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Lessons for CEOs and Boards of Directors
Few
American companies have recognized the limitations of experience as a
teacher.
As a consequence, they are relying unwisely on the ability of
their top management candidates to learn from their experience in a
single function what they need to know to move up the management
ladder.
They also are assuming, mistakenly, that new general managers
can learn how to perform their jobs, after they are promoted.
All too often, however, new general managers are unable to
learn quickly enough to avoid failure.
Their experience is too slow and unreliable as a teacher and
their chief executive officers are too impatient and risk-aversive for
them to learn from their mistakes what they need to know to succeed.
In many cases, they are given little help in learning how to
perform their jobs which is why H. Edward Wrapp says the high turnover
rate of general managers in some companies is “little short of
criminal.”
The
danger is that chief executive officers and boards of directors may be
learning the wrong lessons from the high failure rates among their new
general managers.
Instead of concluding that they should give their general
management candidates an opportunity to learn how to handle their jobs
before they are promoted, CEOs may be concluding simply that there
is no substitute for experience.
While this is true, it is the wrong lesson, if it leads to
increased recruiting of experienced outsiders.
What
is required to reduce general management failures and to reverse the
need to recruit outsiders is a new way to enable managers to learn
before they are tested on the job – a breakthrough that will teach
them in much less time than is required by their own experience.
What is needed is a radical change in management teaching and
learning methods that will enable companies to teach their top
management candidates quickly and economically.
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Introduction
Recruiting
Outsiders
for Top
Management
Why
General
Managers
Fail
Lessons
for
CEOs and
Boards of
Directors
A
Breakthrough
In
Management
Development
Significance
Of The
Accelerated
Experience
Method™
Conclusion
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