“The philosophy of a management guru - Livemint.com” plus 2 more |
- The philosophy of a management guru - Livemint.com
- Dissents Of The Day - The Atlantic
- Design Q&A: 'Three-box' sedans are out, says Cadillac - Boston Globe
| The philosophy of a management guru - Livemint.com Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:06 AM PDT The responsible manager The global financial crisis of the past two years has triggered an unprecedented debate about managers' roles. While discussions about managerial performance, CEO pay, and the role of boards have been fierce, scant attention has been paid to managers' responsibilities.
CK Prahalad, 1941-2010 For the past 33 years, I have ended all my MBA and executive education courses by sharing with participants my perspective on how they can become responsible managers. I acknowledge that they will be successful in terms of income, social status, and influence, but caution that managers must remember that they are the custodians of society's most powerful institutions. They must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard. Managers must strive to achieve success with responsibility. My remarks are intended to serve as a spur for people to re-examine their values before they plunge into their daily work routines. Take a minute to study them: • Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity. • Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren't educated, you can't help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can't minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can't help the poor. • Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader. • Be ready to invest in developing other people. Be unstinting in helping your colleagues realize their full potential. • Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate. Good leaders are inclusive, even though that isn't easy. Most societies have dealt with differences by avoiding or eliminating them; few assimilate those who aren't like them. • Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness—not favors. They want to be heard. They often don't even mind if decisions don't go their way as long as the process is fair and transparent. • Realize the importance of loyalty to organization, profession, community, society, and, above all, family. Most of our achievements would be impossible without our families' support. • Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the processes and people you work with. How you achieve results will shape the kind of person you become. • Remember that you are partof a very privileged few. That's your strength, but it's also a cross you carry. Balance achievement with compassion and learning with understanding. • Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it—not by what you say you want to do. However, the bias toward action must be balanced by empathy and caring for other people. • Be conscious of the part you play. Be concerned about the problems of the poor and the disabled, accept human weaknesses, laugh at yourself—and avoid the temptation to play God. Leadership is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity. Every year, I revisit my notes about the responsible manager, which I first jotted down in 1977. The world has changed a lot since then, but I haven't found it necessary to change a word of my lecture. Indeed, the message is more relevant today than ever. Extracted from Harvard Business Review, January 2010 © 2010 HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING Content provided by Harvard Business Publishing Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Dissents Of The Day - The Atlantic Posted: 20 Apr 2010 01:49 PM PDT
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Design Q&A: 'Three-box' sedans are out, says Cadillac - Boston Globe Posted: 20 Apr 2010 10:43 AM PDT Cadillac is an iconic American brand. What is your design philosophy moving forward with Cadillac? How much world influence will be brought to bear on its exterior designs going forward? Cadillac will continue to be a niche brand in Europe. It is doing well in Russia and Asia. GM design is truly an international organization. Our design team has people from Korea, Taiwan, France and Germany. It is interesting being an outsider, to some extent, looking in. Growing up in Australia I always had a little bit of interest in Cadillac. The opportunity to work on America's premier luxury brand was just fantastic. One Internet writer said of the CTS Coupe, it is among "a long lined-trend of modern vehicle that looks ten times better in person than in photos." That seems true of a lot of vehicles lately like the Crosstour and the Panamera for example. Why is that? There is an element of quirkiness that doesn't always work in 2D while it could in 3D. There has to be a blend of that. On an online Cadillac video, the sentiment is expressed that exterior design brings people into a product, but interior design makes them buy it. One non-GM designer has said exterior design will be only 5 percent of the decision making process among millennial buyers. Is beauty going to be on the inside in future designs? Will the most popular vehicles come in plain brown wrappers, so to speak? The exterior of a car is the rolling billboard for the brand. Not so many folks see the interior. They experience it at the dealership. It is the interior that seals the deal. You can't compromise the exterior of the car for the interior too much. The belt height and roof height and shoulder room could influence the exterior design. The wider track and wheel flares are luxury touches that can be offered on more expensive cars. Econo-cars are more concerned with interior space. A popular design element across many lines is to make everything resemble a coupe. What's the motivating philosophy behind that? Why don't designers want to design sedans and crossovers that look like sedans and crossovers? The exterior proportions are what are appealing. That starts with luxury cars and trickle-downs. People aren't interested in purchasing a three-box sedan. A coupe gives a more athletic feel. People want practicality but don't want to be seen with a family sedan. They want something more expressive. You have also expressed the notion that watches influence design. It seems as if every high-end manufacturer has a watch to call their own. Why are timepieces so influential on automotive design? [Wolff laughs] I'm not even wearing a watch. Watches are a good example of something people can relate to very quickly. There really aren't many pieces of jewelry that men like. Eyeglasses are more conservative. Watches are a precious instrument. It's a very easy thing for people to understand. I'm actually not a watch fan. This interview was edited from a longer transcript. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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