I was taking a long walk with my wife (who, incidentally, also holds an MBA) at 2:45 P.M. on June 21, 2026, when a DeLorean with some strange gizmo on its trunk seem to come out of nowhere (why so specific as to the time and date of this walk? I’ll explain shortly.) A tall, wild-haired fellow wearing a lab coat exited the car after a hasty parking job, and approached me.
“You’re Michael Hatfield, the blogger, right?”
“You have the advantage of me, sir.”
“I’m one of your readers – you can call me Doc. I recently became a PMP®, and I’ve been trying to track you down in order to answer one question.”
“For so much effort over one question, I hope I can answer it.”
“I’ve been reading your blog on ProjectManagement.com for some time now, and I’ve noticed you often point to the difference in type, not degree, between Asset Management and Project Management.”
“Yeah, that’s one of my favorite soap boxes.”
“From the time period I come from … uhh, I mean, the place that I come from, the Asset Managers’ narrative has completely dominated the management sciences, especially the whole business about how the point of all management is to ‘maximize shareholder wealth.’ Here’s my question: If you had access to a time machine, and could go back in time to substitute the PM’s approach to management for the Asset Managers’ version, when and where would that be?”
“Oh, that’s easy” I replied. “Go back to the 1913 Income Tax Act in the United States. It passed immediately after the 16th Amendment. If I could go back in time to the one moment in history that locked the Asset Managers’ narrative into the dominant role in the management sciences, it would be then.”
“How would you change it, if you could?”
“Rather than use a general ledger for computing individuals’ or corporate tax load, I would use an Earned Value Management System, and pull a percentage from failed Projects. That way, original estimates would have to become more accurate, and tax penalties would go against mis-managed Projects in such a way as to discourage poor performance, along with its attendant wasted resources. Assets sitting around aren’t good for anything, much less the basis for assessing taxes. It should be based on how those assets perform, or fail to perform.”
“Can I give you a ride in my DeLorean?”
“Can my wife come too?”
“There’s really not enough room…”
** * *
The DeLorean / Time Machine re-arrived from our starting point very soon after its departure, so quickly that my wife hadn’t moved from the spot she was standing when we left. She was, however, dressed in designer clothes.
“That was fast! How did it go?”
“Well, we got the Income Tax Act modified so that … hey, where did you get that massive diamond ring?”
“That’s our engagement ring, silly. Don’t you remember?”
My new friend spoke up.
“Who’s President of the United States?”
“Donald Trump, of course. Michael was actually with him and his Council of Economic Advisors a few weeks ago.”
At this point I pulled out my laptop and reviewed all of my favorite news sites.
“Everything seems very similar to the ways things were when we left, except for the names of the principals. But look at this: The people in charge of Amazon® and Apple® are John Sullivan and Neal Whitten, who were among the original PMNetwork columnists back in its early days!”
“Weird” Doc offered.
“It’s not just weird, Doc” I exclaimed. “Don’t you realize the implications? Essentially, the free market alternately embraced and weeded out the most usable management science theories from the fads, so the macro-economy remained largely unaffected, as did the arc of history. All that changed was who was rewarded with fame and success based on the perceived value of the management science precepts that were embraced! ‘Maximize Shareholder Wealth’ didn’t go away, it just receded into the optional narratives codex and was replaced by ‘Deliver on-time, on-budget.’”
“We have to go back” Doc said.
“I don’t know … it sounds fun being on the Council of Economic Advisors. But, yeah, we need to go back, or, actually, you need to go back to 2:44 p.m. today, remove me and my wife from this sidewalk, and tell the version of yourself that sees me at 2:45 to not go through with his plan.”
“Still,” Doc mused, “It was fun to see what the world would have been like had the Asset Managers been relegated to ‘proponents of sound management science’ realm, and the PMs had assumed the roles of guardians of the dominant business narrative.”
