17

Why Risk Is Necessary

There was a company that gave a critical product introduction assignment to a plant manager. The new product was a key element in the company's overall corporate strategy. It was imperative that the product be launched successfully.

The plant management team made an overall assessment of the project and discovered a problem. In exchange for cooperation, the local union demanded lifelong employment, a concept that was radical at the time. The local managers knew that if they called the corporate human resources division for permission, they would be turned down or extensively delayed by bureaucratic process. They also knew that if they proceeded without permission, they could be fired. After a painful review, they decided ...

Get Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.