The Life Cycle of Great Business Ideas

[1 October 2008 - strategy+business - By Bridget Finn] With the right support and judgment, the corporate "heretics" of today could become tomorrow’s most effective leaders. Thomas Huxley wrote that new ideas begin as heresies and end as superstition. He was referring to Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. The same might be said of management concepts today. In August, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Anaheim, Calif., Art Kleiner brought together a group of distinguished management thinkers and practitioners to explore the evolution of management ideas. Kleiner is the editor-in-chief of strategy+business and author of The Age of Heretics: A History of the Radical Thinkers Who Reinvented Corporate Management, which traces some of the leading management practices of our time to people who challenged the conventional wisdom of their companies in years past. This edited version of the panel discussion shows how, in a variety of ways, the quality of management thinking has made a difference -- and how the most compelling business practices often have countercultural roots. The panelists are known for their leadership in the domain of management ideas. More