Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Obama's Inaugural Message "Responsibility"


The Washington Times previewed President Barack Obama's inauguration address. The piece stated:


Incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday morning that President-elect Barack Obama will call today for an "era of responsibility" after he is sworn in to the presidency.

Accountability is one of three pillars Obama's Chief Performance Officer will use to improve government. Transparency and efficiency are the other two.

What do responsibility and accountability mean? Not much if leaders don't understand the aim of the system, optimization, the two kinds of variation and their different management strategies, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, and how knowledge is obtained, via use of theory, and how it can be used for prediction.


Hold everybody accountable? Ridiculous!--Dr. W. Edwards Deming

The TARP system has no consistent aim. It wanders from the latest best idea to another. Meanwhile, taxpayers give billions to business shedding jobs by the tens of thousands. Don't leaders want to provide jobs anymore? That used to be part of their aim. Ask Henry Ford. He paid workers such that they could afford his product.

The "Era of Responsibility" may hide the global corporate race to the lowest common denominator on taxes. worker pay, and employment benefits. Citizens may soon be responsible for their health care coverage and retirement. America's corporatocracy can be gauged by the fortunes of private equity underwriters (PEU's). Nearly every ex-President and Vice President on the inaugural stage have a PEU affiliation.

The golden age of PEU's may be upon us, said Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. They had a banner eight years under Bush. How will responsibility impact America's shadow banking system? Maybe, not at all.

America needs an "Era of Leadership," a complete reformation of management theory in Boardrooms and Washington, D.C. The push for accountability/responsibility shows we're not even close.

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