Rethinc: What's Broke At Today's Corporations And How To Fix It

Description

Corporations are crucial to society's well-being. Yet, not many have chosen to adapt themselves to the expectations of employees and the society at large. Prof. Ram Mohan identifies the three main problems that ail companies and illustrates the ways in which these can be combated. Most companies are still run from the top and make very little attempt to involve employees at the lower levels in decision-making. Executive compensation has spiralled steeply in recent years because the process of determining it is seriously flawed. Boards of directors are ineffective and have abetted the cult of the charismatic CEO who is expected to work wonders. Rethinc contends that the solution lies in the near-total dismantling of hierarchy, or the creation of a 'bossless' organization. In such an organization, the structure is flat, employees operate through self-driven teams, there is peer review, power rests on one's contribution and not one's title, and the organizational purpose goes beyond the making of profit and several other features. Once all this is done, we will have an achieving organization that is also a humane one, in which the employees are raring to get to work every day.

T.T. RAM MOHAN, professor of finance and economics at IIM Ahmedabad, graduated from IIT Bombay and IIM Calcutta and obtained his doctorate from Stern School of Business, New York University. He has been, at various points in time, a management consultant, banker, investment banker and financial journalist. Prof. Ram Mohan has written for several publications, including the Economic Times, Business Standard, The Hindu, Wire, BloombergQuint and Quartz. He has served on the boards of several companies and been a member of committees of the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India. His books include Privatisation in India: Challenging Economic Orthodoxy; Brick by Red Brick: Ravi Matthai and the Making of IIM Ahmedabad; Rethinc: What's Broke at Today's Corporations and How to Fix It; and Towards a Safer World of Banking: Bank Regulation after the Sub-Prime Crisis.