Jim Collins was correct about his hedgehog concert but wrong about his application to Wells Fargo. In his defense, Collins may have been wrong in his application as previously mentioned, because he was unaware of the criminal activities at Wells Fargo. Normally, white crime perpetrators manage to hide their criminal activities by masquerading them as legitimate (Gottschalk, 2018). In the instant case, Well Fargo was making money through corrupt means and needed a legitimate excuse to explain the profits. The company is facing investigations from the criminal justice department over and above out of court settlements and fines from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These liabilities show that Wells Fargo not only engaged in unethical conduct but also outright criminal activities. Collins considered the excuses as grounds for profit, leading him to a wrong conclusion, which tied to his Hedgehog Concept. However, the fact that the results at the company seemed to support Collins Hedgehog concept may have resulted in some bias that prevented him from overly evaluating the bank’s finances.
From a different perspective, Collins was also generally wrong in his conclusion that the Bank’s profits emanated from a ‘profit per employee’ premise. By the 21 st century, most leading entrepreneurs had already realized that teamwork was the key to organizational success. Under teamwork, success emanates from the coordinated contributions of different members of staff (Lacerenza et al., 2018). Normally, there will be an employee connecting the organization to the customer. In the case of financier, such an employee is the loan officer. However, the contributions of the loan officer cannot bring in profits by themselves without corresponding and harmonious contributions of other team members.
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From a biblical perspective, 1 Corinthians 12:14-24 compares teamwork to the parts of the body. In the scripture, Paul argues that the visible parts of the body rely on the invisible parts to carry out their obligations. For example, without lungs, an individual cannot walk, although walking seems to involve the legs only. Based on this biblical analogy, it would be impossible to credit the profits of a company as large as Wells Fargo to a single employee. Therefore, in this essence, Collins was wrong unequivocally.
A careful evaluation of a Hedgehog concept application based on a profits per employee basis will create a failure in leadership that creates unhealthy competition within an organization. Factoring profits per employee will lead employees to fight one another, instead of fighting for the company. Instead of synergy and harmony in the organization, there will be infighting (Leon & Murphy, 2016). In extreme cases, employees may sabotage one another to boost their respective contributions towards the profitability of the company. Individual employees join an organization with something to offer. Leaders have an obligation to combine the potential in different employees for the benefit of the organization. If the employee’s contributions are on a collision course, the failure lies in leadership.
References
Gottschalk, P. (2018). Facts or knowledge? A Review of private internal reports of investigations by Fraud examiners.
Lacerenza, C. N., Marlow, S. L., Tannenbaum, S. I., & Salas, E. (2018). Team development interventions: Evidence-based approaches for improving teamwork. American Psychologist , 73 (4), 517.
Leon, A., & Murphy, T. (2016). For companies doing away with performance management system and having no ratings over the recent years: What has been learned?.
