This is my resignation.
Fifteen years ago. The commitment was gone. We were without a doubt one of Europe’ most talented companies within our field and I founded it. In my letter of resignation I wrote: “… it is always the reasoning behind the decision that is most cardinal, that gives the outsider the opportunity to make their own assessment of what seems reasonable, and what is right and wrong.”
My extremely self-absorbed letter of resignation has to me become an example of how challenging it is, for everybody involved, using business for social change rather than economic profit. Reading this letter today I blush, and I apologize to all of you that were my colleagues at that time, receiving this too-many-words-explanation of why I left. Below, you can read less than half the letter. It is a document of how I felt more than anything else, leaving my dream behind. But it is also a document of a leader and shareholder letting everybody down. Sad but true. Even though I could do nothing else at the time…
Today, February 28 2000, I, Hans Hassle, relinquish my position as CEO of Vision and Reality Communication NetWork AB. In other words, I resign. Aside from a short break, I have been active in the post for fourteen years.
I am one of many shareholders. I own the largest share, I am active in the board, I am the CEO and am often involved in the production. I sell, work with development and administration, and am responsible for personnel issues, policies, and strategies. Aside from that, I once started the company. So, it is not so difficult to understand the notion that it is “my own” company. But that is not so.
During the latest months, a strong feeling has been growing inside me: “It’s not working out, I don’t fit in anymore.” It is difficult for me to accurately say why, there are many different reasons, but I can after all state the most important one: I no longer feel any love toward the company and am convinced that the love a leader has for his company is precisely the most important aspect of being a competent and successful leader.
To me, love is the desire to live. The desires to develop, explore, and experience. To see where the good in human beings lie and to have the courage to open up to your own greatness and that of other people’s. To come in contact with the entire grandeur that surrounds us; to live to the fullest together with others.
Love creates faith. Faith creates the perception that what one does is right. If a leader loses his faith, or lives without it, then it becomes a crisis for the organization that he or she is responsible for. Crises either create growth or lead to downfall. In our case, I want to do everything in my power to nurture the company into continued growth.
What I see, not always but all too often, is an organization where individuals turn their backs on each other, where agreements are not kept and where external relationships and results are valued so much higher than the respect for ourselves, our goals and ambitions, that the behavior is in fact a clear sign that what we are talking about is not based on reality.
The relationship-oriented culture is not strong enough because this occurs without anyone reacting or saying anything, so that the conflicts that should exist are created. It seems as if most just look on with indifference or apathy at the faults that are probably obvious to the vast majority.
If I am correct about my long-term assessment of how a successful network centric organization should work, if we are headed toward a “relationship society” where values, culture, human capital is crucial for a competitive advantage, then my personal judgment must be that Vision and Reality needs to correct itself, “remember its true self “, before the growth period that is clearly ahead of us can commence. Otherwise, the company will fail.
We need to begin to live up to our word. We must learn what that means, understand its significance and the consequences it has. In depth.
Without deep understanding, there will be no altered or lasting behavior that puts into effect the ideas that we simply accept because there is no reason to turn against them — if one does not understand the consequences. And I think this applies to us all, always.
A vision-driven organization pushes all barriers aside for what it perceives as “greater than itself ” and goes into a “holy war” to realize its dreams. The only real demand imposed is to keep the agreements one has made, since nothing is considered unnecessary or too small. The decisions, on the other hand, can always be questioned, and changed, because nothing is more important than the “cause”.
All of that, and much more, are required to be successful today, I believe. You are convinced that you have an important task to complete and you sure as hell aren’t going to settle for less than having tried hard to complete that task. Fall as you might, you still enjoy having participated in the battle.
Does that sound stimulating? Does it sound horrible? Do you not give a damn about which one rings true, so long as you make progress? It really doesn’t matter. If I am right about how I assess our future market, and if we work in a company that has made such an (actual) analysis of the world around us, the future and its possibilities, then we must all pitch in to reach that goal. Not because there is a cause in itself when we all come together, even though one would think so, but because it is required of us.
We must think as many, but act as one.
Because I talk a great deal, I also write a great deal. Somewhere from within is the natural need for personal affirmation, the need to be seen and understood. Therefore, this will probably be the world’s longest letter of resignation.
But, in order to give both you and me the chance to understand what is now going on, I believe it is necessarily so. That which I write must be long, because it is always the reasoning behind the decision that is most cardinal, that gives the outsider the opportunity to make their own assessment of what seems reasonable, and what is right and wrong. This is why I continue.
In other words, my assessment is that I as CEO have not successfully implemented (incorporated) our mission, vision, and strategy into the day-to-day operation.
I no longer believe that Vision and Reality is up to the task.
Everything that I have described, if I’m right (individuals turning their back on each other, agreements not being kept, external results valued higher than the respect for ourselves), puts the respect for our own values and the company’s own vision at risk of being forgotten and eventually crushed. It pertains to such concrete things as profitability and growth, both in the short-term and long-term, which are basically the absolute goals for a business — everything else is just choices we make about how we, with our conditions and dreams, get ourselves there.
When management makes such an assessment of the situation, that is, that the company has just the right ideas but is incapable of achieving them, and if one assesses that the value of those ideas are such that it should motivate the company to continue in the direction set forth, then something must be done.
I know that it would be devastating for me to step out of my very own dream, to discard everything that I feel we can accomplish together, just to make money in a simpler way. Don’t want to, and can’t either. If it is only a dream, then I rather keep on dreaming.
I’ll stop here, by stating that I, as a shareholder and board member, can see that the company which I have invested in, and have great responsibility and love for, has a CEO who cannot fulfill his duties.
The undersigned is at the company’s disposal until 000331.
Stockholm,
Hans Hassle
Please, make a difference!
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