【Flyer杀G】小组-7.26 Issue70, by Sean

柏拉图的世界UID: 2581296

70. "In any profession—business, politics, education, government—those in power should step down after five years. The surest path to success for any enterprise is revitalization through new leadership."

No individual or group can keep ahead forever without any revitalization. Specifically to the ones in power of professions, it is more required to abdicate for the beneficial of whole groups since they largely affect the overall performance. Personnel replacement is an indispensable system in some companies, colleges, governments and so forth. However, I object the author’s extreme assertion that this means deserves extending to every enterprise as the surest way. In the following discussion, I would expiate on the necessity of renewal of leadership in different fields, and whether a five year term is favorable.

It is almost axiom that no human being is perfect, and no one makes things right all the time. Due to inveterate inertia, and the tardiness growing with senescence, when somebody has been in charge for too long, he/she is inclined to fall behind the times, which deteriorate his/her qualities. With time going, age growing, knowledge would be out of time, and attitudes would be too much conservative. Such cases are even more conspicuous in today’s information age, in which everything is developing so fast, and fresh concepts, novel techniques spring like mushrooms. A leader’s draggling often leads to obsolescence of the whole team, and then get themselves frozen out. Examples are quite often seen in industries like computer, internet, consulting and so on, which breed intensive competition.

When it comes to the details in implementing replacement, five years may be a right cycle time of power under some conditions, since in a number of countries it is the time limit for terms of office. But whether this is the best for all the professions calls for scrutiny. Industries like previously mentioned computer and internet, five years may be overlong, in light of Moore law. This law demonstrates that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively an integrated circuit would double in about every two years, which implies the extraordinary fantastic speed in such enterprises. And practical treatment, the time limit should be flexible, varying with different periods of environment or enterprises themselves, and emergency sometimes, like Mr. Roosevelt’s three terms of office.

Beside the difficulty in determining time span of one term, a lot of ticklers present in competitions and elections. Questions emerge like who is to answer to selection, what kind of qualification should be taken into account, and harmful consequences like the black-box operation due to vicious competitions. These all compromise the statement that new leadership is the surest way to success, let alone other advisable means, as combination of clear long-term and short-term goals of team, an effective appraisal system, or further professional education of members.

To conclude, new leadership for revitalizing enterprises is necessary, so is a sound interval of replacement. However, questions still exist, regarding the proper cycle time and other harmful consequences an election or investment may invite. In order to consolidate success in one enterprise, hybrid of approaches barring new leadership would play a bigger role.