- A Case Study in How an
Entire Industry Becomes Corrupt: John
Bogle: the Classic Leader in an Industry of Destructive Achievers;
-
- By Chuck Kelly
OpEdNews.Com
- Check out the following excerpt for a
case study in how entire industries in the U.S. can become corrupt.
It’s the classic description of greed and dishonesty organizing
itself to drive out principle and a commitment to ethics.
- From The Wall Street Journal (not exactly a member of
"the biased liberal news media"), January 7.
- Bogle: The Man Who Told You So
- Vanguard Founder Finds Support
For Criticism of Mutual Funds,
But Cold Shoulder From Industry
- In the scandal-tossed mutual-fund industry, legal charges are
flying and corporate heads are rolling. Regulators and legislators
are scrambling to craft quick overhauls to stop improper trading
practices and other problems. And John C. Bogle, a figure in the
fund industry for more than five decades, is simply having a
blast.
- "Jack" Bogle, the founder and former chairman of
Vanguard Group, the No. 2 fund company after Fidelity Investments,
has spent decades razzing other fund executives about their
overblown fees and shrunken sense of duty.
- His tirades over the years earned him a cold shoulder from
fund-industry colleagues, while his holier-than-thou attitude
earned Mr. Bogle the derisive nickname St. Jack..
- But now, at age 74, almost eight years into the
"extra" time granted by a heart transplant, he is
finding new support for his views as he flits from congressional
hearings to speaking engagements to at-least-weekly television
appearances….
- One place where Mr. Bogle still stacks up as less of a hero is
within the fund industry he helped create. Other fund executives
long have grumbled that Mr. Bogle's lecturing is all a
self-serving pitch for Vanguard's low-cost index funds, which
simply match the performance of a market measure such as the
Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. Former Securities and
Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt, a Bogle fan, says the
industry views him as "a traitor to his class."
- The chill continues today. Despite Mr. Bogle's Mr. Clean status,
fund-company leaders making up the Investment Company Institute
trade group haven't sought out his insights or requested his
participation in post-scandal task forces. Mr. Bogle, who served
as the ICI's elected chairman decades ago, says he "can
guarantee" the industry won't come calling: "They would
rather die," he declares tartly.
- Not only hasn't the ICI asked Mr. Bogle to speak at its annual
gathering since 1990, but it turned aside his request to speak in
2001, his 50th anniversary in the fund business, he says….
- John Bogle is almost the definition of
a true leader. He’s definitely the exception and not the rule. In
today’s corporate America, it seems that anything goes, as long as
it results in the enrichment of investors and senior executives.
- Bogle’s opposite—the
“Destructive Achiever” (DA)—is in ascendancy everywhere.
Throughout our country, DAs are becoming dominant, as top executives
compete with each other in doing whatever it takes—even illegal
activities—to increase profits. (For a detailed discussion of DAs,
check out: Proactive vs.
Reactive Management.)
- Remember: DAs always rise to the top
if those in control (investors, boards of directors, etc.) don’t
make a conscious decision to select only those with moral values for
leadership. Since today's only criterion for promotion, or for the
selection of a Chief Executive Officer, seems to be profit—moral
standards always come out second.
- It’s especially important to
remember that voters also must take care that the ones they elect to
office also have moral standards, and truly work for the interests of
the general public, and not just the interests of the wealthy and
powerful. This automatically means that elected leaders in government
must take seriously the need for sensible regulations of corporate
executive behaviors.
- Chuck Kelly is at http://www.KellySite.net.
He holds a Ph.D. in industrial communications from Purdue University,
is now a retired management consultant, and author of the books, THE
DESTRUCTIVE ACHEIVER, THE GREAT LIMBAUGH CON, and CLASS WAR IN
AMERICA. This article is originally published at opednews.com.
Copyright Chuck Kelly, but permission is granted for reprint in print,
email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached
|
|
Enter
Your E-mail address to Receive OpEdNews
Newsletter