James Strock
Jacob Peter Gowy, The Flight of Icaras (1635-37) | Public Domain via Wikipedia
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have been feted as golden CEOs of early twenty-first-century business. Their respective companies, Tesla and Facebook, are renowned for their imagination and audacity.
In recent months, though, what seemed smooth sailing has encountered choppy waters.
You think about it when you contact the often ironically named “customer service” section of a major corporation.
You think about it while you’re on apparently ceaseless hold at a government agency “help line”—and afterward, when you speak with an employee who knows next to nothing and cares even less.
You think about it when you’re seeking a fair shake from any large enterprise.
You’re living it 24-7 when you’re striving to change an inert organizational culture.
All paths point to the same end: Bureaucracy is the Enemy.
Yale University Old Campus at Dusk | Namkota | CC BY-SA 4.0
The historic crisis of confidence in elites has suddenly, unexpectedly, forcefully jumped across institutions, like an uncontrolled wildfire bursting through a clearing. The extent of damage is unknowable, yet surely catastrophic. The ecosystem of higher education in the United States will be significantly altered in the aftermath of the unfolding admission scandal. The disruption of educational institutions already underway may be accelerated.
McKinsey & Co. is a premier management consultancy, serving many of the world’s greatest corporations, as well as government agencies and other enterprises.
In recent months, long simmering controversies about McKinsey’s ethical compass have begun to boil over into public view. As summarized in Fortune, critics have alleged “conflicts of interest in McKinsey’s bankruptcy practice; raise[d] questions about its role in advising politically repressive regimes; and prob[ed] its ties to South African business leaders who were subsequently accused of corruption.”
This week is the anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address.
James Strock