how to run a company well
appearing in the economist, how to run a company well gives a list of ten “commandments.” only they’re not commandments… (natch). nonetheless, a few comments on these points…
their first “commandment” (a sound ethical compass) is an echo that “getting the evil out” just isn’t easy. once it becomes an institutional issue for a company, even breaking it up into baby-rails or baby-oils or baby-bells leaves the evil largely intact. evil can even be a cancer that spreads by acquisition by all accounts diebold was a fine corporation with a solid 144-year track record of good work, until they compromised it by getting into the electronic voting business.
i guess this is “commandment #1” since the “corporate scandal” and reflexive “we’re not evil” response is going around a lot lately. personally, i fear a lot of this “not evil” is more of a statement than anything else – even google, famously not evil, flirts occasionally with evil.
over the past few years, i’ve been wrestling with concepts to make “doing the right thing” a part of a corporate structure. it’s not enough to say “we’re good people” – i’m looking for ways to build trust and responsibility into the corporate fabric.
another article in the same issue got ryan’s attention, and demonstrates, to me, at least, that the typical management-directors structure isn’t entirely effective anymore. poor performance and poor ethics are rewarded – more than ever.
i believe in building empires (#4 ambition), but i also believe in playing positive-sum games. does that make me an idealist? unrealistic? crazy?
now, if only my fairy godmother would send me to charm school (#10)….