The coronavirus showed us the difference between management and governance. Apparently, it’s not very fruitful or wise to try to carry out an ill-designed task properly. All pre-designed business models are now hit by harsh criticism.
People from all around the world are fed up with this deterioration which is a result of the fact that critical decision makers have been making their business plans under the motto of “Do the right job” not “do your job right”. Obviously, no one could have predicted that the world would be hit by such a huge outbreak. But, the world was already sitting on a knife-edge long before the coronavirus.
I have received some criticism about my recent article “Do not confuse risk management with crisis management”. “Avoid making more than 30% of your profit from the same group, company or country, similarly maximum 30% of the product you buy must be purchased from the same supplier” was also criticized by people. But, you know what they say, “you have to be cruel to be kind”. Those who make their preferences being aware of the upcoming risks should not have the right to complain when these risks turn into reality. Should they blame neither life nor weather conditions for their own mistakes.
In corporate organisations, it is the top-level managers who determine the organisation’s vision and set the company goals. And the business plan is always developed by the CEO in accordance with the target markets and the company’s goals. The job of the Executive Board members is to hear the business plan, approve it or make the necessary changes to it if deemed necessary. Following the goal setting, which must be designed in parallel with the company’s vision and mission statements, CEO and the rest of the personnel should execute this business plan in the most effective way possible. After this stage, the Executive Board shall run regular audits to see whether there is anything wrong with the execution. Governance is the job of the Executive Board while the business professionals are responsible for the proper management.
But if these tasks are intertwined with each other, failure would be inevitable. If employees who are entrusted with the task of carrying out the responsibilities determined by the Executive Board are prevented from doing their jobs in the correct way, then there would be no order at all. Frequent interference with strategy, tactics and operations would result in utter failure.
“CEO finally quit, hopefully company can be saved…”
Turning the Executive Board into a club full of irrelevant people just to appear a little bit more “corporate”, the CEO would soon start to stop the discussions that he can’t wrap his head around, prevent members from making decisions that do not match his/her own wants and desires or try to change the previous decisions at the upcoming meetings. Companies that change their minds frequently are not destined to attain success.
I’ve recent read a great article by Şeref Oğuz, titled “Never seen a company with unhappy employees, and a happy CEO”. An excellent piece of writing indeed…
If the CEOs try to control the business rather than trying to control people and try to be more patient and more realistic, they can create a safe and happy work environment in collaboration with a management team that is capable of doing the right thing. But if they tend to act like more than just a CEO, they would not be able to pay the respect the company deserves. And eventually they would fall into a vicious circle as they try to blame the personnel for their own mistakes. This type of CEO loves to control people, not the business.
Slaves to their egos, CEOs in Turkey tend to hire back people they have fired before, but not those who quit the company. However, a high employee turnover rate in a company usually shows the incompetence of the management. The companies that manage human resources at their own sweet will, without even trying to understand why this employee resigned from his/her job in the first place, would never be able to create any value.
I’m sure some people will get easily offended over my opinions I expressed in this article.
But sometimes I wish that CEOs are all gone so that the company can be run by intelligent professionals.
