(2025-07-09) Denning Millions Of Managers Are Becoming Obsolete Master Value Creation Now

Steve Denning: Millions Of Managers Are Becoming Obsolete: Master Value Creation Now. A management revolution is under way in business. Pursuit of profits no longer gets the job done. Firms that practice traditional management are going out of business. The managers who run these firms are now also at risk. They should prepare for these changes by mastering the ten basic truths of value-creating enterprises.

THE DYNAMIC: The primary dynamic of a business has changed from increasing efficiency by cutting costs to expanding demand by creating more value. (customer value)

THE GOAL: As a result, the primary goal of a business has shifted from cost-cutting and profits to value creation.

The long-term total return of a public company thus provides a simple, reliable and accessible way of measuring value creation at the level of the enterprise. (is that stock price?)

the value-creation mental model of the emerging enterprise has generally accepted the enterprise as a complex adaptive system in which there are few simple cause-and-effect relationships. Instead, outcomes are seen as emerging from the interaction of multiple elements. Narratives, values and mindsets are seen as driving the processes and systems. Empathy is central.

Sustained value creation entails changes in how everyone in the firm thinks, speaks, feels, acts, and interacts. The autonomous teams, networks of competence, and innovation capabilities that are needed to create rapid value creation mean fundamental changes in mindsets and behavior at every level of the enterprise.

REMOVING BULLSHT JOBS: Many jobs in a traditionally managed firms create no value--often as much as 40% of a firm’s costs. Professor David Graeber explained why in his insightful book, Bullshit Jobs: A Theory (2018).*

That’s because in a hierarchical bureaucracy, work tends to grow upon itself.

ELIMINATING VALUE DESTRUCTION: Many aspects of traditional management systematically undermine and destroy value creation.

ACQUIRING MINDSETS AND SKILLS: Leaders and managers who lack the skills and mindsets needed in the value creating enterprise are rapidly becoming obsolete.