate, especially after
the information technology revolution took place, and to break out of
it, companies needed management ideas. Innovation and intrapreneurship,
Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, reengineering, networked
organizations — these were all conceptual handles that allowed
executives to justify and develop new breakthrough practices.
Today, companies don’t need new ideas in the same
way they did 25 years ago (although they still need new business
strategies). They’ve been through the paradigm shift. They have
sustained tremendous improvement in productivity, effectiveness, and
attentiveness to opportunities. That doesn’t mean they’ve been
successful; indeed, as they’ve explored new ways of working, we have
all learned how hard it is to put these ideas into practice. Executives
routinely say that the hardest thing they do is improve people and
corporate culture. It’s still much easier to let such matters slip, to
neglect them. And in the past few years we’ve seen what happens as a
result: Ethical standards, and our ability to groom future leaders,
inevitably decline.
That’s why execution, or “making it happen,” is so
important. Execution is the un-idea; it means having the mental and
organizational flexibility to put new business models into practice,
even if they counter what you’re currently doing. That ability is
central to running a company right now. So rather than chasing another
new management fad, or expecting still another “magic bullet” to come
along, companies should focus on execution to effectively use the
organizational tools we already have."
