Toward Successful Corporate Enterprises

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* Ethics are primary.
Ethics are necessary in order to develop trust.
Trust is necessary to sustain business relationships.
Strong business relationships are necessary for results.
Ethics (internally and in dealings with customers) are the foundation of any successful enterprise.

* The buck stops with management.
Management sets the tone.
Management writes (or at least, understands and approves) the documented standards necessary for repeatable processes and high quality results.

* Experiment.
In a good experiment, you and those you share your results with succeed at learning, even if the idea fails.

* Be Good.
You are an example to others, every day.

* Strategy trumps being good.
Not all strategies succeed, but if there is no strategy, you and the company will certainly fail.
If it does not make sense to do something, and it is something likely to be requested beyond just today, then find out why it is being requested.
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All right. Corporate values statements require more than fifteen minutes of thought. Or, maybe not.

This corporate value statement,
which matches in tone what I remember from 2000, sadly for 100+ workers, was destructive. Other factors will no doubt be blamed as well. (The corporation as a whole may have benefitted, assuming this was an experiment that the company learns from.)

Something Deming probably said: "Enterprises succeed through the efforts of everybody. Enterprises fail because of flawed management practices."

Craig Harrison writes well about these sorts of topics.

I Caused the Mess We Are In, and I Can't Fix It

My last professional work experience was in the Enron-age, an era which continued with George W. Bush, and led us to two wars and the collapse of the economy. The zeitgeist of the year 2000 was, if you want to label a Myers Briggs personality type on it, ESTJ or "Guardian". ESTJ-leadership is often defined by extreme confidence plus extreme incompetence, and more about that is written here. "The joke was that when you leave a meeting, everybody is supposed to drink the Kool-Aid." "In the Bush administration, you had to drink the Kool-Aid before you got to go to the meeting."

The era of "The Guardian" felt quite hostile to "The Thinker." Per 67 Nobel Prize winners,"we have lost time critical for the development of new ways to provide energy, treat disease, reverse climate change, strengthen our security, and improve our economy." "The Thinkers" of America hit brick walls. Fortunately, there are future generations of thinkers.

I won't go so far as to claim that leaving my company caused its stock price to stagnate, but government and corporate environments hostile to Thinkers can fairly be blamed for much that ills us. I, for one, gave up trying to influence the corporate leaders of the day. Instead, I joined KALX (the finest radio station in the nation), tried writing, and then somehow got myself married.

On November 4, we moved on from "The Decider" to Barack Obama, an ENFP or "Inspirer". This personality type has its flaws. But, Thinkers, those more interested in possibility than the status quo, are happy for now.

Somewhere along the way, I have moved on as well. More into action. Less into thought. Perhaps, my wife somehow did this to me, or maybe it was the times. I no longer self-test as a "Thinker" and seem to now be a "Scientist". I no longer have the temperament to see the world at the deepest level. If the trend continues, for good or ill, I might even turn into a "Protector".

I miss my old self. I do not miss the Enron Age.

The Nobel in Economics Goes to...

Paul Krooogman.

From the horse's mouth.

A Good Day to Buy Stock?

Wish me luck. I purchased GOOG at 321.50. Also, I picked up YHOO, NOK, SNE, WAG and ERTS.



Update, 10/15/08, Stock Market Advice: Dilbert
Update, 10/17/08, Stock Market Advice: Warren Buffett
Update, 11/8/08, Investment Advice: All you need to know.

Plunder

Rep. Peter Defazio, D, Oregon (above)

Paul Krugman

A free market bailout via Freakonomics.

Outside the mainstream news, there are those such as Danny Schechter who have been writing about the imminent collapse of the American economy. How did he see this coming? The same way he foresaw the Iraq War debacle in "Weapons of Mass Deception," his previous book, by focusing on facts and issues that mainstream media ignores. Richard Power has also been foretelling our economic issues for some time.

But, did you not see it coming yourself?

We have a vice president who says, "Reagan proved that the national debt is unimportant." Industry focuses on short-term profits and refuses to make long-term investments, so Ford and GM think they need $25 billion of federal credit to retool. We have a trillion dollar war paid for on credit. We had a housing boom, paid for on credit. We have increasing income inequality, so, except for the very rich, no one has money to pay for higher housing prices. After a while, as Republicans used to understand, you have to pay the money back, and if wages are not keeping pace, this becomes impossible.

The issue is not about Wall Street, though, in 1999, lobbyists convinced Senator Phil Gramm to eliminate the regulations that would have forestalled the collapse and they deserve their credit. (Credit was a very poor choice of words, was it not?) The issue is the sustainability of the economy as a whole. Some short-term action is justified. But, can a bailout really make the economy more sustainable?

Update:9/26/08: Danny Schecter

A small business bailout. (Also, I still think companies with more than $1 billion dollars profit should face tax consequences that cause them to split into smaller companies. History says they will create more jobs and require less government assistance than their larger counterparts.)

Update:10/04/08:Enron foretold our misfortune, a former executive tells the truth Congress would have heard if it had bothered to listen

Dilbert Surveys Economists

Who do economists think will manage the economy best? McCain or Obama? Click here for Scott Adams' blog entry.

Hint: Mark Fiore's latest animation.

And what of The Economist? They wonder aloud if the sort of thing Mark Fiore quotes is going to cost McCain the election.

Also, since Scott Adams offers it, here is his Dilbert comic:



Okay, scientists, your turn.

(The scientists respond 9/25/08.)

Before I go, may I solve the United States' financial crisis?

If AIG, Bear Stearns, General Motors and Ford were small, their failure would not greatly affect the larger economy. Bigness is the problem.

Why not tax, at a high rate, all corporate profits over one billion dollars in order to encourage corporate spin-offs and to minimize the lobbying power of individual companies?

Historically, small corporations outperform big ones. They also are not always going to Washington for special favors.

What Happens when people lose confidence in the dollar?

Bail Out the Auto Industry?

Arthur Frommer is outraged that the United States will bail out the American auto industry with $25 billion, while neglecting rail transit.

Any company with greater than $1 billion sales is an entity with no face and no soul. If we are going to bail out companies, why not first split up the companies into smaller ones with faces and souls?