Dominant management thinking and heaven sent complexity

Tom Davenport, over at his Harvard Business Publishing blog, talks about "Too many sources of management ideas":

He begins with describing the success of the Harvard Business Review in Poland:

"I was a little envious. HBR in the US is a fine publication, but there are too many sources of management advice for any particular channel to dominate the business dialogue. Maybe things have become too fragmented."

And then talks about the difficulties for business publishers and readers:

"If you want to get an idea out into the world today, you’ve got to publish an HBR article, write a few blog posts about it, get a few business magazines to write about it, be interviewed by Maria Bartiromo, do a YouTube video, and perhaps even Twitter about it. (...) These are the heavy burdens on business authors, but they also fall on business readers."

This is what I replied:

Dominant management thinking

Tom, I was wondering why you would write that you're envious that one publication dominates the dialogue.

This might make it easier to find a common thread to discuss when you're meeting someone (e.g. during a conference, on a plane, train, etc.) as in your scenario you can be quite sure that he's read this publication. It might also lead to a quite informed discussion. It will certainly not be the most refreshing, multifaceted and passionate one - which is what you get when not one style and one thinking model rule.

Difficulties or heaven sent complexity?

Although forming part of Generation Y, I can still understand both Tom and Gregory (the other commentator): choosing well is not an easy task.

The same tools business writers use to get the word out about a new publication and which may seem chaotic and dispersed are also the ones that help me make a good decision though. Throw in a bit of search as a basis.

Comparing the broadcasting model with the internet model, and staying with business publications as an example, I'm happy not having to rely on a bestseller list, to have this choice and count on the support of my friends, followers, readers and contacts.

They all help me to stay informed about the field I'm interested in: everyone's scanning his or her space, blogging or tweeting about it, social-bookmarking it, writing me an e-mail, etc.

It's up to me to find the people who scan the space I'm interested in and whose judgement I trust. They all have a profile or a tag cloud - so that's easy.

And when it finally comes to the decision of buying one book or the other I can quickly get personal feedback on the shortlist, in addition to the reviews and ratings that I can find on the relevant sites, and make an informed buying decision about a book that I never saw, that probably never was or will be, on any bestseller list or covered by major media.

I'm using this model and it works for me. However I'm also frequently going to book stores, where I rummage for interesting titles, read passages, sit down if the book grabs my attention and buy it if I like what I see.

This is where the broadcasting model might still work: giving me a hint that something exists, investing in POS advertising, etc.. As I'm only going to a book store when I've got time on my hands, time to have a thorough look, I don't believe this influences me a lot.

Your thoughts?