Thinkpieces

Hyperbole and hubris are twins that are usually short-lived. However in the case of GE, a tradition-rich US industrial business, it took an extraordinarily long time before their nimbus faded away. Why that managerial hubris survived for so long but finally had to end are succinctly analyzed in this essay.

For over thirty years now, business management teaching – while claiming to be professional and scientific – has simply been a follower of fashions and trends. It is surprizing how many managers, organizations and well-established corporations have been fooled. This essay gives a first-hand account of the guru game: it exposes the guilty gurus, their disciples, the willing victims, and most important – offers essential, unique and valuable lessons for today`s executive managers.

Parasitic embrace and wealth extraction by consultants, investment bankers, auditors and other 'helpers'. Organic growth is sustainable and healthy, whereas tumor growth is parasitic. This can progress in different ways: by using processes and systems purposely made increasingly complex, by using constantly changing concepts, by willfuly destroying that of proven worth. One kind of tumor growth is parabusiness: what this includes, what business models are used, and how the entire parabusiness branch can be trimmed to a healthy size, are dealt with in this Thinkpiece. Further essays on the topic will follow.

Ethical behavior is having a hard time, especially within the harsh constraints of a globalizing and increasingly nominal economy. The risks of misconduct are much higher for (too) big companies and conglomerates. Reports of unethical business practice are on the rise. This essay describes the action that management must take.

Major corporations have undoubted advantages due to their market power. However apart from a few exceptions they have an inbuilt disadvantage: they are not innovative enough – despite what they want us to believe.

Managers must relearn how not to do virtually anything that promises power and profit. Value extraction and value creation, as outcomes of corporate leadership, are compared and contrasted. The time is ripe for the state to launch a social-market economy 2.0. Government economic policy is not a relic of the past; economic governance is still an imperative for a successful economy.

Directors' pay is in the headlines. It should remain a matter of social and political concern until things change. Why? What needs changing? Local and contemporary issues are important ― but this perspective covers more.

Abuse of trust is always shameful, wherever and whenever it happens. But there are different degrees of abuse. It is especially scandalous when leaders of organizations are involved: trust abused by those claiming to be custodians for their clients. Take a look at this hidden, unbelievable story.

Can America re-industrialize? It is doubtful whether it can, even if, for the first time in decades, industrial jobs were a topic in a presidential election campaign. This overview by Manfred Hoefle explains the remarkable decline of the US production sector, and why it is difficult to reverse the trend. What lessons can Europe learn from the US experience?

This is the brief story of what was – second only to EADS – the biggest industrial joint-venture in Europe. The causes of decline are analyzed and lessons learned from the failure of a promising project. It is sobering to witness the final pillar in a traditional German industry collapsing. It is disheartening that hardly anyone cares.

Is Siemens too big? Which companies are too big to fail? This Thinkpiece looks at manageability, the overlooked disadvantages of size, analyzes the underlying assumptions and restraints, and asks whether big really is better. Most importantly, suggestions are made on the limitation of size.

Too little is known about why ICT is declining in Germany. Even less is known about the impact. Read – in this 20-page summary – about the decline of a historically key German industry, the reasons, and lessons to be learned.

A thought-provoking essay on corporate supervision: an issue that concerns us all. The responsible actors/CEOs are named, while case studies of DaimlerChrysler and Siemens clarify the events, causes, and suggest reforms.

Unlike hardly any other discipline, business studies have come to reflect the proliferation, leveling down, and regimentation of the education system. To this negative list can be added Americanization, loss of reality, over-emphasis on the nominal economy, and 'value-free' objectivity. How this came about and why business studies/management theory ignores the crisis affecting the real world of business is explained. However, still more important, practical proposals are made for reforming the discipline. Plenty of material for a short Thinkpiece.

Outsourcing should be second choice. Unsatisfactory justifications are exposed and realistic alternative solutions are proposed. corporate supervision: an issue that concerns us all. The responsible actors/CEOs are named, while case studies of DaimlerChrysler and Siemens clarify the events, causes, and suggest reforms