ABSTRACT
Short Takes: Pleasant and Unpleasant Reviews A review of The Tyranny of the Bottom Line: Why Corporations Make Good People Do Bad Things, by Ralph Estes. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1996.
Nothing could be more obvious: the bottom line of a finan cial state-ment does not measure the total effect of a corporation’s ac tivities on everybody. The bottom line may look good, but employees may be trading their health for their jobs. Customers may be buying products that will cause an early death. Suppliers may invest in a plant suddenly worth nothing but its value in scrap if a big purchaser goes elsewhere. Communities may provide roads, sewers, schools, only to see their work wasted when a large corporation moves out. The nation may pay more for the “serv ices” of a corporation than it gets back-the health cost of smoking, say. Managers can even graciously increase their emoluments while stockholders’ stakes go down. Only the last item is reflected in the bottom line and managers can al ways justify their salaries by arguing that a bad situation would have been even worse without their efforts.
