Re: LO only half an answer? LO3993

John Woods (jwoods@execpc.com)
Fri, 1 Dec 1995 19:42:17 -0600 (CST)

Replying to LO3955 --

John Warfield quoted Russell Ackoff as below, to which I say:

Russell, Russell, let me ask you something. What are your assumptions?
On what do you base this assertion? Your statement of about panaceas is
clearly worthy of dialogue. Otherwise, Russell, we might think what you
have to say about management could fit on your list, as well.

John Warfield wrote:
>If you're going to trash, I say become a professional at it. For a good
>example, see the paper by Russell Ackoff (a well-known author and a very
>effective management consultant) in Systems Research 12(1), pages 43-46.
> Russell believes in efficiency of trashing, and chooses to trash
>(somewhat mildly, but quite clearly) as follows:
>
>"...the following is a partial list of alleged panaceas collected from a
>cursory scanning of current literature:"
>
>"Total quality management
>Continuous improvement
>Benchmarking
>Downsizing--rightsizing
>Process re-engineering
>Learning organizations
>Cognitive therapy
[...etc...]
>
>Little wonder that managers suffer from panacea overload."
>
>I say go for economies of scale.
>
>John N. Warfield

--
jwoods@execpc.com (John Woods)