Article Summary - Essay Example

Whatever Happened to Accountability? In his Harvard Business Review article d October of Thomas E. Ricks recounts how the American business sector can learn many lessons from the previous wartime battles that the American military has fought, won, and lost across the globe. Spanning the era of World War I to the latest round of victories in Afghanistan and Iraq, it seems that there are many lessons pertaining to effective leadership that can be gleaned from our previous military leaders.
The Marshall Plan for one is a military directive that, if implemented in todays business sector would force the executives to exercise, accountability and control over their actions. Command responsibility is key in implementing any actions meant to propel an organization forward and directly towards its goal. These are the two most important traits that are sorely lacking in todays generation of business leaders.
In conclusion, the article talks of all the successful and failed military actions in relation to the business sector. It proves that the military was once an effective organizational tool that benefited from having the most skillful and knowledgeable leaders at its helm. The same thin happens in the business sector. But, when those military leaders fail, so to do their subordinates. That, as we saw from the debacle called the Wall Street Meltdown, is exactly what happened to our business sector as well. Read More