REPLY Future Development Directions (SD6269)

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Posted by  Jean-Jacques Laublé <jean-jacques.lauble at wanadoo.fr>

Hi Bill

Large companies are more public than private and their boards
have generally only a small percentage of the shares.
They function more like political systems.
Being egoistic like everybody, they will find their advantage elsewhere than
adding value to the shares and their objective is to keep being elected at
their position.

In a state, politics should too provide something to their fellow-citizens
and often do not.

In medium family owned business where the board may have 90% of the
shares, the objective is to add value to the shares. They are not better of
worse than the others and still egoistic.

I think too that in smaller private companies, boards will be more sensible
to the long term and more accessible to system thinking ideas.
In big companies, boards have no interest in taking unconventional decisions
and using unconventional (at least not yet conventional) tools like SD.
They will act as the conventional analysts want them to act, eventually
taking drastic decisions, but still conventional like firing massively etc.

If I had to sell SD I would privilege boards that have a consequent
percentage of shares in the business they manage.
I have been in boards and Chairman of family businesses and too in boards
and Chairman of companies whose objective is to satisfy a larger audience
that makes them look like public one's.

Regards.
Jean-Jacques Laublé 
Posted by  Jean-Jacques Laublé <jean-jacques.lauble at wanadoo.fr>
posting date  Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:46:51 +0100