Maybe, just maybe, we don’t need ‘managers’ and ‘employees’, as in generals and troops.
My strong bet is for a company of entrepreneurs on the payroll. Yes, they will need to be organised, yes they will need to follow principles, but they will behave as entrepreneurs, people who know what is a stake, waste no time and have what Nassim Taleb would call ‘skin in the game’. They will move fast in failure, they will start again and will have a so called ‘winning attitude’ regardless.
See I am not talking as ‘behaving as if it was your company’, a ridiculous frame created by those who really own the company for those who don’t.
A company of entrepreneurs is very different from a company of employees who work nine to five, have continuous conference calls and are, above all, very very very busy. There is not time for busy-ness in entrepreneurship, they are really busy doing stuff.
Trouble is, traditional management may have some additional problems managing entrepreneurs, whilst generals and troops are far more predictable.
A company of entrepreneurs, or a company of volunteers, that’s it.
But would entrepreneurs want to be in the payroll? Well, test it. But beware, a company made of entrepreneurs looks more like a host and less like Situation Room. Leading as host vs leading as Chief of Staff.
There is no moral judgment assumed in what is good or bad. It depends (I hate this phrase). If you have a slow moving tanker, you need employees and a system to change the oil from time to time. If you have (or want) a fast paced organization, mariners, captains and oil-changing engineers won’t do it.
I know, I know, too black and white
I still bet for the entrepreneurs on the payroll.