When things go seriously wrong in an enterprise, there is inevitably a search for a culprit. Who is to blame is always great water cooler gossip, but what is to blame may offer more insight. Often blame lies in a lack of prudence. This paper is about prudence. Prudence is...
When a crisis hits, the severity of the consequences escalates if blame is directed towards you. Whether it is a workplace shooting, environmental damage, accounting scandal or an "act of God" like a tornado, nobody in business intentionally courts disasters. In fact, responsible companies and managers take pains to avoid...
John M. Mason submits: There has been a lot of discussion recently about who is to blame for the current economic and financial situation. I firmly believe that Alan Greenspan cannot be excluded from those that deserve such blame. There is only one question that needs to be asked:...
We all love to take credit when things go right, and shift the blame when things go wrong. It’s especially tempting as a leader. The leader is perfectly positioned to blame just about anyone and anything when things go wrong. As a leader, you must take responsibility. “Take” is...
Vonage Losing Customers: Who and What's to Blame?horrible customer serviceVonage is absolutely the worst company I have ever dealt with. I literally was on hold for their "customer service" dept for over 2 hours in the course of 3 days. I finally talked to one person who was...
Tim Iacono submits: There are two new views today on who to blame or who not to blame for the recent run up in oil prices that has galvanized the country and the world, citizens across the globe prodding their lawmakers to take action, to do something - anything...
MADRID (Reuters UK) - The Chief Executive of oil major BP BP said on Monday oil supply was not responding to higher demand and that the argument speculators were to blame for record prices above $140/barrel was a "myth". "Supply is not responding adequately to rising...
Tom Brown submits: Wall Street loves sports analogies, so allow me to offer one: the credit-rating agencies are to the financial guarantors what Tim Donaghy is to NBA officiating. You think I’m overstating things?...
At times, the differences between business and science place considerable stress on their relationship. Scientists blame businesses for staking their claims for product quality based upon unfounded and unjustified assumptions. Businesses blame scientists for doing research that is irrelevant outside the laboratory. When problems arise in information systems of large...
"Go ahead," says the headline of an essay in BusinessWeek, "blame biofuels" for rising food prices. But the article itself says: "Apparently the problem has multiple causes." Oh! Apparently, some of those causes are higher fuels costs, rising worldwide demand for meat, speculation...
Mike Steinhardt submits: Listening to farmers and farm lobbyists and congressmen from farming states and ethanol producers and ethanol environmentalists and food companies - you’ll often hear claims that the massive increase in food prices especially corn is mostly due to the rise in oil / energy costs. It’s...
Jordan Kahn submits: In this last part of my series on the oil bubble, I am going to take a look at the supply side of the equation and touch upon why Congress might be as much to blame, or more so, than the oil companies at which they...
Once, back in my consulting days, I was pitching a client in London – and choking terribly, blathering on about how my agency could help make the prospective client into a "thought leader." Fortunately, a friendly member of the client's team was somehow able to make...
One of the qualities of superior men and women is that they are extremely self-reliant. They accept complete responsibility for themselves and everything that happens to them. They look to themselves as the source of their successes and as the main cause of their problems and difficulties. When things aren't...
It had looked like Jerry Yang would at least get a few months to prove he could right the listing ship that is Yahoo. Perhaps it's days now. The issue: Can you really turn a company around when the talent is heading for the exits at a...
Leadership is all about inspiring others and getting work through them. An effective leader knows the ins and outs of his/her subordinates. He/she uses the aforesaid information to the maximum while dealing with the team. However, there are some ‘spoilers’, which tend to reduce the ability to lead. They include...
Kevin Stecyk submits: The article Oil Summit to Take on Speculators subscription required in Saturday's Wall Street Journal mentions that high powered officials are looking at the role of speculators. by Kevin Stecyk
Investors' expectations are outpacing executives' projections when it comes to growth, creating a seemingly no-win situation. But smart leaders don't blame the world around them when there's a growing gap between expectation and reality; they look within their own four walls. They not only create a great growth strategy that...
This article alerts that if the credit derivatives market is to provide its participants with the benefits they are seeking its credit event definitions need to describe accurately the events that are to be captured. It also follows that no blame is to be attributed to a restructuring process by...
Oil Reaches Record High: Who's to Blame?Oil company profitOil companies made lousy profits throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and had to conslidate to keep investors happy. They spend billions of dollars on exploration, with no guarantees the investments will pay off. When GE does this or Dell or Microsoft in...
