Summary.
Managing the tension between performance and people is at the heart of the CEO’s job. Firms are at once economic organizations whose survival and prosperity depends on the delivery of superior value in an unforgiving global marketplace and social institutions that profoundly shape the lives of their employees. Too many leaders view their organizations primarily through one lens or the other. For many CEOs under fierce pressure from capital markets, the focus is entirely on the shareholder, with a single-mindedness that can lead to employee disenchantment and loss of capacity to deliver long-term value. For others, who perhaps have a commanding market share or are operating in protected markets, concern for the firm’s people, culture, and heritage can all too easily slide into complacency, inward focus, and loss of competitive vitality.