The Preface from
The Future of Management
On Christmas eve, 1968, the Apollo 8 command module became the first humanmade
object to orbit the moon. During its journey back to earth, a ground controller’s
son asked his dad, “Who’s flying the spacecraft?” When the question was relayed up to
the homebound crew, astronaut Bill Anders replied, “I think Sir Isaac Newton is doingmost of the driving now.”
Like that curious lad, I’d like to pose a question: Who’s managing your
company? You might be tempted to answer, “the CEO,” or “the executive team,” or “all
of us in middle management.” And you’d be right, but that wouldn’t be the whole truth.
To a large extent, your company is being managed right now by a small coterie of longdeparted
theorists and practitioners who invented the rules and conventions of
“modern” management back in the early years of the 20th century. They are the
poltergeists who inhabit the musty machinery of management. It is their edicts,
echoing across the decades, that invisibly shape the way your company allocates
resources, sets budgets, distributes power, rewards people, and makes decisions