Fascinating article on talent vs. systems

[Craig Anderson <canderson@center4oe.com>]

[  Moderator's Note:  As you read this article, think about what both Deming and Myron have said
about working IN the system -vs- working ON the system...  ]

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020722fa_fact

Excerpt:
This "talent mind-set" is the new orthodoxy of American management. It is
the intellectual justification for why such a high premium is placed on
degrees from first-tier business schools, and why the compensation packages
for top executives have become so lavish. In the modern corporation, the
system is considered only as strong as its stars, and, in the past few
years, this message has been preached by consultants and management gurus
all over the world. None, however, have spread the word quite so ardently as
McKinsey, and, of all its clients, one firm took the talent mind-set closest
to heart. It was a company where McKinsey conducted twenty separate
projects, where McKinsey's billings topped ten million dollars a year, where
a McKinsey director regularly attended board meetings, and where the C.E.O.
himself was a former McKinsey partner. The company, of course, was Enron.

Craig A. Anderson
The Center for Organizational Excellence
"OE: How Results are Measured"
http://www.center4oe.com
Tel: 301-948-1922, ext. 306