Management Gurus

It highlights the sources of inspiration and				Also known as William Ding, Lei is the
guidance that are available from management				founder and head of Netease.com, the Chinese
and leadership gurus born in the East, who				portal that focuses on on-line gaming and pc
have individually and collectively made as				to phone messaging. Lei, still in his 30s, is
great a contribution as the more well-known,				one of the new wave of young Asian
more commercially promoted, American gurus.				entrepreneurs who are leading the development
Many of the Western gurus have based their				of internet based businesses. His ideas on
theories and models on the original ideas of				how to manage in the internet environment are
the leading thinkers from India, China,				fast becoming the template which most
Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Also, as we				organisations in this field are adopting.
shall see here, some of the so-called Western
gurus were in fact from Central or Eastern				Mayo spent his early academic life in his
Asia or the Pacific Basin. This article gives				native Australia, where he forged a
an insight into just a few of this				reputation as a leading thinker in the areas
influential group of original thinkers.				of logic, ethics, and psychology. In his
				forties he moved to America where he
Mistakenly considered by many to be one of				eventually taught at Harvard as a professor
the American gurus, Ansoff was in fact born				of industrial research. Mayo is now acclaimed
in Russia but moved to the USA with his				as the father of the Human Relations school
family when he was 18. There he studied and				of management, being the first major voice
later obtained a PhD in Mathematics, worked				advocating a move away from the scientific
for the Rand Corporation and then the				management approach towards a more humanistic
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, before moving				one. He is also credited with being the first
into academia in the USA and Europe. Ansoff				to recognise that flexible, responsive,
is best known for establishing strategy as a				learning organisations were likely to be more
management discipline, and for laying the				successful in an increasingly fast-changing
foundations of modern strategic planning				business world.
techniques. His approach was, in his time,
criticised for being too focused on				Morita left the security of his family's sake
analytical and planning techniques, but is				business to start a small electronics company
now highly regarded as appropriate for the				so that he could continue what had been until
fast-changing, complex business world of				then his amateur enthusiast interest in
today.				electronics. He formed a company called Tokyo
				Tshsushin Kyogu, later to be changed to Sony.
Hu-Chan is an international management				Pursuing a policy of risk, innovation,
consultant, executive coach, speaker, and				creativity, and intuition, Morita built Sony
leadership development educator. Specialising				into one of the modern world's industrial
in coaching in cross-cultural leadership, she				giants. It was Morita, through the success of
has become a leader herself in the new				Sony, who put Japanese innovation into the
discipline of executive coaching. Through her				world's consciousness. At the same time,
individual and team coaching activities, Ms				Morita has contributed enormously to the
Hu-Chan has influenced the strategies of				world of management and leadership, through
major corporations and public sector bodies,				the lessons learned from the success of Sony.
in North and South America, Australia, and
Asia.				One of Japan's most respected management
				gurus, Nonaka is the Dean of the School of
Born in India, Ghoshal forged a reputation as				Knowledge Science at the Japan Advanced
a brilliant thinker whilst studying at MIT				Institute of Science and Technology.
and Harvard, and then teaching at MIT,				Developing earlier thinking by Drucker and
INSEAD, and the London Business School. In				others, his ideas on knowledge-creation and
partnership with Christopher Bartlett of				innovation generating processes in
Harvard he first came to prominence as a				organisations has helped to consolidate the
leading thinker on international strategy and				establishment of Knowledge Management as our
then developed this further to stress the				newest major management discipline. Few
importance of innovation and the empowerment				organisations have embraced every aspect of
of people as the key to creating a moral and				Nonaka's vision, but those that have are
value-creating organisation. Ghoshal was				reaping huge benefits from building the
considered to be one of the leading thinkers				active management of knowledge into their
in the field of how business must focus on				strategies and structures.
relationship building and innovation, rather
than operational efficiencies, to be				Ohmae has pioneered modern approaches to
successful. Revered in India, Europe, and the				strategic management, focusing on the role of
United States, Ghoshal played a major role in				the strategist, the three key players of
shaping the behaviour of the first tranche of				organisation, customer, and competition, and
today's global companies.				how to gain strategic advantage. His
				background is diverse, covering gaining a PhD
His own name would not be recognised by				in Nuclear Engineering, leading the Tokyo
hardly any member of the general public, his				branch of McKinsey Consulting, acting as an
company IKEA is a name recognised by most.				advisor to the Japanese Prime Minister, and
Kamprad is also known in the world of				being an accomplished clarinet player.
academia and business as having established a				Ohmae's ideas have had a major impact on the
model for successful entrepreneurship. He				way in which leading managers think and
took his personal values, developed from the				behave today. His emphasis on strategists
harsh upbringing in his native Smaland in				needing to be intuitive, innovative, and
Sweden, and turned these into a set of				creative are now the norm, and are required
concepts that laid down how he wanted his				reading for managers and leaders in industry
company to be managed and how he wanted his				and in politics.
workers to behave. Called A Furniture
Dealer's Testament, it is a list of simple				Taguchi's importance is in his development of
but powerful statements that can be applied				the Quality Management approach introduced
to most entrepreneurial projects.				into Japan by Deming and Juran, and pushing
				the quality control activity backwards into
Kartajaya is the founder of Indonesia's				the supplier and design stages, so
leading consulting firm, and past president				establishing one of the foundation stones of
of the World Marketing Association. His				what we practice as Quality Assurance. He
thinking on marketing management is now				also proposed a more holistic approach to
incorporated into most masters level				quality improvement, and in doing so made a
marketing courses. Kartajaya has worked in				major contribution to what eventually became
writing partnership with Philip Kottler, one				known as Kaizen, or Continuous Improvement.
of the most respected marketing gurus,
focusing on the application of marketing				Now recognised as the source of much of
concepts and principles in the Asian markets.				today's leadership and strategic management
One of his major lines of thinking is that to				thinking, Sun Tzu was a military general in
stay as the market leader, the organisation				China at the time of Confucius. His writings,
must act as if it is not the leader, and must				known as The Art Of War (Sun Tzu Ping Fa) are
constantly challenge for the lead, even				a compilation of his reflections on the
though they have temporarily technically				strategies and leadership behaviour that
achieved that.				underlie success in war. Translated into to
				relate to today's business world, Sun Tzu's
Best known for his innovative work in speech				thoughts on strategy, information and
recognition technology for Microsoft and				intelligence, tactics, competition and
establishing Google's document management and				competitiveness, communication, and
research centre in Beijing, Lee has been an				leadership and management, have enormous
influential figure in the advancement of				relevance and are followed by some of our
China's position in science and technology.				most successful leaders.
He has written on the benefits of combining
the ancient wisdoms and culture of the East				There are many worthy management and
with the established management and				leadership figures. Some are giants of
leadership approaches of the West, and the				business, some are academics, some come from
advantages to organisations in building a				the world of battle and war. In the West we
culture of learning, personal empowerment and				tend to turn towards the European and North
development of their people. He argues that				American gurus, perhaps because many of them
both of these approaches will create balance				also become expert in the art of
in the organisation, in line with the Middle				self-promotion, perhaps because our natural
Way, one of the principles of the teachings				tendency is to look to our own. However,
of Confucius. Interestingly, he also talks				there have been, are now, and will be,
about the importance of viewing failure as a				equally valuable contributions from other
positive learning experience, a concept that				parts of the world. Here we have looked at
is still alien to many elements of Western				some from the East. They are great thinkers
society including the business world.				who we can learn much from. We should not
				ignore them.

1 A B 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80

What is nuclear energy and how it is obtained

Management Gurus