Epilogue
The Emperor’s new clothes
Of course, I don’t know why you read my book. Actually, to be
frank, I don’t even know if you have read it at all, since it seems
one of the rst things many people read when they pick up a
book is its conclusion. However, if you’re not one of those, and
you have read my book, I am quite condent that you will have
liked it . . .
And I am condent of that because, well, rst of all, if you didn’t
like it you probably wouldn’t have made it to the end . . . (unless
you’re my mother) hey, it is called “selection bias”, remember!
However, there is a second reason, and that is because the people
who have read my tales before have told me they liked them.
For example, when I rst started gathering my thoughts I
began writing them on a blog. Nothing fancy, just using some
free software, without giving it much publicity. But, quite to
my surprise – I had just started putting stuff online to collect
my thoughts and force myself to write – I saw my readership
snowball, people started commenting and e-mailing me, and the
Financial Times, Business Week, the Washington Post, the Seattle
Times, the Harvard Business Review, etc. started to quote from the
blog.
And I wondered why . . . Till one of my readers wrote to me
saying, “It is a very fresh, honest and atypical way to look at
business/management issues that few people take the time to
stop and analyze” and “it is a side of business seldom talked
about”. Then I realized that quite a few of my readers liked it
because, for the rst time, they had the experience of spotting
that the Emperor had no clothes . . .
Business Exposed216
People read my stuff and thought, “There’s a naked man in the
street, wearing nothing but a crown!” And (for some strange
reason) quite liked that thought.
I’m sure you know Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale. It
is the tale of two swindlers who pretended to be weavers: “they said
they could weave the most magnicent fabrics imaginable. Not
only were their colours and patterns uncommonly ne, but clothes
made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to
anyone who was unt for his ofce, or who was unusually stupid.”
They then convinced the Emperor to let them weave him his
clothes for an upcoming procession. At the time the garments
should be ready, the Emperor sent his most trusted advisor – an old
minister – to go and inspect the clothes: “The honest old minister
went to the room where the two swindlers sat working away at
their empty looms. ‘Heaven help me,’ he thought as his eyes ew
wide open, ‘I can’t see anything at all.’ But he did not say so.”
Several other ofcials came to “see” the clothes, but not one of
them admitted to not being able to spot anything: “So off went
the Emperor in procession under his splendid canopy. Everyone
in the streets and the windows said, ‘Oh, how ne are the
Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they t him to perfection? And
see his long train!’ Nobody would admit that he couldn’t see
anything, for that would prove him either unt for his position,
or a fool. No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever
such a complete success.”
“‘But he hasn’t got anything on’, a little child said.”
The little child’s observation was rst dismissed with a smile, but
it sent a whisper through the crowd, until the mood began to
change, and nally the whole town cried at last: “But he hasn’t
got anything on!”
There is nothing wrong with being naked
And I guess that’s really what this book is: it’s a little boy shouting
“He is naked!” Because the world of business isn’t always what
217
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Epilogue
it pretends to be. Things aren’t as rational, well-organized and
well-oiled as we’re told they are. And we sort of know that . . . But
we also don’t want to be seen as “unt for ofce, or unusually
stupid”.
I’ve seen people read my tales with a smile – honest. I saw them
thinking, “He’s right; the guy doesn’t have any clothes on . . .”
And isn’t it a neat feeling to acknowledge that? It sort of puts
us in a club, don’t you think? “The club of people who have
spotted that he has no clothes on”. Shall we tell others about it?
Hmmmm, you know what, let them gure it out for themselves.
When they do, I tell you, it will be quite a relief: “I am not
unusually stupid after all; it is just how the world works!”
But let me add one thing: there is nothing wrong with being
naked (it is just the crown that makes you look silly). The world
of business runs as it does. It is sometimes silly, it doesn’t always
work, but let’s at least admit that we are all naked, so that perhaps
we can start changing some stuff when it gets cold.
Because some things do need changing. Over the past few years,
we have seen that companies that at one point are the darlings
of the stock market and the topic of many business books and
management seminars often become the villains of the corporate
world a few years later. For most people, it is difcult to separate
the wheat from the chaff. How do you know the advice provided
in a business book or seminar is fair and reasonable, or whether
it comes from tomorrow’s Enrons, Lehmans, and Worldcoms?
Whose knowledge can you still trust? How do you know that
today’s advice and cases will not be soon heralded as the epitome
of mismanagement?
I think that is why people seem to like my book too – although
my publisher told me not to tell you this (she thought you’d
be bored, and might stop reading, but, hey, it is the last bit
of the book anyway!): it is based on rigorous research from
management science, conducted at the top business schools from
around the world. It is not some bullshitty book that tells you
the author’s personal view on how to make your organization
scream, how to manage your way to the pot of gold at the end
Business Exposed218
of the market rainbow, or lead your company (with vision!) into
a glorious path of unabiding growth. Don’t get me wrong, some
of these “how-to” books based on personal observations are nice,
interesting, original, and sometimes even useful, but personally
I also like facts: what do we really know about how things work?
And I guess I am not the only one.
But – admittedly – of course this book represents my personal
view as well. Yes, it is based on solid research and veriable
facts, but I have chosen which facts to present to you and what
research to report; because what goes on in the world of top
business schools and management science sometimes also leaves
you pretty naked . . . Not all research is good and useful, and
worth presenting.
I made a selection of what I thought was intriguing and
important, and that is what I put in this book. I offer it to you
as my crown. Please wear it with pride (but for God’s sake, put
some clothes on!).
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