The Story of Bridgewater Associates: When a Rebel Should Quit
The new book, “The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend” by investigative reporter Rob Copeland, is a fascinating read and an example of where good rebels can't effect change; their best action is to leave a company.
The book unveils many “worst business practices”: CEO benevolent narcissism, cultivation of a fear-based culture wrapped in the guise of radical transparency, and years of brilliant CEO positioning/promotion about a groundbreaking system to codify human behavior for better decision-making, which was nothing more than a CEO's musings (spun as "Principles.")
It’s especially interesting if you’re interested in leadership, corporate culture, human behavior and reputation management.
I'm still processing thoughts from this book, but some of the big questions it raised for me:
Why do we continue to fall for these business "heroes"?
Why do extremely rich men think they're experts at everything because they've made so much money? (And, again, why do we believe them so blindly?)
Why do people judge a person's worth based on their wealth? (Positively and negatively.)
Is job security and financial gain worth the cost of not speaking up at work when colleagues are publicly humiliated, discriminated against, and given derogatory labels by the CEO? (The answer is “yes” for many who worked at Bridgewater. The good rebels who spoke up were promptly fired, despite a core corporate value of honesty and transparency.)
Dalio has disparaged the book and the author, but it's a solid piece of investigative reporting.
Oh boy, oh boy.
