- Email: [email protected]
The Salzburg sound of management
Industrial E.V.A.F.,
Marketing Management London and Elsevier Publishing
THE SALZBURG
Company,
Amsterdam
SOUND
- Printed
in the Netherlands
OF
MANAGEMENT* Robert
Kirk
Mueller
SUMMARY
To many, Salzburg is correctly identified with Mozart and music festivals. To an increasing number of Europeans, it is also the scene of an exciting experiment in management education. Started shortly after World War II, the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies was organised as a
INTRODUCTION
Long famous for its music and marionetten, Salzburg has recently added a third “m” to this idyllic Austrian setting-management. The buzzing of managers from the United States and Eastern and Western Europe sometimes creates a cacophony as old and new concepts of management theory and practice are argued between faculty and Fellows, between nationals and internationals, between capitalists and socialists, and between practitioners and professors. The place is the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies at Schloss Leopoldskron, a castle now designated a national monument by the Austrian Government. Built in 1736 by the Archbishop of Salzburg as a private summer residence, the Schloss in 1919 became the property of Max Reinhardt, a famous German theatrical producer, who restored the castle and transformed it into a mecca for artists, actors and intellectuals. Between the two World Wars, Schloss Leopoldskron, lighted by thousands of candles on special occasions, became the center of a glittering society. During World War II, local legend has it that Hitler and Mussolini met in what is now a reading room of the library, an exact copy of the ornate library of the monastery of St. Gallen Ind. Mark.
Manage.,
2 (1972)
forum for the interchange of European and U.S. intellectual thought. In 1968, management studies became part of the curriculum. Robert Kirk Mueller, a pioneer Faculty Member for Management Studies in the 1970 Salzburg Seminar, describes here his impressions of the ambiance provided by Schloss Leopoldskron and the activities it houses.
in Switzerland. That library is now a major resource of this educational center and contains 13,000 volumes in English-probably the best library on U.S. affairs to be found anywhere in Central Europe. The castle grounds, including an outdoor Grecian-style theater, were part of the setting for the movie “The Sound of Music”. Since 1947, the Seminar, financed by foundations, corporations and individual contributions, has offered six three- or four-week sessions a year, each on a different subject: U.S. Law and Legal Institutions, Mass Communications in the United States, The U.S. Economy, U.S. Foreign Policy, Theater and the Arts, Science, Literature, Humanities and the like. Only a few years ago was the subject of Management recognized as a topic worthy of a special session in the curricula. Sharing the Salzburg experience with the faculty are the Fellows, both men and women, who are selected because they give promise of becoming leaders in their profession. The essential ingredients for the Seminar’s success are deliberate and careful selection of the participants, predominantly Euro* Reprinted with kind permission from the March-April 1971 issue of the Columbia Journal of World Business. Copyright @ 1971 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. 181
Schloss Leopoldskron,
pean. These candidates are interviewed personally in advance by Seminar personnel who crisscross Europe to talk to employers, educators, and former Fellows in an intensive hunt for the finest “students”. Those participating in the 1970 American Management Seminar were from 20 countries and were, on the average, 38 years old (the average age of all past Fellows has been 34). Relationships between faculty and Fellows develop through living, dining and working together at the Schloss. The atmosphere established by the Old World charm of the castle and its beautiful setting is augmented by the 23-year-old tradition that teachers become learners, and the learnets teachers. Tradition demands an unrelenting search for fact, followed by frank but impassioned interchange of opinions about those facts. The formal program is in English and consists of 40 to 50 lectures a session, plus lengthy afternoon meetings with a faculty of four to eight specially qualified lecturers and discussion leaders. While the Seminar is primarily an intellectual exercise, the personal and emotional component has been rich. The Fellows’ regard for the Seminar has been demonstrated at reunions held at the Schloss for alumni from the 1968 sessions in Urban Planning, Technology and Law. In 1970, the first reunion of the 1968 and 1969 Management sessions was held. The popularity of the Management sessions is 182
Salzburg.
shown by the fact that the admissions quota is quickly filled for each session; nearly 75 % of the applicants come at the urging of former Fellows. Seminar records show that there have been more applicants for Management than for any other field. Although Management has been a separate topic in the Salzburg program for only three experimental years, it may not be too early to begin to draw some conclusions from the experience. The implications of the interchanges between the faculty and 145 nationals of 22 countries are interesting. The fervor and hardworking tempo of these seminars indicates that a new force-a new sound of management-is making itself heard and is to be reckoned with in management education at Salzburg. THE NEW MANAGERS
Emerging in Europe is a new generation of managers whose attitudes are fundamentally differ-
Robert Kirk Mueller is a director of Arthur D. Little LTD/AG., London and Brussels, a director and executive committee member of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and director of Bay State Corporation.
I&. Mark. Manage., 2 (1972)
ent from those of the older men who still wield so much power. Institutions for management education are cropping up in both careful and improvised ways in an attempt to fill the insatiable demand by managers (in industry, government and universities) to catch up on the newer theories and practices of management. Management education is probably the fastest growing field of study in Europe. One of the most striking characteristics of the European management scene is that most top executives of leading institutions have had extensive professional education. However, many of these top managers have been educated in a system designed to train civil servants and not businessmen. For example, one of the most prestigious of the grandes 6coles, the French professional schools of the highest status, has been oriented toward training civil servants, the military and future teachers. Entrance into the grands corps of the civil service is on the basis of competitive examination. According to recent analysis the system is made even more highly competitive by the peaking of the educational pyramid, the top schools offering the best chance of placement in the prestigious grands corps of small enrollments. The Ecole Polytechnique, primus inter pares of the grandes hcoles, was established by Napoleon and very early was graduating 200 men a year. However, with the passing of 150 years, the civil service has grown more than tenfold, while the enrollment of the Polytechnique has been enlarged by only 50%. It is common for an alumnus of the Polytechnique to go from civil service to a top managerial job, often at the vice president level, as a potential if not actual member of top management. A survey disclosed that within the 50 largest French companies at least 1200 engineers in middle or top management were from one school alone. Twenty-three of these 50 companies had a graduate of Polytechnique as chairman or president, or both, and another 15 had at least one graduate among the vice presidents. Yet the most obvious fact about this type of professional training for top management is that it has had remarkably little relevance for a career in industry. INFLUENCES
In recent years, at least four significant influences have affected the development of European industry. The personal, religious and national cultural values of the various nations have engendered a relatively low esteem for profits and competitive behavior as Znd. Mark.
Manage.,
2 (1972)
it is known in the United States. The professional training system has been oriented toward training an elite mostly in theoretical subject matter largely irrelevant to the professional and practical tasks to be performed by most graduates. Until the impact of the Common Market, there existed a sequestered economic atmosphere where protection from foreign and domestic competition permitted many European companies a life-style well removed from the rigors of the free marketplace. Finally, the great increase in communications in the government, business, educational and scientific fields has made those in responsible positions much more aware of economic, political and intellectual trends and incidents around the world. By the mid-Sixties, it was clear that certain key environmental influences were undergoing rapid change. With the Common Market frontiers allowing more vigorous competition, various value systems were and are being reassessed. Education for future business leaders has appeared relatively unaffected until recently, and the educational systems have generally lagged behind the other developments -perhaps even behind business itself. While the underlying causes of change include the inexorable progress of technology and the increasing tempo of international competition, European government commitments to embrace the competitive discipline of the modern industrial world is a key factor which creates the growing demand for more realistic management education. Interestingly, in France this commitment was sparked not so much by business and civil service, for example, as by political leadership at the highest level. As of the end of 1970, the management education movement in Europe had not yet experienced the full impact of the slowdown in the “management education business” which took place in the United States with the arrival of a lethargic economy.The popularity of management education has spawned an incredibly large number of activities and organizations, particularly in Europe during the last several years. An outstanding example is the program developed by the Royal/Dutch Shell group, who train their senior managers for almost six weeks in a special course designed to allow them to step out of their routine and broaden their outlook by becoming familiar with managerial skills and techniques. Started three years ago, the course is now repeated four times a year, and Shell is putting 200 highranking executives through this wide-ranging exer183
cise. It has been so successful that Shell will soon widen exposure to 400 executives in the next layers of management. When the world’s fourth largest corporation runs such a course to broaden its managers’ viewpoints, this is indicative of the trend to in-house management education. Shell is not the first by any means to start a massive program either in Europe or in the United States. However, it is outstanding in the European scene. The importance Shell places on its executives to learn about social and behavioral sciences, sensitivity training and economics is significant. Participating in these courses are not only Shell executives but executives from government and other firms, who contribute a broader perspective than would be possible if participants were limited to company personnel. It is fair to say that the atmosphere concerning management education in Europe, if not the basic situation, changed abruptly with the publication of Le D&i Americrrin, written by Jean-Jacques ServanSchreiber, the French journalist, magazine publisher and-more recently-politician. Published in 1967, Servan-Schreiber’s book sold more copies in France than any other book published since 1945. The shock across Europe initiated by Le D&i and the “gap” publicity produced a reaction in many quarters, including those responsible for the activities at the Schloss Leopoldskron. INCREASING
INTEREST
Because the original gap story was over-publicized, some observers believe that subsequent reactions have been excessive. Nevertheless, it was in the next year, 1968, that Salzburg Seminar introduced its first session on management. In the three-year existence of this course, it has proved to be one of the most popular and difficult to get into of all the Salzburg seminars. U.S. management is a moving target. It thrives in an environment with a competitive intensiveness which Europeans have not yet and may never experience to the same degree, or even want to experience. However, there is a sufficient increase in the competitive atmosphere and an awareness of the values attainable from improved abilities to conclude that European management has at last awakened from its past lethargy. Salzburg Fellows in management have reflected their increasing dissatisfaction with old methods, declining margins and return on investments and, further, evidenced excitement at the prospects held out by modern management concepts and practices. 184
It is in this open atmosphere that the Salzburg Seminar in American Management finds ready acceptance. The Salzburg Seminars are not alone in this awakening of interest in management education. The European Association of Management Training Centres, which embraces 40 centers in 13 European countries, indicates that the number of those attending high-level courses rose from 4,500 in 1965 to roughly double that in 1969. In addition, there is hardly a large European company nowadays that does not have its in-house management education program of some sort. The development of some of the business schools in Europe is, according to the Economist, correspondingly high. The London Graduate School of Business Studies, one of Europe’s most prestigious, started in 1968 and now has approximately 160 students. Next year it will have approximately 350, and probably that number will be in the 700’s in four years. In France, INSEAD (Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires) has 530 participants compared with 183 in 1967. The Swiss Centre d’Etudes Industrielles is up to 200 this year. In Spain, the IESE (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa) increased 100 7: in the last three years to 300 students. In Italy, ISIDA (Instituto Superiore per Imprenditori e Dirigenti d’Azienda) has doubled in the last three years. The Management Center Europe noted a sharp increase in its students after the publication of Servan-Schreiber’s book. Management education on a large scale simply hasn’t existed in Europe long enough for anyone to evaluate the impact or the value of this education. While companies may be eager to have business graduates, like computers, it has not been easy to fit them into existing organizations. This will change with time as the graduates begin to find their way into the hierarchy of European firms. The glamor of management and management education is attracting men who wouldn’t have thought of entering business five years ago. Traditionally in Europe, the best-connected young men have gone into the professions, civil service or finance; trade was considered a sordid area according to the Economist. The business of making money and profit is still a relatively abhorrent idea to many Europeans, but this feeling is diminishing, as evidenced in the overtones of the 1970 Seminal. The Salzburg Seminar has throughout its history including management, in emphasized subjects, which Europeans thought they had something to Ind. Mark.
Manage.,
2 (1972)
learn from U.S. experience and expertise. The topics Urban Planning and American Management have been fields in which Europeans in recent years have looked to the United States for both theoretical and practical leadership. Topics such as U.S. History and Politics have recently moved to a back burner. In the 1968 session on Management an effort was made to give an understanding of forces and factors that make the U.S. economy dynamic and the reasons why some enterprises are more dynamic than others. The U.S. milieu was described, and seminar-style discussions were held about the applicability of these factors and forces on the European scene. The seminars have become less a one-way street with American teachers confronting European students to more of a setting for the exchange of ideas and experiences. As one British executive put it after the 1970 Management seminar, “I would also support the dropping of the word ‘American’ from the course title, not for a nationalistic reason but because the course is essentially a personally motivated experience which depends more on the participants than on the leadership of America in the field of management”. SOCIALIST
PARTICIPATION
During 1966, the Seminar introduced a significant change by attracting participants from the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. While there had been some limited participation from Czechoslovakia and Poland in the early days, the Cold War abruptly ended even that token representation. With the lessening of East-West tensions, an effort was made in 1966 to recruit more participants from the Eastern areas. As a result, each Seminar now has a contingent of 8 to 10 representatives from Eastern Europe, which adds an intriguing dimension to the discussions. Certainly this was true in the 1970 seminar in American Management. Another interesting trend is that the Fellows currently reflect a more European type of thought as contrasted to former sharply delineated nationalistic views, and it is quite apparent that Fellows from Western Europe have an obvious desire to exchange views and experiences with those from the East, and vice versa. Indeed, as the group lives together for three weeks, the surface niceties wear off and people find that some of the classic animosities are fairly close to the surface. Curiously, this is not so much the case between East and West as between Ind. Mark. Manage.,
2 (1972)
the various Western European countries. Nationalism, however, remains a strong force in the European community. This would seem to emphasize the need for more seminars for men and women from all countries who have a common interest in learning successful business techniques and relationships. Whenever the present theories about the future impact on governments of the so-called multinational corporations run into realistic national interests and politics, the nationalism dictated by traditional thought is likely to win for some time to come. This will be true especially in the highly industrialized nations. But it will be the participants of the Salzburg Seminar of the last three years and others to come who will be the top executives of the next institutional generation. Judging from the conduct and features of the 1970 session, this presents an encouraging prospect for the future of European management as well as the anticipation that the multinational corporations will receive favorable acceptance from these Fellows who have examined its implications and who have developed friendships at the Schloss. The Seminar has zealously maintained its reputation as an institution dedicated only to the tradition of free inquiry. All discussions continue to be off the record, and no attempt is made to reach a consensus or conclusion. More importantly, the Seminar is not a vehicle to sell the United States to Europeans. The faculty members use their U.S. experiences for a point of departure, but their comments are candid and objective, and the faculty does not come prepared with a common line or position on issues under discussion. The preliminary curriculum-planning meetings for the 1970 session consisted of two short meetings to allow the faculty members to indicate the subject material to be covered so that there would be no duplication, but no attempt was made to impose any theme or position. It was interesting to find that perhaps the most vehement and sparkling argumentation in 1970 was among U.S. faculty members, particularly between those from academe and those from business. These clashes of opinions elicited enthusiastic response from the Fellows who soon felt free to participate person-to-person, faculty-to-Fellow, in free-swinging intellectual discourse on the controversial subjects that make up the matrix of management knowhow. There will and should be a continued progression 185
of the Salzburg curriculum as it deals with the everchanging and developing field of management education. Parallel with the advantages of sophisticated management education is the ever-present accomplishment of the Salzburg staff in bringing into contact and establishing a personal relationship between the Europeans, other international executives and the Americans, and among the Europeans. The Salzburg Seminar in American Studies will keep tempo or lead these trends in management education, with the added advantage of its unique character. It would be hard to find a more ideal ambiance. The music at Schloss Leopoldskron today is like a concerto, with the Schloss, Fellows and Faculty as individual instruments standing out in bold relief against the orchestration of the Salzburg Sound of Management. RhUM6
Le Son de la Gestion des Entreprises
ri Salzburg
Salzburg, pour beaucoup de personnes s’identifie avec justesse a Mozart et aux festivals de musique. Par contre, pour un nombre croissant d’Europtens, elle est aussi la scene d’une experience passionnante dans les etudes de gestion des entreprises. Commence peu apres la deuxieme guerre mondiale, le Groupe pour les Etudes americaines Q
186
Salzburg s’est Ctabli comme centre pour la communication de reflexion intellectuelle europtenne et amtricaine. Des 1968 les etudes de la gestion ont fait partie du programme. Robert Kirk Mueller, membre pionnier de la Faculte des Etudes de la Gestion des Entreprises dans le groupe de Salzburg de 1970, decrit ici ses impressions de l’ambiance qu’on trouve au Schloss Leopoldskron et des activites qu’il contient. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Der Salzburger
Ton der Verwaltung
Fur viele ist Salzburg gleichbedeutend mit Mozart und Musikfestspielen. Fur eine standig steigende Zahl von Europlern ist es aber such der Ort eines interessanten Versuchs der Management-Ausbildung. Kurz nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg begann das Salzburger Seminar fiir amerikanische Studien als Forum fur den Austausch von europaischen und amerikanischen Intellektuellen Ideen zu organisieren. Im Jahre 1968 wurden die ManagementStudien Bestandteil der Seminare. Robert Kirk Mueller, einer der ersten Mitglieder der Fakultat fur Management-Studien am Salzburger Seminar im Jahre 1970 beschreibt hier seine Eindriicke des Schlosses Leopoldskron und die Aktivitaten seiner Hauser.
Id.
Mark. Manage.,
2 (1972)
Marketing Management London and Elsevier Publishing
THE SALZBURG
Company,
Amsterdam
SOUND
- Printed
in the Netherlands
OF
MANAGEMENT* Robert
Kirk
Mueller
SUMMARY
To many, Salzburg is correctly identified with Mozart and music festivals. To an increasing number of Europeans, it is also the scene of an exciting experiment in management education. Started shortly after World War II, the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies was organised as a
INTRODUCTION
Long famous for its music and marionetten, Salzburg has recently added a third “m” to this idyllic Austrian setting-management. The buzzing of managers from the United States and Eastern and Western Europe sometimes creates a cacophony as old and new concepts of management theory and practice are argued between faculty and Fellows, between nationals and internationals, between capitalists and socialists, and between practitioners and professors. The place is the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies at Schloss Leopoldskron, a castle now designated a national monument by the Austrian Government. Built in 1736 by the Archbishop of Salzburg as a private summer residence, the Schloss in 1919 became the property of Max Reinhardt, a famous German theatrical producer, who restored the castle and transformed it into a mecca for artists, actors and intellectuals. Between the two World Wars, Schloss Leopoldskron, lighted by thousands of candles on special occasions, became the center of a glittering society. During World War II, local legend has it that Hitler and Mussolini met in what is now a reading room of the library, an exact copy of the ornate library of the monastery of St. Gallen Ind. Mark.
Manage.,
2 (1972)
forum for the interchange of European and U.S. intellectual thought. In 1968, management studies became part of the curriculum. Robert Kirk Mueller, a pioneer Faculty Member for Management Studies in the 1970 Salzburg Seminar, describes here his impressions of the ambiance provided by Schloss Leopoldskron and the activities it houses.
in Switzerland. That library is now a major resource of this educational center and contains 13,000 volumes in English-probably the best library on U.S. affairs to be found anywhere in Central Europe. The castle grounds, including an outdoor Grecian-style theater, were part of the setting for the movie “The Sound of Music”. Since 1947, the Seminar, financed by foundations, corporations and individual contributions, has offered six three- or four-week sessions a year, each on a different subject: U.S. Law and Legal Institutions, Mass Communications in the United States, The U.S. Economy, U.S. Foreign Policy, Theater and the Arts, Science, Literature, Humanities and the like. Only a few years ago was the subject of Management recognized as a topic worthy of a special session in the curricula. Sharing the Salzburg experience with the faculty are the Fellows, both men and women, who are selected because they give promise of becoming leaders in their profession. The essential ingredients for the Seminar’s success are deliberate and careful selection of the participants, predominantly Euro* Reprinted with kind permission from the March-April 1971 issue of the Columbia Journal of World Business. Copyright @ 1971 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York. 181
Schloss Leopoldskron,
pean. These candidates are interviewed personally in advance by Seminar personnel who crisscross Europe to talk to employers, educators, and former Fellows in an intensive hunt for the finest “students”. Those participating in the 1970 American Management Seminar were from 20 countries and were, on the average, 38 years old (the average age of all past Fellows has been 34). Relationships between faculty and Fellows develop through living, dining and working together at the Schloss. The atmosphere established by the Old World charm of the castle and its beautiful setting is augmented by the 23-year-old tradition that teachers become learners, and the learnets teachers. Tradition demands an unrelenting search for fact, followed by frank but impassioned interchange of opinions about those facts. The formal program is in English and consists of 40 to 50 lectures a session, plus lengthy afternoon meetings with a faculty of four to eight specially qualified lecturers and discussion leaders. While the Seminar is primarily an intellectual exercise, the personal and emotional component has been rich. The Fellows’ regard for the Seminar has been demonstrated at reunions held at the Schloss for alumni from the 1968 sessions in Urban Planning, Technology and Law. In 1970, the first reunion of the 1968 and 1969 Management sessions was held. The popularity of the Management sessions is 182
Salzburg.
shown by the fact that the admissions quota is quickly filled for each session; nearly 75 % of the applicants come at the urging of former Fellows. Seminar records show that there have been more applicants for Management than for any other field. Although Management has been a separate topic in the Salzburg program for only three experimental years, it may not be too early to begin to draw some conclusions from the experience. The implications of the interchanges between the faculty and 145 nationals of 22 countries are interesting. The fervor and hardworking tempo of these seminars indicates that a new force-a new sound of management-is making itself heard and is to be reckoned with in management education at Salzburg. THE NEW MANAGERS
Emerging in Europe is a new generation of managers whose attitudes are fundamentally differ-
Robert Kirk Mueller is a director of Arthur D. Little LTD/AG., London and Brussels, a director and executive committee member of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and director of Bay State Corporation.
I&. Mark. Manage., 2 (1972)
ent from those of the older men who still wield so much power. Institutions for management education are cropping up in both careful and improvised ways in an attempt to fill the insatiable demand by managers (in industry, government and universities) to catch up on the newer theories and practices of management. Management education is probably the fastest growing field of study in Europe. One of the most striking characteristics of the European management scene is that most top executives of leading institutions have had extensive professional education. However, many of these top managers have been educated in a system designed to train civil servants and not businessmen. For example, one of the most prestigious of the grandes 6coles, the French professional schools of the highest status, has been oriented toward training civil servants, the military and future teachers. Entrance into the grands corps of the civil service is on the basis of competitive examination. According to recent analysis the system is made even more highly competitive by the peaking of the educational pyramid, the top schools offering the best chance of placement in the prestigious grands corps of small enrollments. The Ecole Polytechnique, primus inter pares of the grandes hcoles, was established by Napoleon and very early was graduating 200 men a year. However, with the passing of 150 years, the civil service has grown more than tenfold, while the enrollment of the Polytechnique has been enlarged by only 50%. It is common for an alumnus of the Polytechnique to go from civil service to a top managerial job, often at the vice president level, as a potential if not actual member of top management. A survey disclosed that within the 50 largest French companies at least 1200 engineers in middle or top management were from one school alone. Twenty-three of these 50 companies had a graduate of Polytechnique as chairman or president, or both, and another 15 had at least one graduate among the vice presidents. Yet the most obvious fact about this type of professional training for top management is that it has had remarkably little relevance for a career in industry. INFLUENCES
In recent years, at least four significant influences have affected the development of European industry. The personal, religious and national cultural values of the various nations have engendered a relatively low esteem for profits and competitive behavior as Znd. Mark.
Manage.,
2 (1972)
it is known in the United States. The professional training system has been oriented toward training an elite mostly in theoretical subject matter largely irrelevant to the professional and practical tasks to be performed by most graduates. Until the impact of the Common Market, there existed a sequestered economic atmosphere where protection from foreign and domestic competition permitted many European companies a life-style well removed from the rigors of the free marketplace. Finally, the great increase in communications in the government, business, educational and scientific fields has made those in responsible positions much more aware of economic, political and intellectual trends and incidents around the world. By the mid-Sixties, it was clear that certain key environmental influences were undergoing rapid change. With the Common Market frontiers allowing more vigorous competition, various value systems were and are being reassessed. Education for future business leaders has appeared relatively unaffected until recently, and the educational systems have generally lagged behind the other developments -perhaps even behind business itself. While the underlying causes of change include the inexorable progress of technology and the increasing tempo of international competition, European government commitments to embrace the competitive discipline of the modern industrial world is a key factor which creates the growing demand for more realistic management education. Interestingly, in France this commitment was sparked not so much by business and civil service, for example, as by political leadership at the highest level. As of the end of 1970, the management education movement in Europe had not yet experienced the full impact of the slowdown in the “management education business” which took place in the United States with the arrival of a lethargic economy.The popularity of management education has spawned an incredibly large number of activities and organizations, particularly in Europe during the last several years. An outstanding example is the program developed by the Royal/Dutch Shell group, who train their senior managers for almost six weeks in a special course designed to allow them to step out of their routine and broaden their outlook by becoming familiar with managerial skills and techniques. Started three years ago, the course is now repeated four times a year, and Shell is putting 200 highranking executives through this wide-ranging exer183
cise. It has been so successful that Shell will soon widen exposure to 400 executives in the next layers of management. When the world’s fourth largest corporation runs such a course to broaden its managers’ viewpoints, this is indicative of the trend to in-house management education. Shell is not the first by any means to start a massive program either in Europe or in the United States. However, it is outstanding in the European scene. The importance Shell places on its executives to learn about social and behavioral sciences, sensitivity training and economics is significant. Participating in these courses are not only Shell executives but executives from government and other firms, who contribute a broader perspective than would be possible if participants were limited to company personnel. It is fair to say that the atmosphere concerning management education in Europe, if not the basic situation, changed abruptly with the publication of Le D&i Americrrin, written by Jean-Jacques ServanSchreiber, the French journalist, magazine publisher and-more recently-politician. Published in 1967, Servan-Schreiber’s book sold more copies in France than any other book published since 1945. The shock across Europe initiated by Le D&i and the “gap” publicity produced a reaction in many quarters, including those responsible for the activities at the Schloss Leopoldskron. INCREASING
INTEREST
Because the original gap story was over-publicized, some observers believe that subsequent reactions have been excessive. Nevertheless, it was in the next year, 1968, that Salzburg Seminar introduced its first session on management. In the three-year existence of this course, it has proved to be one of the most popular and difficult to get into of all the Salzburg seminars. U.S. management is a moving target. It thrives in an environment with a competitive intensiveness which Europeans have not yet and may never experience to the same degree, or even want to experience. However, there is a sufficient increase in the competitive atmosphere and an awareness of the values attainable from improved abilities to conclude that European management has at last awakened from its past lethargy. Salzburg Fellows in management have reflected their increasing dissatisfaction with old methods, declining margins and return on investments and, further, evidenced excitement at the prospects held out by modern management concepts and practices. 184
It is in this open atmosphere that the Salzburg Seminar in American Management finds ready acceptance. The Salzburg Seminars are not alone in this awakening of interest in management education. The European Association of Management Training Centres, which embraces 40 centers in 13 European countries, indicates that the number of those attending high-level courses rose from 4,500 in 1965 to roughly double that in 1969. In addition, there is hardly a large European company nowadays that does not have its in-house management education program of some sort. The development of some of the business schools in Europe is, according to the Economist, correspondingly high. The London Graduate School of Business Studies, one of Europe’s most prestigious, started in 1968 and now has approximately 160 students. Next year it will have approximately 350, and probably that number will be in the 700’s in four years. In France, INSEAD (Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires) has 530 participants compared with 183 in 1967. The Swiss Centre d’Etudes Industrielles is up to 200 this year. In Spain, the IESE (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa) increased 100 7: in the last three years to 300 students. In Italy, ISIDA (Instituto Superiore per Imprenditori e Dirigenti d’Azienda) has doubled in the last three years. The Management Center Europe noted a sharp increase in its students after the publication of Servan-Schreiber’s book. Management education on a large scale simply hasn’t existed in Europe long enough for anyone to evaluate the impact or the value of this education. While companies may be eager to have business graduates, like computers, it has not been easy to fit them into existing organizations. This will change with time as the graduates begin to find their way into the hierarchy of European firms. The glamor of management and management education is attracting men who wouldn’t have thought of entering business five years ago. Traditionally in Europe, the best-connected young men have gone into the professions, civil service or finance; trade was considered a sordid area according to the Economist. The business of making money and profit is still a relatively abhorrent idea to many Europeans, but this feeling is diminishing, as evidenced in the overtones of the 1970 Seminal. The Salzburg Seminar has throughout its history including management, in emphasized subjects, which Europeans thought they had something to Ind. Mark.
Manage.,
2 (1972)
learn from U.S. experience and expertise. The topics Urban Planning and American Management have been fields in which Europeans in recent years have looked to the United States for both theoretical and practical leadership. Topics such as U.S. History and Politics have recently moved to a back burner. In the 1968 session on Management an effort was made to give an understanding of forces and factors that make the U.S. economy dynamic and the reasons why some enterprises are more dynamic than others. The U.S. milieu was described, and seminar-style discussions were held about the applicability of these factors and forces on the European scene. The seminars have become less a one-way street with American teachers confronting European students to more of a setting for the exchange of ideas and experiences. As one British executive put it after the 1970 Management seminar, “I would also support the dropping of the word ‘American’ from the course title, not for a nationalistic reason but because the course is essentially a personally motivated experience which depends more on the participants than on the leadership of America in the field of management”. SOCIALIST
PARTICIPATION
During 1966, the Seminar introduced a significant change by attracting participants from the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. While there had been some limited participation from Czechoslovakia and Poland in the early days, the Cold War abruptly ended even that token representation. With the lessening of East-West tensions, an effort was made in 1966 to recruit more participants from the Eastern areas. As a result, each Seminar now has a contingent of 8 to 10 representatives from Eastern Europe, which adds an intriguing dimension to the discussions. Certainly this was true in the 1970 seminar in American Management. Another interesting trend is that the Fellows currently reflect a more European type of thought as contrasted to former sharply delineated nationalistic views, and it is quite apparent that Fellows from Western Europe have an obvious desire to exchange views and experiences with those from the East, and vice versa. Indeed, as the group lives together for three weeks, the surface niceties wear off and people find that some of the classic animosities are fairly close to the surface. Curiously, this is not so much the case between East and West as between Ind. Mark. Manage.,
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the various Western European countries. Nationalism, however, remains a strong force in the European community. This would seem to emphasize the need for more seminars for men and women from all countries who have a common interest in learning successful business techniques and relationships. Whenever the present theories about the future impact on governments of the so-called multinational corporations run into realistic national interests and politics, the nationalism dictated by traditional thought is likely to win for some time to come. This will be true especially in the highly industrialized nations. But it will be the participants of the Salzburg Seminar of the last three years and others to come who will be the top executives of the next institutional generation. Judging from the conduct and features of the 1970 session, this presents an encouraging prospect for the future of European management as well as the anticipation that the multinational corporations will receive favorable acceptance from these Fellows who have examined its implications and who have developed friendships at the Schloss. The Seminar has zealously maintained its reputation as an institution dedicated only to the tradition of free inquiry. All discussions continue to be off the record, and no attempt is made to reach a consensus or conclusion. More importantly, the Seminar is not a vehicle to sell the United States to Europeans. The faculty members use their U.S. experiences for a point of departure, but their comments are candid and objective, and the faculty does not come prepared with a common line or position on issues under discussion. The preliminary curriculum-planning meetings for the 1970 session consisted of two short meetings to allow the faculty members to indicate the subject material to be covered so that there would be no duplication, but no attempt was made to impose any theme or position. It was interesting to find that perhaps the most vehement and sparkling argumentation in 1970 was among U.S. faculty members, particularly between those from academe and those from business. These clashes of opinions elicited enthusiastic response from the Fellows who soon felt free to participate person-to-person, faculty-to-Fellow, in free-swinging intellectual discourse on the controversial subjects that make up the matrix of management knowhow. There will and should be a continued progression 185
of the Salzburg curriculum as it deals with the everchanging and developing field of management education. Parallel with the advantages of sophisticated management education is the ever-present accomplishment of the Salzburg staff in bringing into contact and establishing a personal relationship between the Europeans, other international executives and the Americans, and among the Europeans. The Salzburg Seminar in American Studies will keep tempo or lead these trends in management education, with the added advantage of its unique character. It would be hard to find a more ideal ambiance. The music at Schloss Leopoldskron today is like a concerto, with the Schloss, Fellows and Faculty as individual instruments standing out in bold relief against the orchestration of the Salzburg Sound of Management. RhUM6
Le Son de la Gestion des Entreprises
ri Salzburg
Salzburg, pour beaucoup de personnes s’identifie avec justesse a Mozart et aux festivals de musique. Par contre, pour un nombre croissant d’Europtens, elle est aussi la scene d’une experience passionnante dans les etudes de gestion des entreprises. Commence peu apres la deuxieme guerre mondiale, le Groupe pour les Etudes americaines Q
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Salzburg s’est Ctabli comme centre pour la communication de reflexion intellectuelle europtenne et amtricaine. Des 1968 les etudes de la gestion ont fait partie du programme. Robert Kirk Mueller, membre pionnier de la Faculte des Etudes de la Gestion des Entreprises dans le groupe de Salzburg de 1970, decrit ici ses impressions de l’ambiance qu’on trouve au Schloss Leopoldskron et des activites qu’il contient. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Der Salzburger
Ton der Verwaltung
Fur viele ist Salzburg gleichbedeutend mit Mozart und Musikfestspielen. Fur eine standig steigende Zahl von Europlern ist es aber such der Ort eines interessanten Versuchs der Management-Ausbildung. Kurz nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg begann das Salzburger Seminar fiir amerikanische Studien als Forum fur den Austausch von europaischen und amerikanischen Intellektuellen Ideen zu organisieren. Im Jahre 1968 wurden die ManagementStudien Bestandteil der Seminare. Robert Kirk Mueller, einer der ersten Mitglieder der Fakultat fur Management-Studien am Salzburger Seminar im Jahre 1970 beschreibt hier seine Eindriicke des Schlosses Leopoldskron und die Aktivitaten seiner Hauser.
Id.
Mark. Manage.,
2 (1972)