I was going through some old work papers today when I found a copy of IBM's "New Principles" which are about 30 years old.  I don't remember exactly when I cut them out of some unknown document, but they are as relevant today as they were then.  Hopefully, every company, government and organization lives by principles such as these. 

1. The marketplace is the driving force behind everything we do.

2. At our core, we are a technology company with an overriding commitment to quality.

3. Our primary measures of success are customer satisfaction and shareholder value. 

4. We operate as an entrepreneurial organization with a minimum of bureaucracy and a never-ending focus on productivity.

5. We never lose sight of our strategic vision. 

6. We think and act with a sense of urgency.

7. Outstanding, dedicated people make it all happen, particularly when they work together as a team.

8. We are sensitive to the needs of all employees and to the communities in which we operate. 

TPM

Most of us older folks have seen and remember the outstanding 1963 movie The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborourgh, James Garner and many other well known international movie stars.  The movie is based on the book of the same name by former British POW Paul Brickhill.  The movie plot has some major differences from the actual events described in the book.

The story of the escape of 76 Royal Air Force prisoners from a German POW Camp in March of 1944 is one of amazing courage and incredible ingenuity.  I recently reread Brickhill's book.  It is incredible story of what people can do when they have the desire and ability to make something happen even when they are under control of the enemy.  All but three of the escapees were eventually caught after a massive search throughout Germany.  The remaining three made it to freedom.  Hitler was so incensed by the escape that he ordered over half the recaptured POWs shot.  The Gestapo executed 50 of the recaptured escapees as they were rounded up and held in a variety of locations after their failed attempts to escape the country. The British eventually captured most of the Germans responsible for the executions, tried and executed them in the first few years after the end of WWII. 

The story is timeless. It is an example of the incredible capability of men to adjust to their environment and take decisive action in what seems to be an impossible situation. 

To The Fifty.

TPM 

Atlas Shrugged, the epic novel by Ayn Rand, has sold almost 9 million copies since it was originally published in 1957.  Her masterpiece was written over 12 years beginning at the end of World War II.  When one of my sons moved out a few years ago, he left behind a copy of Atlas Shrugged.  I finally decided to read it, 59 years after it was originally published.  After reading the first 200 hundred pages of the 1100 page book,  I decided to go to a used book store and buy a copy with larger print to make it a bit easier to read.  It is truly an amazing book. 

Atlas Shrugged is one of the most important books ever written.  It is important on two levels.  The first is the story itself.  The story is amazing.  The main characters are extremely interesting.  The second is the presentation of Ms. Rand's philosophy of rational individualism, called "Objectivism".  There is no question that there are many positive attributes of "Objectivism".  There are many resources available for those that are interested in learning more about "Objectivism". 

One of the most important aspects of the book is its repudiation of the Marxist, socialist and communist principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."  Ms. Rand explores the ultimate destructive impact of this principle on a modern society as a core element of the story.  She explores its effect in detail as she tells the story of a manufacturing company based in Wisconsin that adopts this principle as the foundation of its operating philosophy.  The company ends up destroying itself, its employees lives and the town that it supports when it fails to recognize that this philosophy leads to disaster when human beings implement it.  Ms. Rand is a native of Russia and survived the Russian Revolution and its aftermath in her youth.  She fully understood the negative impact of this principle from a young age. 

Another core element of the story is the presentation of inventors, engineers, scientists, businesspeople, artists, skilled workers and those that support them as the creators of the benefits of modern life.  These are the people that lead the rest of society forward.  The more freedom they have the more they can create for the entire society.  The more they are limited in their actions the more difficult life becomes.

Many people consider Atlas Shrugged as part of the foundational thinking of the Conservative movement in the United States.  There are many aspects of "Objectivism" that are based on reason and logic and are consistent with the fundamental principles of the United States Constitution.  However, like all sets of principles developed by any one person or small group, some of the thinking is narrow or incomplete.  "Objectivism" should be part of our tool kit of principles, but not the only tool. 

It just so happens that the US presidential campaign is in process at the time I read Atlas Shrugged.  The political battle between socialists, conservatives and those somewhere in-between are fully engaged at this point.  In the book key conservatives (inventors, engineers, businesspeople, artists, skilled workers) are outnumbered by the socialists who abuse their power in attempting to manage the economy and  the conservatives decide to go on strike.  Once the most productive members of society go on strike the society fails to function and the economy fails.  The crooked socialist leadership can't fix it.  The strikers win, and the book ends as the strikers start planning to rebuild the US economy. 

Hopefully, we won't need to experience the horror portrayed in Atlas Shrugged. But, one can see us moving down the road if we aren't careful.  Some our citizens would say we are well down that road today.  We need to create an effective balance between the freedoms given all of our citizens in our constitution, and the potential negative impact that one person's actions can have on another person's life.  In her book, Ms. Rand describes the actions of "the looters", government leaders, bad business people, bad scientists and others, as they destroy the economy bit by bit.  We can never allow our political system to be overwhelmed by "the looters" of our era.  We can't allow the best of our society to be looted by our worst.  Unfortunately, our society is filled with many looters today.  We must fight to protect our society from "the looters". 

Our society should have learned much from Ayn Rand's masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, over the past 59 years.  I think a lot of people need to read it again or for the first time as I did. 

TPM