Some organizations are closely tied to one person. In general, when anyone at the centre of such an organization faces a grave criminal case, the effects may reach far beyond the courtroom.
Wikipedia's current-events portal for May 21, 2009, recorded that Egyptian businessman Hisham Talaat Moustafa is convicted of murdering Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim.
What a case like this does not explain
Above all, the entry records the death of a person, Suzanne Tamim, and a court's verdict. It says nothing about motives, and none should be read into it here. What follows is a general reflection, not an account of this case.
A broader question about dependence
People who oversee organizations often think about risk in terms of markets, rules and competitors. The conduct of the people at the centre may be harder to plan for, and perhaps harder to talk about.
In general, when a business is built closely around one person, much may depend on that person. Employees, partners and others who rely on the organization might find themselves affected by events they had no part in. One question for anyone building an organization is how far it could carry on if the person at its centre could not.
Perhaps resilience depends in part on not letting everything rest on one person.
Sources
- Portal:Current events/2009 May 21 (revision 292746852) - Wikipedia, 2009-05-27
