2010
Six Attributes of Companies Worthy of Your Business
In our ongoing research for the book we are working on (Good Company) we have done extensive interviews with executives as well as front-line employees. In these interviews we have been seeking to understand how the convergence of “meta-forces” (globalization, technology, demographic change, political and regulatory change, and environmental change) is shaping the future of business. No small undertaking.
This process has led us to the identification of six key attributes that organizations must develop in themselves (and their leaders) to thrive in the future. Companies that exhibit these attributes are also the types of companies with which we’d want to do business ourselves.
- Reciprocity—a mindset of seeking mutual benefit (rather than exploitation)
- Connectivity—using the fundamental need and emergent power of human beings to be connected, informed, and effective through new forms of electronic sharing and collaboration
- Transparency— a willingness to expose the reasoning behind decisions with stakeholders (essential to rebuilding trust)
- Balance— the wisdom to make judgment calls amid competing priorities, such as short-term versus long-term goals and the desire for transparency versus a legitimate need for secrecy (e.g., mergers or new products)
- Courage— doing what is right despite possible adverse consequences in the short-run
- A Purpose for Being—Henry Ford’s words of long ago are more true today than ever: “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.”
Tagged balance, company philosophy, connectivity, courage, reciprocity, transparency