Write back to Jack & Suzy Welch at editor@businessandeconomy.org
Que: What is the difference between a bureaucrat and an effective manager?
How do we differentiate between the two? (Brian Napoli, Medina, N.Y.) Ans: Talk about perfect timing. Given recent events, we don’t really have to write a word to answer your question; it’s simple – what we need to do is to point at two examples and they say it all. And we’re pointing in the direction of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
They had excessive pressure on them and with all such pressure, these government officials had every reason and logic to act like your typical rigid, unimaginative bureaucrats over recent weeks. Rather, their actions and steps demonstrated not just effective management, but also established an exemplary brilliant leadership with right steps at the right time.
Now, you could stay up all night arguing about the merits of what Bernanke and Paulson have done on the logic that the economy first started slowing down. Indeed, picking apart and blindly criticising their actions has become something of a national pastime for everyone and at any time. You have ideological purists demanding to know why Bear Stearns wasn’t allowed to go bankrupt and its executive officers and even the shareholders weren’t made to suffer a more immense brutal flogging. Their share price drop from $160 to $10 was not punishment enough and there have to be more.
You have some members of Congress and advocacy group members demanding to know why, with all that money flying around for a corporate bailout, strangely the federal government didn’t also pour $30 billion into some kind of the homeowner’s rescue fund. These members will always want to know something.
And you thought, you have the usual coterie of pundits and experts putting forth their own hodgepodge of fixes, demanding to know, say for instance, why the Fed plan didn’t involve even the purchasing of mortgage-backed securities from the government-backed agencies or organisations.
Do you know which of these “solutions” would have been better than the Bernanke and Paulson plan of attack, and if any plan exist at all? All we know is, their approach worked and it was successful. It averted an immediate crisis that would, with definite conviction, have had cataclysmic implications had it been played out. This resulted in stabilising the financial system of the United States, and from a larger aspect – it stabilised the world, at least for a short time being.
This means what’s just as impressive to us – and coming back to your point – are the management qualities, which are displayed in the execution of this feat: courage, swift action and definitely up front communication skills and coordination. Sure, these are not the only skills involved in leading effectively. But they are critical at all times and, in a crisis, imperative. You should never ever ignore this.
Take courage. If there is one behavior bureaucrats uniformly shun, and too many managers tend to avoid, it is gutsiness under the fire. For now you’ve seen the drill. Something in your organisation blows up – an old product is recalled or a new one tanks or whatever it is. Blame starts flying and the higher-ups start calling for a quick fix or an instant solution to the problem
The bureaucratic types in the crowd immediately go into hiding, fearing that whatever they suggest or recommend, especially something bold or creative, will get shot down or absorbed in the heat of this battle. The mere possibility of criticism makes them cower and scary. On the contrary, Bernanke and Paulson, facing flak from all possible direction, jumped right into the line of fire. Seemingly out of the thin air, they brokered the audacious buyout of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase. And after a few hours, for the first time ever since the Depression, in a move that they surely knew would instigate all sorts of sound and fury, they opened the discount window to bring in the investment banks. Talk about their nerve and that’s not enough.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
Que: What is the difference between a bureaucrat and an effective manager?
How do we differentiate between the two? (Brian Napoli, Medina, N.Y.) Ans: Talk about perfect timing. Given recent events, we don’t really have to write a word to answer your question; it’s simple – what we need to do is to point at two examples and they say it all. And we’re pointing in the direction of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.They had excessive pressure on them and with all such pressure, these government officials had every reason and logic to act like your typical rigid, unimaginative bureaucrats over recent weeks. Rather, their actions and steps demonstrated not just effective management, but also established an exemplary brilliant leadership with right steps at the right time.
Now, you could stay up all night arguing about the merits of what Bernanke and Paulson have done on the logic that the economy first started slowing down. Indeed, picking apart and blindly criticising their actions has become something of a national pastime for everyone and at any time. You have ideological purists demanding to know why Bear Stearns wasn’t allowed to go bankrupt and its executive officers and even the shareholders weren’t made to suffer a more immense brutal flogging. Their share price drop from $160 to $10 was not punishment enough and there have to be more.
You have some members of Congress and advocacy group members demanding to know why, with all that money flying around for a corporate bailout, strangely the federal government didn’t also pour $30 billion into some kind of the homeowner’s rescue fund. These members will always want to know something.
And you thought, you have the usual coterie of pundits and experts putting forth their own hodgepodge of fixes, demanding to know, say for instance, why the Fed plan didn’t involve even the purchasing of mortgage-backed securities from the government-backed agencies or organisations.
Do you know which of these “solutions” would have been better than the Bernanke and Paulson plan of attack, and if any plan exist at all? All we know is, their approach worked and it was successful. It averted an immediate crisis that would, with definite conviction, have had cataclysmic implications had it been played out. This resulted in stabilising the financial system of the United States, and from a larger aspect – it stabilised the world, at least for a short time being.
This means what’s just as impressive to us – and coming back to your point – are the management qualities, which are displayed in the execution of this feat: courage, swift action and definitely up front communication skills and coordination. Sure, these are not the only skills involved in leading effectively. But they are critical at all times and, in a crisis, imperative. You should never ever ignore this.
Take courage. If there is one behavior bureaucrats uniformly shun, and too many managers tend to avoid, it is gutsiness under the fire. For now you’ve seen the drill. Something in your organisation blows up – an old product is recalled or a new one tanks or whatever it is. Blame starts flying and the higher-ups start calling for a quick fix or an instant solution to the problem
The bureaucratic types in the crowd immediately go into hiding, fearing that whatever they suggest or recommend, especially something bold or creative, will get shot down or absorbed in the heat of this battle. The mere possibility of criticism makes them cower and scary. On the contrary, Bernanke and Paulson, facing flak from all possible direction, jumped right into the line of fire. Seemingly out of the thin air, they brokered the audacious buyout of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase. And after a few hours, for the first time ever since the Depression, in a move that they surely knew would instigate all sorts of sound and fury, they opened the discount window to bring in the investment banks. Talk about their nerve and that’s not enough.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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