Advice to Chief Executives: Don't Be More Royal Than the King

From the culture of capital...

●      From the texts of the book The Global Problems & The Culture of Capitalism by its author Richard H. Robbins....I read, and I offer advice to the chief executives in companies: "Do not be more royalist than the king"!

●      "Albert G. Dunlap," one of the American business figures.. in corporate circles, wrote in his autobiography (as cited in the book mentioned above): "The company belongs to the people who invest in it, not to its employees, or its suppliers, nor to the place where its workers are located!"

●      Dunlap built himself a reputation as a CEO, A professional turnaround management specialist and downsizer......by reducing the workforce in the companies he led radically (Mass layoffs)), as CEO of Scott Paper he dismissed 11,200 employees, i.e. 20% of the workforce, and at Sunbeam, Dunlap fired half of its twelve thousand employees, and these cost reductions were met with satisfaction and delight by investors.. as a result of rising company share prices, but they destroyed the lives of the communities of the employees they abandoned.. But through the definition that: that investors are the ones to whom company managers owe loyalty..!

●      Dunlap affirmed the fact that capital is more important than people, and than communities!. He highlights the separation and independence of markets from places and obligations, not only toward the workers in them... but also toward the younger and vulnerable generations, which have not yet been born; he also emphasized their separation from the need to contribute to daily life and to the continuity of society..!

●      That happened in America... and it happens in parts of the world.. of course. But relatively... Dunlap is a figure who tried to get close to business owners by getting rid of many workers.. to reduce costs for the capital owners in the company... who were happy with him.. But in return..... his service (Dunlap) was terminated in many of the companies where he served as CEO...... at the first fork ....and the business owners and investors did not care about him .. or that one day .. he had been keen to please them... and get close to them.. it did not avail him with them..... at all.!

●      In this regard, one of my former colleagues told me.. that one of the chief executives at a banking institution proposed a program to solve a particular problem in the bank where he worked.. and it was, from an accounting point of view and according to the experts, well crafted.. however the owners objected to one item of this plan.. and insisted on not adopting it.. After he discussed with them at length... the CEO explained the consequences that could happen to the bank, and to its share prices on the financial market.... if they did not adopt his sound solution plan.. and he was agitated..! A capital owner in the bank answered him with a famous phrase: "You ruin on our hands.... and do not build on your hands" .. meaning: Who are you? In the end...!

●      The advice.. Do your job according to your professionalism and knowledge. And your conscience... and do not calculate on the courtyards..... which certainly do not agree with the palace calculations..!