Slightly off topic but stick with me.
My Saturday job as a 16 year old was as counter staff in a department store. The General Manager had started as Saturday staff, been through the loading bay and warehouse, then back to the counter, then junior manager and so on - all the way to GM. The organisations or business where that happens now must be very few.
In the late 1980s, I recall a conversation with a pal who ran the telecommunications of a major UK hospital (I won't be more specific). He needed a completely new telephone system (about £1M or so) but they chose to refurbish an operating theatre. The next year they turned him down for another project. In the end he demonstrated how the failing phone system was costing lives. He got the money.
Without being political it was the Tories who promoted the idea that any good manager could manage anything. I did not agree in the 1980s and nothing I have seen in UK govt, privatised industries or banking has changed my mind. But - how we restart the culture of working your way up - I have no idea.
I am biased, as I have always worked in service industries. I worked my way up in comms and then in the work I do now. Oh yes, and I'm middle aged and I've seen it before.
