Corporate Vices: What's Gone Wrong with Business? Paperback - 2002 - 1st Edition

First line

JOHN MAY THINKS HE HAS THE NUMBER OF AMERICA'S TOP COMPANIES, and that number is $100bn.

From the jacket flap

OK, so there have been a few corrupt CEOs, accountants and auditors who have grabbed the headlines and forfeited their get-out-of-jail-free cards. This is not about them. This is about why no one in their companies thought to stop them. It's about why they weren't just discouraged, but rewarded.

It's about the corporate, not the personal, vices of corporations large and small, new economy and old, which leech productivity and demean the best efforts and loyalty of employees and managers alike. Charles Cohen smokes out the corporate vices which are so common as to be almost unremarkable in most organisations and asks: why do we put up with this? How do we stop it?

Looking behind the headlines of spectacular corporate disasters, such as Enron and Marconi, as well as corporations that are under pressure and going nowhere, Charles Cohen identifies throughout each chapter the common theme of badly run companies, that they fail to realise, or just forget, the importance of productivity as they explore ever more sophisticated and expensive ways of satisfying other more immediate needs, like keeping cash profits high to satisfy shareholders. At the end of each chapter youll find a do-it-yourself 'vice or virtue' test. Just decide if you agree or disagree with six fairly commonplace statements to get your rating. You may be surprised what you discover.

Corporate Vices puts an alternative way of running companies on the table in its many examples of good businesses. These are companies that manage to keep their eye on the ball, even at a price: not achieving corporate glory, turning down the latest technology, and opportunities to enter new markets.