Friday, March 15, 2013

Corporate America, You're Doing it Wrong

I know, you're looking at the title of the post and rolling your eyes at me being a cynical bastard again. Well, you can tell yourself that if you want. But you are doing it wrong...it's why I became a mercenary. I figured out the game and now I play it instead of letting it play me.

The More Things Change the More they Stay the Same
Well, not really. I'm still being exploited for someone else's profit, but it's better than it used to be. I've given up dreams of institutional achievement and only two constituents really matter anymore: my family and my clients. The rest of you are just infrastructure, trying to sell me on the golden rung at the top of a ladder that I know is made of pyrite.

Your Job is to take Care of Products, Employees, and Clients
Oh there's some gold there all right, but you have to sell your soul to get it, not by making a deal with the devil, but by complacently doing the same c-level executive horseshit that most of them do. You might not even be doing it intentionally but you're destroying dreams by the thousands by succumbing to the typical corporate insensibilities. Your constituent is just one entity: you. You will blame the stockholders and board of directors for making you do stupid things like purposely putting your product quality at risk, your employees in the crapper, and your clients last in the food chain. That excuse doesn't wash; if you are going to blame the stockholders and the board and then take profits, you don't understand leadership. And that's your primary job. You don't build widgets or beat the pavement anymore; you're supposed to be a strategic thinker that builds the company's future with keen decisions, reliable relationships, a vision for the future, and respect for the past. But nope. It's all about you, and it's gutless.

You're doing it wrong.

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