One Person Can Make a Difference

Remarks by Myron Kandel
Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce
“Citizen of the Year Dinner”
February 1, 2007
Manchester, New Hampshire


As a native New Yorker, who grew up in the shadow of Ebbets Field and is now a proud adopted son of New Hampshire, I’m delighted to be here.

As far as I’ve seen, Manchester is even better than Lake Woebegon, in the sense that everyone I’ve met is well above average. That doesn’t mean that anyone living in or near Manchester, or doing business here -- indeed in the rest of the state -- can’t do better. We can all try.

I contend that every one of us, in our personal and business lives, in matters big and small, is capable individually of effecting change for the better. One person CAN make a difference.

Recently, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Mohammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker who developed the idea that making tiny loans to very poor people could dramatically transform their lives. And these micro-credits, as he calls them, have done just that, not only in his country, but now around the world. He was one man – with a big idea and the determination to make it work. He made a difference.

On a smaller scale and closer to home, a friend of mine, a businessman in New York named Arthur Tanenbaum, began spending his lunch hour one day a week reading to students at a low-income-level school near his office. Some of them had single parents who didn’t speak very good English or worked two jobs and didn’t have time to read to their kids. But his reading and mentoring helped those young people, and he spread the idea.

Now his program, called “Everybody Wins,” exists in more than 50 cities around the country. One Wall Street investment house even buses dozens of its people to read at schools in the city on their lunch hours.

Another case I just learned about involved a teacher who passed a big laundromat each evening where dozens of mothers were doing their wash. The place was loaded with kids who were roughhousing, playing games or just staring at the machines. None of them was reading. She found the owner and convinced him to put in tables and said she would supply the books. He did so, she did so, and as a result, many of those kids began reading for pleasure for the first time. And that idea spread as well.

Those individuals – and those who followed – made a difference. And I’m sure those of you in this room know of similar people and projects that have also made a difference, especially here in New Hampshire, which is known for its innovation, compassion and commitment.

Not everyone can be an innovator, or even a leader. But everyone can – and should – be a participant. The playwright Henrik Ibsen said: “A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.”

And the anthropologist Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”

“Indeed,” she said, “it is the only thing that ever has.”

Despite those good stories, we do live in a tough world. Sometimes it seems as though those who use the sharpest elbows, the thinnest principles and the most devious strategies, who show the least concern about the people who work for them, are the ones who succeed in business and elsewhere.

I don’t agree. In fact, a pet theory of mine is that “nice guys can finish first.” Some day I plan to write a book with that title. It’s my contention that you don’t have to be an S.O.B. to succeed in business or anywhere else, although, unfortunately, there are too many examples to the contrary.

(Nobody at your table, I’m sure…. But I think I just noticed a few sideways glances.)

And in addition to the advantages of working with – and for – a nice guy or gal, I think there’s a real business lesson to be gleaned from this idea, one that will become increasingly important in the years ahead.

That’s when the retirement of Baby Boomers will have a major impact on American business. As the U.S. labor force stops growing, companies and other organizations will be hard-pressed to fill the jobs – particularly at the management level -- that will be left by those retirees and those that will be created by new enterprises.

So businesses and entrepreneurs and educators and government leaders like yourselves will be competing for good people in a contracting work force. And here’s where the “nice guys” thesis becomes important.

In that hotly competitive environment, those organizations with the best corporate cultures will attract the most talented people. Salaries and perks won’t be enough to do so.

And corporate cultures emanate from the top down. Those nice guys at the top set the tone for the entire workplace.

The CEO of one of the country’s biggest insurance companies once told me that 90 percent of his job was to attract, motivate and retain good people. “If I can do that,” he said, “they’ll make me look very good.”

What a contrast to those ego-maniacal leaders who think they alone are the fount of all wisdom.

So in the years to come, organizations with the right kinds of corporate cultures will attract and keep the best people, who will be the most loyal and most productive and who will make their companies the most successful.

Warren Buffett, who really doesn’t have to show up at his office every day, says he tap dances to work because he’s surrounded by cheerful and talented associates. Wouldn’t it be nice if all of us could say the same.

In addition to the internal benefits, those organizations headed and staffed by nice guys and gals will also profit in the marketplace from having a reputation of being a good place to work. That kind of reputation translates into how the public perceives its products or services, and it goes straight to the bottom line.

Everything considered, this is a prime example of doing well by doing good.

Talking of reputations, business in general has suffered sharp blows over the last decade, hit by one corporate scandal after another, some right here in New Hampshire. A good reputation is a most valuable asset, but it’s delicate and fragile – difficult and slow to develop and easy and fast to lose.

Those scandals damaged the image of American business, even though an overwhelming number of companies and their people did good and honest work.
And even today, with some strict rules in effect for public companies – some say too strict, repeated news about the back-dating of stock options, about other chicanery, and about executive compensation that has reached what many consider obscene levels, continue to erode trust and confidence.

We should all be concerned. After all, it was another New Englander, Calvin Coolidge, who said, the business of America is business.

That was fine when he said it. Our free-enterprise system – with business in the forefront -- has provided us with the basis for our freedoms, our stability of government, our prosperity and our generosity, and has enabled us to maintain our democratic ideals, enjoy the highest standard of living in history, and accept an inflow of culturally diverse people from around the world.

And it continues to be meaningful, even as immense growth and changing condition evolve. For example, definitions of the role of business can vary. Milton Friedman, that esteemed economist who recently left us, once said that the only social responsibility of business was to make a profit for its owners, legally, of course.

With due respect to the departed, we don’t accept that limited definition anymore. We now agree that in its own enlightened self-interest, as well as the welfare of society at large, business has broader responsibilities.

Call it corporate citizenship or corporate responsibility, there’s a relatively new development in the business world. It’s the realization that just because a corporation is owned by its shareholders, it doesn’t mean that it should ignore all its other constituencies, meaning its employees, its customers, its suppliers and the communities in which it operates. The over-all environment might not be a constituent in that sense, but it still must be a vital component of a company’s responsibility as well.

There are also longer-ranging considerations. The business of America may be business, but it must be legitimate business that doesn’t operate at the expense of future generations.

One group that’s doing good work in this regard is New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, which is the recognized authority and resource for socially responsible business practices in this state. They’re making a difference, individually and collectively.


But not everyone agrees. Remember Al Dunlap – “Chainsaw Al”? He was once quoted as saying, “Show me an annual report that lists six or seven constituencies, and I’ll show you a mis-managed company.”

Talk about cave-man management. Well, Chainsaw Al eventually got the ax himself.

On the other side the spectrum, Howard Schultz, the head of Starbucks, says there’s been a sea-change in how American consumers view the companies they patronize. He says they are beginning to ask serious questions about ethics, integrity, how they treat their employees and the environment, and whether they give back to the community. He says Starbucks tried to achieve a balance between profitability and social conscience.

Now you may say that’s a global giant like Starbucks, and ask how that relates to a small operation like mine? In line with our dinner theme tonight – that one-by-one-by-one can make a difference – it’s easy to see a relationship between individual and business responsibility and ethics.

The key element is integrity. We can’t mandate or legislate integrity, but we can encourage it and nurture it. Take the organizations you run or work for. You probably have sales and profit reviews, financial and personnel reviews. But how many of you have periodic ethics reviews and reaffirmations of your organization’s values and beliefs? And have you even put them down on paper? That’s worth thinking about.

All elements of our society are challenged today by legal, ethical and moral lapses – be they government, the media, sports, even the church, as well as business. I may be pollyannish, but I really believe that business can lead the way in following the right path. And it can do so from the bottom up, as well as the top down.

Let me tell you a bit about my own project. The Initiative for Corporate Responsibility and Investor Protection has a simple mission. It is to make those issues, with all their ramifications, center stage in the public spotlight. We think it is vitally important for the continued health of our economy to keep American corporations honest and to safeguard the interests of the nation’s investors.

My goal is to get these issues on the Presidential agenda for the first time in American history through a series of high-profile, high-visibility, non-partisan public forums and individual interviews. That’s never been done before.

You have seen plenty of Presidential candidates, and you will seee a lot more in the year ahead. But I dare say they won’t – until I start pushing them – dwell on corporate responsibility and investor protection.

Think about it. The last two Presidential campaigns took place during, or just after, some of the worst scandals in Wall Street and corporate history. But they were never discussed in any depth, even here in New Hampshire, which has such a long history of keeping candidates’ feet to the fire.

But this time will be different. I contend that anyone aspiring to be President of the United States should be able and willing to articulate his or her views on protecting investors and insuring corporate responsibility.

I hope to have some good news on this goal in a few weeks.

Four or five years from now I hope I can look back and say I made a difference, that my colleagues and I created a lasting program that helped our country avoid repeating at least some of the excesses that corrupted American business and finance and damaged our free-enterprise system.

And I’m pleased to say that I’ve been delighted in these efforts to have the support of Governor Lynch and Secretary of State Bill Gardner and to be associated with the New Hampshire College and University Council, under the able direction of Tom Horgan.

But I also want to make special mention of the vision of someone else who helped make The Initiative possible. He’s Deputy Secretary of State Mark Connolly. As head of the Securities Division, he reached a settlement with Tyco that made my work and similar efforts possible. Just the other day, he was honored as the outstanding state securities regulator in North America. He was one man who made a difference.

On Wall Street, they say the trend is your friend. It’s pretty friendly right now, with the Dow setting another record high today. In business, the trend is undeniably toward social responsibility and community involvement. Let’s help that trend continue.

We can all do OUR part – one-by-one-by-one.

Thank you very much.

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