Pleasantries: Why? Be Direct, It is Safer.

The one thing that you notice when having worked in different countries is that the social and professional conventions used in business are not the same in every workplace.  Body language is different in Africa and the USA etc etc.  Understanding this is a pretty basic skill and most professionals get it.  Well most of them ....  but that is another post for sometime in the future.

There is one thing that fascinates me about many people - their innate preference for avoiding the truth.  Is it because they just cannot express themselves, or are they just socially inept as managers (or maybe just introverts in disguise)?  Most of the time they seem simply not to want to either listen, or deliver the basic message - without all the disguises that are typically used and then described as just being polite. They then are baffled why messages get misinterpreted and things go off the rails.

Stakeholder Interests Have to be Balanced

One of the things that I have been trying to do is understand exactly what is required when doing due diligence on a company, whether it is well established or a startup.

Part of that evaluation is undoubtadly understanding why the organisation exists, what the problem is that it solves, and whether its value proposition resonates, but there is another dimension which is equally important - how it approaches the management of its various stakeholders.

While I was researching the topic I came across this article by Charles J. Fombrun on Forbes.com about How To Restore Your Company's Reputation which describes why some organisations have suffered because they have paid more attention to short term financial results than longer term value.  The article identifies 7 key indicators that need to be addressed: