If corporate leaders and their acolytes are not slaves to some meritorious social purpose, they run the risk of being enslaved by their own ignoble appetites.
Interpretation
Corporate leaders must prioritize social good to avoid being driven by selfish desires.
This quote by Gary Hamel emphasizes the idea that leaders in the corporate world should not only focus on profit and personal gain but also consider their responsibility towards society. If they fail to uphold a noble social purpose, they risk becoming trapped in their own greed and materialistic desires, ultimately losing sight of the greater good that their leadership could serve.
In practice
This quote can be used in a corporate training seminar to highlight the importance of ethical leadership.
The real damper on employee engagement is the soggy, cold blanket of centralized authority. In most companies, power cascades downwards from the CEO. Not only are employees disenfranchised from most policy decisions, they lack even the power to rebel against egocentric and tyrannical supervisors.
The biggest barriers to strategic renewal are almost always top management's unexamined beliefs.
To create an organization that's adaptable and innovative, people need the freedom to challenge precedent, to 'waste' time, to go outside of channels, to experiment, to take risks and to follow their passions.
If customer ignorance is a profit centre for you, you're in trouble.
It doesn't matter much where your company sits in its industry ecosystem, nor how vertically or horizontally integrated it is - what matters is its relative 'share of customer value' in the final product or solution, and its cost of producing that value.
The single biggest reason companies fail is they overinvest in what is, as opposed to what might be.
The really expert riders of horses let the horse know immediately who is in control, but then they guide the horse with loose reins and very seldom use the spurs. So it was with our chief [William Rehnquist]. He guided us with loose reins and used the spurs only rarely to get us up to speed with our work.
I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
I think the most effective way to run a kitchen is to teach, not to just yell.
Anytime you get an award as a coach, you've got to be the ultimate fool to think it wasn't your assistant coaches and all the players responsible for the award.
Dedicate yourself to a core set of values. Without them, you will never be able to find personal fulfillment, and you will never be able to lead effectively.
The King himself should be under no man, but under God and the Law.
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