This document is clearly about growth.
Clearly, growth is not the only thing that matters. That said, any company that doesn’t have a client-first AND a growth mindset ultimately will eventually become irrelevant. For more on growth mindset, see Carel Dweck’s excellent book https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0345472322&linkCode=as2&tag=farnamstreet-20&linkId=ZYKJHPHELN46AOWM
We strongly believe that clients, whenever given the choice, prefer to buy from companies that are authentic (“do what they preach”) and where every decision is made with integrity in mind. At times, companies are faced with tough decisions. We know companies that have had to cancel their IPO because in the due-diligence leading up to the float, it was discovered that the company on several occasions had offered bribes to enter new markets and win contracts. One of the authors was once presented with a list of government bids, which clearly wasn’t publicly available, and asked which we wanted to “win”. Our agent would take care of the paper trail, he said. Nothing to worry about. Today, management need to be aware of anti-bribery & anti-corruption laws in every market they intend to enter.
We will revisit these topics under the Keeping the Skeletons Out.
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