Tag Archives: Corporate Politics

Understanding integrity

September 9, 2017 By in Corporate Governance Tags: , 3 Comments

Integrity: Constantly acting and behaving in a manner consistent with one’s values.

That is my definition of perhaps one of the most misunderstood and misused words linked to morality. The point here is that integrity is not a synonym for morality or honesty. There are words for that. This is about how we behave. It is easy to label a person as honest, or even as dishonest. But for said person to act with integrity, it has to be with respect to their values, regardless of whether you believe those values to be positive or negative.

So why is integrity deemed to be such a difficult quality to attain? It has to do with constantly acting in a manner consistent with your values. It is too easy to take shortcuts and ignore your values. In business, at work, in the corporate world, how many times have we remained silent in the face of action that violates our values, all for fear of the repercussions? When we say corporate governance failed, what we mean is that integrity failed. Continue reading →

Your guide to handling ethical management issues

July 31, 2017 By in Corporate Governance, Management Tags: , ,

You have spent a lot of time honing your business ethics, governance and compliance skills, but time and again you find yourself in difficult situations and realise nobody taught you what to do.

If I just described you, then this article is for you.

Most of what is taught is with regards to how to act if we initiate an action and, possibly, how to react when a client initiates an action. What I have not seen taught is how to react if your manager initiates an action. In this case there are broadly two scenarios: First, it is a legal and ethical instruction; or second, it is an illegal or unethical instruction. In the first case the employee’s proscribed reaction is straightforward – execute. In the second case it is to not execute the instruction. But is that as simple as saying “no”? Of course not.

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NBAD and FGB's Merger Challenge: Work Culture

July 12, 2016 By in Leadership Tags: , , , 1 Comment

In my last article I talked about the two main paths that the merger of FGB and National Bank of Abu Dhabi could take. The first is simply extending the current business of each by using the path of acquisition rather than organic growth. The second is to trigger a radical redesign of the business model. I concluded that it made strategic sense for FGB and NBAD to take the second path. In this article I touch on how that can happen.

FGB and NBAD are banks and banks, in the end, are predominantly about service. The product part is simple. Money: you can deposit it with them and you can borrow it from them.

The price part, interest rates, is also simple. It has nothing to do with the cost of manufacture as banks don’t manufacture money and besides it is mostly electronic. No, price is driven by the human resources running the banks as well as market supply and demand of money. Since this is driven by people, we can conclude that banks are in the services business.

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What the Board Should Expect of a Management Presentation

February 2, 2015 By in Corporate Governance Tags:

In a previous article I discussed how to conduct an effective board meeting. One of the main elements discussed in making board meetings effective was management presentations. In this article I will explain why most management presentations to the board are less than useful and how the board can help change that. It is a continuation of my discussion on operational corporate governance.

The first misunderstanding is assuming that a management presentation means a PowerPoint presentation. It doesn’t. PowerPoint presentations can certainly be part of the management presentation, but cannot be the sole document as PowerPoint, or any other visual slide presentation software, does not have the ability to present the full depth and breadth of information needed. For this reason it is better to call it the management pack so as avoid any confusion.

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Delegation Will Set You Free

January 27, 2015 By in Management Tags: , ,

Centralised control has failed in every single economic endeavor known to man. As a national economic system centralised control, better known as communism, failed spectacularly in the USSR. More recently China’s attempt to incorporate capitalist elements to its centralised economic control framework lead to the country wasting USD 6.8 trillion in investment according to a recent report by the Financial Times.

Such failure tends to be true at the company level as well. Centralised management, or non-delegation, restricts the potential for a company. The CEO is a single person and if he retains complete control and refuses to delegate then he will limit the potential of the company to his personal ability to manage all of it. On the other hand, a more distributed control structure allows the company to scale its business by scaling its human resources.

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Planning and Reorganising Masquerading as Work

December 11, 2014 By in Management Tags: , , ,

One of the recurring themes in my writing is that there is not enough planning before action is taken. Maybe what I should have said is that there is not enough effective planning. The distinction is important as far too often too much planning and reorganisation gets in the way of real work. My experience is that there are two main sources for this wasteful work: perfectionism and deception. Continue reading →

Disinformation in the Investment World

November 19, 2014 By in Due Diligence Tags: , , ,

The main documents pertaining to the state of a business are either legally notarised, such as the memorandum and articles of association, or are heavily regulated, such as the audited financial statements and analyst reports. This information, however, is not enough to understand the business and quite often colour needs to be added in the form of written and verbal commentary from management. Regulation of this commentary is either light or easily circumvented allowing management to present a picture that is at best optimistic and at worst fraudulently manipulative. I had the unfortunate experience of being exposed to several such companies. Continue reading →

Deconstructing Strategy

October 27, 2014 By in Strategy, Strategy Cornerstone Tags: , ,
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Strategy

I think that it is safe to say that most people entering the work force view strategy as some kind of mystical plan developed by all knowing executives using arcane skills. At the other end of the spectrum I don’t think that there exists a C-level executive who at least once didn’t wonder whether strategic planning wasn’t a ritualistic sham, a cosmic joke played on executives the world over. I know that I have experienced both feelings.

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Corporate Turnaround: Identifying a Toxic Corporate Culture

October 24, 2014 By in Corporate Turnaround Tags: ,

Fast growing economies, such as those found in frontier and emerging markets, have a symbiotic relationship with fast growing companies. Good company performance drives economic growth which in turn drives business. The flip side of the coin is that economic downturns hit companies hard. Both of these scenarios are fertile ground for the development of a toxic corporate culture. Continue reading →