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Breastfeeding A Dinosaur

By Ailish M. Nic Phaidin
Brevard Technical Journal

During a recent conversation with a corporate executive we discussed her company's reliance on foreign investment. Her major investors are Malaysian and they view all manner of issues quite differently - including return on investment and how it should be achieved.

Because these investors hold the majority shares in her company, she is limited in her structural and strategic decision making maneuverability. That's always a minus, because her primary investor Board of Directors representatives, whilst highly knowledgeable, only want to see monthly summaries of the corporate state of affairs. They're not fully understanding, nor indeed acknowledging, of the new (and old) SEC and financial regulations is proving problematic too.

This woman's dilemma lies somewhere between keeping her investors onboard; managing a corporation during an international economic downturn; relying on an employee base that is beset with fears about pay cuts - or worse still, termination; and, keeping ever-more demanding customers happy. Therein lies the nub - a seriously lacking transparent communications policy.

As with thousands of other companies, the governing process is flawed. Not much has changed, at least to any decipherable extent, since the debacles of Enron and WorldCom. In spite of the various departmental investigations and judicial actions, boardrooms continue to teem with what I can only describe as 'the usual suspects.'

The atmosphere today in corporate United States of America - and indeed in most other faltering economies, is one of redundancies (firings, masquerading as 'downsizing') whilst the companies continue to reward their CEO's for such actions. Thus, breeding grounds for fear, intolerance, higher productivity, and burnout are rife.

If CEO's are being handsomely rewarded for redundancies, then they are either failing to motivate themselves, other than towards even more handsome financial pay-outs; or their workforce, or over-hiring took place initially, or mis-management. Or, perish the thought, a combination of all four, coupled with a Board of Directors that is still, after all the lessons not learned, largely only interested in showing a fat profit every quarter.

Much has been said and written about changes in management and corporate governance. Much still needs to be said and written.

CEO's who foster an atmosphere of fear are usually more likely to employ senior managers who are like minded and who spend an undue amount of their time on managing their stock price upward. Fear stifles passion, and passion for one's product or service is the sustaining force that drives employees to produce, market and sell to and retain the best customers. Best customers could be described in the long-term. Energy and time wasted on short-term customers is frequently an indicator of a company lurching from weakness to weakness.

One should build a business for the long-term. To do this one needs to focus a substantial amount of attention on workforce and customers. If the workforce has the perception that their talents are only required in the short-to-medium term, then the company can only expect lackluster-to-even-less-lackluster performances.

When companies appoint CEO's of this caliber, they did not perform their due diligence. They could not be said to have governed, but could be said to have been governed by a need to be seen to hire the 'best' candidate as opposed to hiring the best candidate, irrespective of the personal preferences of strong individual BoD members. Sometimes the overwhelming trawl for a CEO will lead to the appointment of a candidate who appears to have all the qualifications and prerequisite talents, energy, enthusiasm, motivation, temperament, knowledge, and skills base. By not questioning their attitude towards themselves, the workforce, and the customer base is always a huge, and potentially disastrous, oversight.

BoD's then must ensure that their executives perform due diligence on potential and actual investors, particularly, major investors who wield substantial power - often from afar.

CEO's who expend an inordinate amount of time consulting with money-market and other 'experts' have much to learn. They would be well-advised to perform an audit of their communications policy in an effort to maximize their ability to communicate with their workforce and their customers. In a harried day, this can be a difficult task. If they don't, their company has the potential to be a weak short-to-medium term enterprise and it may be best to resort to buying the high-protein formula instead of the time-consuming and nurturing breast milk.

If you are a CEO who has a consistent supply of expensive high-protein formula available, good luck! Nurturing a dinosaur in the fast lane is a dangerous trend. Consult with any mother who has no use for high-protein formula. She's bound to have a few suggestions. Surely she has learned a thing or two about communication. Talking coherently to a fetus, and understanding its responses, is not a talent with which we should tinker. The fact that she understands an unseen culture, has successfully communicated with it, and has developed a strategy for its long-term survival - and all in a few short months - is surely a valuable asset to any company.