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One of the greatest management challenges of the twentieth century was the Manhattan Project, that vast endeavor to produce the atomic bomb. Whatever one thinks of the final result of the project, the accomplishment of harnessing and focusing a huge number of talented, temperamental, single-minded scientists and engineers represents a marvel of leadership. Other great historical tasks such as building the great pyramids of Egypt and South America, the digging of the Panama Canal, and placing a person on the Moon were no less complicated. All great tasks have been completed because of great leaders and pioneers of management thought. One great example of successful leadership and application of management thought was the Manhattan Project's General Leslie Groves. Prior to the Manhattan Project, Groves had had a distinguished career as an army engineer and had been the overseer of the building of the Pentagon. He was known for his willingness to let ideas succeed or fail on their merit rather than on his own managerial instincts. Groves recognized that there was rarely a single best way to accomplish a task. It has been said that Groves' most remarkable talent was his ability to oversee different alternatives until one or another was proven successful. In other words, if a manager will let ideas compete fairly, the fittest idea will usually survive. It is a fact that Groves encouraged the simultaneous pursuit of quite different approaches to building the first atomic bomb. The great contributors to management thought described in this chapter all had unique ideas, went against the established thoughts of their day, learned from their peers, were never willing to accept defeat, and persevered when criticized. Their gift to contemporary business managers is the set of tools with which to mold and create the ideas and success of the future. Our responsibility is to use the tools wisely.
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