High Performance with High Integrity

by Ben W. Heineman Jr.

Book Overview

Our free-market capitalist system is the world's greatest driver of prosperity, but it has a dark side. Under intense pressure to make the numbers, executives and employees face temptation to cut corners, fudge accounts, or worse. And in today's unforgiving environment, such lapses can be catastrophic. Fines and settlements have amounted to billions of dollars. Careers and companies have imploded.

In High Performance with High Integrity, Ben...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1422122956
• ISBN13: 9781422122952
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.6" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Integrity is not something that has to be sacrificed for success

Integrity is not something that has to be sacrificed for success. "High Performance with High Integrity" is a guide for business owners who want to be successful, but don't want to be a cutthroat at the same time. Advice on structuring a business to meet this level of morality while maintaining success, and how to keep one's employees going with the same beliefs and values, makes "High Performance with High Integrity" a seminal guide to the honest businessman. A must for any community library business collection.

Essential Reading

"I am certain this will become a classic. It is central message is important, new, crystal clear, compelling and I think inspiring. It is a mature and forceful book. The key points are driven home by understandable examples (which are sometimes themselves a wake up call e.g. the reference to "side letters" as "red flags" in financial deals). The recommendations are practical and actionable. Somehow it manages to be a theoretical treatise on the need for change and a practical, and reasonably short, handbook for how to change. I can not recall a recent book which was able to accomplish so much in such a compelling way in such a short space. No one can read this book and not come away with a list of "to do's" that will improve their lives. That said the capability of GE as revealed in the text can, or will soon be, matched by only a few. The issue is enormously complex and there are very few Ben Heineman's around who can grasp the issues and clearly understand how to approach them pragmatically. The messages here are important not only for business but for governments (and universities, particularly the scientific and medical research departments) as well. The problems in some corners of the world can only be solved through the Heineman methods. I hope they see it, hear it and read it."

Valuable Tips

I would have given this book a 5 but a lot of it is full of corporate speak which may be the language of choice in mega corporations like GE but does litle to help the rest of us. When the book drills down to the mechanics of infusing performance with integrity it excels. Some of the excellent ideas: have employees report the more palatable(to them) "concerns", not illegal conduct and you will get more information on what may be going wrong in the corporation; ID employees at risk of corruption of ethics violations(such as those in overseas assignments or in purchasing etc) and focus customized training on them; explain to employees not only what to do but give them "red flag" examples of dangerous situations so they know if they are cruising off course; use case studies because a story teaches more than a lecture. One other insight: when a company confronts a crisis, one thing needs to be said asap to the corporate crisis team: we will be judged by what we do from this moment on.

Clear Fascinating Business Book for Everyone

High Performance with High Integrity is not only a vital subject for modern corporations--and for life--but also a description of this comfortably-sized book by Mr. Heineman, former Chief Counsel of GE. I am writing these comments both as a layman and as a former executive in a biotech venture capital firm, and I can vouch for the accuracy of the description of the problem, and the usefulness and clarity of the solutions the author offers. It's rare to have anyone be so concise and yet thorough, and what makes it come alive is the author's writing so elegantly about his own experience, not only with GE but with other areas of business, both in American and internationally. I found the trans-national/cultural analysis especially interesting. Heineman seems to have been everywhere and done everything. His concise points about both performance and integrity, and the nexus of them, are quite brilliant and extremely helpful to anyone who wants to move his or her company toward that integrated (and integrative) goal. Given the business climate in this country, everyone should want that! And it is of a size to fit into one's pocket. Bravo.

What is the proper role of business?

This is one of the titles in the "Memo to the CEO" series published by Harvard Business Press, each less than 200 pages in length and superbly produced. In fact, none is a "memo" nor were any of them written solely for a CEO. In this volume, Ben W. Heineman Jr. affirms the need to combine high performance with high integrity for a number of reasons. For example, that will "protect the corporation and its stakeholders from catastrophic train wrecks." However, Heineman adds, such a combination "isn't just about avoiding evils. It also has strong, affirmative benefits for the company: internally, in the marketplace, and in the broader society. Ultimately, it creates the fundamental trust of shareholders, creditors, employees, recruits, customers, suppliers, regulators, communities, and the pubic at large." I am curious to know why Heineman did not also include competitors, especially now when so many former competitors are forging strategic alliance. Surely none would be consummated without trust as well as respect. He urges C-level executives (including but not limited to CEOs) to "drive a robust performance-with-integrity culture deep into the company: through powerful leadership that voices the vision and the values and through effective management that builds the integrity principles and practices [at all levels and in all areas of] business operations." It is no coincidence that on Fortune's annual lists, year after year, many of those ranked among the most valuable are also ranked among the most highly admired. Some of the most valuable material in this book is provided in Part II as Heineman examines a series of core principles and practices that must serve as the foundation of the culture he envisions. CEOs must be wholly committed to demonstrating as well as advocating integrity in all systems and practices; manage performance with integrity as a business process; adopt global ethical standards; take full advantage of "early-warning systems" to stay ahead of global trends and expectations; view the CFO (or equivalent) and general counsel as full partners as well as fiduciary guardians; encourage and nourish employee awareness, knowledge, and commitment; give them a "voice" for their grievances, concerns, aspirations, observations, and suggestions; and recognize and appropriately reward "performance with integrity." A leader's performance should be measured in terms of the extent to which she or he fulfills these expectations. In the final chapter, Heineman shares his deep belief that "the governance debate about corporate performance with integrity must shift [from an emphasis on members of a governing board] and focus primarily (although not exclusively) on the `third dimension' of governance: the role of the CEO and top leadership in governing the company and driving the principles and practices necessary to fuse the twin goals of capitalism. Neither the shareholders (the first dimension) nor the board (the second dimension) can do