Several years ago, I read a few articles about MMT. Those articles gave me enough of an understanding that I stopped worrying about the U.S. national debt. When I attempted to explain to others why the deficit itself isn’t a problem, they responded with skepticism. I decided to educate myself further and, coincidentally, my son recommended this book as a beginning to understanding MMT at a deeper level.
Business Roundtable: According to the reporting I’ve seen, the Business Roundtable has declared that they are changing the focus of their business from maximizing shareholders’ returns to improving the experience of all stakeholders. Stakeholders are made up of individuals or groups that have an interest in the success and progression of a company. External stakeholders comprise vendors, customers, neighboring companies, …
How You Play The Game: When I was a boy, I learned that we play to win, but how we play the game is more important than winning. If I was caught cheating I was out of the game. I learned a similar lesson when negotiating with other people. The lesson was to negotiate the best deal I could, but …
More Pain: Finally. But who’s going to jail? According to the 2/2/18 article in the Los Angeles Times, the Federal Reserved ordered Wells Fargo & Co. to “cap its growth and improve its corporate governance.” This is supposed to be punishment for “widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns.” But who’s going to jail? And who, really, went to jail …
I am grateful that I had Chapman’s book “on the shelf” (in the electronic reader) to read. I had just finished Jeffrey Pfeffer’s book, Leadership BS, and was pretty down based on what I had read. What a delight and contrast, to pick up Chapman’s and Sisodia’s book. It has renewed my faith in human nature. In this well-written book, …
Not Legally, But . . . I think he has always been wrong, but then, legally, he was more right than I. Friedman once said in a 1970 NY Times Magazine article that “businesses’ sole purpose is to generate profit for shareholders.” The title of that article is “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” My understanding …
There seems to be a big movement towards businesses being more “compassionate,” “conscious,” and/or “triple bottom line oriented.” Maybe it’s the chaotic times causing everyone to be looking for meaning. I’m sure there are many, many books out there on the subject of developing meaning in chaotic times. A few have crossed my desk in the last couple of years: …
Recently I read on a leadership blog, that the author felt that an overriding corporate strategy is a “fool’s errand.” Freek Vermeulen reasoned that divisions or business units in larger companies often have widely different goals, products, consumers and even “brands.” Therefore, a one-size-fits-all corporate strategy is impossible to implement and could harm the organization. Well, perhaps we are quibbling over words, …
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? Maybe, but I think not; and I suspect Buffett would agree. The controversy …
The wealthiest 1 percent of families owns roughly 34.3% of the nation’s net worth, the top 10% of families owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1%.