When Does A Company Exit a Market Based on Principle?
The issue of principles-based business decision-making came to the forefront this past week with the decision by Google to withdraw from the Chinese market following an apparent major cyber-attack on it’s systems (as well as a number of other technology firms.)
Google’s corporate motto is “Do no evil”, and it personally struck me odd (as it [...]
Even Welsh recognizes The Living Organization
Well perhaps he didn’t exactly call it that, but in a recent article in Financial Time (3/12/2009) Jack Welch who is regarded as the “father of the shareholder value movement” said said it was “a dumb idea” for executives to focus so heavily on quarterly profits and share price gains.”
What is he really saying about [...]
The creation of The Living Organization™ model
During my 35 plus years of leading organizations and helping other CEOs lead their organizations I have been seeking to understand and then explain what is required to successfully create sustainable growth. The Living Organization™ model is the culmination of that journey.
I have chosen to name my upcoming book “The Living Organization ™: the Physics [...]
Do we manage the system or the measurement system?
Today I was listening to the on-going debate of Executive Compensation and the struggle companies are having in this economy. There is so much talk these days about setting up pay for performance systems that reward growth and punish failure. In equal proportion there is talk about executives should be aligned with investors and hence [...]
Do Bonus Plans Motivate?
The whole issue of Executive compensation is coming under increasing scrutiny by just about everyone these days and rightfully so. Here is an interesting question – Do Bonuses actually incent behavior to perform better?
This is a foundational question as much of the compensation plans are based on the strongly held belief by most people that [...]
The real problem with Executive Compensation
There is a lot of talk lately about CEO pay, how much they get and how we have elevated them to superstars. As I posted on my FastCompany.com blog, I was recently listening to a speaker on this topic and realized that of course we have a problem with CEO pay, we as a society [...]
What is the real purpose of Business?
We have seen much abuse over the last decade which has given business a bad rap. First we start with the run up of “easy success” with the dot.com craze and its bust, followed by the corruption of Enron, Tyco and the like. And now we have the financial crisis that is not only impacting [...]
Why the profit motif may have too many “unintended consequences”
I was just reading a New Your Time article titled “When Academia Puts Profit Ahead of Wonder” (Click on the title to read the article). It speaks eloquently about the problem of unintended consequences, the difficulty of being able to accurately predict all the results of our actions. Hence many of our very well intended [...]
CEO succession and Leadership
In my recent entry I spoke of the challenge of selecting a leader and what we can learn from the current presidential candidates. In a recent post by Idris Mootee “Visionary Leaders with Purposes Are Not Easy to Replace” he raises the example of Steve Jobs, the visionary leader of Apple Computer.
I loved his [...]
Profit as a metric of the spirtual journy
In my last post I talked about the importance for the CEO and the board to increase the value of the firm, and that this should be a key focus of their responsibilities. I also state that the focus on value creation is perfectly consistent with the idea that business is a spiritual journey.
Value [...]