Summary
Today’s top business executives are like celebrities; they are the rock stars of capitalism and a cornerstone of public life. Unfortunately, we tend to think that their leadership bestows infallibility. We never account for the fact that they are humans like us. They may err, and they can be biased, and it is normal that they have weaknesses and desires that can possibly be malicious. Unfortunately, many corporate empires are falling, taking with them billions of dollars of workers’ hard-earned savings - despite the mountains of resources on great leadership available to today’s executives. Especially, in the last decade, we have awakened to the realities of reckless management and white-collar crime. Yet, had we looked beyond Wall Street’s glittering financial indicators, we might have found the unethical behaviors that degraded employees, created unhealthy work environments, deceived investors, and routed our wealth into the bank accounts of corporate dictators. “Corporate Dictatorship” is one of the first books that focus exclusively on the topic of dictatorship within organizations and parallels executives’ behaviors, traits, and leadership styles to those of political dictators. The similarity between state leaders and many of today’s corporate executives is intriguing - we see it in the way they manage their companies, treat their employees, communicate with investors, and deal with opposition and minority opinions. The book presents analysis and evidence of this ugly phenomenon, rebuts the argument that financial performance takes precedence over ethical leadership, and presents pragmatic governance ideas that prove that ethical leadership can simultaneously coexist with financial and market share leadership. As employees, retirees, or shareholders, we need to create a professional workplace that deserves our pride, confidence, optimism and hope. “Corporate Dictatorship” is a modest attempt to rally many stakeholders in an orchestrated effort and a steadfast commitment to establish better ethical corporate governance.
About the Author
Dr. Yasser Nafei is the founder and president of Prothics Consulting. The firm defines and implements ethical decision-making guidelines and provides leadership training to corporations in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. Throughout a 20-year career, Dr. Nafei worked for numerous multinational corporations, including Alcatel, IBM, Motorola, Nortel Networks, and Tellabs. His several global assignments covered a wide range of disciplines - engineering, research and development, quality, technology strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Ain Shams University in Egypt, a Masters of Science in telecommunications from the University of Quebec, and a Ph.D. in Organization Development from Benedictine University in the United States. Dr. Nafei resides with his family in Naperville, Illinois.
