The Messy Business of Management

Today’s executives — and tomorrow’s business leaders — need the ability to address complex, messy problems, think critically and question their own assumptions.

BY IAN I. MITROFF, CAN M. ALPASLAN AND RICHARD O. MASON

ARE YOU PREPARED to handle a mess?

In a period of rapid technological and business change, successful executives particularly need the ability to think critically — and to be aware that some of their most cherished assumptions may at any point be challenged or invalidated by changing events. Consider, for example, how many financiers’ optimistic assumptions about the markets for securitized subprime mortgage assets were challenged by the meltdown of those markets and the financial crisis in 2008. ...