Who Really Matters
The Core Group Theory of Power,
Privilege and Success

During two decades spent watching organizations at work (and the struggles people had within them), I saw that most of the stated rhetoric about their purpose represents a set of lies:
• Corporations do not exist to return investment to shareholders. (If they did, they would be better at it).
• Non-profits do not exist to fulfill the requirements of their membership (except to the extent they need to do so to keep their membership).
• Government agencies do not exist to fulfill the public interest (especially when it's in the public interest for them to go out of existence).
• Employees are not any organization's greatest asset.
• The customer does not come first.

Who, then, does?

It varies, depending on the organization - but in every one of them, there is some "Core Group" of key people who matter more than anyone else when decisions are made. The Core Group of any organization won't be named in a formal hierarchy chart, contract, or constitution. It exists in peoples' hearts and minds. Its power is derived not from authority, but from legitimacy. Its influence is not always conscious, or even visibly apparent, but it is always present in the implementation of actual decisions.

Once you understand the Core Group nature of organizations, then you can understand the true nature of political parties (devoted first and foremost to getting jobs for their Core Group members), diversity in organizations (the glass ceiling is the boundary between the rest of the organization and the Core Group), and labor unions (who have collective-bargained their way into the Core Group of many companies, which is why they are so intensely hated by managers).
Core Groups aren't bad in themselves; every organization has them. Behind every great organization is a great Core Group. The trick is learning to find the organizations with great Core Groups, change the ones that can be changed, and avoid the dysfunctional ones - hopefully in time to avoid being capsized.

Finding your way in a Core Group-driven world is the subject of this book.

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