Russell Ackoff Quotes

MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING WEB

Maaw Home	Contents	Bibliography	Maaw's Book	Books	Journals	Summaries	Marketplace	Software	Gadgets
Introduction	Main Topics	Search maaw	Grad Course	Textbooks	Journal Bibs	Links	Maaw's Blog	Videos	Contribute

Quotes by Russell Ackoff

"The appeal of gurus lies to a large extent in the simplicity of the doctrines they put forth. They are simple no matter how complex the problems at which they are directed. They provide a life raft to those managers who are incapable of handling complexity."

"Contrary to what happens in politics and religion, in business circles there are so many gurus competing for followers that no one of them can dominate the minds, let alone the emotions, of potential followers."

Educators stand in sharp contrast to gurus. Educators do not try to bring thinking to a halt but to initiate it. They want their students to extend and expand the ideas they present and students are encouraged to question and modify without constraint. Educators want their solutions to be treated as beginnings, not ends. Gurus lead into; educators lead out of. Gurus provide ready-made solutions but educators provide ways of finding individualized solutions."

"An educator tries to transmit a way of thinking and a way of conducting inquiries. And he does not pretend that these are the only ways. Among other things, he recognizes that differences in personality lead those with different personalities to select different ways of thinking and behaving."

"I find that business schools tend to avoid the important complex strategic problems that corporate management is currently involved with. Not too long ago at a meeting of the deans of business schools I identified the set of six or seven corporate problems on which I was working. I asked them if any of them had courses that addressed such problems - not a single one of them was covered."

"Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other; but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes....Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes."

Management Theory Main Page

Whole Systems Main Page