Page 248 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

scandals; and the subprime mortgage meltdown. Subtle problems that in
the past would have been handled in a boardroom—if they were even
found—are now resolved with rapid firings, public shamings in the Wall
Street Journal, investigations, indictments, big fines, and prison.
What has happened to American organizations, thanks to the thuggery
of Enron, is the same thing that happened to the American government
in the early 1970’s, thanks to the thuggery of the Nixon administration.
The blind trust of the people is now gone. Watergate ripped the veil off
that trust, and so did Enron and friends. People now expect and are enter-
tained by business scandals, as much as they expect and are entertained
by political dirty tricks.
At the same time, thanks to cable TV and the Internet, there has been
an explosion of news outlets all looking for a good story. If you happen
to provide one, you can make a
reporter’s career. There is also a pack

TALK TO mentality among the press, so if one
REPORTERS reporter catches you at something, the
REGULARLY. DO IT entire Fourth Estate follows nipping
TO KEEP YOURSELF behind.
ON YOUR GAME As an executive, you now have to be
MENTALLY AND TO extra careful not to draw the wrong
MAKE SURE THAT kind of attention to yourself. You can’t
YOU CAN TALK TO take a golf trip on a vendor’s tab. You
THEM WHEN YOU have to think twice before offering a
contract to a friend. If you are running
REALLY NEED TO.
a museum, you can’t buy smuggled
antiquities anymore. The rules have
changed, and behavior that used to be standard practice is no longer
acceptable.
At the same time,senior executives also cannot afford to be ostriches and
ignore the press. When you have your head in the sand, that only makes
your butt that much more of a target—and you won’t see it coming.

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