25. “The best strategy for managing a business, or any enterprise, is to find the most capable people and give them as much authority as possible.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
Is the best strategy for managing a business, or any enterprise, to find the most capable people and give them as much authority as possible? This issue arouses much controversy between different opinion groups. Some may contend that there is no better strategy than finding the most capable people for managing a business, and others claim that the best strategy for managing a business means more than just to find the most capable people and give them as much authority as possible. While I agree that people are the key to the success of a business or any enterprise, in my view it is more critical to find right people for a business or any enterprise than to find the most capable people. Besides, there are other factors as equally important as staffing and empowerment for managing any enterprise.
Admittedly, people are the pivotal of any enterprise. In almost all aspects of business, from business strategy planning through the plan execution, people play a key role in helping the business succeed. Without people, few businesses can be created. In this sense, people are the most important factor in business management.
However, it is the right people other than the most capable people that are the best to manage a business. Even if the people are not the most capable, they still can make good performance on managing business. On the other hand, the most capable people do not necessarily help their companies achieve their business goals. A very good example lies in a recent case of HP company: the recently-laid-off former CEO — Carleton S. Fiorina is undoubted among the top of capable people, yet she did not succeed in making another business breakthrough after the combination of Compaq and HP, and HP company under her management is still struggling in IT market while other companies, such as IBM, DELL, are moving forward faster than HP.
Moreover, when developing a best strategy for managing business, company needs to take into consideration other factors, such as the fiscal budget, the balance between the employee’s authority and obligations, and the like, besides issues of staffing and empowerment. Obviously, without sufficient budget, it is unlikely for any capable people to fully deliver their commitment to their companies. And, if the authority of the most capable people outweighs their obligations, the potential risk of their taking advantage of the authority and harming the company can not be ruled out.
In final analysis, because of the above reasons, which sometimes interweave into an organic whole and become more compelling, we can safely arrive at the conclusion that right people are more important than the most capable people to the success of a business, and companies need to take all relevant aspects into consideration to develop the best strategy for their businesses.
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