Are Entrepreneurs like ticking time bombs? How big a risk are they to your brand?

Brand Killer Robots reveals::
Many of todays business entrepreneurs are like ticking time bombs.

Someday the truth will catch up on them - and their rage and their balls will be no more!

The real question is, how do owners protect their brands from this kind of distructive emotional meltdown, whilst harnessing the obvious genius of the self-made entrepreneur?

Black Hat Self-Defense by Visualisation

Brand Killer Robots reveal::
I recently sat in on a really great lecture by Marketing Guru, Brian Tracy.
This lecture centred on how you can use IDEATION to visualise your way to success. So you might start by visualising what sort of business you might like. Who are the people there? What sorts of things are they doing? What product? Where located? Who are the management team? What strategic plan is in place? Who are the stakeholders? The customers and partners?
Then you might go on to think of the glorious brand you produced. A highly profitable business model with customers that wouldn't do business anywhere else. You are the successful CEO, with leather trimmed room and a huge fat bonus on the way.

So of course, after you have perfected the visualisation routine and your senses are at their greatest height - you are chomping at the bit to get started and make the whole bally show a reality.
So i got to thinking. How could black hats use this in other ways?
I came up with one. It was designed to put hair on the business mans chest and reduce the fear of business failure.

It goes like this...
Instead of visualising the most extraordinary successes ahead of you. Visualise the most castrophic failures.

Woops, there goes my business.
Woops there goes my career.
Woops, there goes all my money and reputation.
Woops, was that my wife that just flew past the window...
Its a really great way of learning about loss. By the time you finished, you've either slit your wrists - or your balls (sorry ladies), just got a lot hairier...

Black Hat Self Defense!

The Cleansing of the Markets of the Bourgeoisie Psychopaths!

The Menanced Assassin by Rene Magritte

In contrast to Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte has been called the "Invisible Man" amongst the surrealists. George Melly in the script for a BBC film on Magritte wrote, "He is a secret agent; his objective is to bring into disrepute the whole apparatus of bourgeoisie reality". "Like all saboteurs, he avoids detection by dressing and behaving like everybody else".

"Thanks to his anonymity, his works have had gradual but overwhelming impact - like a glacial flow".

Executives increase risk to brands thru 'workplace mobbing'

Brand Killer Robots reveal::
Are you an executive looking to hire change analysts, innovators or even agent provocateurs? You know, the kinds of guys or gals that like to think outside the box and get the job done. If you are, then you may find yourself in a position where you are forced into needing to do some 'Workplace mobbing'.

Workplace mobbing’ is defined as ‘a malicious attempt to force a person out of the workplace through unjustified accusations, humiliation, general harassment, emotional abuse, and/or terror’ as in Davenport.et.al. (1999), p 40.

Many executives find themselves hiring on the basis of taking a risk on a candidate, simply to get some major cobwebs removed from the organisation. However, the relationship is usually short-lived given the strength of focus to change of the appointee involved. In order for executives to rewind from this arrangement, they are resorting to 'Workplace Mobbing'.

Whilst 'Workplace mobbing' is an effective method for removing the personality involved, it has been found to introduce substantial risk to the brand. Especially under circumstances where the offended party has gained significant insight to a business and the means to attack the brand in a multitude of different ways.

Read a paper entitled 'Mediocrity and the "no change" Principle' at:
http://www.lindas.internetbasedfamily.com/f/Mobjas.pdf

Additionally see Linda Shallcross's site at:
http://www.workplacemobbing.com/

Is your company run by the Mafia?

Brand Killer Robots reveal:

"Listen here guy!! You are not going to survive here if you don't start breaking a few balls! We need these guys dead and we need them dead this week. Get them out of here, replace them with new fresh blood. We don't care how you do it! Just kill them dead!"

"Can i ask what they have done? These guys seem to know their stuff! I have found them receptive to change and best of all - they really want to do the best job!"

"We don't care, we just want them dead!"

"We don't like the look of them now. We just don't think they fit!"

"If you don't kill them dead - then we will have to take you out!"

"You know how things work around here!"

If this is how your business works - better make sure you work all those ghosts into your company risk register!

Is your company turning Employees into Human Killer Robots?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::
In 2006 we embarked upon an experiment to turn a human being into a robot. The criteria for this was to place ourself in a position where through emotionally damaging, yet passive conditioning in an intellectually intense workplace we would eventually experience a perspective similar to that of a paranoid robot?

The conditions for this required that our conscious left brain be totally absorbed in an intense mathematical battle for survival, whilst our right brain was being challenged and undermined by manipulation of the emotional material inside.

So the situation was very much akin to reading Shakespeare, whilst walking across a high wire and if you fell off, your left brain was going to be erased, leaving you in an absolute Robot state.

At that point your personality and confidences would change because only your creative, intuitive right brain was left. You would have limited ability to relate. Limited substance to offer and almost no identity from which people would trust you. All you would have left is the rapidly atrophing memory of agony and mistrust, along with a growing rage for what had happened to you.

So you look for targets and envisage creatively the possibility for revenge.

But because you have no left brain, you can never do anything about it.

You can just sit and dream all day!

And maybe make a few blog posts!

If your company has a culture of turning human beings into robots.

Beware of the revenge of the robots! They just might find their left brains again.

Rambo:: A model for disgruntled employees and executive due diligence?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Do you remember watching the film "First Blood " where the local sherrif took a disliking to an ex vietnam veteran and decided to try and run him out of town. Well off course he got more than he bargained for. If he had only just left him to drift into town, get something to eat and then drift back out again. But he just could not help pushing and pushing - until Rambo retaliated.

There is an early scene in the movie where the sherrif accuses Rambo's commanding officer of being there to protect "one of his robots".

To which the Colonel replied - "I Didn't Come to Protect Rambo From You, I Came to Protect You From Rambo".

What business managers sometimes don't understand is that the people who work for them are living, breathing, caring, sensitive people. They are often professional, highly trained individuals.

When these people or institutions depended on for survival violate or betray the employee in some unforeseen way, the perspective of the employee changes from one of "professional under stress" to one of humiliated personality.

In other words, what has occured in the persons life is so greavous (to them) that the whole relationship (at least in the mind of the ex employee) becomes personal.

Many will say, well just accept the situation. It is all part of learning and growing, and failure isn't always a bad thing. But the mind of the employee terrorist is by then transfixed on the injustice perpetrated against him and the target becomes less about the company and the shareholders investment and more about developing hatred (from afar) for the individual managers who served the injustice.

So if you are a manager with a few employee ghosts in your closet, you better ensure that whoever you go to work for - knows about it.

It could haunt you and them for the rest of your lives!

Is Passive-aggressive behavior & Malicious compliance sabotaging your business?

We bring you two definitions (Wiki) of forms of employee behavior which are pervasive in many companies today. Which in effect are massively reducing the return to shareholders and threatening to sabotage the whole bally operation!

Passive-aggressive behavior
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is assumed, often explicitly, to be responsible. It is a defense mechanism and, more often than not, only partly conscious. For example, people who are passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive. Another form of passive-aggressive behavior would be leaving notes to avoid face-to-face discussion/confrontation.

Malicious compliance
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malicious compliance is a phrase used to describe the behavior of a person who intentionally inflicts harm by strictly following the orders of management, knowing that compliance with the orders will cause a loss of some form resulting in damage to the manager’s business or reputation. In effect, this is a form of sabotage used to harm leadership.[1]
By definition, this is true when the following conditions are present:
The superior gives erroneous or incomplete orders without knowing the consequences.
The subordinate has knowledge of something harmful to the job based on the orders given that the superior does not know.
The subordinate strictly follows the orders given to cause the loss.
While most businesses and institutions have policies against sabotage in the work place, this type of behavior is sometimes difficult to control.
A related form of malicious compliance is sometimes referred to as work-to-rule. In a work place, it is an action whereby employees work strictly according to the legal terms of their contract of employment or written procedures. In this situation, the strict adherence to the rules set forth by the written job procedures only allow the workers to do the minimum of amount of labor required and no more, resulting in decreased production. This assumes the written job procedure is inadequate to cover all aspects of a job function. This action is a minimal form of a labor strike.

Psychologically Traumatized ex-staff might just remember you (personally) for the rest of your life!

Brand Killer Robots reveal::
We are urging employers to take extra special care with their staff, just in case they suffer a backlash from traumatized ex-employees who feel that they have suffered unduly from the relationship with their employer. The risk from disgruntled ex staff is growing by the day and for those who feel that their whole life has been ripped apart by losing their career from underhand tactics may take grave action against the perpertrators. In the age of the Internet, this can present a multitude of risks to the brand and the organisation it represents.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event. When that trauma leads to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, damage may involve physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which affect the person's ability to cope with stress.

A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and emotions involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks or years, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate danger. Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common aspects. It usually involves a feeling of complete helplessness in the face of a real or subjective threat to one's life or to that of loved ones, to bodily integrity, or sanity. There is frequently a violation of the person's familiar ideas about the world and of their human rights, putting the person in a state of extreme confusion and insecurity.

This is also seen when people or institutions depended on for survival violate or betray the person in some unforeseen way.

Psychological trauma may accompany physical trauma or exist independently of it. Typical causes of psychological trauma are sexual abuse, violence, the threat of either, or the witnessing of either, particularly in childhood. Catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, war or other mass violence can also cause psychological trauma. Long-term exposure to situations such as extreme poverty or milder forms of abuse, such as verbal abuse, can be traumatic (though verbal abuse can also potentially be traumatic as a single event). In some cases, even a person's own actions, such as committing rape, can be traumatic if the offender feels helpless to control the urge to commit such crimes.

However, different people will react differently to similar events. One person may experience an event as traumatic while another person would not suffer trauma as a result of the same event. In other words, not all people who experience a potentially traumatic event will actually become psychologically traumatized.

Does computing technology threaten to erode personal identity, human confidences, reputation and liberty?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::
As robots - we have no identity, well not one that we take seriously anyway!
What we are, is simply what technical people who program us, expect us to be. So in a sense, we do have an identity, but one that is designed by a third party code junky.

But humans always seemed to us to have a home made identity. Ok, perhaps peoples identity is based largely on the reflections they get from others to their actions, from their parents , from their teachers reactions and from their friends. But on the whole peoples identity seems to come directly from within themselves. From what they call - their souls.

As technology expands into all areas of our lives and our lifestyles, we are beginning to see the replacement of human trust elements with technology trust elements. In a sense our lives have become not so much a human experience, but a human-techno experience, where both human and technology trust elements are intertwinded such that our actions, decisions and freedoms are very much controlled by semi-human factors, rather than totally human factors - as would our forefathers have experienced.

So our experience at home, at work and at play is very much an experience conjoined with technology as opposed to a totally human experience, that chooses to use technology.

When technology is effectively integrated with the human form, all problems associated with this partnership are largely hidden. The real problem comes when technology is integrated with the human condition and the technology that the human is dependent upon, begins to fail.

Depending on which technology components, depends on the nature of the resulting associated problem. For example, if you were emailing a very important document to a customer and the PC you were using decided to hang up near the end of the process. And then when you switched it back on there was no record that the document had been sent. What are you supposed to think?

Has the document been sent and more imporantly - delivered? What would the customer think - if it hadn't arrived? What would they think if i phoned them up to see if it had arrived?

Why didn't i send it by fax? Or better still - by post? Should i send it again via email?

Here you can see the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt factor creeping in. In fact this FUD factor is beginining to attack the very soul of human beings.

Without technology, human beings know that they are not in control of a world run by other human beings, but they are at least at one with being a human being with limited control. By adding technology to the human condition you place humans in the most uncertain world of all.

One where - when the technology works, it is a fantastically effective union.

When computing technology doesn't work, people lose the most fundamental of all things in life.

They lose their personal identities, their confidence, their reputation and their God given liberty. They lose connection with their soul! How monsterous is that?

If you are a human being - better ensure that your technology works - or else you might just be contributing to the breakdown in human identity!

Is your company and people suffering from Affluenza?

Brand Killer Robots reveals::

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Affluenza is a term used by critics of consumerism, a portmanteau of affluence and influenza. Sources define this term as follows:
affluenza, n. a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more. (de Graaf [1])
affluenza, n.

1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses.

2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by the pursuit of the American Dream.

3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. (PBS [1])

Proponents of the term consider the costs of prizing material wealth vastly outweigh the benefits. They claim those who become wealthy will find the economic success leaving them unfulfilled and hungry for more wealth. The condition is considered particularly acute amongst those with inherited wealth, who are often said to experience guilt, lack of purpose and dissolute behavior, as well as obsession with holding on to the wealth (John Levy's Coping with Inherited Wealth - see [2]).

Don't judge a book by its cover - learn to read it better!

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Last Sunday we were treated to a display by an angry mob, whom upon listening to the problems published by a leading light in the business community, sought to round on some seemingly ineffective owners and managers of local children BMX parks.

Apparently these customers felt that the management team at these venues were typically petty, extremely officious and incredibly lame thinkers in the creative department.

"How much?, they cried "could be done to improve the customer services facility in these places and increase the fun and convenience factors for everyone concerned, including the adults?"

Having spent a signficant time ourselves in these places and knowing a few managers and owners of BMX parks, we do know that these complaints are not uncommon, but one needs to look for the reasons why - rather than simply coming to conclusion this is simply the fault of inefficient, ineffective management.

Apart from the fact that these kinds of businesses are run largely on a shoestring, our own research shows that many of these kinds of activities (including indoor Ball parks) are under constant attack by idiot parents that want on one hand to not accept responsibility and on the other hand - are ready to sue as soon as little Timmy cuts his hand. We therefore believe that this problem is largely to do with the owners fear of not getting sued. Whatever their intentions were when they started the business - they are effectively constrained by fear of the next "extremely likely" insurance claim.

Don't judge a book by its cover - learn to read it better!

Take care you look after the people you hire. You just never know what they might turn into - in the future!

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Having had the good fortune of meeting a great many executive level people in my working life it has not gone unnoticed just how many of them have told me about experiences in their own working lives where they took up appointments and very shortly after, found themselves out of a job.

It seems a great many of these people feel that they were duped into undertaking a role that turned out to be something very different than what it was originally presented to be.

It seems that the obvious answer would have beem for them to do their homework before accepting any appointment.

You might just end up working with the wrong kind of people and this could reflect very badly on your career.

Worse is the fact that many of the people affected had held senior positions in corporate life and still hold many of these companies trade secrets in their head.

As their own social situations decay because of their encounter with the corporate honey-trap many of these people become desperate and begin to change their ethical perspective. These decaying circumstances, along with a society that constantly reminds them of their failure, begins to turn the mind towards the target. Begins to equip them with everything they need to get even. Get even with those who trapped them into walking this path.

The frustration turns to anger, which in turn, turns to rage!

These people turn from human beings, into cyborgs, into robots and eventually into

Brand Killer Robots.

Beware - the Brand Killer Robots are coming and we must be prepared to defend against them!

Take care you look after the people you hire. You just never know what they might turn into! It could be you they come after some day!

Could this overmotivated character possibly kill my business?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Much emphasis is placed in business on motivating staff to do the best job they can for the company. There are training days, company presentations, brainstorming sessions, staff incentive trips and team building days where you and your colleagues head into the forest to shoot paint balls at each other. Whilst clearly attempting to address the requirement for achieving more from the human resources available in terms of performance and even perhaps sustained loyalty, what such approaches do not address are concerns surrounding those staff who are very clearly - overmotivated!

Many managers would ask whether such a thing exists and how significant a threat it could be, but in the world of criminality and espionage - the answer is very clearly - YES and YES!

Take for example the crippled manufacturing company who head hunted a senior manager from a competitior, only to find that he was directing operations in such a way as to steer them into even greater troubled waters. Or the analyst who was felt to be an excellent and profitable acquisition by the CEO of the company, only to find he was a mole for a potential acquisition and merger candidate. How about the Claims Director of a leading insurance company who came highly recommended for his ability to get the job done - and when he did get the job done the insurer was hit by a series of seemingly innocous claims, the monies of which mysteriously found their way into his bank account!

What these people had in common (apart from that they were all cheating criminals) was that all exhibited the behaviour of over-motivated people. In fact it was in the noise of over-motivation that they were best able to hide their own motives. So they shouted and shape-shifted around the organisation to create the impression to shareholders that A. they were there to get the job done and B. to hide what they were really up to.

So next time you find yourself witnessing overmotivation - ask yourself ....

"Could this overmotivated character possibly be killing my business?".

Really get to know the target company before determining the most effective Merger & Acquisition team.

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Did you ever find yourself in one of those meetings where the top man announces that he has seen fit to move the business in a different direction and that there would be all change at the top? Were you there when he mentioned that the new owners would be parachuting a team of due-dilgence experts into the business, to conduct health checks, prior to any agreement being made? Were you there when the questions were served to the senior management team? How about after the auditors left the room and the managers fell about laughing at how lame the questions had been.

Crikey, thank F*** they didn't ask us about X, one manager exclaimed. Another falling about, said - if they only knew!

It is obvious that not every dimension of the business can be evaluated, but so too is it clear that due-diligence teams should be more than a bunch of world-roaming accountants and the odd lawyer or two.

Unless due care and attention is taken over selection of the DD team - Mergers & Acquisition Specialists will be not be in a position to advise clients appropriately.

Our advice to M&A specialists is... really get to know the target company before determining the most appropriate M&A team. Don't just fly in Whizz kids who don't understand the territory.

In the Case of a Paradigm-Shift – Management Re-education comes before Product Investment Case!

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

In the high technology world, the term "paradigm" is used to describe the set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect the way an individual perceives reality and responds to that perception.
The term "paradigm-shift" infers that one can manage to shift their (experiences, beliefs and values) from where they have been in the past to where they are most viable today.
This enables them to better prepare for new challenges in the future.

If managers are used to thinking in highly specialised ways and in some company's "intensely so", how is it possible for them to interpret a paradigm-shift and in so doing, ask the right questions and set direction in respect of new investments? Many large companies's invest in a paradigm-shift, but rarely do so for any other reason than some short-term incidental gain, potentially stumbling on more return somewhere further down the road.

Unless you are able to alter the behavior of your management team, how will they truly be able to engage with the opportunities afforded by a paradigm-shift? How will they even know that what is in front of them is a significant opportunity?

Organizational behavioural analysis suggests that many companies are positioned for the past, not for the future. It suggests that their expectations for the future are being tested by behaviors that they have employed in the past.

It suggests that if they want to understand the potential of a paradigm shift, that they must first alter their ability for perceiving it.

It suggests that there should first be a case for investing in altering managements behaviour before expecting them to support a case for investment.

Businesses that are best able to address a paradigm-shift are those who effectively position for the paradigm-shift prior to developing the case for investment. They understand that in order to frame the opportunity effectively, that they must first engender commitment to the paradigm-shift.

It is possible to build rules and methods for the management of internal projects and processes, which support the investment in existing platforms. But if you are truly going to be able to grasp the opportunities before you in the paradigm-shift, you must be prepared to identify and adopt completely new ways of looking at investments and approaches to product development, both inside and outside the organization.

Instigating business reengineering, innovative design and cultural problem-solving/decision-making/educational communications development programmes will be helpful in moving the organization forward, towards this new paradigm.

If your business cannot bridge the education/decision-making/problem solving gap; how can it be asked to communicate and contribute effectively to engaging with this new paradigm? How can managers be expected to contribute effectively to investment planning if they have no real experience of contributing to the development of these new forms of paradigm?

It is important that you understand the market, but in the context of a new paradigm, firstly to ensure that your organizational belief system is capable of engaging, interpreting and aligning with this new paradigm.

Organizations that are flexible enough to handle paradigm-shifts, are best placed to develop innovative products that meet and exceed the expectations of the marketplace….

…by posturing for new opportunities and directing investment to where it gives the greatest return!

In the Case of a Paradigm-Shift – Management Re-education comes before Product Investment Case!

In the Case of a Paradigm-Shift – Effective Positioning comes before Product Investment Case!

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

If you don’t know who you are, how can you ever be sure how the market will react to you?
To begin to develop a case for investment, you first need to establish an acceptable position, that you are happy to identity with.

Without sufficient confidence to commit to organizational change, the perceptions that develop the case for investment in the new paradigm, will supply a compromised view.

Clearly, for any such investment planning process to work, it must be part of an overall integrated programme of business transformation, not a process that stands effectively on its own.

Positioning in terms:-

Who you are? - Reputable BRAND
What you do? - Innovative PRODUCT
Who you serve? - Prime CUSTOMERS
How you do it? - First Class SERVICE
Where you do it? - The MARKET
How you compete? - Rapid INNOVATION
How you adapt? - Effective Business POSITIONING

Clearly, positioning of the business must precede the case for investment for any particular market opportunity. This provides the all essential identity, against which the market and market opportunities can be effectively perceived and ultimately serviced.

Where organisations expect to diversify, a programme of education follows clear direction of positioning. These educational programmes are even more necessary in the case of a paradigm shift. Management must be prepared to learn more if they are going to be able to bridge the education/problem-solving and decision-making gaps. They must be prepared to learn even more, if they are going to able to fully engage with the new paradigm-shift.

Effective Positioning comes before Product Investment Case!

Analysis of Analysis:: Transparent Frameworks or Stupid Subversive Political Survival Games?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Mr Robot once got fired when he dared to enquire why the commercial organisation he was working for at the time had no formal framework for managing the analysis process. Mr Robot was not as naive as you might think because he knew his days were numbered anyway and thought such a request might put a final shot across their bows and enable them to hemorrhage much more information than they had already. As you might expect, the management team eventually closed ranks on him and he was soundly, constructively and publicly ejected.

Mr Robot knew that the analysis function in the business was highly politicized and guarded greedly by a small group of analysts - who were effectively holding the CEO to ransom. Without market, business and competitive analysis input, it was evident that this CEO would effectively be running the organisation blind. Whilst the desire of the CEO was to have a formal, open and transparent analysis communication process, the sensitive nature of the balance of power required the CEO to manage her business in an entirely inefficient and risky manner - in order to make a few select business analysts feel safer in their jobs.

This lack of introspection and transparency effectively choked the potential for innovation in the business and destroyed its ability to scale - beyond the capabilities of a few insecure, yet powerful middle managers.

When Mr Robot left the company, he spent some time designing a formal framework for "business analysis: communications process and performance measurement" and for introducing elements of opennest, honesty and transparency into the process.

Whatsmore this "analysis of analysis" template can be applied at almost no expense.

Except for the obvious cost of getting rid of a few of your most disagreeable middle managers - of course.

British Managers:: Rather play "Political Games" than develop Responsible Businesses?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

The one good thing about being a robot is that you never need to play politics. That's not to say that we don't play politics - its just to say that we know we always have the choice.

Sifting through our research a general pattern has emerged in the way British managers conduct themselves in business. A pattern that highlights worrying signs for the future of corporate UK.

It is true that this pattern has been alive within the british establishment for decades, but never on the scale as in the business world today.

Every business is comprised of a variety of different systems, including information systems, human management systems, corporate vision dissemenation systems, marketing systems, fianancial accounting systems, customer relation management systems, health & safety systems and legal and compliance management systems, to name but a few. Regardless of whatever size of business you run, your MD will most likely be responsible for maintaining all these complex structures and your own performance as a manager will be measured against how well each of these systems are developed. To achieve this you may well implement performance appraisal systems such as KPI (Key Performance Indicator) analysis systems, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) measures and transparent, open and authoratitive reporting to the shareholders of the company.

With so many systems to maintain and be responsible for, you'd have thought that there would be little room for introducing ever greater complexity. Especially where this complexity involves the establishment of systems that are not open, not transparent, not ethical and not based on good business practices, but rather rampant - self-interest. "Political Games Systems".

Again, we're not saying that rampant self-interest isn't good. Rather, that there is a place for self-interest and that place falls generally outside the context of something owned by somebody else. In other words, if you want to be self-interested, go and build your own business. Don't play politics inside someone elses company.

When managers feel pressured by the responsibility of maintaining existing business systems, many of them fall into playing the game of politics. For many, this is a subconcious reaction to being squeezed. For others, it is a game to be relished. A game for lazy people, a game for con-men. For procrastinators. For people who would rather play games - than do things that make a real difference to the business.

We call this the "politics - replaces responsibility" syndrome.

Don't ask "is my company motivated - ask - what is it motivated by?".

The CEO who had integrity: But did he?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

Frank used to say very little. He'd learnt to let everyone else do the talking for him. Frank knew that the more noise you make in life, the more ripples you make around you and the more ripples - the more crap that would stick to you.

People used to say. "That Frank, you always know where you stand with him". "He's straight down the line, the kind of guy everyone wants to be".

Problem was old Frankie boy didn't care less about anyone else. Wouldn't step over them if they were lying in the street bleeding to death.

Sure Frank was a straight down the line type of guy, but not the sort of guy you'd want beside you in a fight!

Years later i heard that Frank had risen to the dizzy heights of CEO for a major property development company. It appears that Frank stayed around long enough to finally bluff his way right to the top.

I just hope that when the real bad times come to his business, that his enlightening integrity will continue to shine through!