business

It's usual at this time of year for pundits to review the events of the past year while offering something positive, optimistic and hopeful about the incoming year.

To review 2008 would take more space than I'm allotted. The geopolitical issues alone would be enough to depress any hope for the future. Examples include Darfur, Zimbabwe, Congo, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Add to these the ongoing clashes between Pakistan and India and the potential for confrontation with Iran.

Perhaps of all the negatives associated with 2008, the most devastating has been the collapse of the U.S. economy and its impact on the rest of the world. Coupled with the financial disaster is the loss of thousands of jobs and with them the loss of dreams and the future of entire families.

But the most disappointing aspect of this financial collapse has been the lack of moral and ethical leadership that has surfaced as Wall Street firms scramble for taxpayer money to pay dividends and bonuses to the participants of the disaster.

The government bailout of the financial industry and the lack of regulatory oversight that preceded it highlights the level of greed, selfishness and incompetence at companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, to mention just a few.

The resulting loss of jobs and the impact on those who work for a living has barely been mentioned, save for the monthly unemployment reports. These people worked in good faith and believed that their leaders -- in government and in business -- considered them an important part of the enterprise that made their corporate leaders rich.

A positive role model

As the bailouts and the job losses continue, there seems to be nothing being offered by the business community or the government that would fall into the category of a positive, optimistic or hopeful resolution for the incoming year.

But there is one resolution that I would offer for 2009 as a way of changing the emphasis from "me'' to ''we."

During the 1980s, as part of my varied career, I worked for a Minnesota company that enjoyed an outstanding reputation for corporate and community performance. Former Gov. Elmer L. Andersen and his son Tony led the company, H.B. Fuller, which continues to manufacture specialty chemicals mostly in the form of adhesives.

Fuller was a global company before it was chic to be one.

While there was no doubt that the management of the company was interested in producing profit for their shareholders, the company also counted other important constituents -- customers, employees and the community.

In his book "A Man's Reach," the elder Andersen, now deceased, explained his management philosophy that included the four main constituents, which he listed in order of importance as the customer, the employee, the shareholder and the community.

All four were important, but he wanted to emphasize the importance of the customer and the employee, which he considered the team that produced the business and the profits that paid the investors and served the community.

It was at about the same time that Wall Street analysts started pushing the short-term, quarter-to-quarter management model. Happily for CEOs, that model coincided with the growth of stock options, which became the major component of skyrocketing compensation of executives at publicly held companies.

Wall Street did not take kindly to the Fuller/Andersen philosophy. But the company and its top management stayed true to its principles and continued to view its employees in a special way, a view that made the company one of the best places to work, for executives and production workers alike.

Compared to the actors in the recent bailout saga, it's clear that the standards of a company like H.B. Fuller, under the Andersens, was capable of being a good financial performer while also providing conditions that conveyed respect and appreciation to all who worked there, and to the community.

Executives in Minnesota should be reminded that the standards and values that our executives, politicians and community leaders have historically stood for have always been a little above average.

A New Year's resolution that promises to take into consideration the values and principles laid out by Elmer Andersen should be an example for all leaders in 2009 and beyond.