The Benefit of Experience as a Non-Profit Manager

I got the following quote from the Wall Street Journal:

NONPROFIT MANAGERS may teach a thing or two to corporate counterparts. The people who run charities and other nonprofits have a long history of managing under uncertain conditions, satisfying multiple stakeholders, building passionate work forces and developing nonfinancial measurements of goals — the kind of issues that are becoming hot topics in corporate management. That is the message in a report from Harvard Business School Publishing Corp., Boston.

Judith Kidd, assistant dean of Harvard College for Public Service, says getting more people to think about "nonquantifiable" issues is key. So is building viewpoints of many stakeholders into a company's strategic plan. The report adds that non-profits excel at finding the next generation of leaders.

So, while any slice of the management pie has its turkeys as well as stars, I think it's very true that strong non-profit managers have unique strengths valuable in many for-profit environments.