When corporate leaders announce, with seeming sincerity, that they make their decisions on behalf of their shareholders, their words are taken at face value. But as recent news stories prove, this imperative is routinely violated.
In this book, Art Kleiner argues that the dissonance between a declared mission and actual operation can be seen in both large and small organisations. All organisations have one motive in common: everything they do - choosing which projects to back, who to promote, where to spend the money is affected by the perceived wants and needs of a core group of key people.
The composition of the core group can differ from organisation to organisation. Often the most senior people in the hierarchy are members - but not always. Sometimes the people who "matter" can extend far down the corporate ladder, as well as reach outside the company to include key customers, union leaders and stock holders.
Kleiner gives readers the key to reading a core group's real mission by observing its day-to-day actions, including what its fundamental message to employees is and how it gets that message across: how it manages the energy of new members, what basic ideas shape its policies, about management, money and the way the world works, and what taboos govern the way it operates.
