Isn’t it enough to keep people employed and earn a profit?
The short answer is yes CSR matters and no it isn’t enought to just employ people and earn a profit; and it never really has been otherwise. The truth is that now there is more transparency (like it or not) around what companies and business owners are doing. And there is obviously much discontent over the widening gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” or, if you will, between the 1% and the 99% to use the now quite ubiquitous rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street Crowd.
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Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Ethical Corporation, Growing Edge, Leadership, Management
What is an entrepreneur?
Harvard Business School defined entreprenuer this way: “Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”- Howard Stevenson
I was reminded of this several times this past month. First, over on LinkedIn, one of the groups I frequent posted this great article from Inc. Magazine. It’s an interesting read.
Entrepreneurship is creating something out of nothing. And of course there has to be a fair amount of leadership quality in the entrepreneur, at least in the beginning. Besides this article, I was reminded of the “entrepreneurship puzzle” as I worked with a colleague on his business idea presentation for his peer advisory board. That, in turn reminded me of the success gained by one of my UCI mentees in starting his own business. These two gentlemen are very different in training and background. Yet they both have the desire and the drive to build their own businesses – “without regard to resources currently controlled.”
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Entrepreneur, Howard Stevenson, Leadership, Management
A colleague mentioned that he was not able to meet with me over the weekend. He was attending a “Wisdom Weekend” course and would be tied up. Really? Wisdom in only one weekend? I chuckled and made some comment about how he’d be really scary if he had any more wisdom and wondered if he was teaching the course. But of course, this conversation started me down yet another rabbit hole of inquiry. What is wisdom?
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Leadership, Learning, Risk, Wisdom
It’s a problem. Perhaps you were “slow” to adopt to technology. Maybe you really don’t understand this stuff on the internet, e-mail, web sites, Blogs, Facebook and now Google +. Somehow though, because of business or your kids pushing you to join Facebook, you are “hooked.” It’s worse than you think. You now have an obligation to learn how to at least be safe without being paranoid.
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Leadership, Learning, M86 Labs, Malicious Programs, Malware, Scams, Spam, Technology
The sun makes my point. What point? I have been known to make the statement that “the universe is indifferent and knowable.” I usually am prompted to make that little observation when someone is complaining about how things aren’t “fair,” or how they have been “mistreated.” Generally, I shrub, make my statement and suggest that the only way to get out of their situation might be to learn what they need to learn and take action, because the universe doesn’t give a hoot about whether you survive or die. It just doesn’t care!
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heat, Leadership, life on earth, Management, Sun
It seems that manufactoring in the U.S.A. may not be such a bad thing after all. The Economist, Moving back to America, pulled together some interesting data that indicates all countries may well be looking to build factories to meet market demands, not to re-import “back home.”
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Economist, Leadership, Made in USA, Management, Manufacturing, offshoring
In a previous post, I laid out the basic model for understanding the deep underlying knowledge that drives our lives which I’ve called our “Fundamental Organizing Principles.” These FOPs form the foundation for not only what we hold to be true, but also how we see the world around us and interpret what we think we see. Recent work in the area of understanding the human brain and outlined in several books reviewed on this site (Brain Rules and The Believing Brain) give credence to the proposed model.
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fundamental organizing principles, Leadership, Management, Shaping the Corporate Culture
By now you know that Buffett’s heir apparent, David Sokol, has had to leave Berkshire Hathaway under an “ethics cloud.” As you would expect, there is much speculation around how much of this falls on Buffett and what he should be telling us about the incident. My view is that Buffett owns it all. Harsh?
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Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett, business ethics, Ethics, insider trading, Leadership, Lubrizol, Management, Sokol
One of the (many) attributes ascribed to great leaders is that they know who they are. They are sure of who they are being and it is very likely they have thought deeply about why they are so. Without that self-knowledge and confidence they would not be as effective in their leadership. They would be at the mercy of circumstances.
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fundamental organizing principles, Leadership, Management, Shaping the Corporate Culture
Nice guys finish last. The only reason for a business to exist is to increase shareholder value. As long as it’s legal, you can do it. If it’s not legal and the fines are less than compliance costs, you can do it. If you think you won’t get caught, you can do it. Caveat emptor. Enron, WorldCom, Bernie Madoff, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. And lest you think it’s only business, check out the Federal Workers Unions, Teacher’s Unions and the Teamsters. And go ahead and name your favorite political scandal; Joe Wilson, Tom Delay, Charlie Rangel, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton. The list goes on and on and on. How about the sports figures and scandals?
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Ethical Business, Ethical Corporation, Leadership, Management
