25.        Is the most effective management approach to hire the best people, then to give
them as much autonomy as possible to serve the firm's goals? This strategy would
certainly enhance an employee's sense of involvement, purpose and personal worth. It
would also benefit the firm by encouraging employees to work creatively and
productively. But the strategy requires two constraints to operative effectively.
      First, the strategy must be constrained .by strong leadership that provides clear
vision and direction. Simply putting the most capable people together, and letting them
loose on projects will provide neither. Thinking so involves the mistaken assumption
that just because the parts of a whole are good, the collection of the parts into a whole
will be equally good. Business organizations are more than just the sums of their
excellent parts; to be similarly excellent, the organization must also be unified and
cohesive. And it is strong and visionary leadership that provides these two ingredients.
      Second, the strategy must be constrained by an organizational structure that brings
all individual efforts together as a coherent whole. Of course, structure can be crippling
heavily layered, overly bureaucratic organizations probably stifle more creative
productivity than they inspire. Still, individuals will be capable at some things and not
others, so some organization of efforts is always called for. The moderate—and perhaps
optimal—approach would be to create a structure that gives individuals some authority
across areas relating to their field of expertise, while reserving final authority for higher-
level managers. For example, no individual in a finance department should have much
authority over a design department. However, within the design department, individual
researchers, artists, drafters, and engineers can all contribute meaningfully to one
another's projects, and a flexible organizational structure would allow them to do so.
      In sum, the advice to hire the best people and give them wide authority requires
modification. Hiring capable people and granting them some concurrent authority
across areas related to their expertise is better advice. Moreover, solid leadership and a
cohesive organizational structure are prerequisites—both are needed to coordinate
individual efforts toward the accomplishment of common goals.