Earth to BusinessWeek: We are not living in 1965!

If Harvard Business Review is the Vatican of traditional management, then Bloomberg BusinessWeek is the Vienna Boys Choir.

Just look at the current issue, with the lead story, “How to Make An American Job” by Andy Grove.

Grove begins by citing New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman and his recently piece called "Start-Ups, Not Bailouts."

Friedman’s argument according to Grove: Let tired old companies that do commodity manufacturing die if they have to. If Washington really wants to create jobs, Friedman wrote, it should back startups.

Grove asserts: “Friedman is wrong. Startups are a wonderful thing, but they cannot by themselves increase tech employment.” 

Does Grove address the studies that Friedman cites? Namely that in the last 25 years, organizations more than 5 years old have collectively created zero net jobs, while organizations less than 5 years old have created 40 million jobs. Or present contrary evidence? Does Grove cite any pertinent countervailing facts? Or statistics?

No! Friedman has impolitely revealed an inconvenient truth. So Grove simply ignores it.

Instead, Grove goes back to, guess what? Do what Grove did 50 years ago, and build a company from the ground-up, on command-and-control, grind-it-out, tell people what to do, and make it happen. 

Great!

That was fine for 1965.

Little problem.

The world has changed.

We are not living in 1965.

Command-and-control doesn’t work any more. Telling people what to do creates disengagement, not inspiration. Grinding it out doesn’t delight clients, and if you’re not delighting clients, your company is in deep trouble.

The sheer unwillingness to examine facts, and or examine the marketplace of today as it really is, is understandable in Andy Grove. He is not a young man.

What is astonishing: that BusinessWeek publishes this drivel as cutting edge stuff is mindboggling.

If you have ever wondered why print journalism is a dying industry, you need look no further: this is exhibit A.

Memo to self: cancel BusinessWeek subscription.

Comments

[Bonifer]

Great observations, Steve. Good thing we've got Smith-Corona, Tang and Oldsmobile to support Andy's strategy..

[dzone]

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."
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