Execution, the ‘entry ticket’ to senior management

A significant management issue is the MAFA syndrome, says R. Gopalakrishnan in When the Penny Drops (Penguin), citing N. Vaghul’s jocular reference to ‘mistaking articulation for action.’ While it is wonderful to have great thinkers, excellent articulators and solid doers all rolled into one, glib talking is rampant in management circles these days, the author rues.

He finds that the advent of presentation software has elevated articulation capability from merely aural to visual, with even ordinary ideas getting transformed into impressive packages of PowerPoint charts. “Consultancy firms have elevated the art to such a high level that they come in with a pack of 100 charts, specially made by their ‘chart department specialists.’ It is ironic that quite often they will leave the 100-chart pack with the client with the advice that ‘only charts 3, 11 and 39 are really important.’”

Leaving aside the laptops and PPTs, should we not be adopting the fast vanishing old art of business conversations, wonders Gopalakrishnan – ‘the kind where one person tables a concept or proposition and people speak about it with the thrust of point and counterpoint, with the hope that a better idea will emerge from the debate.’

Full report here Hindu