Why Hermann Simon and Gary Hamel were angry about “exklusive” management and innovation concepts (GPDF 2016)!
The Global Peter Drucker Forum 2016 was an event of outstanding uniqueness, not only because of its participants, but because of its important “job done”. It startet with the “The Entrepreneurial Society” and ended even more important with the “Inclusive Society” (Drucker Forum 2017!). Vienna 2016 / 2017 / … and discussions after Vienna may be a platform to develop the necessary visions for such an “Inclusive Society”. The alternative to an Inclusive Society may be not only some angry management thinkers, but a dystopian Dark Capitalism.
But lets start with the beginning ;-)
_______________
1. A homage to the Global Peter Drucker Forum 2016 …
The purpose of this article is on the one hand an homage to the Drucker Forum 2016 and to the leading women and men inspiring the community in Vienna, especially to Richard Straub for his incredible lifetime achievement.
The limits of my English can hardly describe the special quality of flows I was part of, in Vienna. Where else in the world do you have the chance — as I had — to talk two days with people like MaelleGavet, Phil Kotler, Clayton Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, Fredmund Malik, Hermann Simon, Ralf Köster, Gisbert Rühl, Prabhu Guptara, Alexander Osterwalder or Nicolas Colin and others to boost your own perspectives through a collaborative interfusion with great minds? Although I could not talk with John Hagel or Roger Martin, there presentation nevertheless influenced my perspectives a lot.
But Vienna was not only an intellectual flow, it was a great pleasure to be there. I am thankful for the “laughs” with Ralf Köster, Prabhu Guptara and Fredmund Malik during the speakers night and and with Efosa Ojomo and Andreas Müller the day after. Efosa by the way transformed my most preferred “job to be done” metaphor (job to be done theory of Christensen) from milkshake into a billion-dollar story. I hope to hear more from him soon. He is for me a thinker for an Inlusive Society, especially for Africa.
_______________
2. Exclusive and inclusive visions of the entrepreneur and innovation
On the other hand it is an article about two questions in the center of the Global Drucker Forum who may have a fundamental impact on our future.
What is the right vision / paradigm for:
a) The Entrepreneurial Society?
b) Innovation in the Entrepreneurial Society?
- Entrepreneurs only?
The reflections were inspired by a question and an almost invisible conflict during the Durcker Forum. The question was: “Will the Entrepreneurial Society be a society of entrepreneurs only”. The invisible conflict was a conflict between the “representatives” of disruptive and non disruptive innovations. Should the Entrepreneurial Society be a society of entrepreneurs only? I do not think so. Such a society will — this is my believe — in the worst case degenerate into a dualistic society with a few of monopolistic billion dollar “entrepreneurs” on the top, glorifying the Uber-Menschen — and a mass of precarious “not-really-entrepreneurs” entrepreneurs at the bottom!
This Dark Capitalism will eat democracy as Phil Kotler made it very clear in Vienna. But what is the alternative? The Entrepreneurial Society should be a society with a real “Entrepreneurial DNA” in the best INCLUSIVE way possible, where we all and not only members of an elite have an entrepreneurial attitude towards each other. In this scenario being entrepreneurial is a collaborative network job to be done in ecosystems and not the job of a single Uber-Mensch! This will — in the best case — generate inclusive prosperity for the 99% too.
- Disruption only?
But it was not the only separation/exclusion question we have talked about in Vienna. It seemed as if we talked 50% of our time in Vienna about exploration versus exploitation and a small bridge Alex Osterwalder was drawing as part of his sketch … How can we enable a “normal” company to be successful in both areas or even more general how can we have an inclusive innovation architecture on the level of the society. Here we might discover a second separation/ exclusion, the exclusion of small and medium sized enterprises from the disruptive innovation logic. We might fail to master exploration / innovation or the integration of exploration and exploitation “at scale”.
_______________
3. Gary Hamel was angry about “exklusive management”
Gary Hamel was a very angry white man in Vienna. After Phil Kotlers warning and his message of capitalism as a force destroying democracy and his story of the “Decline of Democracy” Hamels extraordinary emotional speeches against the absurdities of existing “exclusive” management and his demand for a more bottom up, grass root empowered management were perhaps the most iconic demand for alternatives. That the father of marketing criticizes capitalism and the father of all full basket of management (2.0) core concepts demands alternatives is perhaps more important than a lot of new neo marxists criticizing and demanding. Kotler and Hamel make clear:
There is really a job to be done!
4. Hermann Simon was angry about “exklusive innovation”
The most angry man from the German speaking community was Mr. Pricing, Hermann Simon. The “dis-cover-er” of the Hidden Champions seemed to be fed up with the one-sided glorification of the new Disruptors which often have gigantic negative, anti-social impacts and do not care a minute about anything beyond their scope. As an alternative he presented the Hidden Champions as creators of thousands of patents and billion dollar stories (not evaluation, but revenues!) who cared a lot for their people, e.g. in 2007/8.
His presentation made it clear that we should appreciate different kinds of innovations and that innovation cannot be reduced to horizontal disruptors or the Fortune Global 500 Corporations only. Ralf Köster, Ex-CEO of BARTEC and Entrepreneur of the Year 2015, and Gisbert Rühl, CEO of Klöckner and Germanys Nr. 1 reference for digital transformation of the Mittelstand, confirmed with their innovation stories the message of Hermann Simon.
_______________
5. From the Entrepreneurial to an Inclusive Society and beyond …?
So it is only logical what happened after the last panel. The Drucker Forum 2016 ended officially with the declaration of the motto of the Forum 2017:
“Growth” and — more important — “Inclusive Prosperity”.
This was the best motto possible for 2017, because the Forum 2016 answered a lot of questions, but it left especially some question of inclusive prosperity (and inclusive responsibility) partially unanswered.
2017 these questions now can be answered!
