"The only responsibility of corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, is to make as much money as possible for their companies."
When I was old enough to decide about converting any of my multitudes of vocations into a serious career, a knowledgeable someone told me I wouldn't make a good manager as I didn't have the "eye for money". Dumbed down, I thought that the business of managing an organisation required you to have the Midas' touch. Now, at the threshold of entering the the big business of money-making, I begin to realise what he said isn't entirely true.
That the ability to mint money at a mind-numbing pace would take a person places, though true, doesn't imply that he wouldn't need any other qualities. Though certainly not in a position to write a "What it takes to be a good corporate executive" manual, I can atleast theorize that it takes loads of other attributes such as leadership, felicity, the ability to instil fear, respect and warmth all in tandem, charisma, flexibility, humility and less importantly, the ability to match your tie and suit. If it doesn't take all this, then why do CEO's of major organisations indulge in other seemingly disparate pursuits such as improving the quality of school-level and college-level education by funding development projects and by alloting large parts of the company revenue for sponsorship programs. Wouldn't all these ventures merely drain company profits?
Take for example, India, where quizzing has become a rage among the Indian youth, starting from the school going kids and extending upto the employees of different organisations, particularly those in the software industry. There are a plethora of quizzing events held across the country which are permanent fixtures on major holidays of the year. All these events carry with them a huge prize money, being sposored by corporates. Added to this, several talent-hunt competitions for schools are held at an All-India level. To cite an example, the yearly talent-hunt organized by Intel identifies students talented in Natural Sciences.
Why I quote this example is because the motive behind corporates organizing such events is two-pronged:
1) To create a talent pool that would in turn benefit the organisation.
2) To play a role in edifying and honing the future minds that will play a vital role in nation- building.
The point about nation-building brings us to another phenomenon that has caught the savvy of corporate executives, namely, the Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR), a term that management gurus allude, will become the management mantra of tomorrow. Though it its nascent stages, the idea has spread across the corporate world like wild fire. Now, corporate executives are asked to be more "socially responsible" and have a heart and a purse for the less-priveleged in society. Rural-development and help for orphans, mentally-challenged and physically-disabled are mandatory entries in the work-scheduler of every corporate executive Now where did all that talk about money-making go?
