Succession Planning & Continuity of Operations

Citizen Kane

Charles Foster Kane (William Randolph Hearst, if you will) knew how to make a small fortune: he started with a large one. He left just enough behind at the end of his career so that level-headed controllers could manage his company back to prosperity and eventually create one of America’s most wealthy private companies. Kane never pretended to be a businessman, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a great manager. He managed his money (all inherited) to his own ends, and much to the consternation of his traditional associates. When, for example, Kane is told that one of his newspapers…(click title for more info)

The Godfather, Parts I & II

This segment explores the role of business in a society and looks at the standards by which business performance should be judged. Classic theory holds that the first responsibility of any firm is to produce wealth for its stockholders, maximizing profit by charging as much as the market will bear while producing goods and services at the lowest possible cost. A number of intangible factors may affect a company’s ability to sell its products. For example, a corporate image of excessive greed or unfair labor practices may lead to consumer boycotts…(click title for more info)

Executive Suite

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At the Walling home, Mary awakes in the middle of the night to find her husband working at his drawing board. They talk. Walling explains that Grimm will be elected the company’s new president. He and Anderson have talked it through. They are sure they can get the votes and that Grimm will accept. Mary asks if the choice of company president should be made by the stockholders. “The stockholders made their decision with then elected the board of directors,” Walling explains. . .Walling tells her Alderson wanted him to go for the presidency, but he turned it down. He tells Mary that he doesn’t want to “die young at the top of a tower worrying about bond issues and stockholder’s meetings. . .that’s not what I came here for. . .I’m a designer, not a politician. . .I think.” Mary agrees with him.

The Efficiency Expert

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The Efficiency Expert is set in Australia in the 1960s. The movie works on several levels: as a coming of age story about a young worker, the getting of wisdom by an industrial patriarch, the getting of different wisdom by a hard-nosed consultant. While these elements add to the overall…(click title for more info)