A CPA program on Management History from my friends at McDevitt & Kline

The Power of Management History

When:  February 21st, 2014, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST

Where:  Temple University Fort Washington, Pennsylvania or Via Live Webcast 

Credits:  8 CPE or 7 CLE

Cost:  $150

Presenter:  Dr. Stan Ridgley

This course presents a cavalcade of managerial thought leaders, from Hammurabi in the 21th century BC, to Confucius, to Sun Tzu, to India’s Kautilya.  The contributions of the ancient Greeks is examined, for few know that Aristotle clearly expressed the utility of the division of labor many centuries before it became identified with Adam Smith.  The ancient Romans laid the foundation for the structure of the modern enterprise.

Management thought withered during the medieval era with the ascendance of the feudal system.  The guilds and of the domestic system in feudal times show us that many other forms of organized production have been attempted and eventually discarded for sound reasons.   The renaissance, made possible by business and commerce, brought a flowering of new thinking about productivity and how resources should be aggregated and managed.  The Industrial Revolution brought the beginnings of the modern large enterprise – the notion that people ought to gather in one place to work.  This seems self-evident now, but prior to the industrial revolution, guilds and the “domestic economic system” dominated production.

We trace the path of ideas from their conception in the past, their development and evolution over time, and their implementation in modern form in the enterprise we know today as the multi-national corporation.  Throughout, we focus on the growth of management as a profession with an accepted body of thought, and the emergence of the “manager” as a professional class of occupation. 

We look at the great innovators in history, the people and ideas that shaped how we do business – Andrew Carnegie, Frederick W. Taylor, Henri Fayol, Peter Drucker, Alfred Sloan, Michael Porter, Gary Hamel, Steve Jobs, Andrew Grove, Bill Gates.

Course Objectives

-      Deep knowledge of managerial techniques – how they emerged and why we use them;

-      Appreciation of the role of manager in creating the wealth of society;

-      Understanding of the processes and factors of causation involved in cultural, political, economic, and societal change;

-      Recognition of the new and the old in modern managerial thought so as to distinguish between management fads and true innovation.

To “think outside of the box,” we must first know our box and know it well.  Management history is our box that provides a powerful contextual framework within which we may make prudent managerial decisions today and tomorrow.

The Presenter

Dr. Ridgley is Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and International Business at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He holds a Doctorate and Masters in International Relations from Duke University and an International MBA from Temple University. He has also studied at Moscow State University and the Institut de Gestion Sociale in Paris. Dr. Ridgley is a former Military Intelligence Officer and served five years in West Berlin and near the Czech-German border, where he received the George S. Patton Award for Leadership from the 7th Army Academy in Bad Toelz, West Germany.

Register today at www.ceworkshops.com or by calling Tom McDevitt at 215-990-0781.