Management Stories

Examples of those who fail to see the road to the future are often cited with hilarity. Take Harry Warner of Warner Brothers Studios, who commented in 1927 on the advent of soundtracks for moving pictures: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?“

Or take the senior management at Procter & Gamble when the disposable diaper was first suggested. According to diaper business folklore, P&G was conducting market research to find out what housewives liked about their cleaning products for soiled diapers. Inspired by comments of the form, “We don’t like anything about washing diapers,“ a P&G team came up with the idea for the disposable diaper. The team set about assessing the opportunity, estimating market volumes, projecting cash flows and profit margins, and preparing a presentation for P&G top management. The latter sat patiently through all the material, reviewed the market projections, and made it clear that they were impressed with all the work the team had done in analyzing the opportunity. “Just one question,“ they asked finally, “Where’s the soap?“

Source: Viewpoint From Einstein to Elephants: Unlocking the Innovative Mindset by Geoffrey Marlow | Prism, Issue 3, 1998

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Innovation and Organizational Behavior / HR

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds of arguing over which one should go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up, quickly wraps herself up in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you £800 to drop that towel that you have on”

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob.

After a few seconds, Bob hands her £800 and leaves. Confused, but excited about her good fortune, the woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets back to the bathroom, her husband asks from the shower, “Who was that?”

“It was Bob the next door neighbor,” she replies.

“Great,” the husband says, “did he say anything about the £800 he owes me?”

Management Lesson: If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk in a timely fashion with your stakeholders, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Source: Original source unknown but this story was sent to me by a reader named Jitesh

1 Comment » Posted by Administrator / Thought / Decision Making

U Thant was secretary general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971. “He was a great and spiritual man. Dag Hammarskjold had just been killed. There was a possibility of nuclear conflagration over a surrogate war being fought in the Congo, in which the West and the East were actually at war. U Thant was locked in a last-ditch meeting to avert disaster when he was handed a piece of paper, which he read, and he stayed in that meeting until the parties had reached a truce. Someone then asked him what was on that slip of paper. He said, ‘My son was just killed in a car accident.’

“The newspapers wrote about a cold-hearted Buddhist. But in that act was someone whose love of humanity allowed him to transcend his own narrow definition of family and to expand it into a greater definition. U Thant’s act was an act of a great, loving human being. That is equanimity, and it will probably see you through tougher times than passion or balance will.

“If you live a rich life of the spirit, you are not distracted,” says Larry Brilliant. “You carry out your duty, your dharma, no matter what.”

Source: Dr. Brilliant Vs. the Devil of Ambition | Harriet Rubin | Fast Company

No Comments » Posted by Administrator / Personal Improvement