Joseph Lee
Barack Obama swept into the nation’s capitol, and with a few scribbles of his name, started the process of dismantling eight years of Bush policies. He faces a Congress that will largely embrace his changes, mostly because the Democrats have a comfortable majority in the House and only a 2-seat deficit to get to the filibuster proof super majority in the Senate. The economic stimulus package was passed after a hard fought battle. Washington will get its change.
The news from the business world continues to disappoint, but perhaps most surprising is not that the economy is tanking, but the fact that even in these tough times (or perhaps because the times are tough), we discover Madoff’s brazen $50 billion ponzi-scheme, the $1 million renovation of Merrill Lynch’s CEO Office, or the $18 billion of bonuses paid to managers of those very financial institutions that are begging for bail-out funds. Obama instituted a $500,000 max on executives from companies that receive bail-out funds, but it just seems business executives simply “don’t get it.”
Actually, they do get it. The truth is that self interest is the surest way to get ahead in our society. Business leaders simply follow in the footsteps of their bosses, and those bosses are the ones that have shown the rest how to rig the system in their own favor. Board members, even outside directors, are executives of companies who do not want their boards to clamp down on their own compensation packages—it is simply not in their self interest.
Continue reading ‘Why Change Happens in Politics–NOT in Business’
