Do we need rule busting rebels? They fight the system, they refuse to be constrained by the bureaucracy. They have no time for senior management who are risk adverse and obsessed with budgets. They have no ambition to join the senior ranks preferring to stay close to the action where the real work is done. They are every maverick tv detective, they are the  insubordinate James Bond and the defiant Captain Kirk . We cheer them on.  But in the real world 007 has a mortgage on an expensive London flat and several outstanding child maintenance claims, James T Kirk didn’t get to be a captain of a star ship by disobeying orders and maverick police officers get disciplined and take early retirement.

In the real world those with an independent spirit, a willingness to challenge authority and the courage to back their own judgement do move up the career ladder. Maybe not as fast or as far as those who play it safer but it’s not true that they don’t become senior managers. Whilst those in charge may be risk adverse, worry about how decisions may play out in the media and be  more concerned with cost than effectiveness they still need managers who deliver and they want some high profile successes.