Corporate Australia
Humanity is facing a crisis of moral leadership - men and women of character who can choose wisely and well in the difficulties, dilemmas and complexity of contemporary business and government.
One of the biggest risks we face today is an assumption that because people share or subscribe to our corporate values, that they in fact share our moral perspective. Enron, LIBOR, AWB, unanswered questions at Note Printers Australia, and any number of examples would indicate immediately that is not the case.
The public travails of St John’s College and its students throw into stark relief the need to ask questions of potential employees to gain an insight about their moral outlook. It would be foolish of any organisation to assume that academic prowess equates with sound character.
Continue reading "Grooming corporate cowboys for the Enrons of tomorrow" »
Is it right that foreign employees of an Australian company get paid Third World wages while foreign managers of the same company get paid first-world salaries?
Do we still believe in the principle of equal pay for equal work? Or is it a case of George Orwell’s famous line in his novel Animal Farm to the effect that we are all equal but some are more equal than others?
All good questions as Australian companies are increasingly shifting operations offshore. We are told that Australian wages and salaries are too high and that moving offshore will “save” the company money by cutting labour costs.
Continue reading "The high salaries and low morals of corporate Australia" »
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Dhian says:
People are pelope. The pelope in govt are no better than the pelope running or working for businesses. BUT pelope in businesses can lose their jobs a lot easier than pelope in govt. People in govt also tend to start feeling that they are god(s) because no one can really… Read more »
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Luke says:
Thanks mate. I will be looking into it. Read more »
It’s a management case study that will live on in textbooks for decades.
Just weeks after banning employees from leaving post-it notes on computers or eating lunch with strong odours, resources giant BHP has announced a whopping great profit of $A22.5 billion, up 85.9 per cent.
Of course it wasn’t only the absence of messy post-it notes that pushed profits into the stratosphere. There was also the company’s nation-wide crackdown on jackets slung over the backs of chairs. Oh, and record prices for Australian coal, iron ore and gas.
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Max, of Rocky says:
Yeah right, you are forgetting something here, BHP has paid ROYALTIES to state governments from day # 1. They pay royalties on everything they sell, to each state, before a profit is made on their investments. They pay royalties when they do not make a profit. See link below http://www.queenslandeconomy.com.au/taxes-royalties-generated-by-resources… Read more »
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Tony P Grant says:
There is a long list of “neo-con’ apologists on this blog but that’s what you have and we know where they have always been coming from…trillion $ rescue packages globally etc The tax they pay? The tax they (Billiton/BHP) actually pay is post costs, they aren’t the old PAYG tax… Read more »
Have a guess how many of Australia’s top 50 companies have at their very heart a good idea.
Not mineral resources, selling other people’s goods or repackaging money in increasingly intricate ways, but an actual good idea which spawned the genesis of a new business.
It’s a pretty easy answer - none.
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Kim says:
Australia is now nothing but a bogan infested quarry, and grossly uncompetitive at doing anything but digging up dirt and shipping it to China. All innovation is dead. Every industry except mining is in a drawn-out recession. I’m a 36 year old Australian, who has been around the traps, and… Read more »
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Squeeze says:
Excellent point Hanrahan. And our industries have formed good partnerships with the likes of CSIRO through enterprises like Australian Wool Innovation. But does it take 20 million people to run a mine, a farm and some tourism and education facilities. At what point does the army of accountants, auditors, public… Read more »
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