Bo Ekman, chairman of e-man, talks about sitting on the Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors is where entrepreneurship and experience meet integration expertise and curiosity.
Companies should develop their vision in line with a better society and must find profitable ways to contribute to this. So says e-man's chairman Bo Ekman in his book Heaven and Hell: On Enterprising, Power and Leadership in which he cites Peter Drucker:
"Man cannot survive without oxygen but that certainly doesn't imply that the meaning of life is to breathe. A company cannot survive without profit, but profit is not its basic meaning."
Ekman conjures up the idea of a society based on humanism and knowledge, one characterized by creativity and learning. This may sound as if it stands in stark contrast to our quarterly earnings, and there's no doubt that industrial production is still our economic base, but we consider learning to be the most important factor in the production process.
The makings of a great business start with the Board of Directors.
In an average IT company it's not always easy to get the Board of Directors to agree, especially if they're being asked to stop all production and send their staff away to be trained by international experts. This is true even if the purpose of their training is to maintain excellence and get a head start over your rivals. Only in a value-driven company like e-man does the Board invest in education for every member of staff.