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Title: Value Shift: Why Companies Must Merge Social and Financial Imperatives to Achieve Superior Performance by Lynn Sharp Paine ISBN: 0-07-138239-9 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good on framing issue but not actionable or practical
Comment: I give great credit to Lynn Paine for framing the importance to organizations on making "social/ethical" issues a top priority. I loved the first chapter. However, she stays at a high level. When it comes time to provide action steps for companies to act ethically and develop and manage an ethical culture, she falls short by only providing a few questions relevant to executives by which, if ask and answered honestly, would provide a leader a "moral compass."
As we have seen in the press, it is not always the senior executives who perform ethical misconduct. Quite often it is the managers and employees of an organization that make unethical decisions that put the organization in harms way. So my disappoitment is in that she did not provide practical (and I stress practical) strategies, processes and tools for an organization to provide its workforce to adress the dozens of potentiallly unethical situations managers and employees face everyday that provide the same risk, if not more, than a few bad decisions by executives. The questions that she provides for executives are not practical for managers. I doubt a manager at a manufacturing plant will take the time to "reflect" on the thought-proviking questions provided by her to help make good decisions. She offers several examples of companies that she considers are making progress, but these steps are still at a very high level.
I offer an insight. There is a reason why the books "Execution" by Larry Bossidy and "Good to Great" are best sellers. Executives are asking for more actionable and practical guidelines to execute strategies in companies that already have established processes and cultures.
It is obvious that Lynn Paine has great insight and vast experience. I would like to have seen actual steps (i.e., training, communications, proceses, standards) by which a current organization, with an established culture, can leverage to shape their culture to fit this new ethical standard.
I hope she writes a "how to." I will be the first to buy it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent synthesis of moral philosophy and business reality
Comment: In this book Lynn Paine does an excellent job of unravelling and clarifying the complicated issues surrounding business ethics. She convincingly argues that a new definition of business success is emerging, one which includes financial performance but also embraces wider considerations.
A lot of current writing on the topic of corporate social responsibility is based on the vaguely defined concept that "ethics pays". Paine agrees that there are many tangible benefits for companies embracing wider responsibilities, but shows that ultimately an "ethics counts" approach has more to offer. She backs up her perspective with business examples from around the world, and with illuminating philosophical and legal analysis.
I strongly reccommend this book for anyone interested in the future of business.
Rating: 5
Summary: A New Yardstick
Comment: There is an emerging standard of corporate performance that encompasses moral and financial dimensions.
Lynn Sharp Paine, a lawyer and professor at the Harvard Business School, argues companies are being rated as if they were human beings; they are being asked to provide more than profits to their shareholders. The market demands that corporations respect their employees, be reliable to their customers and communities and be transparent with their investors.
The author argues "ethics counts" provides corporations with value-added in the truth, loyalty, gratitude and reciprocal respect it engender among its stakeholders. The new bottom line: a corporation's success comes down to the quality of its decision making. Moral scrutiny is becoming as important as financial performance in stakeholders' evaluations.
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