Learning about Management from Television

You can learn a great deal about the nature of management by watching the careers of various television personalities.

A late-night television program needs a host. Management considers a few alternatives and makes what it thinks is a safe and workable choice. There is no pretense that the person selected is the best choice. Best is seen as an elusive quality not sought by practical people. Reasonably good is the criterion.

The person goes to work and, in some notable cases, doesn't exactly set the airways on fire. But is the star replaced? No way. To do so would be to admit a mistake. The person is kept on in a job that pays millions of dollars a year because management tells itself the host is"good enough" and that is acceptable. The execs also believe that replacing the person would be too disruptive - perhaps even to their own careers - and the successor might not be that big an improvement.

Since such jobs once were held by true talents, one can wonder how and why the vetting process was readjusted to reward mediocrity. Was it one sloppy decision maker or was the problem systemic?