I spoke with him about career issues. Commitment still matters a great deal in terms of who gets positions of real responsibility at major corporations. It isn't just talent. That having been said, people have seen a significant amount of corporate downsizing. It has had profound consequences.
People come into corporations with a kind of contingent commitment.
In restoring ourselves to full competitiveness, there is a changing concept of how you make decisions, and companies are selling off assets that don't fit for the long haul. That's creating tremendous demand for consulting and investment-banking services, which is fueling the demand for the MBA degree. While we have been going through this long period of adjustment, large organizations haven't been hiring and that opened a significant gap in the internal development pipeline. Previously, a great deal of middle-management activity was to consolidate information, mediate between the levels of the corporate hierarchy and implement business plans. Much of that has been thrown out the window.