4 ms·

Solution: take away some of the formal powers of management - for example the ability to assign resources on personal decisions. A manger wants X to happen so

Solution: take away some of the formal powers of management - for example the ability to assign resources on personal decisions. A manger wants X to happen so spends Y of her budget to hire a team to do it. That is power. Simply make all such decisions open, transparent and democratically elected - in other words have employees vote. We live in a world where we value democracy but spend our working lives in autocratic dictatorships. Yes Coase and efficient allocation, but really I think information revolution is changing that equation. Democracy in companies now! Struggle brothers !

zepto 6y ago
I upvoted you because the point about spending our working lives in dictatorships is very valid, but I don’t think for a second that voting would work.
- lifeisstillgood 6y ago
  But ... let's look at GE. It's basically worth nothing at net now. And it was the great poster child for brilliant management decisions - that take any industry and run it using GE managers and allocate capital the GE way and it will win. Turns out not so. This is the lesson of history - great Kings and Emperors really do make great world beating decisions. But anything less than great leads to disaster whereas parliaments don't do great but they do keep growing and managing well for centuries. We need to stop relying on great CEOs and kings and look for ways to run a company well. PIRC has lots of research on the central founder risk to long term value. but just ask this - imagine Elon Musk retires tomorrow. Do we want to hope we hire his clone or do we want a strong driven community of engineers to keep knocking out battery improvements for 2 decades. I know which one i want my money in, and which one will make better headlines.
  - zepto 6y ago
    Everything you just said is fine, however, nothing in your comment in any way suggests or supports the idea that voting would work. Agreeing on a problem is not the same as agreeing on a solution.
    - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
      Ok - so we agree on a problem. Just to ask, what solution have humans found to replace dictators and kings apart from (weakly or strongly) elected parliaments ? Rome had two consuls (or three), but I am not sure that's a big step beyond one. I just think we need to find the right ways for democracy to evolve not just chuck it in the bin :-)
      - zepto 6y ago
        Again, no argument from me, but also no argument from you that direct democracy would work as a form of corporate governance. Can you find even one example of where it has? The closest I am aware of is Mondragon, but Mondragon has almost no direct democracy - voting is for people rather than decisions.
        lifeisstillgood 6y ago
        As a brit I have recently learnt to be wary of direct democracy (ala referendums) but frankly I will take any form of democracy as a bastion against the mono-culture. Perhaps we can take heart from the media - https://www.ft.com/content/afe3386e-d3bb-11e4-a9d3-00144feab7de https://www.ft.com/content/afe3386e-d3bb-11e4-a9d3-00144feab... - The Guardian's editor was appointed following an indicative vote from staff. But I would suspect that appointed leaders and elected policies will be a much easier sell than the other way round. Any leader can happily say they always agreed with a policy forced on them. It's much harder to say you agree with them firing you. And I shall have to do some more research. Thank you for pushing
        zepto 6y ago
        One argument would be that working for a business and not finding another job is inherently vote for the leadership.
        lifeisstillgood 6y ago
        That sounds rather weak - the fact I have not left the country does not imply I have voted for Boris Johnson as PM. Although Trump could then claim that 11M card-less Mexicans who have not left the USA in November were actually voting for him, which would give him California in the Electoral College. In the end I do not see a way to imply someone's vote - one needs to actually count their vote in the normal way. I respect your position but I remain convinced that some form of democracy is needed in corporate life.

zepto 6y ago

I upvoted you because the point about spending our working lives in dictatorships is very valid, but I don’t think for a second that voting would work.

lifeisstillgood 6y ago
But ... let's look at GE. It's basically worth nothing at net now. And it was the great poster child for brilliant management decisions - that take any industry and run it using GE managers and allocate capital the GE way and it will win. Turns out not so. This is the lesson of history - great Kings and Emperors really do make great world beating decisions. But anything less than great leads to disaster whereas parliaments don't do great but they do keep growing and managing well for centuries. We need to stop relying on great CEOs and kings and look for ways to run a company well. PIRC has lots of research on the central founder risk to long term value. but just ask this - imagine Elon Musk retires tomorrow. Do we want to hope we hire his clone or do we want a strong driven community of engineers to keep knocking out battery improvements for 2 decades. I know which one i want my money in, and which one will make better headlines.
- zepto 6y ago
  Everything you just said is fine, however, nothing in your comment in any way suggests or supports the idea that voting would work. Agreeing on a problem is not the same as agreeing on a solution.
  - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
    Ok - so we agree on a problem. Just to ask, what solution have humans found to replace dictators and kings apart from (weakly or strongly) elected parliaments ? Rome had two consuls (or three), but I am not sure that's a big step beyond one. I just think we need to find the right ways for democracy to evolve not just chuck it in the bin :-)
    - zepto 6y ago
      Again, no argument from me, but also no argument from you that direct democracy would work as a form of corporate governance. Can you find even one example of where it has? The closest I am aware of is Mondragon, but Mondragon has almost no direct democracy - voting is for people rather than decisions.
      - lifeisstillgood 6y ago
        As a brit I have recently learnt to be wary of direct democracy (ala referendums) but frankly I will take any form of democracy as a bastion against the mono-culture. Perhaps we can take heart from the media - https://www.ft.com/content/afe3386e-d3bb-11e4-a9d3-00144feab7de https://www.ft.com/content/afe3386e-d3bb-11e4-a9d3-00144feab... - The Guardian's editor was appointed following an indicative vote from staff. But I would suspect that appointed leaders and elected policies will be a much easier sell than the other way round. Any leader can happily say they always agreed with a policy forced on them. It's much harder to say you agree with them firing you. And I shall have to do some more research. Thank you for pushing
        zepto 6y ago
        One argument would be that working for a business and not finding another job is inherently vote for the leadership.
        lifeisstillgood 6y ago
        That sounds rather weak - the fact I have not left the country does not imply I have voted for Boris Johnson as PM. Although Trump could then claim that 11M card-less Mexicans who have not left the USA in November were actually voting for him, which would give him California in the Electoral College. In the end I do not see a way to imply someone's vote - one needs to actually count their vote in the normal way. I respect your position but I remain convinced that some form of democracy is needed in corporate life.