It is both entertaining and dramatic to see the 'fall' of large corporations that lived a dream. In this episode it is not a financial institution - nor an energy company - that plays the starring role. The dream BP lived was one of "democratic leadership". In this dogma, centralisation is taboo, standardization considered waste of time & money. Live and let live. Acquire, but don't merge. Be the learning organisation. BP's free style management model was praised throughout the management literature.
http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/8/mentors/lynda-gratton-on-cooperation-and-collaboration.asp
According to a recent article by Marc Buelens, there were a list of incidents prior to the current oil spill that signaled BP's hampering risk management (http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10004340/bps-history-of-oil-spills-and-accidents-same-strategy-different-day/ ). Aside from an obsessive focus on linear cost-cutting, he points to total lack of standardization and the worship of a free-style management culture as the root causes of string of acccidents.
Therefore, the impact of visionary CEO's who transform (i.e. irreversibly change) organisations should be measured beyond the span of 2-3 years.
Oh, like this one too on the Oil blame game: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1992165,00.html?xid=rss-joeklein&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Fjoeklein+%28TIME%3A+Joe+Klein%29. From my favorite (democratic) columnist Joe Klein.
Food for manager's thoughts.
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