Speaking up: after 32 years, reality finally caught up with Ray Kelvin. Staff put the controversial, long-serving CEO on the spot over “forced hugging.” Some 2,500 staff dared to speak up, signing a petition protesting the CEO’s intrusive actions. After three decades in power the serial hugger reluctantly stepped down […]
Tag: trust
Resilience: How ethical business leaders can build their ability to bounce back
“We want to stay a family business. We want to be able to think long term. We want to be able to concentrate on the values—the ethical and moral values, of course that we have…” Sir James Dyson, in Boldness in Business, FT.Com March 2018 Ethical business leaders develop […]
Truth—how leaders can protect themselves from disaster
“There is a chronic culture of lying. We can’t possibly trust such a company. Shame on you.” Angry shareholder at a recent Toshiba meeting When Toshiba’s CEO recently tried putting a positive spin on the state of the company’s finances, distressed shareholders drowned him out. It seemed the truth was […]
Vulnerable: a sure sign of an authentic or weak leader?
In 2007 Vineet Nayar became head of the Indian IT services giant HCL. With over 160,000 employees around the world, he feared they’d see him as out of touch. He worried they’d place him on some kind of pedestal. So the new CEO set up around 25 town hall meetings. each […]
Torrent of law suits trashes corporate reputations
How many law suits is too many? Most (90%) US corporations juggle multiple ones at the same time. These law suits keep legions of lawyers gainfully employed. They can also be highly damaging for those on the receiving end. For instance, even when frivolous they can still undermine a […]
Profits, performance and ethics: ready for the coming convergence?
“Top executives need to be paid a lot to be willing to do their demanding role. Company performance depends almost entirely on the top leadership’s capability. Ethics doesn’t pay, what matters is short term rewards for stakeholders.” These three widely used assertions about business sound increasingly threadbare, unsupported by credible […]
The secret cultural advantage of Indian firms
Fast growing international Indian firms have a built-in cultural advantage. It hardly seems apparent to their rivals in the west. The competitors’ perception is wrong and has cost them dear. Many have lost out to highly competitive Indian companies. Blaming this loss of business on cheap labour, a plethora of […]
No going back–compliance is here to stay
The idea that compliance will take a dive in importance due to a changed US administration is laughable, if it were not affecting some normally quite sane people. It is true Donald Trump seems no fan of compliance and has gone on the record as saying the Foreign Corrupt Practices […]