According to Iacocca, if you have only financial analysts (bean counters) in your company then you tend to have a defensive, conservative and pessimistic organization. Sales and marketing people are more aggressive, speculative and optimistic; they are always pushing to go forward regardless of the macro-context of the company. A good company will have natural balance between the two. If the bean counters are too weak then the company will go bankrupt. Conversely, in the 1970s, Ford needed to have wild-eyed dreamers as the company was dying in the market place. Some so-called bean counters would cross the divide like Robert McNamara who helped develop the Falcon (one of the first compact cars selling over 417,00 units in the first year). Unfortunately, the Falcon was simply a vehicle to help people get from A to B, and it was not a major seller for long but it is worth mentioning as a case where someone crossed the divide between theses two groups. Robert McNamara was a true visionary and quoted a truth in 1967 to which many managers can agree that “Management is the gate through which social and economic and political change, indeed change in every direction, is diffused through society.”
Sales People by Philip Delves Broughton
Pythagoras Theorum
Margaret Thatcher on Sovietology and Gorbachev Reforms
Thatcher saw the two groups of Sovietologists:
1) stressing the Gorbachev reforms,
2) limiting as many changes as possible in the USSR.
Gorbachev’s intentions were limited but the consequences that his reforms would have across the USSR would cause erosion of discipline. Gorbachev had liberalized the election process for candidates in the Soviet body politic. Gorbachev called for restructuring (perestroika) and acceleration of their economy. He clearly wished to function in a socialist system. Thatcher consulted Reagan, Germany and France before heading to Russia. When she visited, Thatcher made a scathing speech about Russian failure and weakness just before her visit. When she was questioned about her harsh statements before coming to Russia, Thatcher fired back with even more vitriol. They had a very public debate of ideas. Thatcher attacked Gorbachev over Afghanistan and Jewish discrimination. Thatcher clearly saw the cracks in the Soviet system, which her rhetoric emphasized.