3 ms·
HBS in effect introduced the Western capitalist version of what in the USSR was called an "apparatchik." This was precisely what you say: a party functionary an
by api 9y ago
HBS in effect introduced the Western capitalist version of what in the USSR was called an "apparatchik." This was precisely what you say: a party functionary and professional administrator who knew little else and had little real world experience with how anything they were managing actually worked.
It turns out that to manage things effectively you need to understand them. Who knew?
I used to live in Boston and a friend (who went to Harvard) once related to me his view that the point of this was to ensure high earning employment for the otherwise inexperienced and overly sheltered children of the wealthy.
The other contribution of HBS was to deeply entrench the cult of "presence," extroversion, and alpha signaling as the single most important quality for leadership. There's an excellent book whose title is escaping me that gives a great history of the "extrovert ideal" in the West.
- cat199 9y agoBut the Central Planning committee of Economic Think Tank has computed that all available 5-year corporate plans will be a success and a great victory for the People in precice accordance with the scientific principles of Smithism-Keynsianism! The honorable People of the Corporation would never dream of altering their annual reports to the Market by overstating production in order to recieve the Good Capitalist award and gain foreign travel privileges from the Corporation Planning Committee - you sir are certainly an imperialist spy for suggesting otherwise and should be sent for Reeducation!
- api 9y agoI used to call this "Kapitalism." It's a very different thing from entrepreneur-maker capitalism. I've lived on the East and now the West coasts, and the manager caste ideology of the East is clearly why the West has completely dominated in innovative business sectors. Boston and Cambridge should be Silicon Valley and almost was, but the mentality killed it. Being a maker and a doer actually pegs you as a lower class, or at least that's the mentality I ran into. I actually had people there tell me I should not "do." "Executives don't do anything." Direct quote.
- jdbernard 9y agoIs it "The Power of Quiet" by Susan Cain? Very good book that touches on this, mentioning HBR by name if memory serves. https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking-ebook/dp/B004J4WNL2/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8 https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking-...