While in a crisis the natural reaction of senior

management is to centralize, to decide quickly and

to impose solutions.... under normal conditions se-
nior managers should make fewer decisions about
the business itself and spend that time focused on
creating conditions in which other people within the
company can make good decisions about the busi-
ness.

Arie De Geus*
* former Royal Dutch Shell Group Planning Coordinator and author of
The Living Company (Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business)