Back when I worked for a very large retailer, I observed something
interesting about some human behavior. In general, I noticed that quite
a few very successful people had no idea why they were successful. It
seemed what had happened was that working in a certain way had led to
promotion after promotion without their having any idea why.
However, what is interesting is the consequences of their not knowing
why that way of working was successful. In some, it explained otherwise
puzzling social aspects of their business behavior, primarily
incongruous manifestations of behavior rooted in insecurity. Whether
consciously or not, they knew they had no clothes and were anxious about it.
Another fascinating, and often frustrating, thing to observe was what
happened when something in the business environment changed. At first,
they would generally continue doing things the way they had been doing
them. Then the results would start coming in worse than expected and
generally continue to deteriorate.
Individual responses to this state of affairs varied over many
behaviors. Some just tried different things until something worked or
they lost their job. Some thought through what they were really doing
and why for the first time, figured out how to respond to the change and
succeeded again. And so on.
The company was big enough that none of these individual dramas sunk it,
although one came close. And of course the competition had their share
of the same dramas going on too.
One example should illustrate the problem. Back in the 20s, a bright
young accountant (who later was president of the company) took an old
fashioned method of financing and revamped it for a then new type of
store development and then current tax laws. A couple of other people
kept this tool current with changes in the business, finance in general
and tax law. I was a very solid workhorse for many decades. Finally,
when the old pro at it retired, a new one took it over. Over the next
few years, the business, finance and tax environment changed. He just
continued to plow on with the approach he had learned how to do without
understanding it. He even became a booster of the method in the face of
skepticism on the part of top management. When it finally became obvious
that he had cost the company many millions of dollars and that his deals
would continue to cost a great deal for years, he was forced out. He was
hired as CFO of a small operator. How much of their subsequent
bankruptcy may have been his doing, I don't know.
Now what does this have to do with photography? Maybe we will find out
in the next installment.
Moose
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