Reinventing management

• Covid-19 (Redeploying talent, managing the workforce and interfacing customers need to be embedded in management operational procedures as a result of the effect of the global pandemic)
• Web 2.0 ( A set of next-generation internet technologies making it possible to create highly social applications allowing users to interact with content in diverse ways. Think Netflix, HBO, Amazon)
• Sustainability: There is no alternative to sustainable development. It is affecting how companies think about product development, processes and business models.

The problem we face is that we have made a permanent home with the orthodox view of management. Largely because of its success in the past. Today, the quality of management in business organizations is dissipating yet many hold on to the past glory of success.

The traditional top-down bureaucracy with emphasis primarily on job titles and less emphasis on function and performance needs to be remodelled.

We cannot place leadership above management. Leadership in many organizations is glorified, and management is mostly given minimal attention if any out of necessity. That has to change. We all need to be leaders and managers. Leadership matters but not at the expense of management.

It needs to be a multi-stakeholder discourse, innovating around new governance models, encouraging cross-company sharing, and new rules guiding intellectual property.

Collaboration at this scale is extremely difficult but not impossible. Dee Hock described in his book on the origination of the Visa network how he was able to convince senior-level bank executives to agree to a common set of standards that led to the creation of the credit card history we have come to know today.