Bland Boys & Marshmallow Men: Recognized

A correspondent from Canada, Pierre Dolet, writes:

I know them, the Bland Boys and Marshmallow Men. They’re the executives with soft, perpetually friendly smiles and neutral eyes. There is no anger, no emotion, to their decisions. You can’t argue with them, not on substance, because they won’t disagree – but you won’t necessarily know what they agree with, either. Management books are written for them, because they can quote an opinion and use its printed existence as justification – and always, just the same, have a distance from that opinion. Consultants are their messenger angels – again because its an outside opinion that they can use for justification, while keeping distance from the results. They will have flavor-of-the-month words from the business journals they read or the seminars they attend: flat world economy, granular, crisp. They are, always, "Professional" management.

The Cube cautions:

Be careful, Pierre Dolet, because you sound dangerously unaware of their Power. Don’t pass them off with easy sarcasm. These are the ones in control.

Or, to use a political Bland Boy term: the ones with the “mandate.”