I’m an unabashed fan of Vartan Gregorian, and was quite taken with his thoughts in Ken Burn’s film The Statue of Liberty:

"If you could say one single force that is threatening liberty, in my opinion, it’s ignorance.

Second, is to treat ourselves as only economic units, rather than as spiritual beings.

America is not an actuality, but is a potentiality.  We have to remember that the Universe is not going to be seeing somebody like you again in its entire history of creation.  So it’s up to you to become a dot, a paragraph, a page, blank page, chapter in the history of creation."

The modern corporation is one of the finest inventions of past 500 years; it has helped create an elevated state of innovation unknown to all previous generations of mankind.  However, it often suffers from a lack of respect for the individual humans who sustain its economic well-being.  Though they are its lifeblood, these people all too often are regarded by the corporation’s management as mere “resources” or cost centers to be dealt with as primarily economic units, rather than as unique individuals.  I don’t think corporations are going to become more humane and respectful of the individual anytime soon. 

But individuals can make a difference.  If you work for a corporation that mistreats its employees or the society in which it operates in the name of maximizing shareholder value, try to make it more humane from the inside, or vote with your feet.  Just do something — start making changes yourself within the company, or take your once-in-the-Universe potentiality somewhere else.  It’s hard to do, I know.  But if we all did it, our society would benefit from a powerful opportunity to balance the liberty-threatening power of the modern corporation.

BMW’s design leader Chris Bangle, as quoted in Automobile:

“The responsibility that comes with attempting to look forward is that you also have to research, to bring your research into the world and show people and generate discussion.  That’s something a lot of companies don’t want to do… we have an obligation in the future to provide cars that owners will be proud to retore and proud to bring back, so that at Pebble Beach in fifty years, they’ll be showing a 50-year-old car instead of a 150-year-old car.”

I admire Bangle’s guts and determination to change the face of BMW design. I really want him to succeed.

I was recently in a meeting where a very senior person directed a question about the presentation to another very senior person who had nothing to do with the presentation. She could have just asked the presenter, a fabulous, engaging person who knew everything about the subject at hand. Why the conscious snub? Because the presenter was of a lower “salary grade,” and you wouldn’t want to mix with those types, you know?

Contrast that world view with this tidbit from Vartan Gregorian, former President of Brown, describing how he approaches relationships with those “under him”:

I also did something both in the library and at Brown and at Penn. I got to know the staff. By staff, I don’t mean secretaries alone. The building and ground workers, too. I used to go occasionally to the basement of the New York Public Library and have bourbon with the custodians. I learned more from them about the structural problems of the building than from anyone else. At Brown, I tried to set an example of having a lifestyle governed by modesty. For example, I took a Bonanza bus from Providence to the Boston airport for $11.25 to save money, but more important, to set a tone for the rest of the campus. I instituted a policy that nobody could travel first class. Everybody had to travel economy. No limousines, only buses and taxicabs, and no fancy meals. These were important symbolic measures so that if I cut the budget, nobody would say, “Well, the fat cats are still living high on the hog.” There were even funny moments related to these policies.

Once it was raining and I had no umbrella. I was walking along and the university garbage truck stopped. “Hey, Prez,” one of the workers called out. “You need a lift?” He thought that I would not take it. I embarrassed him by climbing on and coming home with a garbage truck, and that story made the rounds.

It would be really interesting to spend a day in the shoes of an organizational snob. What a painful, limiting existence it must be.