Major Shifts in Management Thinking Over Twenty Years – Shift 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1184

Major Shifts in Management Thinking Over Twenty Years – Shift 1 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1184

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1184 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

Credit: Polina Zimmerman

Preamble

This series shall explore major shifts in management thinking and paradigm shifts over the last twenty years.

From Hierarchies and Control to Networks, Systems, and Ecosystems

For over a century, organizations were built like machines, precise, hierarchical, and predictable. Managers sat at the top, issuing commands down a well-ordered pyramid. Employees were expected to execute those commands efficiently, with minimal deviation. It was a world of control, clarity, and compliance, one that worked well in an era of stability and scale.

But the last twenty years have completely rewritten the logic of management. The world has shifted from predictable to complex, from linear to networked, and from slow to instantaneous. Today, the most successful organizations are no longer built like machines; they are built like living systems, adaptive, interconnected, and dynamic.

This is the first and perhaps the most profound transformation in modern management thinking: the shift from hierarchies and control to networks, systems, and ecosystems.

The Legacy of Hierarchy

For much of the 20th century, the dominant management paradigm was command and control. This model emerged from industrial-age realities, large factories, repetitive work, and the need for efficiency above all. Inspired by military organization and Taylor’s Scientific Management, it relied on a clear chain of command, standard operating procedures, and centralized decision-making.

Hierarchies had certain advantages:

They offered clarity of responsibility.

They ensured consistency and predictability.

They supported scaling of complex operations across large geographies.

However, as industries matured and markets globalized, this model began to show its limits. Information no longer flowed top-down; it moved in every direction, instantly. The external environment became volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, what we now call the VUCA world. In such a world, waiting for approval from three levels up could mean missing the opportunity altogether.

The Networked World Arrives

Technology, particularly digital connectivity, broke down the walls of hierarchy. The rise of the internet, smartphones, social media, and data analytics created a new organizational reality: everything and everyone became connected.

Networks replaced pipelines. Information became decentralized. The new sources of power were not titles and positions but access, relationships, and knowledge.

Companies like Google, Amazon, and Alibaba flourished precisely because they understood this early. They built ecosystems, not just businesses. They didn’t aim to control everything; they created platforms where others could contribute value, developers, content creators, sellers, and consumers all became part of a self-reinforcing system.

This was a radical rethinking of what it meant to “manage.” In networks, control gives way to coordination, and hierarchies give way to influence.

From Organization to Ecosystem

The idea of the ecosystem has become central to management in the 21st century. An ecosystem is not a single organization but a dynamic web of partners, suppliers, customers, regulators, and even competitors, all interacting within a shared environment.

Think of the iPhone: Apple designs and markets the product, but its success depends on hundreds of suppliers, millions of app developers, and billions of users. It’s a living ecosystem where value is co-created continuously.

Similarly, in healthcare, finance, and pharmaceuticals, industries once known for rigid silos, ecosystems are now the engines of innovation. Collaborative R&D partnerships, cross-company data sharing, and open innovation models are redefining how progress happens.

The management challenge, therefore, has shifted: from optimizing what you own to orchestrating what you can influence.

Systems Thinking: The New Managerial Mindset

Alongside the rise of networks came another intellectual shift, systems thinking. Originally developed in fields like ecology and engineering, systems thinking views organizations as interdependent wholes rather than collections of parts.

Instead of asking, “How do I improve this department’s efficiency?” systems thinkers ask, “How does this process affect the entire system?” They recognize that improving one part of the system in isolation often harms the overall performance.

This thinking has become essential in addressing modern challenges, sustainability, innovation, diversity, digital transformation, all of which are systemic by nature.

In pharmaceutical management, for instance, drug development isn’t just about R&D. It’s about regulatory systems, supply chains, patient access, pricing structures, and global collaboration. Leaders who view the business as a living system make better, longer-term decisions.

Leadership in Networks: Influence Over Authority

In a networked or ecosystem-based organization, leadership looks very different. The leader is no longer the commander who knows all the answers but the convener who brings the right people together. The late management scholar Warren Bennis (1925-2014) said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” In the past, that translation was done through authority; today, it’s done through influence and connection.

Modern leaders need:

Curiosity and humility – to learn continuously from across the system.

Empathy and listening skills – to engage diverse stakeholders.

Visionary communication – to align decentralized teams around a common purpose.

Trust-building capability – since networks run on trust, not compliance.

One could argue that the modern CEO is less a commander and more an ecosystem architect, designing conditions in which innovation, trust, and collaboration can thrive.

The Role of Technology

Digital transformation has both enabled and demanded this shift. Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and real-time analytics mean that information asymmetry, once the foundation of hierarchical power, has collapsed.

Employees at every level now have access to data and insights that once belonged only to top management. Decision-making can, and should, happen closer to the action.

Moreover, digital collaboration tools, Slack, Teams, Zoom, Trello, and others, have democratized communication. Knowledge is now distributed, not confined. This creates both opportunities and challenges: organizations must learn to manage complex interdependence rather than simple chains of command.

Pakistan’s Organizational Challenge

For emerging markets like Pakistan, this shift carries particular importance. Many organizations, especially in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and public sectors, still operate with deep hierarchical traditions. Authority is respected, but agility suffers.

Younger professionals increasingly resist rigid control and crave purpose, collaboration, and digital fluency. If organizations want to attract and retain the next generation of talent, they must evolve — flattening structures, encouraging open dialogue, and investing in systems that enable cross-functional collaboration.

The future of competitive advantage in Pakistan’s industries, rom pharma to fintech, lies in how well organizations can embed networked thinking into their culture. Those who remain locked in the old command-and-control paradigm will find themselves irrelevant in a global, digital economy.

Sum Up

The last twenty years have shown us that rigid hierarchies cannot keep pace with a networked world. The organizations that thrive today, and will thrive tomorrow, are those that behave less like machines and more like living systems. They are connected, adaptive, purpose-driven, and collaborative. They understand that leadership is not about control but about creating the conditions for collective intelligence to flourish.

The journey from hierarchy to ecosystem is not easy. It requires unlearning habits of control, letting go of ego, and embracing the unpredictability of human networks. But in that very complexity lies the possibility of extraordinary growth, for organizations, for leaders, and for society itself.

Concluded.

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For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.