Back in 1982, one of the best-selling books ever dedicated to management was published –”In search of excellence”. The book has become an integral part of every important education of managers. However, something was wrong with the philosophy the book advocated, because we can easily notice that most of the biggest companies of that time no longer exist.

The driving mechanism of business were the goals that were cascaded from the top of the pyramid downwards. Business mantra was the concept that no matter what you do, you must always have a goal. In practice, you always had to know: where you are now, where you want / have to be, how you will do it and what will happen if you do not get to where you wanted to be. This way of work, at least in theory, sounded reasonable and safe.

However, in the meantime the world has changed, so when Queen Elizabeth in 2008 at the beginning of the global economic crisis, asked economists why the crisis occurred and why they haven’t predicted it, no one could provide a meaningful answer.

The world went from a system of relative order to a phase of great chaos. Those companies that relied less on theoretical rules and more on common sense and reasoning in everyday market changes survived. The fact that market is constantly changing has become a constant.

This tsunami, which “cleaned up” many companies and many professions, forced participants to slow down and take a good look at the world around them. A big change in the market also requires a change in the way we do business. Obviously, a paradigm change is needed when it comes to decision making. Instead of a top-down hierarchy of goals, we may need to think in a “bottom-up” direction in which employees are actively involved in decision-making as well as in their implementation. Then we come to a new mantra in business that we could name “my child”, which increases motivation and satisfaction of employees, because employees like to make decisions and feel responsible for their decisions! It is evident that freedom of decision-making at any level in a company must have a certain pre-defined framework based on regulations, company procedures, general strategy, code of conduct…It is clear that (legitimate) ethics will play an increasingly important role in forthcoming business, as well as (unhypocritical) social responsibility of companies and employees.