Not surprisingly, management fads rarely fix the problems they intend to. The Wall Street Journal may have figured out why. The article, entitled Why Management Trends Quickly Fade Away, suggests that fad-chasing management consultants tend to be under-qualified, leading to sub-standard results, and finally to the dissolution of the fad.

Pam Slim’s open letter to CxOs of all types couldn’t be more dead-on.

She calls for honesty, respect, profit sharing, and cooperation between the executives and the rank and file. Hardly revolutionary, but it’s all true.

I have the luck of working at a company with a (relatively new) CEO who takes his employees seriously. It wasn’t always the case. The original management team once told an employee who was worried about a salary freeze that he “wasn’t here to coddle employees.” Not that he didn’t take home a nice bonus check after helping us lose a few hundred million dollars.