Ben Heineman
Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: 617-496-7305
Fax: 617-495-8963
Email: ben_heineman@harvard.edu
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August 3, 2009
"The Power of the Personal Story"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Yes, the president deserves some credit for the "beer summit' as successful damage control. But, overall, his personal intrusion into the Cambridge arrest was very damaging: he diverted attention from health care; he failed to teach the nation a lesson on the critical importance of getting the facts right before rendering judgments; and, by subsequently saying that both Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley were good men but each had overreacted, he put the salient issue of racial profiling to the side and, to some extent, just rekindled the debate about the particular facts of a particular arrest."
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July 30, 2009
"Executive Compensation: Let's Look at Fund Managers' Pay,"
Op-Ed, Harvard Business Review
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Yes, inside corporations we need to alter executive compensation dramatically to reduce the naked annual bonus and the naked stock option as outsized components of executive compensation. Yes, we need to devise compensation systems that pay over time for real economic performance and creation of economic value, that pay for financial discipline and risk management, and that pay for creating a culture of integrity(law, ethics, values). But will needed executive compensation reform inside companies founder because relentless short-term pressure from (some) powerful institutional investors undermines the need to reward executive achievement of performance, risk and integrity measures over a number of years."
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July 25, 2009
"A Due Process Teaching Moment -- WASTED"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic Monthly
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Indeed, the great irony of the President's failure to focus on the importance of facts and the processes for ascertaining them is that the problem of racial profiling stems, of course, from making law enforcement judgments based on stereotypes, not on facts which legitimately give rise to a proper stop or arrest."
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July 22, 2009
"Anti-Corruption Rhetoric - and Reality"
Op-Ed, The Atlantic Monthly
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The pervasive problem, however, is that anti-corruption rhetoric exceeds commitment and accomplishment on all fronts. Corruption is deeply entrenched because it is based on lust for money and for power."
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July 20, 2009
"The Talented Mr. Blankfein"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
As stock prices and short-term profits rise for financial institutions, will business leaders follow their words of caution and humility uttered mere months ago? Or, despite near-death experiences, is the past now past and are the "good times," with all their flaws, about to roll again?
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July 13, 2009
"Just the Facts, Ma'am"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"As he struggles to deal with a host of hard issues, President Obama does not want to invite a war of recrimination which could poison already contentious debates on major initiatives. But bringing bipartisan fact-finding and analysis to this difficult set of issues is just as much in the national interest as health care or climate change or economic recovery."
July 2009
"The Governance Crisis: First, Let’s Redefine the CEO Role"
Policy Memo
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
The witch's brew of high leverage, poor risk management, creation of toxic assets and poor business judgments-all made more poisonous by excessive short-term executive pay-are unprecedented failures of financial sector directors and CEOs. The result: credibility has eroded, trust has dissolved and financial re-regulation seems inevitable.
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June 23, 2009
"A Stick in the Eye"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"A public company CEO's most precious asset is trust: trust from employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, creditors, analysts, the media, the regulators and the media. When credibility is shredded, then the CEOs customarily cannot do their job."
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June 9, 2009
"Going Beyond MBA Oaths"
Op-Ed, Harvard Business Review
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"Siemens had a strongly worded code against bribery. It just lacked principles, practices and, ultimately, a culture to make that code a reality."
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June 8, 2009
"Compelling Story or Too Much Information?"
Op-Ed, On Leadership at washingtonpost.com
By Ben Heineman, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"The question for politicians really isn't whether to use personal histories--anyone in public life will have a "public" personal history--but for what purpose and how."
