After breifing the press and the securities analysts about IBM's latest reorganization into a number of independent business units, he was aked, "But didn't you have a big reorganization only five years ago where you centralized everything? Would you say now that that was a mistake?" His answer was that neither centralization nor decentralization was the right answer. The right answer was to periodically shake things up, to break down all the sclerosis, empire, and fiefdoms that would accumulate under either system, by shifting back and forth between them at surprise intervals. This is essentially what Bush did with Homeland Security. He took a bunch of brain-dead bureacracies that hadn't had an idea in ten years, and ripped everything out by the roots and planted it somewhere else. Rumsfeld is doing the same thing in the Pentagon. It has the brass hopping mad, but that's the point... break up the fiefdoms, identify fresh talent that was being overlooked, and get some juices flowing again. The intelligence community probably needs a dose of the same thing, as does the Department of State. |
One of the more brilliant comments I ever heard on this phenomenon came from IBM's Thomas Watson, Jr.