The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability

Courage is needed to recognize a challenging situation. Schering-Plough, a medical product manufacturer, has surprised many in recent years with sloppy manufacturing and numerous product recalls. They had focused on marketing at the expense of quality. Their leaders had the courage to recognize the direness of the situation and took steps to improve it. Former GE CEO Jack Welch thinks that managing a company means seeing what is really happening and acting quickly on that knowledge.

Everyone gets stuck in the victim cycle now and then, even those who are usually accountable. The first step to moving Above The Line is recognizing the cycle and how things actually are. Intel’s chairman, Andrew S. Grove, believes that every organization experiences moments when they must transform to get results. Giants in the business world often seem to falter quickly, but in those moments, courageous leaders often emerge. In an interview for Fortune magazine, the CEO of Deloitte & Touche, Jim Copeland, exemplified this courage. Leaders at the company made the difficult decision to separate Deloitte & Touch from Deloitte consulting to prevent a crisis from spiraling out of control. By making such a difficult decision, they stayed Above The Line.