Henry Mintzberg

“We have to leave behind the linear politics of left, right, and center, to understand that a balanced society, like a stable stool, has to rest on three solid legs: a public sector of political forces rooted in respected governments, a private sector of economic forces based on responsible businesses, and a plural sector of social forces manifested in robust communities.”

Read full paper: www.mintzberg.org

In a recent New York Times column, “How to Get a Job at Google,” Thomas Friedman interviews Laszlo Bock, the company’s senior vice president for people operations (which seems to be Google-speak for talent management). Bock notes that because constant innovation is increasingly a group endeavor, people who succeed in the company “tend to be those with a lot of soft skills: leadership, humility, collaboration, adaptability, and loving to learn and re-learn.”

Voilà 41 ans que le professeur Henry Mintzberg jette son regard critique sur les organisations, leurs stratégies et leurs leaders. Son 17e livre, sorti le 1er mars, est un fait un e-pamphlet, ou brochure électronique. Sous le titre Rebalancing Society, Mintzberg tourne cette fois son regard inquiet sur la société. Mais qu'est-ce qui trouble ainsi le sommeil du plus international des professeurs québécois de gestion ?

Lili Hall (IMPM'13) came across the International Masters Program in Practicing Management (IMPM) by chance. She had considered MBA programs before, but the standard options seemed too formulaic. “Every time I looked at the curriculum, I’d get sad,” she says. As the founder and CEO of KNOCK, inc., a creative agency, Hall had already enjoyed a lot of professional success. She wasn’t looking to switch industries or climb the corporate ladder. “For me, it was very personal,” she explains. “I wanted to be challenged personally, and obviously professionally.” 

The recent economic downturn, Wall Street debacle and string of ethical and moral scandal surrounding a number of prominent business leaders has led some observers to question the value and focus of vocationally oriented, pragmatic education programs such as business education and, particularly the MBA. The importance of a Liberal Education is once again gaining some attention.

The concept of leadership is always a big one in the nonprofit sector, and the facts of a looming retirement binge, as well as changes in the landscape, make the development of top-notch managers more important.

In his book “Simply Managing” Henry Mintzberg writes about efforts to help in the development of management in a variety of setting. He offers a look at the ideas that lie behind these efforts. 

When Facebook announced its astounding $19bn takeover of 55-employee WhatsApp, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and other tech startup hubs around the world were shocked.

... For managers, there are three important takeaways. First, focus on surprises — large and small — for the information it can reveal about what we are doing. The great management scholar Henry Mintzberg once said that managers should only pay attention to the unexpected. Imagine how much free time would open up if we really followed that advice?

Don't go talking "real world" with Henry Mintzberg. It's a silly term that drives him mad, especially when management skills are at stake. 

"The word 'real world' is a red flag for me," says Mintzberg, McGill University's John Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies. "Real world is out there. You don't simulate a real world. We don't play business in our classroom."

Henry Mintzberg graduated from McGill University with a degree in mechanical engineering and holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a Cleghorn professor of management studies at McGill since 1968. His early books include "The Structuring of Organizations: A Synthesis of the Research," published in 1979, and "Structure in 5's: Designing Effective Organizations," published in 1983. In these books he introduces his five types of organizational structure and how they influence the functioning of organizations.