I'm Sorry I broke Your Company

Preface

I'm sorry. I really am. Does it help if I say I meant well? To be honest, though, its not entirely my fault. Were all victims of a flawed business model. What happens when you hire new employees fresh out of prestigious business schools? What are they good at? Performing logical analyses, learning models and theories and applying them, and creating new models and theories. What are they most lacking? Real-world experience. So how were we to know that the models and theories were wrong? They were elegant and logical, and based on our experience with models and theories, that's the mark of excellence. Fortunately, I was a little bit different from the rest. My degrees were in engineering and science, and I had a brief foray into a scientific career in a military laboratory before becoming a consultant. I knew a little about real-world results not matching the theories. But I must say, I was as gullible as the next consultant — at first.

Unfortunately, few statistically sound, well-managed studies prove the accuracy of management theories. Management theories rarely get peer-reviewed or validated by a third party before they become part of the accepted body of knowledge. Most of the evidence is anecdotal, and many of the existing studies have a degree of self-interest. (How many companies will admit that their multimillion-dollar restructuring effort had few benefits?) So I am going to tell you about my personal journey of enlightenment, where during a thirty-plus-year career as a management consultant and manager in Fortune 100's, I slowly and steadily realized that many of our management theories are wrong.

On behalf of all the management consultants who've been working in your companies over the last three decades, proselytizing about management by objectives and competitive strategy, I apologize. I'm sorry I broke your company.