March 6 - Team 4 readings

Redd Kross: Although now one year old, Team 4’s Red Cross article offers further proof of the post-Katrina chaos that continues to consume New Orleans. But it also illustrates a growing body of evidence in instances of corporate and governmental malfeasance. A “breathtaking systematic failure by senior managers to enforce inventory control procedures,” and an “outright contempt for well-established internal fiscal controls” (pg. 3) shouldn’t surprise us anymore, even when it concerns the Red Cross—an organization most of us would think beyond reproach. Although I missed this report the first time around, these things don’t faze me anymore. It’s just another example in a long list of documented organizational dysfunction, some with intent to do harm. And, at least to me, it reaffirms the existence of some of the less-than-desirable traits of human nature.

Beyond the managerial ineptitude, several specific incidences in the article point to how people will take advantage of others if opportunity presents. Even if it doesn’t, people will manufacture opportunity if they think they can get away with it—especially when the transgression could be deemed “victimless.”

Although there certainly is much philanthropy in the world, the list is equally long on the flipside: government scandals too numerous to mention, including the current fiasco at Walter Reed Army Hospital; U.S. and global corporate malfeasance abounds including Nestle USA’s well-documented transgressions against Third World mothers and children, Wal-Mart’s pressure on suppliers to continually lower costs, which translates into abusive labor practices; legions of abuses by “trusted” leaders of the Catholic Church; and virtually every disaster relief effort in the world suffers from varying levels of greed as both financial and material contributions are siphoned off before victims actually benefit.

Your President’s Modus Operandi – by Ian Mitroff
Eye-opening, at least for me. Forcing executives to change their way of thinking, with an eye toward “creative demolition” (pg. 45) explained how companies could face and possibly manage abnormal accidents. On page 44 Mitroff says, “it is estimated that up to 80% of all terrorists acts happen to private businesses and not the government.” Why estimate? Seems like an easily verifiable statistic.

The “internal assassin,” “spy game,” and “mixed metaphor” scenarios made thinking like a controlled paranoid kinda fun. And remember, after driving 900 miles to kill someone while wearing diapers, dress like a Domino’s pizza delivery person—that will get you in.

This Mitroff guy might be a genius, but I don't trust him. He might be lurking outside my house right now. Or he could show up in class disguised as a former executive from Johnson and Johnson.