Managing Companies in the New Economy

How To Manage Companies in the New Economy [John Robb’s Radio Weblog]

John suggests that the new compact between corporations and previously ignored stakeholders is “reward us, provide us more for less, integrate with us, train us, and invest in us and you get to keep your job.”

John is right – in the wake of Enron, Global Crossing and Andersen, employees and business partners have more power than they used to. But corporate behavior is directed by one thing: compensation. It’s how we measure rewards, how we punish behavior we don’t like (by witholding that compensation). In order for the corporations to make the shift John is predicting, we need to identify how they’ll make money behaving the way we want them to.

Perhaps the answer isn’t how they’ll make money, but how they’ll avoid not making it. Interesting. If I’m reading John correctly, he’s suggesting that the only route for corporations to survive is to embrace open access (for partners, suppliers, employees) and open standards (for integration).