No. 29: A Plea against Floods of Data in Companies and for the Human Factor

At this point, I’d like to out myself as a passionate reader that normally differentiates between two types of books. On one hand, there are novels that are for entertainment and that you can usually devour within 2-3 days (especially on vacation). They’re usually easy, stimulating the imagination or covering universal topics that are part of being human. Then there are non-fiction books that cover interesting, important and exciting topics but that often require a higher level of concentration as well as demanding more time.  

I recently stumbled across a book whose title really piqued my curiosity but that I would have ordinarily assigned to my second category. In fact, a book has rarely made me laugh so much. And the topics also really spoke to me. I’m talking about Frank Dopheide’s book “Gott ist ein Kreativer, kein Contoller”¹, published by Econ Verlag. The author describes himself as a creative spirit and has been working in economics for over 30 years.  

What makes the book such a good recommendation that we’ve dedicated a whole blog post to it is that it encompasses lots of different topics that we’ve written about here on the HMC blog over the last few months and years. Whether that’s the role of women in economics, who are often confronted with that saying “don’t be so emotional” (see blog no. 27) or the asset of trust within businesses (blog no. 20). All of these topics and more are covered, inspiring thought alongside a pleasant and funny writing style. (Male) managers aren’t judged or exposed to humiliation, rather simply encouraged to think about their employees and the world in which we live, and to break out of those patterns that have been learned and put into practice up to now. In my opinion, the whole book is a plea against the floods of figures and data that have inundated companies, and the resulting distance from employees and customers alike, and in favor of crazy, creative and illogical ideas (see also blog no. 23).  

“Let’s release irrationality from the gray cells of our brains as our secret weapon. The illogical pushes our thinking into areas where no-one has gone before. It increases the power of our imagination. Who would have thought that the world was waiting for a Star-Wars-looking Dyson vacuum cleaner or that Velcro would stop us needing to button things up?”²

This is definitely a very good book for any of you that love reading and tackling important issues that will really make you think.