>John
>
>Your post is one of rare eloquence. Of course, if only the scene you paint was itself rare, but it is not. In case anyone hasn't noticed we have now entered a post-expert age. This is age in which people of knowledge are ridiculed and those who have nothing much to do but plot and scheme all day, usually with clean desks and suspicious suits, clamber and scuttle ... sucking knowledge from their organisations as they do so.

John,
'The post-expert age'. I like that expression. And it's an honor to getting to know you, because you appear to be the father of this expression. I've searched the internet and must conclude that the expression was first mentioned here, by you. <s>
IMO, experts have always been the real core of the company, while the others (often called managers) are/were the ones who got the credits and the better positions and salaries. So, what's new.
Experts have more heart for the real issues, are less ambitious when it comes to making a financial career and are less inclined to use one's elbows.
But it may be true that in the ol'days the top-management often realized the real importance of their experts, and that these days this realism has vanished, perhaps due to the inflation of people with knowledge?


>It's the last frontier as a matter of fact. How to oversee employees without pissing them off and wrecking the company. Very simple, I would have thought, but the frailty of managers constantly surprises.
>
>VFP9's good.
>
>Best
>John Burton