I feel another
rant coming on. I don’t know if you feel
the same but I am finding the atmosphere around the Brexit/Bremain controversy
increasingly confrontational and less and less of value for the uncommitted
voter at least mainly because both sides are deliberately confusing the
electorate with opinions disguised as facts.
Worse, they are peering
into the future as if they knew what was going to happen. That most respected economics sage, Vistage
UK speaker Roger Martin-Fagg says that all forecasts and predictions on
whatever subject and by anyone have two potential results:
They are either lucky or wrong.
Of course there is
little that we can do about it until June 23rd when we can enter the
cross on the voting paper and hope that we will be spared more controversy for
a while. It is called democracy in
action – the whole of the UK electorate expressing their views on the matter in
hand.
On another though
relevant subject there has been much angst recently following a report by
experts (or as Kenneth and William Hopper
call them in their brilliant book, The Puritan Gift “so-called experts”) as
to the potential effects of the rampant Zika virus during the forthcoming
Olympics in Rio.
In essence the “expert” opined that the Games should be
postponed, moved or abandoned t0 prevent the spread of the virus into currently
unaffected countries.
I was intrigued
and not a little irritated by a comment from yet another so-called expert that
as the World Health Organization, the public health arm of the United Nations
was “not democratically elected” its
conclusions and opinions should be ignored.
Really? Was he being serious?
If it is to be “democratically elected” then what is the
electorate? Is it everyone in the
world? Such crass stupidity does little
to encourage anyone to listen to these people.
I am a committed
democrat even though Winston Churchill described democracy as the “least worst option”. Democratic methods are rightly used to elect
our representatives to local councils, Police and Crime Commissioners (in the
UK), members of the European Parliament and above all, Members of the UK Parliament.
That having been
said however, the executive branch is first elected through the majority of MPs
from one party and then the Government is appointed by the Prime Minister and therefore
not democratically.
In the Gettysburg
Address, President Abraham Lincoln described democracy as “the Government of the people, by the people, for the people” and
that description has not been bettered.
However we must
accept that democratically elected Governments are not automatically
perfect. For example, and we don’t need
to expand on it, the populace democratically elected Hitler and the Nazis.
What, then, has
this to do with business and more to the point, leadership in business?
We have yet to see
democratically elected leaders of businesses apart from perhaps in the case of
some exceptions like co-operatives. In
the main they are self-starters, have come up through the ranks or have been
appointed from outside the business.
In each case they
are there because of demonstrated or potential performance and the ability to
drive the business to growth and success.
The method,
meritocracy, could almost be termed “undemocratically
selected” and it seems to work pretty well.
Those who do not
meet the expectations of all the stakeholders generally get pretty short shrift
and rightly so. They have the lives and
careers of the employees in their hands and that is a mighty responsibility.
Fortunately we generally
take care in selecting our business leaders, judging them on demonstrated
ability, past performance and overall would they be a good fit in the business.
There is no better
or worse option. Democracy only works
where there is a logical electorate and if there isn’t one, undemocratic
selection is a working alternative.
It starts with
either talent spotting potential leasers already in the business or by good
recruitment techniques that emphasise attitude rather than skills and
experience.
Rant over, I feel
better now, thank you!
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