Managers must embrace risks

The article “Listening carefully to the dog that doesn’t bark” reported that “top managers are isolated from the real world” (MW June 8).

To my mind, it is merely a natural progression within many organisations for management to advance and adopt a more familiar and mature outlook to the company in which they strive to maintain a strong element of competitive fitness. The old adage of “knowing what you like and liking what you know” is surely a highly attractive one, and the element of risk taking which was once very prevalent is often greatly reduced.

Undoubtedly, this natural evolution of oneself can encompass elements of both a personal and corporate nature and it is therefore essential that managers embrace the implications that outside influences often bring forth. New media and technology, for example, are areas that both past and current generations of managers have struggled to digest.

This will not be the case, however, in ten years’ time when the new guard replace the old guard and, in effect, usurp the system yet again.

Matthew Hooper

Managing director

Interfocus

London W8