New Rime of the Ancient Managers

By Selwyn Parker

Management as a science may only be half a century old, but there have always been good - and bad - managers.

A fascinating compilation by the American Management Association shows some of the greatest managers made decisions before Christ that are still deeply relevant.

For example, around 59BC a relatively unknown Roman general decided it would be a good idea to keep the plebs informed and himself in the public eye by eliminating the information gap. He had hand-written sheets posted regularly around the city.

Ever since, the association notes, the success of leaders has been substantially judged by their ability to communicate.

The general's name? Julius Caesar.

Besides Caesar, the Romans get quite a few gongs.

Emperor Hadrian is best-known for the wall he had built from the Solway to the Tyne, but he also completely reorganised the Roman Army, ruled justly, was a patron of the arts and a pioneer in providing decent working conditions. This was all around 120AD. Employers in parts of Asia are still catching up.

The list pays tribute to other great managers of the past, like Spain's Queen Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand, who had the nerve to underwrite a sailor who dreamed of a New World - a madcap scheme, according to most contemporaries. That wild-eyed beneficiary of the 15th century equivalent of venture capital was Christopher Columbus.

Jumping a few centuries, there's a good example of the advantages of taking bold, early decisions.

In 1908, an American manufacturer of leather accessories for horse-drawn carriages looked at the looming era of the automobile and decided his business was doomed. So, with remarkable nimbleness, he launched a new business called the Electric Suction Sweeper Company. Although the name didn't exactly roll off the tongue, the company's products kept the nation's carpets dust-free.

This particular entrepreneur was William Hoover.

More recently, Johnson & Johnson's bold and honourable decision to pull all Tylenol from United States shelves after a few bottles were poisoned gets a favourable mention. That move ended up enhancing the brand because it publicised the company's integrity.

Love it or hate it, McDonald's was the result of a determination by Ray Kroc to back his taste buds. He liked the products at Dick McDonald's food stand in San Bernardino, California, so much that he decided to replicate it many times.

McDonald's wasn't the first franchise, but it quickly became the biggest.

Among other hall of fame decisions, the association also includes Sears Roebuck's move to launch a mail-order business in Chicago in 1906 which overcame the retailer's frustration at being unable to reach a wider clientele than those who came through its doors.

Non-Americans besides the Romans figure large in the list of all-time best management actions, such as a little-known Japanese automobile-manufacturer's bold post-war decision to employ the services of an equally little-known American expert on quality control, one W. Edwards Deming. That company was Toyota.

The list is particularly interesting because it ranges far beyond the corporate world.

For example, the association rates the staff organisation of the Jesuits, the Catholic order which requires a dozen years or more of preparation for the priesthood, as second to none and well worthy of study.

There are several notable omissions from the list.

According to Fortune magazine, it should have included the Bank of England's commitment in the 18th century to conscientiously pay all interest on its borrowings instead of defaulting, which was apparently common practice in sovereign loans at the time. This decision helped keep the pound strong and underpinned the creation of the British Empire.

It is food for thought, however, that the virtues of nearly all of these decisions did not emerge for years, decades or even centuries later.

* Contributing writer Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz.