Introduction Topic 6

Is management a profession? I think the question they are asking is: is a profession
something that you can train to do and cannot do without training. Imagine hiring a
doctor that just wanted to be a doctor but had no training. Is management the same
idea?
The second reading asks us to think about what we know. Is it a little or a lot? The little
amount is implied and makes us think about choices.
From evidence to action there are lessons to be learned. If a company does what
another company does will they be successful? If the first company is successful then
the odds are good. However, will the second company become the leader in the
industry?
Great thinking questions for leadership readings!

Topic 6.1: Is Management a

Profession?
Professor Commentary

The reading No, Management is NOT a Profession, attacks the business school ideal
and the credential of a masters in business administration. The reading looks at the
value of the MBA from the student`s perspective. The student is the school`s client,
however the potential employers are the real client. The schools must teach what is
needed in the work place. There is one course that both sides agree is key to success.
Leadership.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
What are skills that students should learn while embracing the advance degree in
business? Explain your thoughts in your journal.
Topic 6.2: Causes of High
Performance
Professor Commentary

How little we know. Is it a little or a lot? The story is easy to read because it is written. Is
it easy to create? Well, since there are more readers than writers it would seem not too
easy. The same goes with business. In this reading the story is shared about Lego, GE,
WH Smith, and Nokia. It seems that failure is described differently but the stories are
very similar. Lego struggled with a 25% drop in one year with the challenge of the
growth of video games. Lego strayed from the traditional path and it was not working.
However, GE strayed from the path of creating products to developing a business of
lending capital for purchases and it was successful. Therefore, it was successful AND
wise!
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Read about Lego, GE, WH Smith, and Nokia. See if the stories are similar. What leads
to high performance?

Topic 6.3: Evidence Based

Management
Professor Commentary

This article addresses the nine principles based on evidence that managers will want to
change in order to profit from evidence-based management. The reading outlines the
nine principles. The conclusion of the article is that one must see, hear, do, and then
teach to incorporate the principles of evidence-based management.
In conclusion, the question remains: Who will have the courage and wisdom to do it?
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Write out the nine evidence-based principles. Identify one and explain how it applies to
you.

Summary
Learning can be done in many ways. The MBA student learns foundation elements but
the real work is in the experience. Can this be learned? How much is enough? Do you
know enough? Can we copy what was done in the past when the future is moving
quickly?
Training managers to learn HOW TO LEARN is exciting for the future!

Introduction Topic 7
In the last unit, we discussed the value of the MBA and that each business is unique
resulting in experience along with education being the key to success. We found out
that we need both experience and education to become professional managers and
leaders. Now we will look at a few cases where there appears to be a gap in both.
However, let`s remember, hindsight is much easier to understand than anticipating the
future.

Topic 7.1: General Motors Case

Study
Professor Commentary

Have you heard of GM? General Motors was made up of 25 different car companies
and the main competitor was Ford Motor Company. Ford invested in mass production
using unskilled labour rather than small teams of skilled labour. This was in 1920 when
GM was struggling to keep its head above water. Then in the 50`s they prospered.
However, the 1970`s had new challenges such as the oil crisis and the introduction of
Japanese competitors. Market share was over 50% and then by 1992 market share was
35%. However, GM was operating the same number of plants. Global expansion was
needed, as there were growing problems until the economic crisis of 2008. In June
2009, bankruptcy – asking for billions of dollars as a loan from the government in the
US and a lot from Canada as well!
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Create a list of the challenges that GM faced and how they kept surviving. Now the last
of this article states is that GM is in bankruptcy in JUNE 2009, what happens next?
Review, research, and determine why this is happening. Where will the future take
them? What lessons can they learn from what we have read about to date?
Topic 7.2: Characteristics of
Large Organizations
Professor Commentary

How systems fail has a unique view of large organizations. It’s more about the pieces
than the big picture. Some large system failures have occurred because of multiple little
things rather than large aspects of the business. However, today things can be repaired,
when in the past that knowledge was lacking. The story of a healthcare professional is
very true today. This man was well trained, 27 years worth of training, but it was all
focused not general.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Chasing the rabbit.
Explain what this means by applying it to the story of NASA and the Columbia shuttle.
Then read the story about the cars. Honestly, I am not sure what scares me more; the J
clip not fitting in the seat attachment or the wheel / brake situation.
What do you think?

Summary
How should failure and change be addressed? Each day we are looking to the future
and changing how things work. How do we know which way we should go and what to
do? That is the magic of the future and the promise of tomorrow! What we have seen is
that we want businesses to be more socially responsible for society. But how this will
happen is unclear and exciting!

Introduction Topic 8
Does life offer guarantees? No. When life is uncertain there is added stress and I am
sure you all have some stress caused from uncertainty. The first reading is about
Lincoln Electric. This case is from Harvard business school and is one of the most
widely read cases in the world!

Topic 8.1: Management

Practices at Lincoln Electric
Professor Commentary

Imagine you graduate and get a job and that is the last job you ever have to apply for
because you have guaranteed employment for life. Wow! That does not happen in very
many places today! Actually, this reading is one of the few. So it definitely is worth
reading.
“… We are the best manufacturing company in the world.”
How important is trust?
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Answer these questions about the readings.
When you read about Lincoln Electric what was the foundation of the compensation
program? How can a story written in 1975 still be exciting and valid today when the
world is changing? Well it is and it did.
Can you find another company that acts like Lincoln Electric?

Topic 8.2: Guaranteed

Employment Programs
Professor Commentary

How can there be guarantee employment programs? This is a huge commitment. And
one that every employee would love to hear they have earned.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Would these workers work harder for their company?

Topic 8.3: Value Creation and

Value Distribution
Professor Commentary

Have you heard about Michael Porter? Yes, this is written by him and Mark Kramer.
What are shared values? Shared values are based on the big picture of societal and
economic progress. There are three ways in which a company can create shared value;
by reconceiving products and markets, by redefining productivity in the value chain as
well as enabling local cluster development. Basically the idea is to look at your company
through a lens from all perspectives. This is a great way to see how to connect to
society.
Societal needs not just conventional needs need to be addressed. We all feel better
when a business does the right thing and today, 2019, we actually make decisions
based on that feeling. To be clear it is not the only factor but an important one. The
choices have to be similar about choosing the company that is doing well for society
rather than one that is pure profit!
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Define and explain shared value in your own words.
How can a company create a competitive advantage? (p. 68)
Explain what Walmart and Johnson & Johnson have done.

Topic 8.4: Purpose and Shared

Value Creation
Professor Commentary

It is exciting that in Canada we have government regulations that encourage shared

value. The reason is because it costs too much to do on your own, and companies
would not survive the transition.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Explain the CSR to the CSV approach. Is this truly the wave of the future?

Summary
We have read about guaranteed employment, which sounds like a dream. We have
read about doing right by society. Does it not sound like a great time to be in business!
The challenges are real. Each company must figure out how to survive their industry
with a competitive advantage and do the right thing for shared value and lastly make a
profit! It is possible as we have seen examples. What we have to take away is the idea
that these elements are the future and if they are built into the foundations of the
business it is easier to grow and develop!
Now, what are you doing to prepare yourself for this future?
Introduction Topic 9
What is a bias? Can you reduce bias? If you are aware of a bias, you can reduce the
impact it has on decisions. However, can decisions have bias that we are not aware of
existing. There are two modes of thinking, intuitive and reflective. These actions are
ways we response to what is happening to you. Such as brushing your teeth, not a
complicated task more of an intuitive choice, as opposed to writing a test.
What are various bias that can impact decisions?
How are people, strategy and crisis part of the three domains of judgement? What are
the stages of judgement calls? Why might good leaders make poor decisions?
Judgement calls are a process not an event. Starting with a need and how to frame the
call, followed by execution and adjustment. There are three domains of judgement, and
three stages of good judgement calls.
In the end however, good leaders can still make poor calls.

Topic 9.1: Recognizing Biases

Professor Commentary

When making decisions there are different types of decisions that add biases and
therefore the type of decision is broken into categories to simplify a strategy. A radical
pricing change capital layout, and or a major acquisition.
Is the proposal you are considering too optimistic?
This reading outlines a twelve-question checklist to consider for the decision maker to
make. Here there is self check, heuristic checking, groupthink eliminated, confirmation
bias. Also on the list are anchoring bias and the halo effect. Each is asking questions to
make sure the goals are honestly developed for the right reasons.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Write the twelve questions suggested by this reading as a checklist for good decision
making that would not be influenced.

Topic 9.2: Flawed Decisions and

Quality Decisions
Professor Commentary
Can decisions be flawed? Simply YES. Sometimes decisions are made without all the
necessary information, and the decision did not have any extra time to wait for the
details to be clear. Sometimes teams can be influenced by managers.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
The above checklist helps to add quality to decision making choices of leaders. In
addition, enforcing discipline and costs with benefits. Now that the reading has
improved your bias abilities. Review what Bob, Lisa, and Devesh did to be successful?

Topic 9.3: Making Good

Judgement Calls
Professor Commentary

Judgement calls are deemed to be more of a process rather than an event. There are
lots of stories about judgement but how do you teach someone to make good
judgments? This reading has broken down the idea to show a framework. The time,
domain, and constituencies. Which lead to four types of knowledge; self-knowledge,
social network knowledge, organizational knowledge, and contextual knowledge.
Coupled with the domains of people, strategy, and crisis, a matrix can be created to
evaluate decisions. This matrix can be viewed on page 518 of the text or page 21 of the
reading.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
In your own words, explain what happened to Cisco. In 2000 they had a market value of
$531 billion, a share was valued at $80. Then in 2002 at $9.42 / share. Then the
company comeback. The most interesting part of the entire story, is that the CEO
stayed the same through the loss and gains.
Could this happen again? Explain in your journal what led to this situation.

Topic 9.4: Domains and Stages

of Judgement
Professor Commentary

The toughest part of making a decision is deciding when to make the decision. Then, in
a business those managers surrounding the decision maker should step up and support
the decision.
The best plans are ones that are constantly evolving with the support of the team,
reflecting the environment.
Once the decision (AKA the call phase) is made, then comes the third phase which is
execution. The first phase is the preparation phase.
How does our brain work regarding decisions? What are red flags? How can biases be
avoided?
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
What are the red flags?

Summary
How can we use this knowledge about biases? Decision making is a process and not
individual genius.
We are aware of the process of decision making and that team support is important
after making decisions.
Sometimes good reasons do not end up with good outcomes. Therefore, review of the
stages helps us to learn.
Understanding how the processes of knowledge, and how smart educated people can
make poor decisions. The best we can do is figure out the red flags and be aware of
how smart leaders use these examples to learn.

Introduction Topic 10
Have you ever noticed that the negative side of a story gets more attention? Well the
same goes with bad bosses. It seems everyone has had one, and yet has anyone had a
good boss?

Topic 10.1: Seven Deadly Sins of

Management
Professor Commentary

This first reading shows us that people often connect in a negative way, but it does not
have to be with way. The seven deadly sins of management as interpreted by
Birkinshaw are: greed, lust, wrath, gluttony, pride, envy, and sloth. Now yes, the words
must be taken with a grain of salt. The concept of the sin is edited a little for the
workplace. When you think of your boss how does he or she rank? 
Do negative aspects of business validate the business?
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Explain in your own words the hero or zero phenomenon from box 2.2. How do these
comments about Steve Jobs and Fred Goodwin make you feel? Are they accurate? Do
you think they said those things to get people to react?
 

Topic 10.2: Five Hallmarks of a

Good Manager
Professor Commentary

There are five hallmarks / aspects of a good manager, according to this reading. First,
they work with the employee, support them and recognize the people. (See Table 2.3)
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
List and explain the five hallmarks of a good manager. Which one would be the most
important to you as a worker?

Topic 10.3: Five Beliefs of

Effective Managers
Professor Commentary

The right mindset sounds easy, but it is a lot of work. The reading outlines five ways to
focus your management. They are posed from the perspective of what your workers
would see you doing. As the top manager many see all about what you do. But due to
the numbers, the top manager does not see all about what the workers do.
Are you assertive enough but not overly? Do you have grit? Grit is one thing I think is
amazing. Are the goals building on each other, using small steps? Are you aware of
toxic tandem? Do you actually support your staff?
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
Explain the value of the five beliefs.
Topic 10.4: Blue Ocean
Leadership
Professor Commentary

The statistics in this reading are very sad. However, I believe they are true. 30% of
employees are committed to doing a good job, 50% are merely putting in time, and 20%
have a negative attitude. This is disheartening.
The idea is to have more coaching. There are four steps in the leadership path:
eliminate, reduce, raise, and create.
 Learning Activity
In Your Learning Journal:
What are the four steps in blue ocean leadership?
What does it take to be a blue ocean leader?

Summary
A lot has been reviewed here about being a good boss! There are aspects to avoid,
characteristics to work on, and ways to engage staff. All are incredible. Each reading
adds to the elements that each of us can find a method to embed in our own way. There
is no one way to be a boss. There are many ways to offer the old fashion idea of
respect and coaching.
These are wonderful attributes. I hope each of US will take away at least one idea that
can be made our own. Yes, I did include myself in this statement.
I think all of us must keep reaching, keep learning, and have grit!