Business needs a Chief Courage Officer.

UPDATE: Courage needs a companion]

Did you see "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" this morning? If not, you didn't miss much with regard to politics. But you did miss a very powerful commercial launching a new governance-risk-leadership initiative from Price Waterhouse Coopers.

They ask a key question: Is Corporate America becoming too risk averse? Implicit in this question: Is that risk aversion oddly damaging the integrity and capacity of business for profit and good?



The spot is on their site, here--it's worth the 6mb download: [scroll down for link "Is the Chief Courage Officer a person, a position or a philosophy?"

The accompanying section of their website starts with this:

John Maynard Keynes called it the "animal spirits," that intangible quality required to move forward.... Where does your company stand on the courage continuum?

The true spirit of American business rewards those who evaluate risk and make smart decisions. But the results of our latest survey of nearly 1,400 CEOs in 40 countries are evidence that this spirit has been tamped down by recent events.

* When asked if the current business climate was making companies excessively risk-averse, 11 percent of CEOs said yes. 46 percent said it was making companies somewhat risk-averse.
 
* Although US CEOs remain confident about their prospects for revenue growth this year, more than two-thirds (68%) believe the current environment is making companies risk-averse.

* Only 5% of US CEOs say they are significantly more aggressive in their attitude toward risk-taking, with 25% saying they are definitely less aggressive.

One CEO said in our survey: "You have to determine what kind of risks you can afford. It's like walking over a wire. Technically, there is not that much of a difference if the wire is one meter high or 50 meters high. Technically it's the same—but there is still a big difference."

So how do you make sure you have the systems in place to tell you what is a risk worth avoiding and what is an opportunity worth pursuing?

This is where the mandates of new legislation can present opportunities far beyond just legal compliance. An organization that has strategically integrated governance, risk management, and compliance can form an ethical and operational backbone against which the business can be managed.....

These guys are the big dogs. In their 2004 survey [PDF] of CEOs, with particular attention to Enterprise Risk Management, they recognize that the Statue-sense visually depicted in brain, metaphor, archetype, brand is a huge unmet "feeling" and ambition in business that's causing harm to organizations large and small. They also recognize that the people aren't the problem, and that the culture of numbering before sensing, organizing without human and contextual understanding is detrimental to healthy growth and confident, sustainable decision-making in fluid times. As such, it is judged a large missed opportunity which they seem finally willing to admit...

Life is too short. It is also measured in height, not weight.

My words, not theirs, but close enough.

The TV spot to introduce their finding succinctly puts into 60 seconds what a 1000 page survey and hundreds of meetings can't: Business can and should be a heroic calling. Plant your flag and dust off your ambition; meaning's coming to town, and he's bringing integrity with him.

Bravo, Price Waterhouse Coopers. Bravo for bravery.

[update: Courage needs a companion]

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for more on this theme scroll down for:

• Heroes for hire
• Doing or Being? Branding or Becoming?
• A brand is?