GUEST COLUMN

GUEST COLUMN

I have a book recently published titled; “Corporations Without Conscience” by Ken Wessel available at Amazon.Com. 

I have the good fortune to be employed by Procter & Gamble and SaraLee and work with a number of clients who pursue the high road of corporate principles, are impeccable in establishing ethics and engage other organizations with values of honesty and truthfulness.

On the other hand many highly placed corporate officials are prisoners of Wall Street (rewarded by stock options,) manipulate politics and are in bed with lobbyists.  They are tempted by greed, lust for power and abuse of stakeholders (employees, suppliers, customers, society and true owners) regarding them as passive supporters of the corporation and its businesses.   However they are derelict in terms of conscience, consciousness and conscientiousness in terms of their accountability to determine needs of stakeholders and responsibility to fulfill these needs.

Behavior of Corporate Officials have driven our economy to the brink of disaster:

·        They have dishonored the principles and concepts of free markets

·        They are sitting on more than $2T in cash collecting interest and failing to invest in better products, technology and organizations; therefore closing the door to more jobs

·        Offshoring is aimed at small degrees of pay and benefits at expense of losing control of quality, customer service, innovation that improves business and most of all abetting declines in the environment

·        Many high officials, politicians, and media pundits are referred to as “leaders” (even though they are clueless about leadership) causing most citizens to become cynical about leadership to the extent they will not trust even the most able leaders

I am aware of more than 900 international and US protests aimed at corporate greed, lust for power and abuse of stakeholders.  My suggestion is that protestors purchase my book to gain insights into behavior of Corporate Officials, their misbehavior, errors in judgment, temptation by greed and lust for power.   The first 12 chapters point out misbehaviors and at end of each chapter stakeholders are called on to reflect on abuse by Corporations, connect with others and create feedback that aims to instill Corporate Conscience.

The following 6 Chapters outline “The Way Forward” that gives hope to stakeholders for creating a turnaround in behavior of Corporate Officials.

Presented by Ken Wessel