Harry recently published a piece at Fortune.com about the ongoing showdown between Apple and the FBI:
“It’s not about whether Tim Cook is right or wrong. Apple Inc.’s standoff against the U.S. government’s mounting pressure to hack into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters highlights the importance of having clear leadership values in place. Otherwise, when a crisis arises, a company will be on the defensive and scrambling to respond, creating uncertainty and eroding trust among customers and business partners.”
Read the full article here.
Harry,
These solid core principles you share in this article are critical for leaders to consider, especially, as you note, throughout one’s career. To try and “hurry up and do values” when there is a crisis is too late. And it shows when others have not done the work of thinking through what a values based decision requires. I saw it in the 1980s with the AIDS crisis. Many doctors and student doctors (I was one) were finding ways to not treat AIDS patients. They were intelligent people, but unfortunately they used their intellect to come up with reasons to abandon people who were sick with AIDS. They were not ready to take care of someone whose illness might mean a fatal infection for the doctor him or herself. Only when you have done the work privately, in your own mind and spirit, can you be prepared for value challenges like this one. I knew that the tradition of medicine meant you had to put yourself in harm’s way at times with certain life-threatening infections. So, with the arrival of AIDS, and with no hesitation (but genuine vigilance and fear!) I took care of all the AIDS patients that came my way. Tim Cook has a similar challenge.
Appreciatively, Daven Morrison MD ________________________________