Towards a Legacy Mindset
Cooke, A.J. (2013). Towards a Legacy Mindset. MBA Programme, University of Exeter.
Towards a Legacy Mindset
“The reasonable man accommodates himself to the world as it is. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw Introduction Ten years has now passed since The Five Minds of a Manager (Gosling & Mintzberg 2003) was published in Harvard Business Review. In that time, the world has accelerated, becoming more connected, but more volatile, more uncertain, more complex and more ambiguous (Johansen 2009). The credit crunch of 2008 and the prolonged economic recession that has ensued has provoked widespread public debate on the future of capitalism, the purpose of business and even the validity of Gross Domestic Product as a measure of progress. Nevertheless, inclusive economic growth remains necessary to lift people out of poverty and improve the quality of life of billions around the world, and there is a growing recognition amongst more progressive businesses that higher purpose is needed alongside profit generation. Organisations are increasingly aware of their responsibilities, not only to shareholders, employees and customers, but to wider stakeholders; not just NGOs and policymakers, but to the ecosphere and to unborn generations. The most progressive organisations realise that they must play a part in reversing the environmental and social fallout from the Industrial Age (Senge 2010) by helping to re-engineer the economy and society to keep within the limits of One Planet. Against this backdrop, the role of the manager is as challenging as ever and it could be argued that the Five Minds framework provides sufficiently for managers in this changing context; a reflective, worldly, collaborative manager is likely to be cogniscent of the changing world around him/her - of changing expectations and rules of engagement. And as an analytical, action-orientated manager he/she is likely to digest and synthesize information around
Towards a Legacy Mindset
“The reasonable man accommodates himself to the world as it is. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw Introduction Ten years has now passed since The Five Minds of a Manager (Gosling & Mintzberg 2003) was published in Harvard Business Review. In that time, the world has accelerated, becoming more connected, but more volatile, more uncertain, more complex and more ambiguous (Johansen 2009). The credit crunch of 2008 and the prolonged economic recession that has ensued has provoked widespread public debate on the future of capitalism, the purpose of business and even the validity of Gross Domestic Product as a measure of progress. Nevertheless, inclusive economic growth remains necessary to lift people out of poverty and improve the quality of life of billions around the world, and there is a growing recognition amongst more progressive businesses that higher purpose is needed alongside profit generation. Organisations are increasingly aware of their responsibilities, not only to shareholders, employees and customers, but to wider stakeholders; not just NGOs and policymakers, but to the ecosphere and to unborn generations. The most progressive organisations realise that they must play a part in reversing the environmental and social fallout from the Industrial Age (Senge 2010) by helping to re-engineer the economy and society to keep within the limits of One Planet. Against this backdrop, the role of the manager is as challenging as ever and it could be argued that the Five Minds framework provides sufficiently for managers in this changing context; a reflective, worldly, collaborative manager is likely to be cogniscent of the changing world around him/her - of changing expectations and rules of engagement. And as an analytical, action-orientated manager he/she is likely to digest and synthesize information around
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