Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

"It is in a country's interests to keep faith with its allies. States in this sense are like people. If you have a reputation for exacting favors and not returning them, the favours dry up."

There's two lessons here as it applies to business, and they are concerning the two sides of entering into agreements with another firm.

The first lesson is the agreement itself. We must know we can follow through on what we agree to before we ever make the decision. When I say "must know," I mean both practically and probably more important: ethically.

We must know the extent of what our businesses can do before we say we'll do it. That's the obvious part of this, although a number of business leaders still make this mistake.

Second, and more important, we must know we can go to sleep peacefully at night with the agreements we make. Once our reputation is ruined in regard to ethics, it's extraordinarily hard to get it back. We can be tainted for the life of the business, or at minimum for a generation.

So before we even begin negotiations that can entangle us, we must know that if we the favor we are asking for coincides with the values of the company. To ask for something means we have to give something in return. If we don't respond back in kind, as Margaret Thatcher says, "the favours dry up." To make sure they don't, we must understand what we're getting into in the first place.

Again, this may all sound obvious and simple, but look at the many troubles executives can get into and the destructive actions taken that bring many companies to their knees. If things were that simple, so much of it wouldn't be happening.

The greatest protection is to make no decision or agreement that will conflict with the values of our businesses. If you don't follow that, you may end up the next headline in the news ... or worse.

Margaret Thatcher Resources:

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher Foundation

Margaret Thatcher Quotes

The Best Quotes From Margaret Thatcher's 'Statecraft'

Margaret Thatcher & the Revival of the West

Margaret Thatcher Speech

Interview with Margaret Thatcher

Magaret Thatcher's Life in the Shadows

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