Should I Laugh Or Cry

February 13, 2013 by Bill Bradley

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: What Business Can Learn from Organized Crime

Competency: strategic thinking, entrepreneurial leadership, technological leadership, creativity, innovation

Who benefits: this thought-provoking link is for anyone who likes their thoughts provoked

Consultant Usage: may be of limited use to organizational consultants; could serve as a handout/discussion piece in certain training classes

What’s it about? Today’s post is unusually short.  My objective is to get you click on the link above (Title) and read Marc Goodman’s most interesting post comparing business practices to organized crime (The cynic in me first asks, “Is there a difference?”.) in the November 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review.

As an avid reader of police procedurals I can attest to the accuracy of the comparisons he makes.  What I am having trouble with are my feelings.  Can this post educate us?  Or just scare us? I think it is a good read just because it is out of the box and provokes thinking.

In brief, his 5 lessons are as follows:

1. Use the news to create opportunity.

2. Outsource to specialists.

3. Cash isn’t the only incentive.

4. Exploit the long tail.

5. Collaborate across borders.

Each of these points end with a specific Lesson for Management.  The lessons are indeed good tips.

With just a touch of irony I am midway through an excellent mystery (a real page turner) called The Professionals which utilizes all five of the lessons in Goodman’s essay.  I guess it is Truth in Fiction … or vice versa.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.

Posted in Leadership Development

If You Enjoyed This Post...

You'll love getting updates when we post new articles on leadership development, 360 degree feedback and behavior change. Enter your email below to get a free copy of our book and get notified of new posts:

  1. Shakespeare said only that brevity is the soul of wit, not that it is intriguing but in this case, it really is. The 5 points make great sense and I am intrigued enough to click later. Thank you.

Follow Envisia Learning:

RSS Twitter linkedin Facebook

Are You Implementing a Leadership Development Program?

Call us to discuss how we can help you get more out of your leadership development program:

(800) 335-0779, x1