Altos Ventures Musings

Ousting the Founder

I was shocked to learn this week that Diane Greene, the co-founder and CEO of VMWare was ousted. I was not alone. Except for senior management (who found out very late, the night before) the employees of VMWare read about it, just like I did on Tuesday morning.

I guess $1.3B in revenues, $14B market cap, 50% growth rate and market dominance was not good enough for the board/EMC. One slight miss in one quarter and BANG! You're out. Perhaps the board believed industry pundits and worried about competition from Microsoft. So they brought in a "heavy hitter"...former Microsoft exec Paul Maritz as CEO.

I'd guess that the more likely reason was that Diane Green was a difficult person to deal with. There is no doubt that she was a controversial CEO. It was her way or the highway and she churned through senior execs (especially in sales and marketing). She never gave much respect to the folks at EMC either (who owned the vast majority of the stock - and controlled the board).

Some other hard-headed, "controversial" founder/CEOs that come to mind are Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Steve Jobs. These founders may be difficult to deal with but I'd rather go with them than take my chances with a new hired gun CEO.

Over the years, we've observed that it's difficult, if not impossible, to match the passion and commitment that founders bring to their companies. It's not just a job for them. It's deeply personal. The difference in commitment is akin to the differences you might observe between missionaries and mercenaries (or hedgehogs versus foxes).

Look, I have nothing against Paul. I'm sure he's a very smart, capable and hard working guy. But this whole situation reminded me of the time Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple more than 20 years ago.

As co-founder and CEO, Diane Green built one of the all time great successes in Silicon Valley. Very, very few companies ever reach $1B in revenues. Even fewer in the technology industry. Even fewer in the software industry. And even fewer ever exceed $10B in market cap.

Why the hell would you fire her?? No, don't tell me...I've heard all the reasons. VCs oust founders all the time. I've been in plenty of board level discussions around this topic!

It's almost a rite of passage in Silicon Valley. As a founder, you start a company, get VCs to fund you, recruit a "world class" management team...and eventually, find your replacement (or get ousted).

What people seem to miss, however, is that just about every great company ever created - in technology as well as low-tech, was built by a founder (or a CEO who happened to join the company very early in its growth phase) and a team of dedicated people who grew with their companies.

I don't believe in "world class" management in the generic sense. "World class" in what??

What I believe in is people who learn on the job and become - over time - the best at what they do. Along the way, they make plenty of mistakes. But that's part of the learning (and perhaps the luck of it - because the mistakes happen to be not fatal for the survivors).

Think about it. Some examples of great companies led by founders for decades are GE, UPS, FedEx, Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, HP, Intel, SAP, SAS, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Adobe, Sun, Dell, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Nvidia, Dolby, Amazon.com, Salesforce.com, etc.

There are some great companies where the original founder(s) did not grow the company but the CEO who grew the business to $1B+ in revenues joined very early on in the life of the company (typically below $10mm in sales): IBM, McDonald's, Starbucks, Veritas, Cisco and Google are examples.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. Even a founder hanging on to the bitter end won't save some companies (i.e. Wang, DEC). But I'd rather take my chances with the founder who built a $1B business from scratch than go with someone new.

The average tenure of the CEOs in our three largest companies is 9 years. They learned on the job. None of them had been CEO before we started working with them. None had much experience in their industry - the market did not exist, and the technology and business models had not yet been invented. But they are guys who took us this far (average sales of nearly $90mm this year) and we will gladly stick with them as long as they still want the job.

I'd rather take my chances with the people who built the business and grew their companies than the "professionals" - the hired guns - the mercenaries - coming in, after the fact, to "fix" things or to "take it to the next level."

We tell all of our companies this - if you want to build the leader in your industry, you have to have the world's leading experts in your field working for you. But do NOT expect to find them outside of your company. Someone senior from the outside won't come in to show you the way. They won't save you.

Think about it. If you can go outside and hire a CEO or other very senior executives to come in to YOUR company and tell you what to do and how to do it - better than you - then you've created nothing special. There is no secret sauce and you have NO CHANCE of building a truly great company.

We like to tell all of our companies this - the world's leading experts in your business will be the people you develop. The young people you hire today will be your future leaders. Five to ten years from now, they will BE the world's leading experts in your business. You will have to figure it out - together - along the way.

Don't count on those mythical "world class" managers to come in to save the day. Not only are there no guarantees, I believe they will end up hurting your chances of building a special, lasting company. If you do try to hire them anyway...good luck. What I will guarantee is this - they will negotiate HARD for a nice severance package.

LEARNING TO GIVE A DAMN

Almost every venture capitalist I know lists passion as one of the most important traits they look for in entrepreneurs.  Most VCs, I am sure, also talk about their own commitment and passion when pitching themselves to limited partners.

My personal lessons in observing people with real passion came from my Army days as a 22 year-old lieutenant in charge of about 40 people.

On one Saturday night approaching midnight, my boss called me at home. He said, “LT (that is what we were called, especially when he was angry about something), come over to the motor-pool right now.” The motor-pool was where we kept all of our equipment such as trucks, tanks, dozers, etc. When I got there, I saw my boss standing nearby a truck with a flashlight. As he saw me approaching, he threw a maintenance book at me, and said, “We are going to go through the standard maintenance inspection of this truck…together.”

When we got done, we found the truck with only half-filled gas tank (it is supposed to be full at all times when inside the motor-pool), malfunctioning fire extinguisher, and without several items that belonged in the truck at all times. After the inspection, I was embarrassed. My boss then smiled, held up a cigarette butt, and said, “LT, I knew one of your trucks was due in around 11PM. So, I just came by and looked inside the truck. And I found several cigarette butts and empty coke cans. I knew then I had to teach you an important lesson on leadership. That is to give a damn.”

He then explained, “If a soldier does not care to clean up the truck when he reports back in, then he probably did not bother refueling. Furthermore, there is a high probability that he is not taking care of the truck every day.” At that moment, he grew very serious, and said, “You have to care. You have to make sure your soldiers care. Otherwise, you and I will be explaining to the soldier’s loved ones why his truck ran out of fuel, did not reach the destination, and got killed by enemy fire.

My second lesson came from a sergeant who was at least a decade older than me. On the first night of our field exercise, he got me up in the middle of the night. He said, “Sir, get up. You don’t have time to be sleeping. Come with me.” He then took me around every guard post, checked to see if anyone had wet boots (and when he/she did, immediately had them change socks and boots and personally applied foot powder), and talked with them about family, girlfriends/boyfriends, and football teams, etc.

After checking with every guard, he then said, “Sir, the guards change every two hours. You should get some shut-eye now. But in thirty minutes, I am going to wake you up. And you are going to do what I did with every set of guards.” My sergeant truly cared about his soldiers. He wanted to make sure I also learned to give a  damn.

My Army days feel distant as I go through my days as a venture capitalist. The risks VCs take on are far from matters of life and death, but the lessons I learned in giving a damn gives me proper conviction to stick to what we call a responsible way to build companies.

I wonder ...what would all VCs do if they gave a damn?

If VCs gave a damn, they would be more interested in building special companies than flipping them, just to make money. They would pay attention and not spray and pray their investments, hoping to get lucky.

Also, they would not over-commit by taking on too much money, too many companies and too many board seats. They would capitalize companies responsibly, not according to how much money they had to invest.

Finally, they would take the time to get to know the businesses and people involved. They would focus on developing talent and not rush out to hire mercenaries looking for quick fixes. There are no short cuts. It is critical to make the proper trade-offs between growth, profitability and sustainability.

Monkey See Monkey Do

A few weeks ago, a fascinating New York Times article described observations of morality in the behavior of apes. For example, Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would deliver electric shocks to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for days.

Apes are social creatures. So for the good of the species, evolution has wired them to act in unselfish ways which can be interpreted as moral or ethical. Since we are also social creatures, it might be nice to think that perhaps humans have also developed "good" DNA like those apes.

With the invention of language, logic and technologies (such as the printing press, invented almost six hundred years ago), human societies and cultures have been evolving at rates far faster than evolutionary pace. Even though culture is a human creation rather than a biological one, culture now has a powerful influence over us.

For example, economists demonstrated the influence of culture by studying data from New York City on parking tickets issued to U.N. diplomats. From an economic point of view, diplomats should not care how many tickets they get (due to diplomatic immunity). However, according to the data analyzed between 1997 to 2002, certain diplomats committed hundreds of violations while "not a single parking violation by a Swedish diplomat was recorded...Nor were there any by diplomats from Denmark, Japan, Israel, Norway or Canada."

The reason for such wide variations is that we are not merely products of DNA or economics. Human beings are shaped by cultural and moral norms. According to the article, "if you're Swedish and you have a chance to pull up in front of a fire hydrant, you still don't do it. You're Swedish."

I'm no expert on Swedish culture, but I'd guess that there is a sense of honor and values which influence behavior more so than rules and regulations. In fact, Sweden perennially ranks among the least corrupt in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

In modern society, I believe there is a third powerful influence - it is the culture of our workplace. The corporate entity is a relatively new invention dating back to the mid 19th century. Before then, liability was not limited to a corporate entity so owners and managers often risked all of their personal reputation and assets. (What would happen to the venture capital industry if we had to risk far more than invested capital?).

An example of a company with a powerful culture is Toyota (now worth more than GM, Ford, and Chrysler combined). According to Michael Cusumano, a professor of management at MIT, “the founders and the managers created and refined Toyota company culture, which is far more powerful than Japanese culture. It does build on many things that are Japanese — precision, quality, loyalty. But the Toyota culture dominates.”

With corporate scandals over the past few years our confidence in corporations has been shaken. Isn't it ironic to think that apes may have a sense of right from wrong, but humans need more and more laws and regulations? It seems a whole new profession is thriving these days - that of corporate ethics and compliance officers.

Unfortunately, I think we are barking up the wrong tree. New ethics and compliance officers won't shape human behavior any more than new regulations, motivational posters or "core values" statements on plaques. Anyone who has worked for different companies knows that companies have very different and distinct cultures. Whether good or bad, corporate cultures influence behavior.

In the "HP Way", David Packard did not talk about ethics and morality (and certainly not about compliance). He did talk about values - integrity was presumed. Packard promoted mavericks - people willing to buck the system and go against the rules (in order to create a great product and rise above bureaucracy). But when it came to ethical issues, everyone knew Packard had a "zero tolerance policy."

Both Hewlett and Packard set the tone for decades. HP was a highly ethical company long before there was a "Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer" (a new position created by Mark Hurd, after the recent board scandal). So where did they go wrong? As a society, where did we all go wrong? Answering such questions probably requires a book rather than this short blog post.

As VCs, we work with entrepreneurs and managers who shape the culture of companies from day one (whether they intend to or not). For example, I recently noticed that one of our companies has a peculiar culture - most employees get to work by 7:30am. That's unheard of in Silicon Valley, especially for engineers. Well, it turns out that the founder is an early riser and often gets to work by 4am. That company had only one employee last year. Now that it has a few more people, we can start to see the culture forming. (It'll be interesting to see how it evolves).

Over the years, we've observed that the behavior of management has a huge influence on the values and cultures of companies (what they DO, not what they say). If we want more honorable behavior by corporations, we don't need more regulations (and we don't need more compliance officers). What we need is better leadership. Character, integrity and leadership should go hand in hand. Being ethical is also more profitable in the long run. (Even merchants and traders from centuries ago figured out that a great reputation was the only way to build a great business).

Entrepreneurs have always had huge influence over the rate of innovation and the growth of world economies. I believe they can have even a more profound impact. Just as DNA can impact entire species starting from a single cell, start-ups can be the beginning of new corporate entities which can change our lives. It is much easier to get it right from the beginning than it is to change a fully grown entity. Entrepreneurs are the future. They can set the tone with the example they set in the companies they build.

Raising Sheep

"We're raising sheep in our educational system, not independent thinkers and doers."
      - Paul Orfalea, Founder, Kinkos

Have you ever wondered why so many successful entrepreneurs didn't get the best grades in school?  Even in the technology industry, where education is paramount, many of the best known entrepreneurs were college drop-outs (i.e. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison and Michael Dell). Maybe there's some truth to the saying - the A students work for the B students, the C students run the companies, and the D students (or dropouts) dedicate the buildings.

I don't want to diss the best students because we need them. They become our engineers, doctors or lawyers (OK, maybe we don't need any more of that last category). Overall, the conventionally successful will do quite well. Last year, I heard Eric Schmidt talk about "the premium for competence" as he described how Google was able to access top talent they could not attract when they were small. He explained that some people are so competent that they don't have to settle. They can wait to see the data (look for the sure thing) rather join a risky start-up. Good for them.

On the business track, the most popular (and highest paying) jobs graduates of top MBA programs pursue are in management consulting (McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are the most prestigious), investment banking (Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are tops), private equity (just about any firm), and, these days, the most coveted jobs are at giant hedge funds (how depressing).

In school, there are discrete tests with answers that determine the grades. The real world is more complicated. Fundamental tenants such as "be honest" or "work hard" are too simple (and overlooked) to be useful. Good advice can even sound contradictory like "get the facts, do the analysis" versus "trust your gut." The real world is full of apparent paradoxes. There are no black and white answers, just shades of grey, and even being right may not be good enough.

In the business world, the cold reality is that being good - or even great - may not be good enough. The key to winning is differentiation. Great entrepreneurs have an edge  - but it doesn't come from higher IQs or greater imagination. The best entrepreneurs might even be considered simple minded (see the post on Foxes and Hedgehogs.) However, they do possess special qualities. They think and act differently. They don't go along with the crowd. Peer pressure is not their thing. Not only are they willing to be different, they ARE different.

Nature versus nurture?

In some cases, there could be biological differences. For example, dyslexia, a neurological condition which causes difficulty reading and writing, is a learning disability which afflicted entrepreneurs such as Paul Orfalea (Kinkos), Richard Branson (Virgin), Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA), Craig McCaw (McCaw Cellular) and Charles Schwab. Perhaps, as a side-effect of their condition, they were forced to work harder, see things differently, and do things in unorthodox ways.

Whatever the cause, most of the time, there is no scientific proof of biological differences - but let me try to characterize these very special people who turn out to be extraordinary entrepreneurs.

This great country was founded by people who possess characteristics inherent in great entrepreneurs. Such people are rebels at heart. They are willing to fight for what they believe in.  They have the courage to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes. They never use the excuse "everybody else is doing it." Throw out convention! They can be brash and stubborn. They don't pine to be popular. One might say that they just don't give a damn what others think.

They are skeptics at heart. They won't take your word for it - they always ask probing questions. They are incessantly curious. They look beyond the surface. They dig deeper. They don't fear the truth or the unknown. They don't fear change, they crave it. They strive forward, relentlessly, toward an expansive future, not with uncertainty and doubt but with faith and optimism. In fact, one of their most special qualities is that rare combination of forward looking idealism with a skeptic's realism.

However, contrary to what you might think, they are not driven by the desire to stand out or the courage to be different. They're driven by the courage to be true to themselves - it takes self-awareness and integrity. They are 100% genuine - the real thing - authentic, original, and refreshingly unique.

The willingness to go down an unconventional path requires CONVICTION. As investors, something we have in common with entrepreneurs is this - to win BIG you must have conviction (great fortunes are made through concentrated portfolios, while a diversified portfolio makes it easier to keep). Of course, in the investing world, it takes judgment to decide when a deal makes real sense. (Confused people tend to rely on stock charts or "comps" rather than fundamentals and valuations).

My wife likes to say that I have "an incredibly high tolerance for risk" (she prefers a much bigger safety net). But what I consider to be extremely conservative might appear risky to people who don't see what I see. That's exactly how entrepreneurs feel! They don't feel that they're taking incredible risk. When Bill Gates dropped out of college, he did not see himself as taking tremendous risk (although his "parents were very concerned"). If entrepreneurs don't believe in what they're doing, they shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

It's fascinating to observe people who possess that rare combination of conviction and open-mindedness. Conviction keeps them charging ahead while their questioning nature allows them to constantly learn and adapt. Balancing these paradoxical qualities is one of the keys to entrepreneurial success. 

Qualities such as intelligence or the ability to "think out of the box" are over-rated. You don't need to be smarter or more creative, but you must have your own point of view. This is NOT the same as being contrarian, which can be just as mindless as being conventional (just the mindless opposite).

The crowd is not always wrong. In fact, under the right circumstances, the crowd can be more wise than even the smartest individuals. According to "The Wisdom of Crowds," three conditions must be met for crowds to be smart - 1) diversity of opinions, 2) independent thinkers, and 3) decentralization. Ironically, Surowiecki's book contains many examples of the stupidity of crowds (when such conditions are not met). More examples can be found in "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and Madness of Crowds."

Herd mentality?

Sand Hill Road is full of people who got the best grades from the best schools (VC and private equity shops are full of Harvard and Stanford MBAs). It's a small, tight knit community (the "old boys club" as some might say). They graze the same grounds and talk about the same stuff - big markets, passionate entrepreneurs, connections, relationships, proprietary deal flow, experience, adding value, home-runs, and being part of the "top quartile" (the last point is important because average VC returns have been less than impressive).

The VC industry is full of rules of thumbs and conventional wisdom. The industry moves in herds. Variations of the theme epitomized by the classic (outdated) phrase "you don't get fired for buying IBM" seem to be the mottos most people live by. These days, the most popular deals involve social networking, user generated content, wireless, China and India. Look, I'd never short a tidal wave (like China or the Internet) but the herd mentality (and the lack of originality and depth) is real.

As Yogi Berra says, it feels like deja vu all over again. The conferences and cocktail parties are buzzing from Shanghai to Silicon Valley (see comments from last month's post). Just don't expect to meet the best entrepreneurs at such events. They are too busy to attend. The real entrepreneurs are out there doing their own thing.

At first, what great entrepreneurs do might appear uninteresting, mundane, strange, unimportant or too early (or too late). In the beginning, companies like Southwest Airlines, eBay and Craigslist seemed strange. HP, Wal-Mart and Intuit probably seemed unimportant. RIMM, Qualcomm, and Pixar looked too early. Cisco, Dell and Google were thought to be too late.

In Silicon Valley, the heroes are the technologists ("the suits" are thought of as necessary evils). Unfortunately, in the real world, entrepreneurs must have a nose for business. The great ones always figure out how to make money (even as teenagers, they often have track records - from running newspaper routes, writing code, buying stocks or selling stuff).

Entrepreneurs like Sam Walton, Bill Hewlett, David Packard, and Herb Kelleher didn't care about what investors wanted (or about changing the world or their industries). In the case of Kelleher, a middle-aged lawyer who sketched out his plan on a cocktail napkin, Southwest Airlines operated in the fringes, in small, under-served markets. No one took them seriously for years. They just kept plugging along, posting 34 consecutive years of profitability in a volatile, cyclical industry marred by enormous losses and bankruptcies. (Southwest also outperformed ALL public companies in stock market performance over the 30 year period starting in 1972).

One of the paradoxical qualities of great entrepreneurs is that they are actually conservative at heart. They say "show me the money" - in some ways, they might have more in common with those frugal, skeptical farmers from Missouri than most entrepreneurs and VCs running around Sand Hill Road. Our Venture Lotto article contained this characterization of entrepreneurs:

"The best ones we know are much more risk-averse than conventional wisdom might suggest. They don't take foolish chances. They spend money as if it were their own. They observe, listen and adapt; but fundamentally, they strive to control their own destinies, which is best done by generating profits. They do need a little capital, but they want help and advice even more. Being an entrepreneur is, at times, a very lonely endeavor."

However, this talk about profits should not take away from the most special quality of great entrepreneurs - they inspire others. Don't think of them as shrewd opportunists who read the fine print on every contract, looking to take advantage of every deal. Such people might do well (for themselves), but they won't build wonderful and enduring companies. Great entrepreneurs bring others along. They grow the pie, rather fight for a bigger piece (or the crumbs).

To go back to the example of the founding of this country, problems (like taxation without representation) may stir the pot (like inciting riots or unrest) but revolutions are ultimately inspired by values and ideals (like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness). In the business world, a problem may lead to an invention or a new company...but exceptional companies are built on a foundation of core values and dreams of entrepreneurs.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, just remember this - follow a different path - your own path. The most successful entrepreneurs win with or without VC funding - they go out and just do it. Forget about the cocktail parties, the hot sectors, hot deals, or what's popular with investors or anyone else - think for yourself. If you do, you just might come up with something that you will pursue with all your heart and soul. Conviction, rather than convention, is the key.

Sports, character, and business.

"Sports don't build character. They reveal it." - Heywood Hale Broun 

I heard that quote the other day driving in my car. It grabbed me for some reason. I had always thought that sports helped build character. It made me think.

To my wife's dismay, I'm a total sports nut. I tell her that I hate watching it on TV - except during the Olympics, the World Cup, March Madness, the Majors, the playoffs, the World Series, and the Superbowl. Certain moments should not be missed. Of course, she points out that there is one of those every weekend. Thank goodness for Tivo.

I will always remember ABC's Wide World of Sports and its stirring beginning - "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat." I loved it. However, I love watching sports because it's not just about the final score.

Michael Jordan once said "I missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed." Not everyone can be like Mike, but character is revealed at every level. I vividly remember a friend recounting how his daughter finished her long-distance races in last place, long after the other kids had finished. She never quit. She finished every race, sometimes in near-darkness. (She also stopped coming in last).

Talent flows naturally for some but character is a matter of choice, not chance. Choosing the right path is not easy. It takes discipline and hard work - self-sacrifice - and a willingness to test yourself. If you've ever been on a team, ask yourself whether personal gain was more important than the team's gain. Everyone deserves recognition and a pat on the back, but character is revealed, not built, at certain moments. As you observe, it's important to be honest with yourself. As you make decisions, character is initially revealed to no-one else but yourself.

Abraham Lincoln once said that character is like a tree - the real thing - while reputation is merely its shadow. John Wooden advised his players to "be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” Vince Lombardi echoed a similar theme when he said that one cannot simply copy someone else's character. "Character must fit our own personality and characteristics if it is to withstand trial by fire."

There are almost endless analogies between sports and business - competition, teamwork, leadership, strategy, talent, preparation, execution, determination, blocking and tackling, etc. Business is a team sport. People in business inevitably face conflicts of interests and decisions about how to compete. In the heat of battle, decisions are made and character is revealed. Actions speak louder than words.

In business, statistics are tracked and recorded almost every moment of every day. Ultimately, keeping score is simple - it's all about money. Without profits, companies die. Money losing companies create desperation and despair; money making ones create options. With profits, companies can use it to do many things - create jobs, serve customers, pay taxes, and give back to their communities. Venture capital helps build companies; and if we do our jobs, those companies create value. They give back more than they take.

Paradoxically, even though business is “all about money,” the playing field embraces those who are not driven by it. If people are only driven by money, they eventually sell out, cash out, or peter out; they go away. To quote Jack Welch: "You know the type. They bank vacation days. They hand in slips of paper noting how many half-days or holidays they’ve worked. They remind bosses and colleagues of company policies regarding overtime....they are not working for fun or the passion to win. They’re just logging hours."

As business reveals character, we find that people not driven by money keep going and going. Sometimes they have to quit certain pursuits to find something more meaningful - more aligned with who they are - but they eventually get there. It's not just a trite lesson on perseverance and determination, there is something much more. A few years ago, I heard an entrepreneur make a comment which stuck with me: "I started my company 28 years ago, and I haven't worked a day since." (He was a Hedgehog entrepreneur).

People of great character love what they do and seem to have a passion for life. We've also observed that they develop into great leaders (and great entrepreneurs). They inspire others. They push hard yet bring out the best in people. They care. In the end, we believe that they will come out ahead, and certainly enjoy the journey more. Our favorites don't always win, but they persevere because they love the game. We're big fans and we cheer them on - because in our business, there is nothing more important than people.

As a final note, my wife always reminds me that not all people are competitive (yes, I can get way too competitive). She has a good point. As in sports, it's not just about winning or losing. As Warren Buffet once said, "your inner scorecard is more important than your outer scorecard... The people who ascribe too much to the outer scorecard sometimes find that it's a little hollow when they get all through."

However, even if you don't like the idea of keeping score, businesses need to get things done, and interestingly, great character helps drive results. If you know what's important to you, it's easier to focus and be more effective. If you're trustworthy, it's easier to develop great relationships. If you seek the truth, it's easier to get your ego out of the way and cut through the clutter. If you believe in what you're doing, it's easier to drum up moral courage and the kind of strength that money can't buy. Ben Franklin got it right when he said honesty is the best policy - it's just good business.