Nicolo Machiavelli Historie fiorentine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Santi di Tito’s famous portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli, now residing in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy; headcrop. Deutsch: Niccolò Machiavelli; Ausschnitt aus dem Portrait von Santi di Tito. Македонски: Портрет на Николо Макијавели во функционерска облека. Санти ди Тито, 1500. Денес во Палацо Векио, Фиренца, Италија (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Like Dr Alf, I have come across many strange personalities in corporate life and in the public sector ranging from paternalistic and benign to cunning and Machiavellian with the odd psychopath and sociopath thrown in.
The predominant type seems to have been people who underestimate difficulties ,fail to consider practicalities and who overestimate their ability to be right even though circumstances change faster than their experience can match and Black Swans now account for 50% of everything that happens in the world.
Rewards for not delivering optimised shareholder value,a failure by the UK courts not to jail errant executives when some of them have acted with recklessness and capriciousness in pursuit of bonuses to the point where greed has overtaken all reason and sense of right and wrong have led to “omnipotence syndrome”.
This is where these executives attribute “Godlike powers” to themselves and become oblivious to risk.
Shareholders need greater powers to curb such megalomania and non executive directors need to hold such directors to closer account.
Dr Alf's Blog 