It's ironic that I find
[C], which plays fast and loose with its faux financial concepts, more entertaining than
Moshidora, which actually takes management seriously.
Put me among the others who found this episode bland. That said, I do hope that's just because the payback will come later in the series. If the
Economist article that
Tempester referenced is anything to go by, the actual book on which this anime is based was apparently a hit in Japan, so I am very curious to see why.
To me, it takes a stretch to see how business management relates to high-school baseball-team management. By that, I don't mean that the same basic principles do not apply, but rather that I would think it takes more than just sound management to forge a winning sports team.
Incidentally, despite being a business graduate, I confess I never actually read Peter Drucker, though I did study some of the topics he wrote about through other writers.
Michael Porter's thoughts about gaining and keeping
competitive advantage were more to my interest (and possibly even more directly relevant to sports management!), I'm afraid.
That said, this episode's "thought exercise" was actually a pretty good example of
stakeholder analysis. Minami got it right towards the end when she realised that, if one were to think very broadly, a baseball team's customers include not just all of its audience and sponsors, but also its members. And it's common sense, of course, that the more aligned each member's goals are, the more motivated a team would be, overall.
And, naturally, it's also a lot easier to crystallise an organisation's "mission statement" once you've made clear what every stakeholder wants out of it.
Problem is, so what? I've never found such analysis to be useful in practice. It's a given that, within any organisation, there will be competing goals. And, in the end, there will almost always be a need for a charismatic individual to champion a single objective that everyone will follow, grudgingly or not. Without such decisive leadership, an organisation can find itself endlessly stuck in "soul-searching" mode, much to its detriment.
Still, I wish Minami the best possible luck!