TED Community » Andrei Vorobiev

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Revamping the practice of management and governance

An idea worth spreading

That we can deafeat corruption, easily. all we need is to try a better method. www.CorruptionManagement.com

Talk to me about

changing the way we run organizations and societies

Comments

• TEDCred score: +30.50 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Talk: Heather Brooke: My battle to expose government corruption

  Nov 8 2012: Wonderful presentation. Great person to give it. Still, a relatively lukewarm applause compared, say, to Bryan Stevenson, and very little progress in terms of anti-secrecy, anti-corruption action.
  
  I think I know why: the rich power-brokers of the world that attend TED don't see much money, fame and power in solving this problem (if they consider it a problem). And there are only few of us - non-attendees - who really want to end corruption. At best, it's the perennial forty-fifth issue on our "must do" list, since virtually no one realizes that many other problems - from personal unhappiness to climate change - are related to the corruption-inducing power structures of our societies... (Heather only lightly touched on this around 7:45.)
  
  At CorruptionManagement.com we think that if you re-define the issue in terms of self-interest and profit, and make it attractive to capitalists, the whole problem of corruption could be solved very quickly... But tell us if we're wrong.
  
  A.V. www.CorruptionManagement.com/how

• A comment on Conversation: Debate: Is corruption a moral or a legal issue?

  Nov 8 2012: Corruption has been my research topic for decades, both in and out of academia. Why corruption is still alive and well today as it was, say, 50 years ago? In part because it is treated as either a legal or moral issue, leaving out other possibilities. But in fact corruption is a management/governance issue and it would be easier to solve it if we understood that.
  
  Look, the government structure can be corrupt from top to bottom and EVERYBODY there might work not according to the written law, but according to "informal law" (the understanding of how the things really work). Then, the "understanding" is the real law. And if the population agrees with it, fine... If, however, only SOME of the people in the power structure are corrupt, especially not the top boss (the president or equivalent who is usually elected by their "boss" - the people - who don't want corruption) then it is just a managerial problem: all that is needed is that every manager from the president down effectively monitors that his subordinates are not cheating, stealing, or breaking the laws in the myriad ways they can... Don't you agree?
  
  I'll tell you more: the normal pyramidal structures on which we rely from the times of pharaohs are not made for effective monitoring/management. They are long obsolete even in the military, which has been emulated by bureaucracies. Instead, these power pyramids are very well suited for supervisory incompetence of bosses and wrongdoing by subordinates. The agency theory, properly understood, will lead you to the same conclusion. (See my quip on it in the Financial Times: http://on.ft.com/dnSJAa )
  
  Change the subordination/management structure to a much better one, and you'll wipe out corruption in a blink of historic eye... As manager, I've done it in organizations in the matter of weeks and days. You can do the same everywhere and be a new mini-Gandhi - clearing away legal gunk of the past and profiting, too.
  
  Best,
  
  AV
  www.CorruptionManagement.com/how

• A reply on Talk: Shimon Schocken: The self-organizing computer course

  Oct 8 2012: Dear Prof. Schocken,
  
  Thank you for your great talk. Upon watching it, my wife – a professor and University of Kentucky trustee – asked: "I wonder if Prof. Schocken works with Ricardo Semler and his Lumiar schools?"
  
  Well, if you are not in contact with Semler, we could try to facilitate it.
  
  In case you don't know about Semler, he is a phenomenal Brazilian billionaire who, in his philanthropic work, promotes "learning by doing", "no grade" schools.
  
  Here is a short video about it:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzuhoTDPoBU (Warning – poor quality, good content.)
  
  Thank you again!

• A reply on Talk: Jeff Bezos: What matters more than your talents

  May 26 2012: Yesterday, after two years of protests, bad press and official warninigs, Bezos announced that Amazon will improve working conditions in all of its warehouses, including installation of air conditioners.
  
  From the news report: "Amazon has come under heavy criticism for conditions at its warehouses after a Pennsylvania newspaper revealed that employees were forced to work in temperatures above 100 degrees last summer. Amazon installed air-conditioning last summer at its warehouse in Lexington, which had been the subject of two heat complaints to the state. It plans to air-condition the rest of its Kentucky warehouses, including Campbellsville and Hebron, this year."
  
  Brendon - my pal left Amazon well before they installed the a/c. I believe that tolerating inhumane conditions if they can easily be improved is inhumane and cowardly. But you're free to call people caring for others "obnoxious" or any other name.

• A reply on Conversation: What kind of job would you do if you were not worried about the income?

  May 10 2011: Close, but not necessarily so. At CorruptionManagemenet.com we don't have to be ruthless about anyone honest. And even the dishonest end up on balance benefiting from our system. So, if you find a social cause that can produce income and you can use/join it - full speed ahead! And I'm sorry about the Harvard kids not finding good social causes to join. If it's true - they're simply not looking hard enough or can't see the obvious... Or perhaps they aren't serious about their social causes to begin with, and simply jump on the most promising money-making opportunity that pays off big bucks right away... Few people really mean what they say about doing good. We've had many people trying to join our firm claiming they want to rid the world of corruption. Alas, most of the time they want a paycheck first and then the glory that comes with the badge of "corruption fighter." It doesn't work this way. Well, maybe in government and government-supported organizations, but in the end all too often they end up hurting, not helping the real work. I presume you won't be surprised that we find many anti-corruption agencies that are, ahem, corrupt to one degree or another.

• A reply on Conversation: Will corruption ever be eradicated?

  Mar 30 2011: I understand the logic but have to disagree. As Soviet prosecutor I was fighting with corrupt crooks who didn't own the means of production - the people did. Introduction of capitalism in the former USSR brought more malfeasance, but of different kind. Now nearly all believe that they were duped in the nineties - even many crooks themselves, for there were still bigger crooks who got away with more billions in stolen property.
  
  In general, there is a place for the market, marketing and private ownership - it (as well as government) simply needs to have different shape, allowing for more responsible and effective democracy, with its checks and balances.
  Andrei Vorobiev CorruptionManagement.com

• A reply on Conversation: Will corruption ever be eradicated?

  Mar 30 2011: Yeah, give up Lucas :-) If we follow this line of thought, we might as well disband the anti-fraud police and retire all accountants and especially auditors.As I said above (or now it might be below?) - we can manage all sorts of corruption to negligible levels. Oddly, it doesn't need new money or more watchdogs.
  
  Andrei Vorobiev
  CorruptionManagement.com

• A comment on Conversation: Will corruption ever be eradicated?

  Mar 30 2011: Corruption of all kinds can't be totally eradicated. After all, it's a self-creating, self-sustaining phenomenon. However, it can be managed down to negligible levels using self-interest and greed of which we have more than enough. Altruism in this approach is useful but not necessary.
  
  I won't expand on this here, you can read more at CorruptionManagement.com. Disclaimer: I'm a partner in that venture.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Elizabeth Lesser: Take "the Other" to lunch

  Feb 17 2011: Katie,
  
  We might have met there in 1979... or maybe not.
  
  But a trip abroad for every American high school grad could amount to whopping 0.1% of the defense and spying budget. We cannot afford such a luxury. :))
  
  Andrei Vorobiev
  CorruptionManagement.com

• A reply on Talk: Jeff Bezos: What matters more than your talents

  Oct 27 2010: Steve,
  
  PEHub aired that Bezos plans to invest in social entrepreneurship via John Doerr's new fund... Could you please tell him that investing in his own employees (even lowly bums in lowly Lexington, KY) is social entrepreneurship, too. Really. And If he (and you) don't yet know how to make lots of money out of these things, let us help.
  
  Andrei Vorobiev
  CorruptionManagement.com