Numbers guys try road less traveled

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Values, morals also important

Corporate leaders tell UR audience that in business, it's not always about the numbers

Richmond - To find out where a company makes a major mistake, take a close look at its DNA.

The problem lies in thinking "Deliver the Numbers Always," said W. Thomas Matthews, president of the global private client division at brokerage and investment banking firm Smith Barney and an adviser to Citibank.

He was implying that executives need to find values and use morals and critical thinking to get ahead instead of always chasing the money.

It was a comment that laid the foundation at yesterday's corporate pep talk at the University of Richmond, sponsored by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

He and two other members from the high ranks of corporate America spoke to about 70 members of the business and school community on the challenges facing companies and the importance of values and accountability.

"The post-Enron business climate has really opened up the question of values in a big organization and why they're important," said Eva S. Hardy, senior vice president of external affairs and corporate communications at Dominion Resources Inc.

One value that can't be overlooked is honesty, said William R. Johnston, the former president and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange.

"Exchanges have a simple core value, and that is one of honesty," he said. "If [traders and companies] do not believe that what you are providing is an honest marketplace, they will go elsewhere, and they will not play in your ballpark anymore. Your word is your bond."

And not only should bosses hold employees accountable, Matthews said, but they should be "brutally honest" with everyone to help them grow. Hardy encourages executives to look beyond the résumé to find the people who can do the job right.

Executives developing the right teams, the three said, will make for better successions as management steps down. And succession planning "sure as heck doesn't belong in HR," Matthews said.

Finally, the trio said, it is important nowadays to diversify companies and give back to the community.

"I see a disturbing trend sometimes in our country not wanting to let different people in," Hardy said. With increasing globalization, "I find [not being diverse] is going to be very difficult for businesses."

On the topic of social responsibility, she ended by mentioning that Dominion is active in giving to educational causes.

Matthews said his company does the same.

Smith Barney considers all charities, he told the UR crowd, but with an education cause, "if you really want to get our attention, recognize that there is no better cause."

Well, good effort. But what a rather tame selection of quotes. DNA, huh? Well, yes, and no. I just got through venting on a similar subject here in our office not 20 minutes ago, approximately thus....

You stand on the shoulders of those who came before you. If those who came before were thugs and liars, you can dresss up real pretty in an angel outfit but you'll still be on the shoulders of thugs and liars. They won't notice the halo, they won't give you benefit of the doubt. They'll see the "knife" they expect you to have. Gee, you don't have a knife?

"Prove it, asshole!"

That's what they're gonna think, even if they don't say it....

Yes, people around here are used to goofy analogies. That particular one was me venting on the folly of a developer of some tangential acquaintance, spinning, yet again, about his group's intent with regard to some very notable infill property sandwiched in between some established and influentially populated neigborhoods.

If this particular investment/development group wants to screw around and play to type, they're not only dissing the neighbors, they're giving any potential investor/buyers of their white elephant a difficult-times-three job.

And that, in my opinion, is the point the Jepson speakers quoted above missed that Thursday night: The machine of institutional trust is seized-up in many quarters. Yes, quarterlies and EBITDA are a curse, I scribbled about it here (Corporate Anorexia) 2 years ago. In many situations, the physician is being asked to heal thyself, in cases where they abjectly refuse to admit that previous prescriptions have brought them to the ER. The question is, what do you do with a frozen machine?

Answer: You tilt.
Result: You may--just may--have knocked it closer to plumb.