The Daily Drucker

19 March Defining Corporate Performance

Maximize the wealth-producing capacity of the enterprise.

Ralph Cordiner, CEO of the General Electric Company from 1958 to 1963, asserted that top management in the large, publicly owned corporation was a “trustee.” Cordiner argued that senior executives were responsible for managing the enterprise “in the best-balanced interest of shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, and plant community cities.” That is what we now call “stakeholders.” Cordiner’s answer still required a clear definition of results and of the meaning of “best” with respect to “balance.” We no longer need to theorize about how to define performance and results in the large enterprise. We have successful examples.

Both the ...