38 / CHRONICLESnLetter FromnCorporatenHeadquartersnby Thomas L. MammosernA New Bottom LinenIn his provocative book Ideas HavenConsequences, Richard Weaver offerednsome poignant observations regardingnmodern times. Western man, henwrote, has fallen prey to a “falsifiednpicture” of the world, characterized bynmaterialism and an egotism which assumesnthat “man’s destiny in the worldnis not to perfect himself but to leannback in sensual enjoyment.” Likenspoiled children. Weaver claims, ourngeneration can’t think beyond the limitsnof our own sovereign wills. SociologistnAmitai Etzioni called it the “hollowingnof America”—the widespread,npassionate search for self-fulfillment,nthe egregious preoccupation withn”inner self.”nChristopher Dawson said it earliernand perhaps more forcefully in hisnReligion and the Modern State.n”Never before in the history of thenworld,” he wrote, “has civilizationnbeen so completely secularized, sonconfident in its own powers and sonsufficient to itself as our own.” Henwould have no quarrel with AleksandrnSolzhenitsyn, who in his 1978 Harvardnaddress declared that our moralnpoverty results from the mistake ofn”anthropocentricity . . . with man asnthe center of everything that exists.”nGerhart Niemeyer calls modernntimes “The Age of the AutonomousnMan,” an age when feelings, imagination,nthe subjective, and the will prevail.nHaving dispensed v^/ith norms,nhierarchies, and structures, one nonlonger even asks the question MalcolmnMuggeridge described as the most vitalnCORRESPONDENCEnof our times: “Is God in charge of ournaffairs, or are we?” That issue is settled,na priori.nThe result, Muggeridge notes, is notna happy age, “perhaps particularly fornits greater ostensible beneficiaries. Thenparts of the world where the means ofnhappiness in material and sensualnterms are most plentiful … are alsonthe places where despair, mental sickness,nand other twentieth-century illsnare most in evidence. Sex, fanned bynpublic erotica, underpinned by thenbirth-control pill and legalized abortion,nis a primrose path leading tonsatiety and disgust; the rich are usuallyneither wretched or mad; the successfulnplod relentlessly on to prove to thenworld and to themselves that theirnsuccess is worth having; violence, collectivenand individual, bids fair tondestroy us all and what remains of ourncivilization.” Muggeridge nevernminced words.nProfessor Weaver suggests that thenprice of restoration from our sensualitynand pseudo-self-sufficiency must be tonpush aside the fetish for material wellbeingnand success-at-any-price in favornof a nobler ideal. Today even the deannof a major business school, no foe ofnprosperity, is sympathetic. “I dearlynwish,” said Dean Burton Malkiel ofnthe Yale School of Organization andnManagement recently, “we could getnaway from the notion that it is simplynyour salary that is your scorecard innlife.”nIronically that higher ideal may benfound in a sector of society quite familiarnto Mr. Malkiel. Businesses of everynkind are much enamored these daysnwith a demanding ideal they call “thenpursuit of excellence.” Devotion tonthis pursuit is so widespread as tonqualify as a form of “natural religion”nto which everyone can pay homagenwithout the snickers that accompanyntalk of things divine.nnnBusiness analysts have nearly enshrinednthe pursuit, boardrooms pondernover it, managers can’t get enoughnof it, newspapers carry daily columnsnabout how to achieve it, and booksnabout “the pursuit” sell into the millionsnof copies. The first of these, InnSearch of Excellence, is already wellnover the four million mark, making itnthe Gone With the Wind of its genrenand a best-seller even in college bookstores.nUnfortunately, the pursuit of excellencensuffers from severe deficienciesnas a religion, not the least its potentialnto magnify rather than solve the egocentricitynof our times. Nevertheless,nthe broad acceptance of the ideal suggestsna sweeping power, an enormousnability to inspire and motivate, anninherent “meaningfulness” in an eranso in need of meaning.nThe excellence books point to anrevealing aspect of the world of commerce,nnamely the practical desire tonexcel. Extending and getting beyondnoneself is at the very heart of thenbusiness ethos. And this desire givesnhope of deliverance from the ultimatelynself-defeating absorption with selfnthat lies at the root of our modernndilemma. Reflecting a universal andnnot unwholesome urge to “dominatenthe earth and subdue it,” the desire tonexcel may define a new “bottom line”nfor the world of business, as the primacynand the excellence of the workerntakes precedence over the excellencenof the work itselfnThomas Watson Jr. of IBM said thenmost important asset of business is thenindividual. The excellence books,nthough dedicated to improving corporatenperformance and return on shareholders’nequity, clearly recognize thenvalue of this asset. There is hardly anmore pervasive ideal in excellent companies,nthey repeatedly point out, thannrespect for the individual.n