James G. March

academic consultant manager

"If a manager asks an academic consultant what to do and that consultant answers, then the consultant should be fired. No academic has the experience to know the context of a managerial problem well enough to give specific advice about a specific situation."

—James G. March (1928-2018)

toilet organization business

"No organization works if the toilets don't work, but I don't believe that finding solutions to business problems is my job."

—James G. March (1928-2018)

relevant now ever

"I am not now, nor I have ever been, relevant."

—James G. March (1928-2018)

heretics genius idea

"we sometimes find that such heresies have been the foundation for bold and necessary change, but heresy is usually just crazy. Most daring new ideas are foolish or dangerous and appropriately rejected or ignored. So while it may be true that great geniuses are usually heretics, heretics are rarely great geniuses."

—James G. March (1928-2018)