"The prevailing belief in management today is that any idle resource is a waste."
There is an odd book call The Goal that's a mixture of a book on business process management and a dramatic fiction story. It touches on your point in that the protagonist is struggling to reduce bottlenecks and the resulting idle resources. An expert consultant, a Mary Sue for the author, explains to him the goal of the business is to make money, not to maximize resource use efficiency.
Update: I just read your profile and see you're already a fan of The Goal. :)

Nothing can compete with stupidity.
I have, in just my short (relatively speaking) lifetime seen the economics of this country of ours go through several revolutions with capitalism still hanging on by its fingernails. Vast changes of attitude or the next evolvements will lead us closer and closer to another Dark Ages, and it will not be a Mel Brooks style era.

Herb the current economic environment is stacked against the entrepreneurial family . I am sure many of those companies were family businesses , the owners would roll up their sleeves to get the job done . Innovation was rewarded as was a job well done. Soon Amazon or Walmart will be our only source of goods. The costs of starting up a small business is over the top and with govt meddling on wages increases the risk of failure .
The incredible economic engine that was Detroit.
During the fifties and sixties the auto industry probably many thought it would prosper indefinitely. Bit by bit union demands , regulations
skyrocketing healthcare cost( that continue
for us all today) unfair foreign trade ,not to mention aging factories careless quality control and managements arrogance.
Many lessons that have been lost on today's arrogant anti-upwardly mobile congress..

Edited to add, as this came to mind.

”Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Maurice Strong,
Founder of the UN Environmental Program

”A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-Development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.”
Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies,
Author: “Population Bomb”, “Ecoscience”

As I remember, the name Hobby Lobby, at least in Detroit, was taken more literally. A lobby in which hobbies were exhibited. The lobbying was understood, but a dual definition didn't seem to be off-putting. As an aside, in the Detroit suburbs there were hundreds of manufacturing businesses feeding the auto industry. Many of them grossing numbers in the millions with hundreds of employees, many of whom were my customers. The relationship between these owners and workers could not be compared to the "big 3." By and large they were closer and better. One place I know of made a tubular device that fit on a torsion bar. In those days, a $5 item. But they turned out millions. That is no longer going on, from what I understand.

That is interesting I looked that show up.
Hobby Lobby allowed listeners everywhere to write in about their unusual hobbies so they could come on the radio and "lobby for their hobby." Many of the hobbies were actually people's professions like a female gorilla trainer, a scientist that makes robots, and a beekeeper (whose bees escaped during the show).
As a side note:

During WWII, the FBI recived word that Nazis were attempting infiltrate the show and use Hobby Lobby to covertly send messages to other Nazis over the radio. The agency sent Dave Elman a list of potential Nazis who might try to get on his show by pretending to have a hobby. Eventually threats were made on the lives of Elman and his family requiring 24 hour FBI protection.

There was a radio show called Hobby Lobby. In Detroit, a fellow opened a camera shop called Lobby Hobby, because the radio show had the name copyrighted I suppose. So, he Hobby Lobby we know started up after that show was long gone. Just read up on them. A very cool story. You're right (as usual).

One hell of a success story.

I knew they were a chain, but didn't realize how big they were.

In 1970, David and Barbara Green took out a $600 loan to begin making miniature picture frames out of their home. Two years later, the fledgling enterprise opened a 300-square-foot store in Oklahoma City, and Hobby Lobby was born. Today, with more than 750 stores, Hobby Lobby is the largest privately owned arts-and-crafts retailer in the world with approximately 32,000 employees and operating in forty-seven states.

And they say Marxism doesn't work.
As a former employer I can cite many cases of exactly the opposite. The one I remember most vividly was a part-time Teen who was goofing off. I re-explained his duties to him and urged him to do better. His reply was classic: "Is this some sort of a test?"

When I was young I worked hard and always worked at finding more efficient methods and doing my job well. Now that I am semi-retired and living on less than 1/3 my expected income because of Obama I am still working a part time job (thanks to Obamacare) and still working with the same ethic. I found myself called in by the head school maintenance for a little scolding; "You are doing too much and it is causing problems!"
"What?"
"The other maintenance staff can't keep up with you and it is causing complaints from those on her side of the building because their rooms don't look as nice as yours!"
"What?" (Thinking to myself, don't you want me to teach her to be more efficient?)
"To stop the complaints I want you to do less so that the other staff member doesn't feel bad."
"What do you want me to do with my extra time?"
"Work slower, take it easy. I want you to do less!"

Hobby Lobby is a relatively small organization and as I understand it, family owned. There are thousands of them in the USA having the blood squeezed out of them under Obama. Hopefully, they'll be making a comeback. Most organizations such as Hobby Lobby are closer to their employees and tend to have a more friendly personal relationship with them. There are even a few big corporations that treat their employees well, but the bigger they get, the further away from the help, until they are no longer people but digits. Digits that sometimes are an annoyance.

This is exactly what I'm teaching my kids.

Yes.

I think the employees of Hobby Lobby would respectfully disagree. They're treated with real respect, like a good family, and they experience some of the best pay and benefits in the market. The family that owns the firm are those rare Christians who really live up to their faith.

yes

Exactly. Which is why, with application, there's no such thing as unemployment. With thought, ambition, and work ethic there is always a way to make money. The only stymie to that is the government. It can foil the most ambitious and hard working person through regulation and taxation. But even in the most restrictive of governments, people have found ways to make a living.

So turning off you cognitive ability is the way you cope?Seems like a cop out to me.

google translate

I havent gotten a job in 30 years, but I think this analysis is right. I got summarily fired in a parking lot from a company I sold to Baxter for not conforming to their idea of an employee. I did the opposite of all the "rules" noted above. I just started other companies, and things seemed to go ok.

That's funny...yep, they would make one big grilled cheese sandwich.

Appreciate and encourage diversity.
2. Consult in a group and reach a consensus.
3. If one person's idea seems to be the solution to a problem, encourage him/her to develop it .
4. Consultation, co-operation and collaboration seem to be the trend in forward thinking companies. When someone presents an idea you don't agree with, remain silent until all ideas are out on the table. The right one usually pops up without being snarky and negative.

Sorry, I forgot to tell you my name in case you want to look for the books. I'm Matias Birrell, Fish is a nickname that Dr. Goldratt gave me... a story for another time.

In a nutshell, companies are systems. I define a system as a collection of interdependent elements with a purpose.

The purpose of any company is to generate profit now and in the future.

The profit is produced as an emergent result of the interactions of the elements of the system. (The well know phrase of holism: the whole is more that the sum of the parts).

The prevailing belief in management today is that any idle resource is a waste. I say that this belief is anti-systemic and wrong. The proof is easy but long for this post. It is based on the interdependency and the fact that there is always statistical fluctuations.

These are the premises. The cause and effect reasoning is longer, but it leads to the conclusion that almost all the undesirable effects seen today (unemployment, bankruptcies, poor service, slow innovation rate, others) are due to this wrong belief. The only way out is to embrace systemic thinking (abandoning a lot of practices that stem from the old wrong belief) and to embark on the knowledge driven path on innovation.

By the way, innovation is possible for many companies today just understanding the implications of systemic thinking. For example, it is an innovation to offer ~100% reliability in delivery for most of make to order manufacturers. I've guided many companies through the years achieving this "miracle". After that knd of innovations, as knowledge is unlimited, not even the sky is the limit, right?

yes, however, it is unclear as to whether the writer was referring to a mirror or a lens