Management Lesson from Lincoln

What can we learn about Management from Political Leaders? Well that was the topic an article published in April'09 Harvard Business Review (HBR). Though most of the articles in HBR add a new dimension to managerial thought process but this one in particular stood out for me. This article claimed that there was a lot to learn from historical leaders whose tenure in political office is of extreme importance.

When talking of historical leaders, Abraham Lincoln really stands out. We all have heard about the motivation stories about Lincoln. Such stories go like, he lost 8 elections, failed in business twice, his fiancee died, he even had a nervous breakdown yet he overcame all such setbacks to become President of United States. And what a great president and leader he was. For that, only he had the courage to free the slaves. He also did many other things but abolishing slavery stands out as his key achievement.

Interestingly, I thought the article would go into similar motivational discussion. But, to my surprise the article did not touch upon motivation but highlighted that Lincoln had high level of emotional intelligence. He had a lot of control on his emotions and displayed empathy with people around him. Such was his self-awareness that he had appointed his political enemies to highly visible government positions because he deemed that the country needed such persons talent. Overall, I found it as an eye opener that one can learn so much about management from political leaders.

Does luck play a factor in an organization's success?

Though not adequately supported but it does appear that some organization just got lucky by being at the right place and at the right time. Such organization's may not have a well defined strategy, at least initially, but over a period of time have built a significant scale that allows such organizations to remain ahead in their respective industry segment.

One such organization is a well known heavy machinery producer that received extensive support from Allied forces during World War II to build a worldwide support network for their machinery.

There are many articles that support this view that many organizations did not have a strategy but they just got lucky.

I am not sure how much truth is there in this claim. But something worth exploring.

Lean Principle: Wait = Waste

There are many principles that we can learn from Lean way of thinking. This idea is mastered by Toyota. Many other manufacturing firms have been trying hard to replicate these principles to match Toyota's success.

Lean principles build on the philosophy of removing waste from the system by using various simplified processes. From manufacturing perspective, it is comparatively easier to see the waste such as carrying too much inventory.

From service perspective, it is comparatively difficult to see the waste. Hence, organizations struggle to effectively implement Lean principles in a service oriented business. One way to implement Lean principles for a service business is to look at avenues where people wait for other people/processes before they can proceed with their tasks. Hence, wait equals waste for a service business.