New Management Method: High School Science Club Wants to Run the School District

December 8, 2021

I love those confident, ever youthful, and oh-so enthusiastic high school science club members. Many of these individuals maintain their youthful insights into adulthood. In the after life, maybe these imbibers of the fountain of youth-type thinking are in charge. Milton, bless his poetic soul, learned that blind poets are best left to menial duties. Are there Augean stables in heaven? Nope, just techno-wizards.

I read “CTO to CEO: The Case for Putting the Tech Expert in Charge.” After an incident of Dorseying, Twitter has a new captain at the helm. The article is interesting because the author uses the Twitter appointment of Parag Agrawal as the start of a new management trend.

Here’s an example:

CTOs are increasingly being groomed by corporate boards as part of their CEO succession planning, according to Ash Athawale, senior managing director for Robert Half’s executive search division. Athawale told Protocol that he’s witnessed an increase in attention towards technology leaders as potential future chief executives. The reason? Tech is now central to core business functions across all industries…

Logical, no? A technology centric CEO at Twitter is just the ticket.

And what have technology capable adults with a history in their secondary schools’ science clubs wrought?

Here are a handful of examples:

Twitter and its unique ability to provide left and right coasters with a platform to direct their thoughts at those who kick back and enjoy a filter bubble equipped with a one click response mechanism.
Facebook and its remarkable impact on social constructs, including vulnerable people who have their self worth inflated or crushed in a mouse click
The wonderful world of online advertising which introduced the concept of zero privacy to the world
Amazon and its race with Walmart to reduce small businesses to delivery drop off points

There are other examples of what happens when tech-savvy folks run giant companies with money generating feedback mechanisms.

My hunch is that the ideal manager is not likely to be as well received as individuals with a slightly different profile.

Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2021

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Management, News, Social Media

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.