Harvard Business School at the conclave
As the cardinals of the Catholic Church gather today for their papal conclave, it is not at all heretical to consider the challenges facing their organization in business terms. After all, Laura Nash, senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School and co-author of "Church on Sunday, Work on Monday", has said that Pope John Paul II's trademark saying "Be not afraid!" should be adopted by more managers as it might give them the courage to carry out their missions. So, the precedent is there.
Flicking through the JP II case study, we can say that the late pontiff was the master of "Management by Walking About" — 104 international journeys totalling 31 times the circumference of the earth. He was closer to his customers, er, congregation than any of his predecessors in the past two millennia and by adding a quarter of a billion new "clients" to the "firm" during his term in office, he deserves to be ranked as one of the greatest marketers and product managers of all time.
The election of John Paul was a bold move but it paid off, so the MBA advice for those charged with choosing his successor would be to select an energetic candidate from the developing world. The European market has matured, the North American region is riddled with division, so south of the equator is where the future lies. Latin America and Africa are now home to two-thirds of all Catholics and the billions of India and China beckon. The reality, however, is that John Paul's natural successor is probably labouring in fields far from Rome these days, making it all the more likely that a less than charismatic leader will be picked this week.
Still, mediocre or messianic, the new CEO will be expected to deliver two things: certainty and hope. Certainty because as John Paul demonstrated during his battle with Communism, the Catholic Church is at its most powerful when it sticks to its core message and addresses the fundamental human needs not catered for by materialism. Hope because as FDR, Churchill and JFK demonstrated, all great leaders reassure and inspire. Seeing that today's shoddy politicians can't do either, it falls to the lot of the cardinals in conclave to fill the gap in the market.
PS: For all those who have written to say that Rainy Day has erred on the side of the hagiographic when it comes to this pontificate, here's Andrew Sullivan's extremely critical and largely negative appraisal of Super-Star John Paul II.
