70 "In any profession—business, politics, education, government—those in power should step down after five years. The surest path to success for any enterprise is revitalization through new leadership."

 

 

The speaker asserts that in any profession, those in power should step down after five years, and it is the surest path to success for any enterprise is revitalization through new leadership. In my opinion, one does not have to go very far to see the truth of this statement.

 

It is unfortunate but true, that there is no flawless individual in this world. Great success, fame and wealth, awe and respect from subordinates can seduce an initially wise and cool-minded leader. This possibility of long-term leadership makes things worse by granting these leaders sufficient time and power to abuse success.

 

One of the famous piece in the Declaration of Independence says "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security". To avoid such harmful phenomenon, we need to introduce a periodic change mechanism which will lead to a quite different result. By maintaining proper competitive mechanisms, the enterprise is always able to replenish itself with fresh blood and new leading ideologies. Newly emerged leaders bring new ways of leading and managing, and they are more likely to keep in better touch with the changing times as well.

 

However, a proper competitive mechanism is sometime very hard to constitute. The key problem is how to identifying and preparing suitable employees. In addition, to avoid many gusty affairs, an internal candidate also must be prepared well.  Nevertheless, a frequently change to the key players of one organization may create instability. Thus, an organization must insure the key person so that funds are available if she or he dies and these funds can be used by the business to cope with the problems before a suitable replacement is found or developed.

 

A five-year period is proper tenure in most cases. Longer terms would ossify the enterprise while shorter ones may create instability.

 

In summary, while some people may remain unconvinced by my argument, the reasons I have analyzed so far should at least make them aware of the complexities of the issue under discussion. There is little doubt that more and more people will come to realize that any profession will be benefited by a periodic change mechanism.