IT'S OUR VALUES THAT COUNT

That’s perfect. But is it true of many/any larger companies? Is she in fact living in an idealistic dream world?

As a writer of many business books I’m sometimes asked if I’ll ever write a “proper book” i.e. a work of fiction. To which I’m always tempted to say that I already have - all those books on marketing, presenting and decision making…but that is to use irony to the disservice of all those kind people who bought and read my books. The temptation to do it is there because the world of stories is somehow seen by many as more important than the world of data, trade and customers.

Increasingly even the best companies like John Lewis are struggling to retain their lustre. When I talk to people who work there (which is as often as I can) I’m increasingly getting a “yes but” response. The biggest issue is “it isn’t like it was and management don’t listen like they did.” But, overall, it’s still a good company with, yes, some respect and trust.

But I have this sense of values being, like patriotism, the last refuge of the scoundrel or the lazy executive - they are more rewarding to talk about than prove useful. In GE, in its Jack Welch pomp, the first question anyone asked of a colleague was “are you hitting your number?” In Michael Lewis’ wonderful book “Moneyball” the story of the remarkable success of the Oaklands Athletics Baseball team in 2002 was about statistics and proven performance not style, potential or values.

Great values set alongside poor results is widely regarded as unacceptable whilst great results set alongside rotten values used to be regarded as OK. Until recently - until Weinstein, Travis Kalanick and others were stopped in their tracks. The King of Hollywood and the Emperor of Start-Ups dethroned on moral not financial grounds. The world and the importance of values have changed. So is my cynicism justified?

I was intrigued to discover what people thought who are in the front line so I emailed about 50 people and asked them if they thought “respect and trust are the foundations for any company.”

Well cynicism loses because the overwhelming response was “yes” and to my greater surprise nearly all thought this was true where they worked now. One of them said this “Respect and trust are the foundation of all relationships and companies are a collection of relationships”. 

But this isn’t simple – as someone noted several factors are fundamental not just two. But here’s an atypical response that made me giggle:

“Most companies have a very mixed set of foundations ….  these could just as easily be 'fear and suspicion'…. I have seen some pretty non-respect-and-trust places work quite well for a long time if they provide sufficient personal benefits for those who are critical stakeholders”. 

So overall my own guess that cynicism would win was wrong. I've seldom been been so glad to lose a bet.