Now with tax season winding down, I finally have some time to reflect and write about recent events and provide my spin on these.
In any corporate environment we all know of those individuals who have attained their positions either by
- Selectively being drafted from upper management for their sympathetic views
- Taking shortcuts to achieve short-term results, neglecting long-term consequences
The first type of promotion is what’s known as Empire Building. This comes about when senior management wants individuals around them willing to “go along” with their direction and corporate outlook on how to best serve the interests of the company. Interests of the company in Empire Building more often than not will miraculously coincide with Senior Management’s own self interests. These interests can take the form of Bonus’, Stock Options, Board Positions, Fringe Benefits and Gold Plated Pensions. The least amount of resistance that they can have while attaining these interests the better.
The second type closely mirrors the first, but is distinguished only by the individualistic approach to the end result. WIIFM (what’s in it for me) Managers see employees and subordinates as tools and assets to employ in attaining the quickest, most cost effective, and most personally rewarding path to success. They often do not take into account longer term issues such as quality, impact on brand, societal impact and human cost of their decisions.
Many out there would see nothing wrong with either approach and tout that it is often necessary to employ these tactics to achieve the results the market expects. “Market Expectations” is another name for a Giant pitcher of Kool-Aid. Once we drink from the Kool-Aid pitcher as an organization we start to rationalize the decisions we make to make the market happy. Trouble is, this can’t and won’t last forever. What’s often left in the wake of pandering to the market and drinking the Kool-Aid, is broken trust, lost resources and damaged lives.
As owners and managers, we have a fiduciary and moral duty to think long-term on how to best achieve sustainable and realistic results that elevate our companies and staff as a whole. It’s not a 100-yard dash, it’s a marathon. Play to finish.
Some recent examples of “Kool-Aid” corporations:
Volkswagen takes $18 billion hit over emissions scandal Friday, April 22, 2016 02:03 PM EDT Toronto Sun
Mitsubishi Motors mileage scandal widens, U.S. regulator seeks information TOKYO
— Reuters
General Motors will pay $900 million to settle criminal charges related to its flawed ignition switch that has been tied to at least 124 deaths. CNN Money
Till next time.
Rick Barbosa
bbtfinancial.ca 
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