The future is hidden in the past

Where will management, management, and management education go in the "post-Drucker era"? This is a topic that everyone has been thinking about these days. "The only certainty in the future is uncertainty." Although this ancient Greek sage's adage has been quoted again and again by everyone, whenever we read or meet the real masters, in their distress, we also You can always see his steadfastness and determination.

Worry because they are more sensitive to those deep and essential contradictions. Calmness is because they know that "there is nothing new under the sun", no matter how novel the challenges and phenomena are today, they can always gain insight into the context of today from the past, and discover the future in the classics that have come to an end. required answer.

China's management community has been striving to create a unique position for Chinese companies in the world's management landscape. In this way, learning the classics must become a compulsory course in the Chinese management circle. Confucius said: Tell those who are coming and who are coming. The Renaissance also found inspiration in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. So is society and politics, and so is business and management. In China, some people have begun to systematically clean up this area. Among them, Huazhang Management of the Machinery Industry Press, in addition to systematically publishing Peter Drucker's works, has also sorted out various management classics at the same time, forming a set of Huazhang classics. series.

Today, appearing in yesterday's story

Recent corporate events are all related to the two major internal and external problems faced by China's management industry. One is the rapid arrival of the era of globalization, which places individuals around the world to cooperate and compete in the same market; the other is how enterprises can build themselves to cope with the rapidly changing market. For example, mergers and acquisitions can be said to be a way of "external kings" for Chinese entrepreneurs, while the "execution" trend, management MBO and other companies' institutionalized construction levels are "internal sages", which are related to each other. .

As Drucker emphasized in "Management in Turbulent Times" (published by Huazhang Branch of Machinery Industry Press): The primary task of management is to ensure the viability of the organization, the firmness and stability of the organizational structure, and to ensure that the organization can Take sudden hits, adapt to sudden changes, and make the most of new opportunities. It is the so-called "born in distress and died in peace." Drucker explained the situation and the way out of China's management circle in this sentence.

In Drucker's trilogy of industrial society ("The Future of Industrial Man", "The Concept of the Company", "New Society" has been published by the Machinery Industry Press), we have seen many hot spots in China today The problem was established 50 years ago.

"Made in China" is a hot topic today. On the other hand, it seems to be a pain in China's international division of labor. People worry that "Made in China" will become "Processed in China", and it will become a factory that lacks technical content and only consumes resources. In Drucker's analysis of The New Society, it was mentioned at the beginning that "Made in America" became the real revolution of that era.

It can be said that "Made in America" has achieved America's leadership in the "post-industrial era". However, will "Made in China" no longer be able to produce the miracle of "Made in America" because of the time gap? We wouldn't think so if we understood Drucker's analysis of the nature of "Made in America." Its essence is actually the general principle of "how to organize people together to work effectively", which is the principle of mass production.

Because of the systematic study of this principle, although Japan initially lags behind the United States in industrial production, it quickly catches up with the United States after the war, causing an impact on the United States in many ways. Drucker called The New Society the first book to have a major impact on Japan. Drucker further exemplified in the book, not only factories, including research institutes, clinics, and even the birth of famous publications such as "Time", "Life", and "Fortune" are all related to this principle. Therefore, it is not technology, not capital, nor individuals, but organizations that can realize the output of products. This is the subject of our time.

The national character of "I would rather be a chicken's head than a cow's queen" can only show that "Made in China" still has many deeper and more essential things to learn. The challenges of "Made in China" are not only technical, It's more about the way of production. Similarly, tough issues such as management MBO, we can also learn from decades ago or even a hundred or two hundred years ago, as Drucker mentioned in "The Future of Industrial Man", "The form of property ownership has been It is no longer possible to decide who holds the power."

Because the industrial economy has been divided into two, one is the "real" economy represented by factories, etc., and the other is the "symbolic" economy represented by securities. And modern management decides the fate that is not their own property. Thus, the embarrassment of management is an embarrassment of identity, function, and legitimacy. It's not just a matter of balance of interests. If this problem cannot be solved, even if a partial balance of interests is achieved, it may lead to doubts by scholars, the media and the public.

The future is rooted in today's reality

So, how to learn from history and classics? There are two different schools of strategy in the West. The content school represented by Michael Porter has constructed an analytical framework like the Five Forces Model, which is largely an after-the-fact rationalization of real-world successful strategies, which is suitable for an excellent business model. Afterwards, the icing on the cake is confirmed and ratified. This analytical model has acquired a symbolic value that is divorced from the real world with its simple and elegant logic, and provides rationality and legitimacy for those who use it.

The process group represented by Henry Mintzberg opposed the formatted, procedural and rational handling of the business process by content, and advocated that in the process of strategy formulation, through the extensive participation of employees, the greatest To understand the needs of the market and to develop their own capabilities to the greatest extent, so as to find the business insights that determine the company's strategy. (See "Managers Not MBA" by Xiao Zhixing)

Now, books and information about management are being produced on a daily basis in a mass-produced manner. Not to mention the management information carefully packaged by the grass stage team, even the various recognized management classics are a bit overwhelming.

In two of Mintzberg's books, we see two solutions. One is the processing of knowledge and the other is the processing of behavioral patterns.

In Mintzberg's "Strategic Journey", he led us like a blind man to an elephant, and carefully tasted 10 schools of strategic management. Finally, as he always emphasized, although we knew every elephant in the elephant part, and yet only we know the whole elephant. In his view, strategic decision-making is just a different process. In the process of practice, we need to ask better questions and care about the needs of reality.

The "artistic strategy" proposed by Mintzberg is not based on pure reliance on personal understanding and ingenuity, but on the full absorption of history and classics to creatively provide solutions to new realities way. Here we see that the choice of learning almost determines the quality of decision-making and success. The effect of decision-making is actually in reality, constantly ruminating on the learned classics, integrating various parts, and finally playing a creative role in the current environment.

MBA is giving the wrong content to the wrong people. Businesses should not hire MBA students because teachers and classrooms cannot produce business leaders. This is Mintzberg's reflection on current management education. In his "Managers Not MBA", whether he criticizes or constructs IMPM, what kind of steps does he actually focus on in business management to train people? What skills should a business manager have? How should these talents be trained?

Exercise, Science and Art! Our current standards for measuring talents are also related to these three aspects, whether he has enough experience, whether he has undergone rigorous scientific training, and whether he has entrepreneurial intuition (this is not mentioned much now).

In this way, to understand the future of management, we still need to return to the classics and immerse ourselves deeply. To create the future of management, we must reflect on ourselves every day in practice. Because the future is hidden in the past, and the answer lies in the classics.

This article is a contribution from the author.