Organisational Value System

Came across this article by Bruce Lewin on linking Financial & Cultural Values

As Bruce says, while both Cultural Values & Financial Values have a role to play in defining who/what the company is, and how it goes about achieving it’s goals, they are almost always managed differently. While the Cultural values are often explicit (or at least the company will try to make it so), and have a broad ownership, Financial Values are more often implicit in the way things are…they are usually not analysed, rarely debated and almost never linked explicitly to the Cultural Values.

I thought the article made some very interesting points. What do you think?

Big Picture Guy on Career Decisions

One of the blogs I read regularly is Big Picture Small Office. It’s the (only mildly tongue-in-cheek) description of the Corporate travails of a senior executive who goes by the moniker Big Picture Guy (or BPG for short).

Sometimes funny, at other tragic! As he says in his introduction, nothing & no one is spared. It’s the story of “a big company that manages to think small“. Now, if that reminds you of your company, don’t say you weren’t warned. The blog is littered with stories all of us can identify with at one time or another in our corporate careers. It manages to entertain without being trivial. Dilbert, this is not! There is no snide humor here. This is real life baby!

It’s littered with memorable characters ranging from Black Widow (the VP-HR) & General Ledger (VP-Finance) to Ms. Pigeon (the President’s secretary, sorry Executive Assistant) & Rigor Mortis (VP-Legal), and covers with brutal honesty, candor & wit a range of corporate misdemeanours from Reorganizations to Promotions, from Awards to Policy-making, Planning committees, et al.

The blog is also fairly well commented upon, with some very informed & informative discussion ranging in its portals. Some of the best business bloggers choose this place for their incisive yet pithy comments on the topic of the day. Some other idiots (most notably yours truly) also infest the place looking for some of the wisdom to rub on us! 😉

Lately, BPG’s tone has turned a bit morose. One gets the feeling that his heart is not in his job, that even though he’s still fighting against the dying light, he doesn’t feel too hopeful for his company’s future. Some of the recent posts have been fairly bitter when compared against some earlier ones. The reporting has become more fact-based, than satirical. (Hey, I’m not complaining! If anything, I feel it’s probably better this way!)

In one of his recent posts, BPG talked about an offer he’d received from another company. The post closes with:

I make a lot of noise in my own quiet way. However, I find myself, all too often, ranting to the deaf, too frequently railing to the disinterested. I have learned to be satisfied with small victories, amused by small incidents, comforted by small friendships. I must now ask myself: is that enough?

In one of his comments to the above post, he says:

“There is a precipice on either side of you – a precipice of caution and a precipice of over-daring.” I must look ahead – not back and not to the sides – for the answer.

Good luck BPG! And thanks for the advice for all Corporate Warriors. Y’all do go take a look here.