Because important questions remain unanswered: how can we combine growing business expectations with people new aspirations? What will the next generation of leaders look like? Is trust possible after Enron ? What's beyond GE's legendary best practices? Is the new generation of managers ready to work, think and live the same way as their predecessors? And so on...
It is necessary to go beyond Management Consensus. The commercial success of Good to Great by Jim Collins, which stresses that non-spectacular companies are great, although they are managed differently and more discretely than the usual "Wall Street champions", is a first signal.
Best practices can't work as well everywhere, every time, with everyone, even GE's best ones. Not all CEOs can be as effective as Jack Welsh, Lee Iacocca, Andrew Grove, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Case... We must go beyond and imagine new ways, propose new ideas and uncover new solutions.
In addition, the human side of individuals is more and more highlighted. Recent books of Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, such as Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with The Dalai Lama or Healing Emotions: Conversation with The Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions and Health show it.
Human beings are essentially creatures of meaning and purpose. We are designed to ask for deep and existential questions seeking meaning, value and a sense of purpose to our lives anyway.
The current crisis in the US is an opportunity for new thinking. Therefore, a new run up, combining incredibly growing business expectations with peoples’ new aspirations, would seem to be greatly indicated.