Before I start this discussion, let me first link to the official IBM corporate service corps blogs. If you're interested in doing some serious reading, here's the rest of the South Africa Team 2 Blog. Furthermore, you may not realize it, but we've sent probably 300 people outside of the country since the program's inception and most of them have blogged. You can get a list of all the team's blogs here.
Now with that out of the way, I want to thank Mr. Vogel for bringing up my next topic.
As most of you know who are reading this, I'm one of the biggest capitalists in the world, or atleast in my head, and it may seem like I've gone soft in my old age, being down here helping people. It's something I've often considered myself, "Where is the line between doing the right thing for the business and just doing the right thing?" Living my life trying to always do the right thing was the mantra that I adopted as a manager, and what I tried to use every time I dealt with one of my people. I struggle to understand when the social actions taken by business transcend the results and whether we as a company have surpassed that?
Let's be clear, for me it's not an issue, there are a million different ways that I could justify my being here that has nothing to do with helping people. It's good for my career, I get to travel, have new experiences, see other countries, meet new friends, etc. But beyond all that, there's something more here; I really do like helping people, typically when it's my choice with helping people. I'm a large fan of random acts of kindness, getting nothing in return for giving, it's when I'm expected to give that I immediately have a problem and pull everything in. I think that's where the selfishness comes into play and where it differentiates itself from altruism. I like seeing the results of my giving, because it makes me happy to see other people happy, but I will not sacrifice my personal happiness or freedom of choice for someone else's happiness. As to what I'm actually doing here, I can swing a hammer as much as the next guy, but there are some things that I do a lot better than that, and being able to leverage them here for such an important cause is a real treat.
There is not a single day that goes by that I am not more and more proud of the company for which I work. Do I think it's IBM's responsibility to do all of the things that it does for the communities around the world? Absolutely not (let's hope that statement doesn't get taken out of context and someday harm my potential to be a high level executive). Am I tremendously proud of IBM for doing them and would I make the same decisions given the choice someday? Absolutely 200%. It's because IBM does these things that I enjoy working there so much and have stayed with the company this long. I know that tomorrow, there's not going to be a news story about IBM doing bad business somewhere causing the whole company to collapse; that's not IBM and it's not the way IBM does business. It's the fact that the company has a reputation and a history to maintain and a place to play in humanity's struggle. A little overdramatic? Maybe, but consider the inventions and progress that IBM has brought with it in the past 100 years. Yes, the 100 year anniversary is coming up. Over those years we've always been ahead of the curve, whether it was discrimination policies, hiring minorities, creating amazing technology, or boycotting countries that were ruled by Apartheid, IBM is a world leader.
I think the capitalist with the freedom to do as he wishes, or the corporation with the choice, will 9 times out of 10, do the right thing. I think those odds dramatically decrease when you remove free will from the equation. You don't want someone following the law, you want them following their happiness (or profit from corporate image) because only then will you get the best results for everyone involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment