Why? Well, there seems to be a lot of discussing, complaining, opining and shuffling of feet and very little action on the business front. Businesses are sitting on trillions of dollars. Banks are sitting on trillions of dollars. Consumers are sitting on what few dollars they can gather and have pushed the savings rate up to 6% or so. Consumers like businesses are paying down debt. Everyone seems to be waiting for the Government or someone else to make the first move.

Source: UK Output, Income and Expenditure statistical bulletin

Normally, that kind of debt reduction and savings rate would be great; now it is troublesome. And Antony’s view on all this? “What’s new? I’ve had to deal with thin margins, challenging employees and slow markets for most of my professional life.”

I agree and can see his point. Many, maybe most, of the executives I speak with are waiting for the consumer to begin buying again. The U.S. economy is based on consumption – I’m told that until recently about 70% of GDP has been consumer activity. They are worried that this might be the “new normal.” And they aren’t sure what to do about that. It messes up their business model.

By some standards, the British economy has been in the slow growth mode for many years now. Certainly it has not boomed like some other economies. Antony pointed out that what we are shocked to see in our own economy has been close to the norm for him and his peers in the British economy as well as some other European economies. So he doesn’t quite get the problem with the American executives. Complaining, opining, discussing and shuffling feet doesn’t get results. Actions get results. And while many companies have done a fine job at controlling costs, they are totally lost on how to increase the top line. Selling doesn’t work in this economy, it seems to just make people angry and in no mood to buy.

So what do you do next? Maybe hire someone who’s been through the mill already. Someone who knows how to build a company on thin margins, low revenue and poor capital environment. After this recession, we may have some pretty talented executives who figure it out and manage to get their companies to grow. We have already lost a whole bunch of companies and watched assets decline. On the other hand, to get through this and thrive, maybe we need to find folks who have had to deal with this kind of economy before.

That kind of talent is difficult to find. Many of our executives have never seen times this tough before, and I’m sure they never want to see them again. The large, international firms can surely find talent. They have folks who have lead big divisions in struggling economies abroad. But what about the small to mid-sized business; one that cannot call on a deep bench with long experience in struggling economies? Well, maybe you should consider hiring one of those “gray haired guys” that have at least been through the seventies. Or maybe you should hire a Brit.

I usually avoid politics on this post (though not on others) because it is too emotionally charged to get any clear points through to the readers. And of course, I realize that I have my own biases with which to deal. All one has to do is look at the vitriol being printed and spoken these days to realize that no one on the extremes seems willing to change how the world occurs to them or even admit that they only have a particular view and that others have an equally valid view. Some insist that they and they alone are “right,” and further discussion is useless. So I avoid the topic most times.

A Mosque at Ground Zero?

In this post, however, I want to tackle some of the comments I’ve been hearing on the news shows (which I also usually avoid). The reason is because those comments deal with leadership. The comment was made that the President has gotten way out in front of the people; too far out, on a very controversial topic – the Mosque at Ground Zero. When a “leader gets too far out in front of the people, they are in trouble,” was the commentator’s statement. Uh, I’m having trouble with this. Forget, if you can, who’s President and forget the craziness around the unreal fear people have of Muslims for a minute. I know, it’s hard. You’re already saying things in your head that will stop you from being clear of biases. The point is, we are a nation of laws. Our declaration is that we are all treated fairly and consistently. The declaration is that the government will make no laws or regulations favoring one particular religion over another. The President reminded us of that. He reminded us that if we abridge the rights of one person or group of persons then we abridge our own rights.

Personally, I think that the Islamic group making this decision are making a bad one from a PR point of view. They must get that according to one wag 70% of the American public thinks this is a bad idea. However, the President is correct on this and he is leading. Should he look at the polls and decide to follow the people’s opinions on this topic regardless of law? I think not. He would not be leading he would be following. Instead, he has done what all courageous leaders do. The leader keeps the team and the organization on mission. Our mission is to be a land of the free, where any citizen can, within reason, pursue life, liberty and happiness without her neighbor forcing his or her views upon her.

I still think, personally, that the Islamic community has a chance to show some sensitivity. On the other hand, they have an opportunity to make us stop and think about what it really means to walk the talk. It is my understanding that the property on which the Muslim leadership wishes to build their Mosque is private property. It is my understanding that they have met all the requirements of the laws and regulations of the various governmental bodies. Do we walk the talk or are our values situational? Do we treat everyone equally or do we change things to suit us or a majority. The whole purpose of our constitution is to protect the minority from the will of the majority; and the majority from the tyranny of the minority. The President is, in my opinion, leading us. Will we “get it” and go in the same direction or will we, as a country, not lead the world as a shining example of freedom for all? The President isn’t wrong; he’ is leading. Are we courageous enough to follow?

And I have just about always been at the bleeding edge of technology. From the time I stumbled through the wrong door at college and wound up outside the computer center (with all its punch cards, plug-wire printer boards, high-speed chain printers, and IBM 1620 – boy does that date me, eh?) to the present when I just about salivate over the latest in PCs, Smart phones, tablet computers and what’s going on over in the bio-tech field. I love it when my Scientific American and Technology Review magazines show up. So as you might guess, I have for many years had one kind of so-called smart phone or another. I even started with the old PDA that simply was a calendar/contact list/note folder and fancy calculator that synchronized (painfully) with my PIM – which has almost always been Microsoft Outlook.

My “Apple-head” friends will love this story and will believe they definitely would never have had this problem. They might be right, but who knows for sure? Anyway, I don’t have an iPhone and will not have one as long as it is tied to AT&T. In my opinion, that was a very bad decision by Apple. I almost never have a dropped call, almost never have a “dark spot” in coverage and personally have never had a bad customer experience with Verizon. I have had all of those negative things and more with AT&T, so they won’t get me back any time soon.

However, my latest smart phone is the Blackberry Storm. I love it – when it works. Which it mostly has, up until this past Friday (8/6/2010). Some many months ago, my original BB was acting up. The screen would not always connect and I’d have to pull the battery to reboot the danged thing. Annoying. So I took it to Verizon and in typical fashion they worked hard to try and get the silly thing to fail so they could easily give me a new one. It wouldn’t fail for them, so they offered that they would give me a new one if I wanted, but unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to extend my warranty period. I took the new phone anyway. They made sure the data was backed up, deactivated the old device, activated the new device, made sure that all was working as it should and wished me a great day. And so it was. And even as I went to China with my BB, I didn’t lose connection, never lost an e-mail and had a fabulous experience with carrier and device. Until Friday.

That phone is the only phone I have. If it doesn’t work, I don’t have a “phone.” I can and do use the PC and VOIP to make calls, so I am not limited in outbound, but incoming is another problem for friends and clients. So I was pretty concerned when, after hanging up with a friend, my phone wouldn’t disconnect. It was hung up. So, on to one of the more annoying thing about this phone, to really reset it, you have to pull the battery and then wait for a very long boot cycle. It wouldn’t boot. Nothing. Not even a sign that it was alive. New battery and AC adapter didn’t help. Off to the Verizon store. But I figured it was “big bucks” time.

But no. My friends at Verizon tried everything to get that silly phone to boot up and determined it just wasn’t going to happen. So they said, “hey, nobody should have to put up with this. We have one of these in stock so we’ll just replace it for you.” Same drill as before, and I walk out of the store with a new phone, a smile and a genuine love of the good folks over there at Verizon. Happy camper.

Until I get home. Score so far? Verizon 1, BB – 0. I was feeling pretty confident that I’d be back up and running in a short time. Why? Because my life for the last 15 years or so has revolved around a Personal Information

Where do People Read their Mail?

Manager (PIM) on my PC. For the most part that has been Microsoft Outlook. And all my contacts and appointments, tasks, notes you name it, are in Outlook or on the PC. And my BB synchronizes with Outlook. So no worries, right? Well, not quite. I’ve been using Microsoft Office 2010 for many months now (full disclosure, I am a registered Microsoft Partner). And I’ve had no trouble synchronizing the BB with outlook. BUT – it turns out there’s a bit of a quirk here. The folks at RIM, for whatever unfathomable reason, have not updated their Desk Manager software to work with Office 2010. Don’t get me started. I have no idea why they have been dragging their feet on this. Outlook is still (I believe) the most used desktop e-mail client (although Gmail is catching up as being the place where folks like to go). How could RIM not be prepared for the new Outlook? Anyway, apparently, as long as one had their BB syncing with Office 2007 and then upgrade to 2010, things would continue to work – for that device and Desktop Manager configuration. So imagine my surprise when nothing would synchronize! Disaster! Hours later, after uninstalling and re-installing software, I took to the blogs and found out about this shameful laps on RIM’s part. I could have saved time if I wasn’t so damned independent and insist on “doing it myself.” Score? Verizon 1, BB 0, RIM minus 10.

The blogs save the day though, and a company whose software I’ve used before and pretty much trust. So now, there’s the round-about way to solve my problem. It’s simple (kind of). Purchase Companion Link which will talk to Desktop Manager and also talk to Outlook 2010 – they were up to speed during the beta phase. Then the DM talks to the BB so all is well. Except one thing, no amount of finagling, tweaking, registry edits, uninstalling or reinstalling would get the DM to accept the add-in from Companion Link. More hours lost.

Back to the blogs. No real help. Over to Companion Link’s website and Viola! There it is. Simple. Get Companion Link for Google which will sync my Outlook 2010 with a Google Calendar. Then Google has a free software to sync my BB with the Google Calendar – AND, it will synchronize contacts as well. Score? Verizon 1, BB 0, RIM -10, Google 1 and Companion Link 2. But security is now a big concern.

This is what I love about technology. It is an incredible time saver. Right! When it works it is, and I’m sure I’ll be fine once I get over the hump. It seems like I go through this about once or twice each year. But this year, it’s been twice in the last month. First my PC had a hardware problem that looked all the world like it was a computer virus problem – I lost a weekend there too, until I finally figured out that it HAD to be a hardware problem. This past weekend it’s the phone. But consider what this has forced me to do – put my head in the cloud.

Yep, I’m writing this post on my Ubuntu machine (my son would be so proud), while doing my mail in Thunderbird, while keeping track of my calendar with the Lightning Add-on which synchronizes with my Google Calendar with the “Provider Add-on” and my contacts which synchronize with the Google Contacts with the Zindus add-on. All of which are based off my PC and Outlook and now sync with my BB. So while Outlook may be the “center of my Universe” for the moment, I am very much at the mercy of the cloud, Google and the clever guys who keep all this stuff in sync. I’m not as far along as some in this regard, however, even for me at this point Google handles: my voice mail, back up for e-mail, 80% of my searches, SEO, document sharing, calendar sharing, news gathering and blog reader. Yikes! They’ve got me! I wish I had chosen the red pill. I’m too far down this rabbit hole!

So now what I’m thinking is why am I doing all that stuff? Why not just move on to the cloud by ditching Outlook all together – I can use the new Windows Live Computing space for the usual office documents and can certainly migrate to another PIM. It’s pretty scary though. Office is so well integrated that I find the thought of working with all the various add-ons and then not being able to easily share with others to be a concern. However, Microsoft had better be, and I believe they are, looking at all the new ways that folks can find to connect and share. The next step for me might be to explore some more of this alternative, open source software including the work Microsoft is doing in the cloud as well.

Meanwhile, I have to get back to work. Not only have I lost the weekend, I spent time venting on this blog. I know that means I’m procrastinating for some reason. I better find out what and why. I’ll bet there’s an app for that.

—————————————————————————————-

8/11/2010 PS: As if to rub salt in the wounds, after spending additional hours cleaning up contacts so that they transfered in the manner I needed between the three applications (Outlook to Google to Blackberry) I started my PC only to find a download for the new Desktop Manager 6.0 which reportedly will now sync directly with th BB. I’m probably not going to bother since now I’m all set up for moving to an Android phone!

That’s what’s so powerful about getting everyone, the whole company, to fall in love with the noble goal or vision of the company – everyone stays focused to the exclusion of almost everything else. And that’s why the leader won’t let his team fall in love with opinions, ideas or world views because it will not likely help fulfill the vision if our minds are closed to new possibilities. We will see only what we want to see to support our view, opinion or idea.

There in lies the problem. How do you efficiently and with respect get people to let go of their most cherished ideas? In some respects, you don’t have to do that. Belief in the goal of the company will do that for you. In some cases, you may have to move individuals and the tribe to a new mountain top so that their view of the world changes. That is what David Logan means when he talks about Tribal Leadership and how leaders know and understand the language of the tribe where they are presently, and how to move them through the stages of tribal development. The fifth stage of development is characterized, as Logan suggests, by a mood of “innocent wonderment.” In other words, people are not hung up on one idea or world view. They don’t know that things can’t be done. They let their experiences remain in the past and are open to new possibilities and can create their own and the tribe’s future.

I don’t know about you, but I can admit that I love some of my ideas, it’s hard not to. Lot’s of people I know are sure that their view is the right view and that if only others would make the effort to understand, they too would love their ideas and view of “reality.” So what are you doing to challenge and question your own answers and those of your tribe? What stage are you and your tribe in at this point? Are you growing, moving, finding other ways to view reality?

That is what I believe Goldsmith meant with the title of his book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” It’s what Einstein was implying when he said that “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Great leaders adapt. They get that the real meaning behind Darwin’s theory is the survival of the most adaptable (as opposed to the “fittest”). And that precept is proving to be as true today as it ever was. There is a bit of a difference though, and that is that most of us seem to agree that the pace or rate of change is much accelerated today compared to past decades. So we are having to adapt faster.

So how are great leaders today helping their organizations to thrive in this ever increasing rate of change environment? First, they have to develop, communicate and enroll people in a vision for how things will be for the organization. Easy to say, not easy to do. The communication is difficult – people learn differently, some visually, some verbally and some are more kinesthetic learners. And many employees are skeptical, do not want to bother to change and are tired of the latest management initiative du jour.

Next the effective leader will understand where the employees are along the path of personal and organizational development. There are many ways to describe and classify organizational stages. One I like is from David Logan in Tribal Leadership. He describes the organization as being a Tribe and there are five stages of Tribal development (you can read more about this here). Understanding the stages of development of the Tribe, the leader will speak the language appropriate to that level and gently bring the group along through the stages to the highest performing stages four and/or five.

Then the work of the leader is to keep the organization all working toward the vision, the “noble goal” that is an inspiration to all and is also the reason for organizational existence. While keeping everyone moving toward the vision, the great leader will also monitor where the tribe is and as it falls back to a previous stage (and of course, it will from time-to-time), will move them back to the highest performance level.

To my way of thinking, we have the best chance of keeping our organizations moving toward and maintaining a high level of performance if we develop the strength of “continuous learning and change.” Yet, in keeping with the proposed guide that “your strength will become your weakness,” we will have to find the appropriate time to let the Tribe rest and enjoy it’s accomplishments – otherwise our constant change will be the undoing of the Tribe – it won’t know what it stands for without a constant reminder of the vision and a chance to enjoy the fruits of the Tribal labor.

All of this sounds a bit trite. Where’s the action here? What do I actually do? How about this. Start with developing the vision. This is not a group project! The leader (in many cases the founder of the organization) sees circumstances differently than others. Sees the opportunity in the seemingly impossible. The vision, the “noble goal” has to be really big, something that will inspire people to give fully of themselves. Here is where the for-profit company might learn something from the not-for-profits that are so mission driven that they convince people to work for free or at least almost free. People, your people, love to believe their work has a meaning, that they are adding value, that they are giving back to the world. And yes, they also have to take care of the family and other obligations in their lives. But if “my” organization is working to make the world a better place for everyone by providing an innovative product or service, I’m much more likely to move from the stages outlined in Tribal Leadership: from “Life Sucks,” to “My Life Sucks,” to “I’m Great and You’re Not,” to “We’re Great and They’re Not” and finally to “Life is Great.” Can you see this? If your organization is working from the premise that their work products have meaning and they are doing great things, then why wouldn’t life be great? Why wouldn’t they jump out of bed ready to address the next challenge of the day? So start with the vision thing – it can work miracles. Make it a big world changing vision and enroll your people. They will figure out how to head in the right direction and enjoy the journey along the way.

It goes without saying that politicians are “way down there.” But still, our larger business institutions seem to have lost their way or at least they have all been painted with a very large “no confidence” brush. There has been so much bad news, so many bad decisions and such a lack of transparency with some concerns that the whole “big business group” is now held in low esteem.

There are exceptions of course. There are some large companies that for now, the public trusts; they are willing to speak well of them. All of this reminds me of the recent Jim Collins book How the Mighty Fall in which Mr. Collins points out that the very first stage of impending doom is hubris. Along with that ill founded belief that “we can do no wrong,” comes the inevitable culture of it’s all about us. Personally, I don’t think that the size of the company is what we need condemn, it’s the lack of holding everyone accountable to provide the best quality of product and/or service.

So what can we take from all this? Maybe we need to continue to believe in the original “noble purpose or goal” of the company when it was founded. I’m sure it wasn’t just about money. Perhaps we need to keep everyone on target for delivering on the original promise of our company and not let the finances become the reason for existence. I remember hearing someone, it escapes me who at the moment, state that “You can have a great CFO and a phenomenal Corporate Attorney and you will never run out of cash and you will never get sued. But you will go out of business.” While business is a risk and you do have to stretch, you don’t have to bend, break, go around or short cut on ethics, common sense and sticking to your original noble goal.

Even the Supreme Court, conservative by a 5 to 4 margin, knew that they could only “tinker with” Sarbanes-Oxley. They unanimously agreed that the law is constitutional and in a 5 to 4 decision only tweaked the way the Public Accounting Oversight Board is appointed. The message is clear, left to their own devices the large companies will tend to go astray. My opinion is that is because they pay more attention to the stock price than they do to sticking to building a business. They worry about the Wall Street bankers and exchanges instead of the real stakeholders in the company – customers, employees, suppliers and other creditors. When you cater to Wall Street, you are not running your business.

For the small business folks I deal with, the pain caused by all of this is felt mostly in their ability to predict the future and go about their business. Since the consumer and big businesses aren’t spending and the banks aren’t lending, the private companies trying to hold on during this economic reset are challenged at best. Still, they are better off being private and not having to deal with Wall Street. So if only the bankers would get the ship righted and on an even keel, we could begin to hire in the small business sector like we have before.

The rules of the game have changed forever. There are no business folks, large or small, that I have not heard say that their business model is either significantly or completely changed. That’s the good news. We now have plenty of opportunity to get back on track paying attention to our businesses and getting back to the fundamentals of providing outstanding products and services. Collins has pointed out in How the Mighty Fall that we do not need to worry ourselves too much about those companies who have gotten big and arrogant. History shows they will fall. We only have to make sure we don’t let them fall “on us.”

So, as usual, the questions! What are you doing to take advantage of this economic reset to rebuild your business culture to be one inspired by your original “noble purpose?” Are you training, building staff, creating teamwork and generally improving your processes? Are you finding new ways to market? Are you making sure that even as you are successful you maintain a healthy paranoia?

But, like it or not, we are forced to play by the new rules – and they are not all benign. Ask Shirley Sherrod how she likes Andrew Brietbart’s brand of transparency. There’s a Brietbart out there waiting to Sherrod you. Are you watching? Even if it isn’t an ideologue who is two bricks short of a load with an agenda trying to do you in, it can be painful to have your shortcomings pointed out for you instead of by you. BP, not that it isn’t in enough trouble already, has had to deal with a whole bunch of stuff shoved into the light of day by enterprising bloggers. The difficulty is, many (most?) of us who blog (myself included) aren’t journalist nor do we attempt to be. We have opinions and have found a way to express them in writing without having to deal with publishers and printers. That’s great news and it’s dangerous. Who is vetting the information being put out in the blog-o-sphere?

When it comes to your company (or you as an individual) you should be monitoring the internet for mentions of you, your company, your industry and even your competitors. Make sure what you are doing, saying and writing will not damage your credibility when it is published – when, not if it is published. Assume everything – including confidential e-mails and memorandum - will be published. Assume customers/clients who are unhappy are blogging about you, posting YouTube videos and Twittering their thumbs off – because they are and just haven’t gotten to you yet.

“It’s unfair,” you say, “They don’t understand the pressure we’re under. They don’t understand we’re trying to do the right thing.” Maybe, or maybe they get what it is that they want better than you and so you aren’t delivering the goods. They may be wildly unreasonable. But they’re still blogging. So we can whine about the new rules of the game or we can figure out how to use them to play better and to win. Can you get that your better competitors are doing just that?

So take a look at all the business news lately. I know there are good stories out there, but they aren’t

High road? Low road? Expedient road? Profit only road?

being printed. Instead, what’s on the page, in print and floating in the cloud are stories of corporate misdeeds and missteps. Dell apparently knew about bad product and shipped it anyway. BP apparently ignored a whole series of warning signs about the Gulf oil well. Breitbart knew full well he was distorting the news to make his own twisted point and the only positive thing that might come out of this is that Shirley Sherrod will now be known for the good work she has been doing and the world will know not to pay any attention to Breitbart. It doesn’t always work out this way, and it might not work out well for you.

So the bottom line lesson for me in all this is to make sure that we, as business leaders, build and shape cultures in our organizations that are open, transparent and do what’s right for all concerned, not just one group or one person. Even the small private business started by an entrepreneur has an obligation to take proper care of the customers, creditors, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders who help make the company successful. In fact, it seems to me that we have a better chance to do the right thing, to run a forward thinking company and to stay true to the values and Noble Goals we had when we started the company if we stay private. Being a public entity seems to be one sure way to stray from our values.

So what are you doing to monitor the cloud these days? Have you done all you can do to make your company transparent to the stakeholders? Have you built a culture where everyone knows the organizing principles and values of the company? Do they know how to make “the right” decision according to those values and principles? Do your employees know how to cut expenses and not corners?

My prime target is AT&T and without going into a long tirade, I’ll just say that I’ve not personallyexperienced more deplorable customer service at the hands of a company. I’m adding another one now though, Intuit. After deciding that the “gentle warning” on their website that the latest software was best for Windows 7, I paid my money and downloaded the QB 2010 software. That’s when it all began.

Yes, but you keep dropping my calls! Why is that my problem?

First, the software wouldn’t install. The error message claimed that it couldn’t create a directory in the public folders on my CFO’s machine. I figured this was my problem and so it was. After I straightened out the permissions (a bit frustrating with lots of “rebooting”), the software installed. And then I decided that it was smart to register the product since the splash screen warning, in bold red, stated that I only had 30 days to register the product or it wouldn’t function. That tweaked me a bit since I’d just paid about $175 for this upgrade. But, it isn’t unusual for the larger software guys to want you to “activate/authenticate” the software to be sure it’s a legitimate copy. So I swallowed hard and clicked on “Register Now.”

But I've already given you that information. It is in my profile you just looked up.

Once on the registration page, I began a slow boil. There were way too many questions. And they have nothing to do with validating my copy of the software. Many, maybe most of the fields were required. It was obvious they are gathering information to market to me. How many employees do I have, what’s my mailing address, phone number, etc. By the time I got done I was pretty pissed off. And then the sledgehammer in the nose. “Your almost done. Call the 800 number if you’re in the US . . . . I went ballistic.

I could not believe my eyes. First, after paying for the software, then after filling in a ridiculous registration form requiring information that can’t possibly be needed for validation of legitimate software, these clueless people are forcing me to make a phone call to get an activation number. The poor woman on the other end of the phone when I calmed down enough to call didn’t have any difficulty determining that she had an irate customer on the line.

I apologized to her for being angry and recognized that I knew this wasn’t her fault. I told her that the best thing for both of us was for her to simply give me the activation number so I could finish the installation and turn the machine back over to my CFO. She was pleasant and then started going through all the same information I just had put into that obnoxious registration form! Name, company name, address, phone number, how many employees, why did you upgrade, etc. I couldn’t contain myself. It took another 15 minutes but she finally gave me a six digit number to register my product.

What are these people thinking? Are they thinking? I don’t have any trouble with folks trying to do a good job marketing. Send out a survey. Don’t hold me hostage to registering my software. To make matters even worse, the software itself is a marketing tool. I’m blasted with obnoxious messages to buy products and services and have to hunt around to change settings to minimize this crap. They are gathering a lot of information, more or less forcing it out of the customer. That information is a liability. I can’t wait for them to be raked over the coals for mishandling this information. I’ll join the class action suit on this one (I usually trash them).

Here’s the bottom line. I am now investigating using another software package. It’s too bad. QB is used by lots of people and it’s convenient for my CPA. But I will not put up with being abused by an arrogant company without a clue as to how to treat a customer. If they want to validate the install, just send an e-mail to the registered user with the key. Don’t make me call someone and go through the same information all over again. So as soon as I can install other software, that’s what will happen. They’ve lost a customer.

As I was thinking about this, I realized that the story was the same with all the folks who describe their favorite company to “hate.” It’s all being treated poorly as a customer. How customers are treated is a direct function of how the leadership at the top of the corporation/organization set the culture. So the lesson here is to take a hard look at how we are treating customers – either “on purpose” or because we aren’t paying attention. How is your company doing? Are you listening to the needs your customers express and doing everything reasonable to be responsible to their needs? Are you taking customer satisfaction surveys? Even though you’ve had to cut back due to this poor economy, are you still focused on providing awesome customer experience?

So here’s my premise. It is a leader’s responsibility to provide a compelling vision of the real reason for the existence of the organization (whether for-profit, not-for-profit, private or public). S/he must make sure that the organization never substitutes the measurements for the reasons for existence. Here is where I suspect we will find that BP went wrong. I’m confident that we will find that BP leadership has been focused on minimizing cost, increasing efficiency and improving productivity. Employees are not stupid; they watch where management spends time and money and who gets rewarded. They don’t listen to the words spoken uncritically. They match the words to the actions and the actions win every time.

We need to do the debrief and find the causes of this failure at the BP Oil well (we all know there will be more than one). The details will be important. I know, even without those details, that the root cause will be that leadership failed – not the people doing the work. I know that because by definition, leadership has to take responsibility for the results. Providing for proper training, procedures, controls and an environment where the company and employees can flourish are all the responsibility of the organization’s leadership team.

Government likewise is responsible for providing for proper training, procedures, controls and an environment where the services provided match the public’s expectation. One has to wonder what transpired when it came to actually regulating this and other industries. It appears that a major loop-hole in the regulatory requirements for environmental impact studies in the Gulf Oil drilling operation. The last, most stringent impact study was waived not only for BP but for others drilling in the gulf as well. And not only by this administration, but by administrations going back to the first Bush presidency. The public has a false sense of security when they think about industry regulation. They expect that industries are actually being regulated when, arguably, they are not or at least not fully according to the expectations.

So the balance between the right amount of “fat” and a lean, high performing organization is always in tension. If we look at government as being part of the “staff” in our businesses, then continuing the analogy, we need to have some body fat to survive and thrive, but it’s healthiest to have as little as possible. The public has reason to be highly suspicious of a company’s intentions with respect to good corporate citizenship. There are few companies who are genuinely concerned about their impact on the neighborhood, city, state, country or globe. Therefore, the public has supported, perhaps even demanded regulation of most industries rather than a completely free capitalistic system.

What if business organizations were to consider minimizing regulation intervention in their operations by behaving well, making ethical decisions, authentically caring about their impact on the environment and developing a culture that included all stakeholders in the strategy and vision of the business. Sounds like hard work. Sounds like it could take “forever” and be very frustrating. Sounds like it might make life easier in the end. Instead, business leaders tend to think of government regulation as the enemy. I think it was Lincoln who responded to a woman who criticized him for inviting the leaders of the South to dinner at the Whitehouse. She allowed that they were his enemies and he should destroy them, not invite them to dinner. To which he replied by asking, “But Madame, do I not destroy the enemy when I make him my friend?” I’m not sure we will ever see the business and government agencies become friends, and we likely don’t want that since much that has happened is due to an overly close relationship between regulators and regulated. Still, I don’t see how viewing each other as the enemy helps either.

One big lesson from the sad experience of the Gulf Oil Disaster for business leaders is that if we do not do the right thing we will be caught eventually and the results will be more regulation, more red-tape and more Public Relation fall out. BP may well not survive this disaster, and it’s one of their own making. Accidents happen. Yet it is not likely that the public will accept this particular incident as an accident, but rather they see it as negligence. To make matters worse, it appears that BP was less than forthcoming with information because they are looking out for themselves and taking a defensive posture toward future litigation. It won’t work. All that will happen is their reputation, which was not sterling before the accident, will certainly be further damaged by their actions or lack thereof.

For government, the fall out is not going to be any better. The people are not fooled by the self-righteous finger pointing by the members of the House and Senate who are whipping Industry leaders in public and accepting obscene amounts of money behind the public’s back. The trouble is, there are precious few secrets anymore. It will be very interesting to see how the public responds to the BP incident, the financial disaster that continues to plague the economy and the sickening sight of elected officials trying to redirect scrutiny of their actions or lack thereof by demonizing others.That won’t work either. Alas, I doubt that the government officials will learn the leadership lessons that the business leaders will, hopefully, learn.

Some of the responses to this post I found to be lacking in real thought or insight. Not unusual, really, because we all work on auto pilot from time-to-time. The “quick” answers came from those who work based on firm ideologies. From it’s all Obama’s fault because he’s a “marxist from a dysfunctional family background with zero executive experience” and “I think government is just adding fuel to the fire!” to “BP shouldn’t have caused this mess by pressuring managers to rush the work.” I happen to fall more in the camp of wanting to not place blame right now. I’d rather focus on solving the problem and then think about the specific failures – so we can avoid them in the future. Meanwhile, it’s instructive to view the action with an eye to how leadership is being executed and our responses as leaders in our own right.

Transparency:

Companies and Governments have yet to recognize that their actions, policies and decisions will be transparent whether or not they want them to be. We all need to assume that we will be subject to disclosure and perhaps Monday morning quarterbacks. Are any of us really ready for this? Insightful leaders will change the culture of their companies so that they are as transparent as they can safely be – with stakeholders at all levels. You can assume that everything you do and say will be posted on the web for everyone to see. And some things that aren’t accurate or taken out of context will also be published. Have you built trust with your customers, employees, suppliers and owners? Who will they tend to believe? You or the “whistle-blower?” It’s too late to build trust once the fecal matter has come in contact with the rotating blade.

Ethics:

Ethics is a business process. As leaders we all need to make sure that the culture we build is not one of focus solely on the measurements (that is financial results), but rather focused on the value for STAKEHOLDERS, not just stockholders or owner’s equity for private firms. What are we really here to do? What is our reason for existing? I’m sure it’s not just for profits. Are we brave enough to tell Wall Street that we have no intention of giving them financial forecasts and that we are focused on providing valuable products and/or services? That we’re in this for the long haul and quarterly results are not really significant? To me, that would be real leadership.

Accountability:

I see positive lessons here. BP’s CEO, Anthony Hayward has stepped up and taken responsibility. To be sure when it comes to PR, he’s a loose cannon on the deck. Those of us focused on corporate governance would say Hayward’s taking responsibility now is too little too late. None-the-less, Hayward and the COB Carl Svanberg have said that they and BP accept responsibility and accountability for this disaster. They will lose their jobs when this stabilizes, and they know that is coming – the “ultimate” accountability.

I see the President also accepting that he is accountable for making sure every thing that can be done to mitigate this disaster is in fact done. Yet there is little that he can do about what is happening one mile below the surface of the Gulf ocean. What he can do (and perhaps is not doing well) is make sure we clean things up before the oil hits the shores. As a potential Monday morning quarterback, I’m wondering why we don’t have “tons of people” out there cleaning up the oil as best we can before it comes ashore in wetlands. I get that hitting a beach may be acceptable since it’s easier to clean. But come on now, when it gets into “the weeds,” it’s a real problem. And how about the wildlife? Shouldn’t we focus on getting this up sooner rather than later for all lives concerned?

Where I see a big lack of responsibility and accountability is with us, the consumer. We demand inexpensive gas and refuse to alter our lifestyle so that we minimize our dependence on oil. So we have to come to the realization that we are creating this market, the response to the market is to increase supply and the pressure is then put on our elected officials to allow expedited drilling. We cannot blame others for this dynamic, we must accept accountability too.

Making better decisions:

I am not one of those calling for the President to be more passionate – we have enough of that in business and in government. Instead, I appreciate the calm thoughtful approach that seems to be this particular President’s usual method of operating. Turning to academia as well as the leaders of industry to determine what the best possible approach might be seems to be very logical. That takes time and the average citizen is not patient; they are used to solutions being found in less than an hour with time out for commercials.

One of the respondents to the original question stated that “there are at least 20 people in my own company who could do a better job than Obama . . .” His premise is they could do so because they “actually have experience supervising and running something.” Really? I do not know this gentleman and do not know how large his corporation is. I do know that running the U.S. Government simply cannot be compared to running a for profit company – of any size. I cannot imagine having to deal with all the various factions, bureaucracy, constituents and special interests. How do you really inspire, lead and manage an organization comprising 3.7 million square miles, 312 million individuals and 50 states all with their own view on how things should be done? Here’s what I know: If you’re used to running a business, being able to make the decision on how things will be and then DIRECTING people to “get it done,” you will very likely fail at public service no matter how smart you are – UNLESS, you learn to compromise and accept that you do not have the only right answer, you simply have one right answer and others possess a right answer as well. Every business person I know when challenged on his/her statement that it takes a business person to run the government misses that what s/he would wind up doing is turning our democracy into a dictatorship. Perhaps benevolent from his/her point of view, but a dictatorship none-the-less. No thank you, as bad and deplorable as our system is, it’s proven to be the best so far.

I doubt that anyone who has pat and simplistic answers to this challenge have a clue as to how complex and difficult this disaster really is. I’m quite skeptical that anyone who truly believes that any number of people who have run a business or department of a large business can step in and run the United States Government from the Oval Office has a clue how our government actually works (or doesn’t work). This Gulf Oil Spill is an unprecedented challenge. We are learning as we go. There is a plethora of leadership lessons here – both positive and negative examples to be sure.

To me, the fundamental leadership lesson to be learned here is that we cannot wait to make sure our organizations are not only doing the right things, but making sure we are doing them right. We have to inculcate an organizational culture of accountability and responsibility to deliver value in a sustainable business model that does not focus on profits or growth alone. What is the real purpose for your organization to exist? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not profits. Profits are necessary but not sufficient to build a great and enduring organization.