Do Business with People You Can Trust: Balancing Profits and Principles
Author: L. J. Rittenhouse
List Price: $22.95
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ISBN: 0971935602
Publisher: andBEYOND Communications Inc. (25 April, 2002)
Sales Rank: 292,671
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
A fascinating new approach to doing Business with principles
Drawing on examples from extreme ends of ethical spectrum in todays's bussiness world--Berkshire Hathaways and Enron--Ms. Rittenhouse puts forth a compelling argument about the benefits of remaining principled in one's business dealings.Thanks to this book, I no longer believe that good CEOs must live in an ethical gray area in order to turn a profit in today's business world. This book should be the basis for a complete reevaluation of current accepted business practices.
The author also illustrates how an average person can thoughtfully gauge the ethics of a company through careful analysis of its annual report.
Bravo Ms. Rittenhouse!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Not thorough enough
LJ's book is mostly a regurgitation of Warren Buffett's letters combined with a few exerpts from the Enron and other shareholder letters. She's clearly fallen under the spell of the Oracle from Omaha. I wish there were new insights here about evaluating people for business partnerships, but there isn't anything of the sort. Rather, we get a childlike and skin deep analysis of a few shareholder letters spliced into a sparse review of Buffett's letters. Very disappointing.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A European perspective on a US problem
Laura Rittenhouse has done us all a great favour in her book "Do Business with People you can Trust". It should be required reading for all CEO's and corporate communicators. At last we can see the propects for creating shareholder value by full and honest disclosure and she has created a useful technique for assessing the value (or lack of it)implicit in the shareholder letters published by CEOs.
All those who have had the uneviable task of writing reports or letters to shareholders know the temptations of the fashionable phrase or the piece of internal jargon. They are easy to write and get the job done - but we should all learn to stand back and ask "exactly what does that mean?"
Disclosure requirements are increasing in all countries but no amount of rules or legislation will prevent the use of meaningless phrases or words. The author helps us understand what works and what doesn't.
I only have two suggestions for improvement. First, I think we are benefiting here in the UK from additional disclosures about risk management and many companies are now reporting on the major risks they are taking and how they manage them. More on that would have been helpful. Second, She has focused on the "goodies" strongly represented by Berkshire Hathaway, and the "baddies" represented by Enron. The emphasis on these two companies is heavy and I would have preferred something a little more balanced.
Other than that I enjoyed the book immensely, it is well and intelligently written with a mischievous sense of humour. I hope Ms Rittenhouse will persevere with her theme and continue her analysis for an update in a year or so. Similar Products
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