Your company’s history as a leadership tool: take your organization forward by drawing on the past

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 29, Issue 5

Seaman J.T. and Smith G.D. Harvard Business Review, December 2012, Vol. 90 No. 12, No. of pages: 8

Criticizes the popular trend among senior managers to ignore their company’s history, where they argue that a fast-changing world leaves little time for nostalgia and irrelevant details or for applying the strategies of the past to the present. Takes the contrary view whereby the authors, who are business historians at the Winthrop Group, assert that leaders who have no patience for history are missing a vital truth in that a sophisticated understanding of the past is one of the most powerful tools they have for shaping the future. Explains that, since the job of leaders is to inspire collective efforts and devise imaginative strategies for the future, history can be profitably employed on both fronts. Suggests that, since a leader strives to get people working together productively, communicating the history of the enterprise can instil a sense of identity and purpose and suggest the goals that will resonate. ISSN:0017-8012 Article type: Viewpoint Reference: 42AB062

Keywords: Business history, Leadership, Organizations, USA