Not only did the original HJ Heinz envisioned a global company, but also one that built employee loyalty by treating people well—and he did it starting in the late 1800s.
I never realized any of this until I watched Heinz; it is one of the Biography series on CNBC and I’m sure you can find a rerun of it in your local area. Here is a teaser.
Heinz’ belief that “heartpower was stronger than horsepower” and his idea that his employees should be treated like family were as revolutionary then as SAS’ attitude is today, but that belief helped him build a global brand long before any other company conceived of, let alone considered actually doing, it.
Here is another quote that today’s so-called leaders would do well to consider.
“Quality is to products what character is to a man.”
The truth of that statement is blatantly obvious if you consider the products and people from the likes of Enron, AIG, Wall Street and Madoff.
I read a great post by Jennifer Miller on the ubiquity of ‘perfect’ in descriptions and the dangers of embedding perfection as a goal in corporate culture.
It reminded me that ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’ are right up there with ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’ on the overused/abused scale—more, actually, since they represent a condition beyond human abilities.
Humans don’t do absolutes particularly well.
They do better on a strictly personal level when they have absolute control over all parts of the equation, but even then their score leaves much to be desired—just consider the infidelity statistics.
Add to that the fact that the standards themselves are a moving target. Even those that seem to be absolute, like murder, have a definition that changes with societal attitudes towards what constitutes a victim.
Since humans so often fall short of perfection, society and corporations codify the definitions to make it easier to adhere to them. That’s especially important when it comes to ethical stances, which is why condoning deviations, as described yesterday, is so devastating to the organization.
The take-away is simple: never establish goals that set you or your people up for failure.
If you are prone to talking in absolutes, “we will always…” here is a simple rule to guide you.
“We will always” is acceptable if you are discussing well defined intangibles, such as ethics and values that apply equally to everyone in the organization, but isn’t applicable in setting tangible goals, such as quality rules for defects.
Ethics. Integrity. Both words weave their way through most business and political news these days. So I thought is would be fun to see what some famous folks have said about them over the years.
As I read through dozens of quotes I couldn’t help wondering at the hypocrisy of so many in politics and the financial industries had ever done the same—or if they would even recognize themselves if they did.
Think about it; Albert Camus said, “A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.” If that is the case there are a lot of beasts running around these days.
If it’s true that “integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching,” I wonder what it means when people skip, ignore or just don’t bother when people are watching—maybe that’s the real definition of arrogance.
If Samuel Richardson was correct when he said, “Calamity is the test of integrity,” then Washington and Wall Street fail miserably and they certainly don’t believe Anon’s common wisdom that says, “Don’t worry so much about your self-esteem. Worry more about your character. Integrity is its own reward.”
Perhaps they aren’t guilty by reason of insanity—that is if we concur with Nietzsche, “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
The last word goes to Albert Einstein, “Relativity applies to physics, not ethics.”
Join me tomorrow for a look at why flexible ethics are what really pave the road to Hell.
Well, what did you expect today, if not quotes about fathers? I did try and find some that weren’t too common and made good points with wit and a touch of irreverence, since I don’t easily digest saccharine.
I think Louis Adamic hits the nail on the head with this bit of wisdom, “My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.”
More than century ago Wilhelm Busch made an excellent point that is even truer today than it was then, “Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough.”
I always get a laugh out of watching my male friends’ reactions when their daughters start dating; they rightly assume that every guy who comes around is thinking the same thing that they thought when they were the same age. Enid Bagnold summed it up neatly when she said, “A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.”
Obviously, the movers, shakers and wannabes of Wall Street never heard the same advice from their fathers that Dexter Scott King heard from his, “My father said, ‘Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?'”
Finally, all you dads struggling to find the right words to connect and communicate with your kids (it applies just as much to daughters) would do well to factor in this final quote from the sage Anon, “Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice”
Columnist Donald J. Myers, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, bemoans the lack of integrity so prevalent today, in and out of the military.
The military goes to extreme lengths to develop integrity because, unlike the civilian world, a lack of integrity in the military costs lives — not just money.
I would argue that the excessive lack of integrity in the corporate world has also cost lives; the thousands whose lives were destroyed by Enron and the recent banking debacle, among others, cost lives and, although most are still walking, they are definitely wounded, some mortally.
The last couple of years media has been trumpeting the importance of leadership integrity and various surveys of global executives confirmed its importance.
But that was then and this is now.
Fast Company cites a new study by IBM—
For CEOs, creativity is now the most important leadership quality for success in business, outweighing even integrity and global thinking… The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews, with over 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries polled on what drives them in managing their companies in today’s world.
Here’s how the numbers broke down—
About 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking.
(Yes, I realize that totals 147%, but it’s IBM…)
I have no argument with creativity, after all creativity gave us Avatar, iPods and Viagra, but it also gave us CDMs and CDOs.
This points up how important it is for leaders to practice integrity as they embrace creativity.
Wally Bock has an excellent post regarding his rethinking of the value of the MBA Oath and its possible effect on future ethics. Wally quotes from a post by Scott Eblin entitled “Why we need an MBA oath.”
“What doesn’t get said, doesn’t get heard. If the MBA Oath causes even a few leaders to stand up and say out loud how they intend to conduct themselves then it was worth the effort of writing and promoting it.”
Sanders suggests that today’s leaders got their ethics lessons watching JR and Gordon Gekko and many followed in their footsteps, so perhaps Hollywood could produce a new batch of TV shows and movies that focus on CEOs making tough choices and doing the right thing.
Perhaps Tom Hanks (as a John Wayne character) could play the role of a competent and honest CEO — a person respected and trusted, and who inspires others to do the right thing when confronted with compromising choices.
Sanders may be on to something. How about a group of forensic accountants fighting financial crimes a la CSI.
Most kids need ethical examples beyond their parents and they do look for them in their various entertainment forms.
The problem, of course, is money. All entertainment mediums build their offerings around what sells and what sells is from the dark side.
It doesn’t matter that JR and Gekko get their comeuppance at the end, viewers’ well-developed “but me” tool reassures them that their outcome will be different.
But like the MBA Oath, it can’t hurt and it might help.
According to Drew Pinsky MD, AKA, Dr. Drew on radio and TV, and S. Mark Young, a social scientist it may be especially dangerous for young people, who view celebrities as role models.
“They are the sponges of our culture. Their values are now being set. Are they really the values we want our young people to be absorbing? … It harkens back to the question of how much are young people affected by models of social learning. Humans are the only animals who learn by watching other humans.”
18 year-old, 6-foot-5, 200-pound “Colton Harris-Moore is suspected in about 50 burglary cases since he slipped away from a halfway house in April 2008. Now, authorities say, he may have adopted a more dangerous hobby: stealing airplanes.”
Adin Stevens of Seattle is selling T-shirts celebrating him and there is a fan club on Facebook.
I’m not surprised, in a world where serial killers have groupies and people fight for souvenirs of death-row inmates it figures that they’re going to romanticize someone who manages to not get caught.
But what makes me ill are his mother’s comments, “I hope to hell he stole those airplanes – I would be so proud,” Pam Kohler said, noting her son’s lack of training. “But put in there that I want him to wear a parachute next time.”
It’s tough enough to grow up these days; it’s tougher in a dysfunctional home or in areas that are gang-controlled, but what kid stands a chance with parents like this?
What can we do? Where can we find more positive role models that have the glamour that mesmerizes kids and grownups alike?
When will we glorify function instead of dysfunction? Meaning instead of money?
“The bottom line, though, is I am sure there will be a lot of legalistic explanations pointing out that the president lied under oath. His [Livingston] situation was not under oath. The bottom line, though, is he still lied. He lied under a different oath, and that is the oath to his wife. So it’s got to be taken very, very seriously.”
“I think it would be much better for the country and for him [Livingston] personally (to resign). I come from the business side. If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he’d be gone.”
“What I find interesting is the story of David, and the way in which he fell mightily—fell in very, very significant ways, but then picked up the pieces and built from there.” (King David, who slept with Bathsheba, another man’s wife, had the husband killed, married the widow, but continued to ‘lead’.)
“Too many people in government seem to think they are above regular folks, and I said I would expect humility in the way each member of my team served—that they would recognize that the taxpayer is boss.”
“We as a party want to hold ourselves to high standards, period,”
I hope you’ll come back tomorrow as this conversation continues.
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I read a great 
The last couple of years media has been trumpeting the importance of leadership integrity and various surveys of global executives confirmed its importance.
Sanders suggests that today’s leaders got their ethics lessons watching JR and Gordon Gekko and many followed in their footsteps, so perhaps Hollywood could produce a new batch of TV shows and movies that focus on CEOs making tough choices and doing the right thing.
Last Friday I wrote 
“The bottom line, though, is I am sure there will be a lot of legalistic explanations pointing out that the president lied under oath. His [Livingston] situation was not under oath. The bottom line, though, is he still lied. He lied under a different oath, and that is the oath to his wife. So it’s got to be taken very, very seriously.”
