About Assuming Malice
In May 1987, former Secretary of Labor, Raymond J. Donovan, who had been indicted by a New York grand jury of larceny and fraud, but later acquitted, stood on the courthouse steps and famously asked, “Which office do I go to get my reputation back?” As Mr. Donovan learned, the indictment charges are always on page one, the verdict of innocence will be found on page four. In the age of internet speed, guilt is always assumed before innocence. Sadly, it’s just the world we live in.
One of the many life lessons I learned at an early age stemmed from a quotation that appeared in Robert A. Heinlein‘s 1941 short story “Logic of Empire.” The quote: ‘You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity’ has often been re-quoted as “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
Within the past week, two companies, Amazon and Dominos Pizza, have come under scrutiny (maybe attack is a better word) for failing what I lovingly call Business Perceptions 101. What, might you ask is Business Perception 101? BP 101, for short, is when a company’s
