Stop the Rot

Book excerpt: Following the international success of The Fish Rots from the Head: Developing Effective Directors, this sequel from Bob Garratt explains the public's distrust of the people who govern us - the directors, owners, regulators and politicians - and how this can be changed. Currently, Corporate Governance is too narrow and fragmented. The growing gap between the angry public and the urban elite, made manifest by Brexit and Trump, is due to a lack of appreciation by both parties of the roles and values of well-governed organisations in bonding a society at both national and international levels. This book pulls no punches and directly challenges directors and politicians to reframe their thinking about 'governance' to address the public's distrust of them. This is the ROT that needs to be STOPPED. This book is truly radical in going back to basics and then designing a new national action learning system between the four main players overseen by continuous public scrutiny. It is designed to counter the official reports of organisational failure that end too frequently with the weasel words 'but the main problem was a failure of corporate governance'. Currently this is code for 'so no-one can do much about it'. This book shows what can be done. The book explains how the disjointed responses to the angry public have resulted in a series of unhelpful regulations made worse by their thoughtless application. This reaction has reduced the chances of directors being able to deliver their main purpose - ensuring the future of their business by better understanding the complexities of their future financial, social and environmental policies and enabling improved creativity and thoughtful risk-taking. Stop the Rot sets governance in a much wider social context. The acceptance of global Human Values in all of our organizations, with their necessary ethics and behaviours, ensures the development of Inclusive Capitalism to the advantage of all.