Can a corporation be good?

Last week I attended a one-day conference called “Leading For Good” at Loyola’s Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility, aimed at bringing together social and civic minded corporate executives from around the Chicago area. The connections and conversations were good, but in all honesty, I left frustrated that the conversation still mostly centered around whether or not a business should be doing good, rather than how it should go about doing it.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. We have no common definition of business “purpose”, and no shared ethical framework for how to evaluate whether or not the decisions made by a business can be considered “good.”

EthicsCaleb GardnerMarch 5, 2019Economics, Ethics, Management

Meaning junkies

If you haven’t yet read Derek Thompson’s excellent essay in The Atlantic about “The Religion of Workism,” I highly recommend it. Thompson’s thesis—that in American society we’ve replaced religion with “workism” as a way to find meaning—strikes at the very heart of many occupational ambitions. (Including, if I’m honest, my own.)

“For today’s workists,” Thompson says, “anything short of finding one’s vocational soul mate means a wasted life.”

ManagementCaleb GardnerFebruary 28, 2019Work, Management

The digital-ethical divide

Earlier this week I spoke at a class at Loyola University on Ethics & Communication—a topic highly relevant to our time. I was specifically asked to give my opinion on “Ethics in a Digital World.”

Here’s what I listed as the five biggest issues that concern me right now.

EthicsCaleb GardnerFebruary 27, 2019Ethics, Digital, Technology

Lessons from Amazon HQ2

In case you haven’t heard, Amazon is canceling its much-aligned plans to build a second headquarters in Queens, New York.

Would having a large Amazon footprint in NYC have created jobs? Probably. Would it have helped the local tech economy over subsequent years? Maybe. Would it have exacerbated the already bad affordable housing market? Almost certainly.

StrategyCaleb GardnerFebruary 15, 2019Amazon, Community organizing, Strategy

Strategy that moves

Not enough people invest in strategy—not just planning, not just ideation, but actual strategy. Because developing a strategy is hard, self-reflective work.

It’s the craft of finding out what doesn’t matter, and the art of saying “no.”

StrategyCaleb GardnerFebruary 12, 2019Strategy, Strategic Planning

Data vs. reality

There’s a mythology that persists around data, and its ability to act as a salve to heal all organizational woes. “If only we could do more with our data!” “If only we could apply it to XYZ problem!” “If only, if only …” It’s a misguided treasure hunt, the real gold always just around the corner.

StrategyCaleb GardnerFebruary 7, 2019Data, Marketing, Technology

How deep goes the ocean

Last night I laid in bed talking with my nine-year-old son. My wife usually gets to participate in this ritual. My son has things on his mind, and every evening, after putting the younger two to bed, she crawls in with him and they talk about their days. I often arrive home too late to participate, but today was my day to whisper secrets.

PersonalCaleb GardnerFebruary 6, 2019Writing

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