This article by Luke Johnson on the Financial Times website on why big businesses are bad for business, with the point made that the senior executives of these large organisations are very similar to public servants of large government departments, strikes a chord with me.
We are in a situation of assets being slowly controlled by fewer and fewer hands. More and more companies are interlinked through shared ownership structures, and are plagued with the bureaucracy of governance which is emerging more as protecting directors from prosecutions than actually following through on whether governance is really adding value.
Issues such as risk, vulnerability, bribery and corruption that occur outside the usual Anglo-American governance regimes is a major problem. All our studies indicate that 80 percent of business transactions outside European or American boundaries involve more than one bribe, or a substantial amount of bribery, [...]

Markets today are even more focused on the short term than before. To get an organisation to think more for the long term, the current incentive structure for businesses, which is based on short-term equity gains and market-based lending, needs to be re-evaluated to accommodate longer-term opportunities and responsibilities.
A recent article by Dominic Barton in the Harvard Business Review , titled “Capitalism for the Long Term” , raises a relevant and fundamental question: do we have a leadership challenge or do we have a fundamental shift of philosophy concerning the nation-state in terms of how markets are being guided today?
At this point in time the jury is out as to which of the two options really is going to gain favour. On the one hand, taking a long-term view of capital, and having a powerful top team and a supportive board that [...]

Last Sunday I came across an article in the Observer by Martin Parker ( If only business schools wouldn’t teach business , Nov 30th), outlining how Business Schools should rethink their position as well as their curriculum in this period of downturn. I found it appropriate and welcome.
The shareholder value philosophy of pedalling management techniques to literally thousands of students, and by so doing limiting their horizons to units of three months, is seriously flawed. The alternative is stakeholder value thinking and practice, which requires delving deep into concerns of corporate responsibility, the future role and contribution of boards, and the nature of the business/government interface. Such considerations have been given minimal attention.
So far, I am with Martin Parker. Think broader, dig deeper and see beyond quarterly profit targets. Yet, Martin Parker argues on behalf of Business Schools promoting a new capitalism. Why? [...]