ADR Book Club

A little self promotion here. Please consider for the next book Denmark Rising. It is a highly praised novel which takes a realistic look at what might have happened if Denmark had chosen to use strategic nonviolence against Hitler in WW II. Given the successful use of strategic nonviolence in several Arab countries and the escalating violence in Libya, the issues examined in Denmark Rising are not only timely but certainly fit well within the context of ADR. My website has an extended excerpt and reader reviews www.barryclemson.net or see the Amazon reviews.

The HBO movie Too Big to Fail complements our reading and discussion.   There is a particular scene that I have watched several times. The Korean bankers are negotiating with Lehman Brothers to merge with the company minus Lehman's real estate holdings.  The deal is ready to close when the CEO of LB bursts into the conference room to re sell the worthless real estate portfolio and holdings to the bankers.

The Koreans summarily walk out of the conference room and cancel the entire deal.  This is an AH at the top of the corporation acting more like a lunatic. 

There is an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review entitled "Why Leaders Lose Their Way." by Bill George.  It is more apropos than our current reading since it offers a perspective on the bad behavior at the top that makes daily headlines.  The clay footed politicians, CEOs and international power elite are flawed and may even uphold the "No Asshole Rule."  That is except for themselves. I question the value of Sutton's book and his thesis since he is telling most of us what we already know from our individual and collective experiences.  I disagree that the "AHs" at every level are eventually discovered and routed out of the company or the system.  Sutton's provocative title is his major contribution to business literature as opposed to the book's content. His observations are pedestrian.

 

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John Turley's comments were prescient with respect to the movie "Too Big To Fail." The entire movie and the title bring to the forefront the question regarding how big is 'Too Big To Fail' therefore, how big does a company have to be in order for government action is mandated because of the effect, including the domino effect, of a company failing. How can we be sure that saving the company, no matter how big, is not just a tremendous waste of American resources. If in fact, the failure of the company in question is due to the greediness and ignorance of those at the top, then won't the same failure revisit us time and time again?

I believe it is a question that begs for an answer, but one that is virtually impossible to answer. Why did the government let Lehman Bros. fail, yet then jump in and support other investment banks. And didn't the United States make an error when it dropped the Glass-Steagal Act that prevented banks from becoming so large that the failure of even one of the top 6 or 8 or 10 banks creates a situation wherein the entire American economy is at risk of failure? I know these are truly gigantic questions, but they are some of the things we will have to increasingly have to deal with as we go forward into this century.

And finally, I do heartily agree that all the 'AH's' at the tops of these companies do NOT get weeded out. The game is so political in nature, the earnings per share is so manipulated and the performance measures are so artificially controlled that it is very difficult to weed out the grain from the chaff. There will always be some people at the top, who got there through nepotism or through participating with others in some type of coup, or several other reasons. They will always be there. There is no way to fully purge these people who are good only at one thing: "Hiding their incompetence and advancing themselves on the backs of others." Thank you for the reference and the discussion. I am a brand new member and a prolific reader. I think this club is one that will provide tremendous intellectual growth opportunities.