Like life, in management of organizations also these words of

According to Kundera, life
gives only one chance. In management also one really does not have a second
chance. The critical points of decision-making are lived only once. The
decisions we take at that point cannot be compared with any other outcome. It
is at one such critical point, for example, that the Wizard of Omaha, Warren
Buffet took a decision to invest in TESCO in the belief that it was poised for
huge growth, only to find later that he was short changed by the company’s
management with regard to accounting disclosures. Buffet’s company lost $700
odd million in the bargain. Can the decision be reversed? Obviously no. Can
next time Buffet do better? One does not know because the next time it will not
be the same as the last. Next time never is like the last. He may take a better
or worse decision in a different critical decision-point. Neither the decision
nor the criticality of the point is comparable. Let us think of another
example. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electrics is supposed to have
convinced his board to nominate Jeffrey Immelt to be his successor. Nothing
wrong in that. Indeed, Immelt proved his worth and no one is complaining that Jack
Welch goaded the Board to take a wrong decision. Indeed, he did a laudable
choice. But, influenced by Kundera, one asks the question: could there not be a
better person than Immelt, who would have done better? How does one prove that
Immelt was the best choice? And, how do our management gurus who never tire of
applauding successful managers claim that Jack Welch’s was the correct (I am
not using the word ‘perfect’) decision? How can they be sure that there could
not be a better choice? The craft of
management gurus is eulogizing managers who had been successful. Their genius
is in predicting the past. As a matter of fact management gurus do not believe
in counterfactual history, a form of historiography which attempts to answer "what if" questions known as counterfactuals. It
seeks to explore history by asking what if certain key historical events did
not happen or had a different outcome than the one which did in fact occur.
What if Lincoln and the Union
were defeated in the civil war? Perhaps there would have been a compromise; the
confederates and unionists would have eventually come together for the
country’s sake; slavery would have continued for a few more decades etc.
Whatever would have happened, the United States would have been a
different place than what it is today, for better or worse. This is true of
organizations also.
Can management decisions be subjected to counterfactuals? Yes, and when we
do, the answers will be as bewildering as in the above cases. They will open
windows of possibilities. Yes, one of the great possibilities is to doubt that
whatever the heroes of today are doing may not be the best way; there could
have been better ways. But, alas, as with Jack Welch or Lincoln, under the
given circumstances, the US or our many organizations would only think about
the possibilities, but would not be able to do anything about it. Because, like
life, organizational situations do not occur again in the same way!
Organizations do decide to
relive their old good lives after blundering. And to make the reliving
authentic, some times they bring their slumbering old bosses back from
retirement ( a la P&G). They hope that the boss’ magic still has
fire left in it. Time only will tell them, if some of them have not already
been told loudly and clearly enough, if bygones can be rekindled in the bygone
ways.

By V.K.Talithaya
vktalithaya@managementmasala.com
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