Corporate Governance

The Corporate Governance video focused on the balance that a CEO, as the leader of a business, must strike between being attentive to the personal demands of the employees and the need to be productive and profitable. As much as any boss would like to have all of their people come to work every day focused solely on business, that's not realistic. Every business is to some extent made of of human beings that come to work every day with physical and emotional baggage that will effect their job performance.

The interesting thing about the video was that the speaker, John Dean, pointed out that the very human element that could be viewed as an obstacle to productivity, can be turned in to an asset. He used the example of a business that was failing and how the employees rallied behind their boss who had been stricken with a serious illness. By doing all that they could to accommodate the needs of this person, the business gained the trust and loyalty of the work force, which helped it to turn it's performance around.

It would be nice if being a leader of an organization could come with set of instructions that one could follow to ensure their success. However, when dealing with people, no such manual would ever be sufficient. If you do "X" with one person, "Y" will be the result. If you do "X" with another person, "Z" might be the result. In fact, if you do "X" with that same person on a different day, something totally different could be the result. It really makes running a business enough to drive you crazy, but it also is what makes running a business fun. DB