(2025-08-08) Denning Why Are Millions Of Managers Becoming Obsolete? Here Are 21 Reasons

Steve Denning: Why Are Millions Of Managers Becoming Obsolete? Here Are 21 Reasons. In response to several articles here and here suggesting that millions of managers are becoming obsolete, I have been asked to clarify.

what exactly is the problem?

the obsolescence of managers has less to do with the personal characteristics of individuals acting as managers and more to do with the obsolete state of the organizations they work for.

Dealing with any one aspect of the obsolescence of managers is likely to obscure the scale and interconnections with many other issues.

All of the issues by themselves are well-known and have been discussed one-by-one many times in articles and journals. What is less common, indeed almost unprecedented, is to review all the many ways in which businesses and their managers are becoming obsolete.

The Interconnected Causes Of Managerial Obsolescence (list of 21, including:)

• Wrong mindset: making profits for themselves, not creating value for others.
• Wrong goal: merely becoming more efficient by cutting costs, not creating more value for customers. (customer value)

Steve Denning: Don’t Become Obsolete: Embrace The Value Creation Paradigm Now. In my last article, I gave 21 reasons why managers are becoming obsolete.

I offer below the 21 principles of value creating firms, which are mostly operating very differently. The first thing to grasp is that these are principles, not a checklist. This is not just about doing different things. For many, it is about thinking, speaking, interacting and imagining differently. The principles need to be applied in a holistic and integrated way. They need to be interconnected, adaptive, and embodied in everything that occurs in the enterprise. It’s not just about “doing” business differently. It’s about "being" a different kind of business, that is often a lot more profitable.

The 21 Principles Of The Value Creating Firm (list, including)

• Right mindset: creating value for others, not just making profits.
• Right goal: creating more value for customers, not merely becoming more efficient by cutting costs,

Why tackle them now? For many businesses, there’s no other choice: the world has changed. Firms that don’t draw on the talents of their staff to create value for customers will find it hard to compete.

Value-Creating Firms Often Make More Money

The key insight: value-creating enterprises not only satisfy customers: they make much more money than firms focused on making money. Workplaces devoted to creating value for customers are also more likely to be more meaningful workplaces.

We also need see through the inevitable noise that occurs in capitalist economies when new technology arrives and previously successful firms don't make the necessary shifts to implement the new technology and are displaced.