Even gurus can have feet of clay

By ALISON HORWOOD

A shaven-headed man takes the stage before an audience of thousands. His bracelets shake as he gesticulates with the passion of an evangelist.

He may refer to Lenin, the Pope and making a CD, but this man is talking business. This is the brash world of the management guru.

For the audience, there is little talk of dollars and cents. Instead, the speaker will help them find meaning, motivation and a vision for their future.

And for his efforts, a top American guru can earn $US60,000 ($142,000) for a day's work. The multi-billion dollar industry of management advice is one of the fastest growing in the world.

Just when you thought no one could invent a new theory, someone does, goes on a speaking circuit and writes a book.

While many publications end up in the remainder bins, some become blockbusters and elevate their author to the lofty position of a management guru.

According to a survey by the British-based bookshop BookTrack, around 10,000 new business books have been published worldwide in the past three years.

Brad Jackson, a lecturer at Victoria University's School of Business and Public Management and author of Management Gurus and Management Fashions (Routledge, $77.95), says the phenomenon began in the 1980s.

A backlash in the 1990s from commentators who labelled the industry "business pornography" and "intellectual wallpaper" not only failed to slow growth but spawned a new fashion of anti-guru bestsellers.

What separates a guru from a consultant seems to be their pay, scarcity, wider influence and status. Gurus such as Peter Drucker, Gary Hamel, Tom Peters and Michael Porter have almost become household names.

As Jackson says in his book, only retired public figures such as Baroness Thatcher and George Bush sen, plus a few select rock stars, "could expect to be better compensated for their efforts".

There is no common persona, but success apparently comes down to oratory skill, originality, self-promotion and timing.

And with each guru comes a management fashion, promoted by a staggering network of global consultants.

The industry has become so big that the world's largest consulting firm, Andersen Consulting, grew annually at a rate of 20 per cent during the 1990s, and in 1995 alone added 8000 new staff worldwide.

But whether these gurus and their philosophies actually work is the million-dollar question.

In his book, Jackson says several consultant-sponsored studies conclude that in many instances, they do not.

Nohria and Berkley (1994) polled managers at nearly 100 companies on more than 21 different programmes and found 75 per cent of them to be unhappy with the results.

A Bain & Company 1995 study of 787 companies worldwide found that while most managers believed that companies which used the right tools were more likely to succeed, 70 per cent said the tools promised more than they delivered.

Some commentators blame the gurus for the failure, while others blame the company for not implementing the theory properly.

So despite dubious results, why do businesspeople continue to "fad surf" and try each new quick-fix theory?

Jackson says the market place is full of uncertainty and risk. "People are constantly trying to make sense of the craziness. What the guru does is create a framework of understanding and give them a sense of order and certainty."

Stig Ehnbom, general manager of the New Zealand Institute of Management (Auckland), says people in business are under pressure for renewal.

"Change keeps people alert and it supports the need for renewal."

The word guru is used too freely.

"There are few real thinkers with enough wisdom to be called a guru."

Many promote the right concept at the right time. Tom Peters published his book Thriving on Chaos the Monday after the 1987 stock market crash.

Ehnbom says some theories are probably not sound, but experienced people will adopt them only if they seem to make sense.

In his book, Jackson uses fantasy theme analysis, a method of criticism developed in the United States and used to scrutinise religious movements and presidential campaigns, to look at three gurus and their fashions.

They are the re-engineering movement promoted by Michael Hammer and James Champy; the vision of effectiveness led by Stephen Covey; and the learning organisation by Peter Sengue and colleagues.

Jackson found each used rhetorical visions to provide large groups with a common way of looking at organisations and what managers should be doing within them to make them more successful.

Where they differed was in the type of master analogue, or reason for embracing a particular vision, that they used.

The re-engineering movement was pragmatic: you have to do this because it is your only choice.

The vision of effectiveness was righteous: this is the right thing to do.

The learning organisation was social: this is a good thing to do.

"Business used to be about buying and selling. Now it is about ideas and presenting a philosophy on how to succeed in management," says Jackson.

While many New Zealanders have a sound and built-in crap detector, business books sell well here and many speakers are working the circuit.

Debbie Tawse, general manager of Celebrity Speakers, has 1000 Australasian speakers on her books, the bulk business and motivational speakers. For a $2000 to $3000 fee they speak to companies, associations and overseas groups. The reason for their popularity is simple, she says.

"Everyone always wants to make their business more successful. Everyone wants business to grow. It might be about dollars but it all comes down to people. Management is a skill in how you deal with people."

* We have five copies of Management Gurus and Management Fashions to give away. Send your name and address by next Monday to: Management, New Zealand Herald, PO Box 32, Auckland.