Management Musing v1.5

Recently I read the Fundamentals of Prosperity by Roger W Babson. This is particularly interesting to me as it was written in 1920. He lists down four fundamentals

  1. Integrity
  2. Faith
  3. Industry
  4. Cooperation

It is interesting through the prism of the past 90 years in that three out of the four are still serious issues today. One of them however, has lost some favor. That is faith.

I find it interesting given the furor that has been created from an interview with one man who expressed his beliefs as guiding principles for his business. Chick-Fil-A has caused a firestorm with four or five politicians who seemingly want to limit free speech. Mayors and aldermen and speakers of city councils, people who should know better, or one would have thought they would have known better are making big deal out of one man’s religious beliefs. It is too bad that tolerance for a religious perspective is no longer a given on our society.

Today too few are contributing to our society. When the 1% is viewed as the enemy and to be taken down I prefer to look at it differently. I would rather double the 1% to 2% and enrich more people. If we did that and made that a focus it would male everything better for everyone.

The first step down this road is to give more thought to the individual person. We are putting people into a machine these days and not viewing them as living breathing individuals who have needs and wants just like you and me. This is the essence of management understanding each individual and viewing them as geniuses in hiding rather than problems to be dealt with in life. The time is now.