It’s a good time for crooks of all kinds.

Corporate shenanigans are a growth industry. Not since the days of the robber barons has white collar crime enjoyed such freedom.

OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS, nearly every institution of American life has taken on the unmistakable stench of moral rot.

Tax evasion siphons 10,000 times more money out of the U.S. economy every year than bank robberies. SOURCE: FBI; IRS.

And this clubbiness has human costs. Tax evasion, to pick just one crime concentrated among the wealthy, already siphons up to 10,000 times more money out of the U.S. economy every year than bank robberies. In 2017, researchers estimated that fraud by America’s largest corporations cost Americans up to $360 billion annually between 1996 and 2004.

Tech took a personal hit thanks to Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger and his views on EBITDA, which stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Tech companies love to talk about their “adjusted EBITDA,” because it makes them look profitable — even a financial loser like Uber.

“I don’t like when investment bankers talk about EBITDA, which I call bulls— earnings,” Munger said at a recent company shareholders meeting. “Think of the basic intellectual dishonesty that comes when you start talking about adjusted EBITDA. You’re almost announcing you’re a flake.”

Tech workers aren’t faring well, either, even at the most hallowed companies.

Silicon Valley has often held itself up as a highly evolved ecosystem that defies the usual capital-labor dichotomy — a place where investors, founders, executives and workers are all far too dependent on one another to make anything so crass as class warfare. The recent developments at Google have thrown that egalitarian story into doubt, showing that even in the most rarefied corners of Silicon Valley, the bosses are willing to close ranks and shut down debate when the stakes are high enough. (…)  Workers weren’t just organizing to save the world from Google. They were also organizing to save themselves from Google, where those who didn’t fit the mold of the straight, white, male techie felt they could be too easily marginalized or dismissed.

The rot isn’t just trickling down, it’s a raging torrent. Student cheating is at an all time high across grades and globally is a billion dollar market.

Philemon is part of the global industry of contract cheating in which students around the world use websites to commission their homework assignments. (…)  Lancaster began studying contract cheating more than a decade ago when he noticed one of his own students posting assignments online. “I found one of my students who was putting up my assignment up for tender on an internet site. So, people were bidding different amounts of money to complete that computer programming assignment.”

Let’s hope the handbasket we’re careening down in is well made, so we can survive our trip to Hell and come out the other side in one piece.

Image credit: Newtown grafitti

Hat tip to KG for sending me the white collar crime article.

Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: Ken Meador

When I wrote about Ken Meador, CEO of TWR Lightening for my other blog I called him to clarify a few things. Ken is one of those great executives who actually return their voice mail and he and I had a great time talking—it’s always fun talking with someone on the same page as you. I asked Ken more about TWR’s culture and how it affects turnover productivity and their business. At the end I asked if he could find time to share his thoughts in writing about TWR and business in general.

Here, direct from Ken, are his comments and thoughts…

“If by turnover you are referring to the 52 employees, for us that is a relative non-issue. Effectively we have added 4 new people in the past 4 years. The average employee tenure is 11 years, with three who have more than 20 years. Those numbers speak for themselves in the form of mutual benefit, loyalty and commitment.

Because we maintain lean head count and a very flat organizational structure, we are able to capitalize on personnel strengths/experience to match or best fit in with our product diversification and market changes.

Our growth over the past few years afforded a number of promotions built on “tribal knowledge” which inherently adds value to our customer and vendor relationships.

Our increases in productivity have come in numerous ways including the understanding and adoption of lean manufacturing techniques, cross-training, fully utilizing and trusting in the investment we make in our peoples empowerments and continually fostering a “no change, no gain” attitude in the way we do business.

The pay-off for TWR Lighting, has been and continues to be that the responsibility for our continued growth is accomplished by a lot of great people who collectively manage the company, instinctively drive our revenues, positively affect our SG&A and diligently tend to our EBITDA.

As a culture ,TWR Lighting learned a long time ago that change was inevitable and sometimes harsh way of life and we could either adapt more rapidly than our competition or die a slow death.

But then, change doesn’t come from slogans or signs, it comes from embracing it as factor, and having the right people in the right places to make it happen. And for us, the changes in the market environments and forecasting to readily adapt require more than eliminating bureaucratic red-tape, it means the daily review of the cyclical or commodity nature of the raw materials we purchase, and the leading indicators in the financial markets which affect our customers or customers’ customer.

We continually strive to stay cognizant of the big-picture economic conditions which sooner-than-later trickle down to our corner of the market. Our crystal ball isn’t any better than anyone else’s, but we are getting better at understanding and utilizing cumulative information to discern our options.

After 27 years, this company still is learning daily how to walk and execute on what we know . The plodding reality is that nothing I do as a company president, nor anything we do as a culture is original or new. Most of what our culture has evolved from and practice each day is a culmination of ideologies and best practices stolen shamelessly, and put into action to the betterment of the company. Distilled, it’s purely a matter of simplify, simplify and re-simplify.

From a personal view, probably the biggest mistakes made in businesses today involve jaded and self-serving leadership that takes itself far too serious, the by-product of which is complication processes un-necessarily, saddling right-sizable employees in job functions and reporting structures un-ceremoniously and then having the gall to promote “our people make the difference” hawking customer-care initiatives to the point of glossy lip-service being funneled into never-ending voicemail hell.

What a load!! Managing businesses, even large businesses, shouldn’t be that contrived or disaffected, just be candid and open, put your people first, follow the cash and manage to it, then strategies and everything else will follow. What we do isn’t brain surgery or rocket science—then again most businesses aren’t.”

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