Customers on top
Consumers are the real “boss” of any business. It is they who decide which businesses succeed, and which ones will fail, by virtue of the purchasing decisions they make. And for that reason, maybe it would be a good idea to put the customer on the organization chart...
read moreWho’s your boss?
In my last post in this series, I suggested that there might be a problem with the pyramid-shaped organization chart. That flaw, I furthermore hinted, lies not so much in what’s on the chart, as what (or who) is perhaps conspicuously absent...
read moreBad Manager Habits, Part 2 (#27 – #49)
As many of you know, last month I took break from blogging. The President, however, was not only hard at work for most of the month, but has been busy all summer. So this week, I’m adding to my list of bad manager habits that I first posted back in May...
read moreAugust break
I'm unplugging for my usual August break. But I'll be back with more new posts just after Labor Day...
read moreCynical! says Robert Sutton
So it seems I’ve done it again. To be honest, though, I don’t set out to upset anyone. I really don’t. Nevertheless, Professor Robert Sutton of Stanford University does not appear to be pleased with what I had to say about his 2010 management book, Good Boss, Bad Boss...
read moreParadox of the week – Jim Whitehurst
According to Jim Whitehurst, business has changed. As he writes on the very first page of his 2015 management advice book, The Open Organization: “The classic rules of the game—which used to define who won or lost in business—are being swept away”...
read moreHolacracy (Or, Robertson’s rules of order)
Holacracy. Maybe you’ve heard of it…and maybe you haven’t. But if not, according to the inside jacket cover of Brian Robertson’s 2015 book on the subject: “You will”...
read moreHappy 4th of July (Out of Office)
Happy Independence Day to you and your families. I'll be back next Friday with a new post.
read moreAbout the Blogger
David J. Rys is a former pharmaceutical scientist who first became interested in managing, and its malpractice, almost a decade ago, while sitting in a meeting. After an hour of listening to upper management tell him and his co-workers how to do their jobs better, he found himself wondering: why am I listening to you, when you should be listening to me? This blog reflects his efforts to answer this nagging question, as well as explain what “good management” really is, and why good managers are so few and far between ... read more