Separating truth from fiction

In today’s lead up to the November national elections, there has been and will continue to be much misinformation on the part of EVERYBODY involved. One assertion  particularly bothersome to me is the lambasting of Mitt Romney for his actions while at Bain. In particular, he is being criticized for making firms more competitive by reduction of body counts, closing down inefficient plants, and in general doing what in-place management should have been doing all along.

As entrepreneurs, you are have  to run lean, efficient, and productive organizations; or fail. I teach in my graduate Sustainability Strategies class at Purdue, that management must seek to obtain and maintain a balance between People, Planet and Profit. What is being advocated by those most critical of Mitt is support/maintain “People,” and forget about Planet and Profit. That’s not the way businesses work as you will find out on your own. Without profit, business fail, and without Planet likewise. Hank