10 Management Lessons from Lehman's Demise

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7. Even professional bankers, who ostensibly are experts in "risk management," aren't immune from the soap-bubble syndrome.

Of course, this doesn't mean that they don't try to outsmart the system. The tendency is for firms to resort to "'trading for their own accounts,' that is, to outright speculation," Drucker noted. "This, however, as centuries of financial history teach (beginning with the Medici in 15th century Europe) has only one—but an absolutely certainmoutcome: catastrophic losses."

8. It's especially hard to avoid those losses when you don't want to hear any bad news.

Lehman and most other investment banks refused to even contemplate the "potential danger" of becoming overly leveraged, McDonald recounts in his book. "Wall Street was listening for calm seas, record profits, best-ever growth, joy, wealth, prosperity, and b-o-o-o-o-n-u-u-s. Anything less was essentially out of the culture." When Lehman's fixed-income chief warned Fuld about the unsustainable bets that the firm was making, McDonald adds, Fuld "decided to bully him, to belittle him publicly."

Other former Lehman bankers paint a similar picture, saying that Fuld and his top lieutenant weren't interested in dissenting views. But "dissent…is essential for effective decision-making," Drucker said. Without it, those at the top simply can't take on what Drucker described as "the most important task" they're responsible for: "to anticipate crisis."

9. As long as human beings are in charge of our major institutions, this won't be the last crisis we see.

"Scandals are a normal feature of the landscape," said Drucker, who wouldn't be shocked that companies are once again taking on substantial risk and selling the kinds of exotic financial products that triggered the Great Recession. "They very typically begin with something that goes wrong, and you…brush it under the rug. And you end up by trying to brush elephants under the rug. And then it doesn't work any more, and it collapses."

10. "Stupid people make stupid mistakes. Brilliant people make brilliant mistakes."

Rick Wartzman is the executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University.

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