Lessons in Corporate Responsibility
Public Radio Intl's The World recently ran a great story about corporate responsibility in the wake of the Japanese financial crunch.
The story is about the demise of Yamaichi Securities, which their own Enron-type flameout in the late 90's. CEO Nozawa Shohei broke down in tears during the press conference in which Yamaichi's impending doom was announced, pleading for the sake of Yamaichi's employees. According to NYTimes correspondent Ken Belson, who was in Tokyo covering the story, Nozawa assigned all blame on the firm's collapse on management and begged for his workers to be taken on elsewhere. "I'll fall on my sword," Nozawa said, taking full responsibility for Yamaichi's collapse (which, incidentally, he had no hand in, having been brought on at the last-minute to try to salvage the sinking ship).
From what I've read, the Japanese take corporate responsibility very seriously. This is in a culture where top management do not make the obscene amounts of money that American CEOs and financial (mis-)managers do (15x vs. 200x the average worker, although the Japanese do get some crazy perks). After the crash of JAL Flight 123 (in which all but 4 were lost), the CEO resigned and the maintenance engineer "responsible" committed suicide to apologize.
(The Chinese aren't as consistent but are pretty draconian when they do get serious about shady dealings.)
I think there's a lesson to be learned here. I'm not saying that anyone should kill themselves over anything that's transpired over recent months - but all of these assholes demanding bonuses for driving the economy into the toilet should take note of what real grownups do.
It's not just for the sake of doing the right thing, either. Case studies have shown that top management publicly apologizing for screwing upis good for business as well as the soul.
So who's going to step up to the plate? Or are we just going hear more shrying about how "top money attracts top talent?"
The story is about the demise of Yamaichi Securities, which their own Enron-type flameout in the late 90's. CEO Nozawa Shohei broke down in tears during the press conference in which Yamaichi's impending doom was announced, pleading for the sake of Yamaichi's employees. According to NYTimes correspondent Ken Belson, who was in Tokyo covering the story, Nozawa assigned all blame on the firm's collapse on management and begged for his workers to be taken on elsewhere. "I'll fall on my sword," Nozawa said, taking full responsibility for Yamaichi's collapse (which, incidentally, he had no hand in, having been brought on at the last-minute to try to salvage the sinking ship).
From what I've read, the Japanese take corporate responsibility very seriously. This is in a culture where top management do not make the obscene amounts of money that American CEOs and financial (mis-)managers do (15x vs. 200x the average worker, although the Japanese do get some crazy perks). After the crash of JAL Flight 123 (in which all but 4 were lost), the CEO resigned and the maintenance engineer "responsible" committed suicide to apologize.
(The Chinese aren't as consistent but are pretty draconian when they do get serious about shady dealings.)
I think there's a lesson to be learned here. I'm not saying that anyone should kill themselves over anything that's transpired over recent months - but all of these assholes demanding bonuses for driving the economy into the toilet should take note of what real grownups do.
It's not just for the sake of doing the right thing, either. Case studies have shown that top management publicly apologizing for screwing upis good for business as well as the soul.
So who's going to step up to the plate? Or are we just going hear more shrying about how "top money attracts top talent?"