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WHITE:
I would agree. Because we have social media, individuals all over the
globe want to know what is going on, and because there are names to put with the faces, the crisis is more real.
It also makes people wonder what they are teaching in business schools.
What is the motivation? What is different?
FORQUER:
So there is a big and personal impact that is global in nature. If you
had to put up posters for underlying causes of this recession, what are
the issues, what are the things you would fix?
LORD:
I’d start with board governance and also how executive management
understands board governance itself – the necessity for governance to
go beyond simple compliance and impact the total strategy of a company.
FORQUER: So there is
everything from the structure, to the kinds of issues that top
executives deal with, to the way they spend their time, to the level of
involvement with the company.
PETERSON:
Echoing Neville Isdell’s thinking about “connected capitalism” (see
cover story beginning on page 16), I think what has happened is that
people have become unconnected and the concept of greed – “I’m going to get my share before you get your
share” – has manifested itself through individuals at the corporate
level.
FORQUER:
One of the underlying assumptions in business schools is to align
things to promote economic liberty, which promotes democracy, and the
best way to achieve that is to focus on investors. Are you saying that
there is something about that thinking that’s a problem?
PETERSON:
Yes, Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, said that “you can
succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” You have to
consider the community, the value chain, the suppliers, your partners
and customers – the classic stakeholder analysis.
HUSS:
The teaching moment of all this for me is that the focus has to become
much more external than it has been before. I happen to
have in my mail this week a notice from the Conference Board of one of
their major conferences, and the leading event is dealing with outside
influences. We took the markets for granted and tried to do the best we
could without considering all the factors that were part of
them. There has been a lack of external focus from decision makers, and
because of this, decision makers find themselves in the “agency trap,”
not realizing that in their positions they may be agents for people
beyond whom their personal transactions suggest. I
would put it all under the umbrella of gaining a more external focus.
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