Positive Deviance

The death of Steve Jobs sure got people thinking. Here was a man who seemed to represent all the qualities people admire in a leader (plus a few things they dislike). His passing prompted fascinating debates, on hbr.org and elsewhere, about everything from the role of the CEO, to the art of innovation, to the perils of succession, to the very purpose of a corporation. Many commenters concluded that Jobs was the ideal CEO: He led by instinct and vision, built a strong team around him, was a powerful and effective public face of his company, and produced strong earnings. A scientific ranking of the world’s best CEOs based on total shareholder return over their tenures, by Morten Hansen, Herminia Ibarra, and Urs Peyer (HBR, January–February 2010), concluded that Jobs was, objectively speaking, the world’s number one CEO. An October update from the authors on hbr.org showed that during Jobs’s reign at Apple from 1997 until his death, he delivered an industry-adjusted TSR of 6,621% (and a country-adjusted return of 6,682%). Apple’s market capitalization increased during that period by $341.5 billion. Amazing. The visionary CEO model is not, however, the only recipe for success. Gary Hamel returns to HBR’s pages this month with a provocative piece on a company that has thrived despite having no managers at all. His “First, Let’s Fire All the Managers” describes how California-based Morning Star, the world’s largest tomato-processing company, has, by essentially tossing out the org chart, avoided the problems that arise at management-heavy organizations. Everyone shares the work of management. There are no centrally defined roles. Employees at any level can take the initiative, and they’re held accountable. Morning Star is a private company, and its financial results aren’t publicly available. But it says that over the past 20 years its volumes, revenues, and profits have grown by double digits—in an industry where annual growth averages 1%. Hamel writes, “Morning Star is a ‘positive deviant’; indeed, it’s one of the most delightfully unusual companies I’ve come across.” There are many paths to success. Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief

Positive Deviance

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