A decade into the millenium, it is the right time to have a look at some of the management concepts that have come into prominence post millenium.
The primary shift has been towards maximizing shareholders return and increasing the market capitalization at the expense of everything else. Of course, business has always concentrated on increasing value for the shareholder. But this was not the SOLE priority as it is now. Shorter business cycles, still shorter product life cycles can be attributed to this shift. Executives are paid to take more risks to maximize short term returns and for that they were paid huge bonuses, and damn the consequences. No cautionary word as to the impact this will have on the long term sustainability of the business. Government actively supported this, for a buoyant stock market gave them a false sense of economic security. This attitudinal change led to the Global Financial Crisis towards the end of the decade, but no lessons have been learned. The risk takers are lying low for now, till the situation improves when they will be back with a bang, for the model works well in the short term for all concerned - shareholders, executives and the government and who cares about the long term consequences? ............ to be continued
