Leadership Importance

Leadership and management are more important than ever before.

The days of the long-serving corporate man, safe and sound in the dustry recesses of the corporation, are long gone.  Soon, the emphasis will be on getting a life instead of a career, and work will be viewed as a series of gigs or projects.

This is the age of time and talent, where we are selling time and talent, exploiting time and talent, organizing time and talent, hiring time and talent, packaging time and talent.  The most critical resource wears shoes and walks out the door around five o'clock every day. 

Leadership: Herding flocks of brains 

We now own the major assets of society--our own minds.  And power equals freedom.  We are all potentially free to know, go, do and be whoever we want to be.  But freedom is not something you are simply handed.  It is something you conquer.  And, today, power lies in controlling the scarcest of resources: human intelligence.  As opposed to physical resources, knowledge grows with usage and is portable--you can take it with you when you leave.

As a result, management and leadership are keys to competitive advantage.  They differentiate you from the mass.  How you attract, retain and motivate your people is more important than technology; how you treat your customers and suppliers, more important than technology. 

Source:   Jonas Ridderstrale: Funky Business Forever: How to Enjoy Capitalism (Financial Times)