On Corporate Realignment

December 9th, 2008 · 4 Comments
by Kassia Krozser

As great newspapers, magazines, TV networks, and publishing houses dismember themselves around us, it would be marginally consoling if the pink slips were going to those who contributed so vigorously to their companies’ accelerating demise—the feckless zombies at the head of corporate bureaucracies who cared only about the next quarter’s numbers, never troubled to understand the DNA of the companies they took over, and installed swarms of “Business Affairs” drones to oversee and torment the people “under” them. There are floors of these creatures in any behemoth media company, buzzing about each day thwarting new ideas or, worse, having “transformative” ideas of their own when what is usually required is to revive, with a bit of steadfast conviction, the originating creative purpose of the enterprise. It’s the same with the auto companies.

File Under: Quote of the Week

4 responses so far ↓

  • Wendy // Dec 9, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Amen and amen.

    One more time….amen.

    I would also add those in the publishing industry who solely relied on The Next Big Thing (Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, Twilight etc.) to carry them to the promise land – instead of cultivating a rich, deep catalog of talented midlist writers and encouraging outside-the-box newbie writers.

    Lord help us all – but given the current state of the economy and the publishing industry, I think we’re in for even less risk-taking than we’re seeing now. If that’s even humanly possible.

  • Martin // Dec 10, 2008 at 3:11 am

    She sounds like she knows what she’s talking about. And come to think of it: Has bureaucrats ever added value to a growing organization. I mean really? Seems to me that in most good organizations it’s time too move on when the zombie factor grows too large… Unless you’re a zombie yourself, that is 🙂

  • Theodore P. Savas // Dec 10, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    The elephant in the room is about quality, flexibility, and treating people right. You can run a big company for a long time, and even find and put out a mega bestseller like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, and still lose your job.

    Why?

    Well, let’s use a phrase my businessman grandfather often muttered when he took me somewhere for lunch or dinner and was disgusted by the service, the setting, or the meal. “Teddy,” he would say, shaking his head slowly as he withdrew his unlit cigar from his mouth, turned it over, and waved it around to make his point. “The people who are running this business today are not the people who built the business yesterday.”

    –tps

  • Ted // Jan 12, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    I assume you use the word “great” in its restricted meaning of “large,” and not of “good” or “excellent” or as contributing to anything valid. I coudn’t agree more with the article.