Monitoring the gap between commercial strategy and human sustainability
As Non-Executive Directors and Chairs, we are trained to spot asset depletion. If a factory is not being maintained, or a brand is being over-leveraged, we see the risk immediately.
But we are often less adept at spotting the depletion of the human asset.
I was reminded of this starkly while watching Baz Luhrmann’s new documentary, EPiC.
The film is a revelation. Unlike the 2022 biopic, which focused on the manipulative machinery of Colonel Tom Parker, this documentary strips the management layer away. What remains is the raw, unfiltered genius of the man. We see his humor, his exhaustion, and his profound spiritual connection to the music. It is a witness to a human spirit of extraordinary depth and capacity.
To watch it is to realize exactly what was lost.
The Framework: Pinstripes vs. The Buddha
In my advisory work with Boards, I use a specific framework to analyse this tension. I call it the balance between the Pinstripes and the Buddha.
Successful organisations require both. The Pinstripes provide the container. The Buddha provides the content.
The tragedy of the Elvis story, and the governance failure it represents, is that the Pinstripes turned on the Buddha.
The Instrumental Trap
Colonel Parker is a clear example of the "Pinstripes" view taken to its toxic extreme. He viewed talent purely as a means to profit. He pushed for the residency, the merchandise, and the movie deals. He was brilliant at the mechanics of the business, but he was blind to the sustainability of the human being he was managing.
The risk for us, in the boardroom, is that we often inadvertently incentivise this behaviour.
We reward the Instrumental wins. We celebrate the quarterly spikes and the efficiency gains. We rarely ask what cost the Substantive asset is paying to deliver them.
Monetising the Incongruity
In the Mindful Leadership Matrix, my colleagues and I discuss the concept of "Incongruity", the painful gap between who we are and how we are forced to act.
A wise Board ensures that management identifies this gap and helps close it. But in the Elvis story, the management team didn't just ignore the incongruity. They monetised it. The more the talent struggled, the harder they pushed the commercial engine.
This wasn't just one bad manager. It was a governance ecosystem designed to extract value rather than sustain life.
The Question for Your Next Board Meeting
The lesson here is the price of a purely commercial focus.
When governance becomes solely about the transaction, the Pinstripes might win in the short term, but the asset is eventually destroyed.
As you look at your own executive teams, I invite you to look past the strategy. The critical question is: Is this performance sustainable? Or is the organisation burning its "Buddha" to fuel its "Pinstripes"?
The challenge is to ensure our organisations integrate performance with humanity. Because, as we see in the film, when the commerce crushes the human spirit, the music eventually stops.
If you are interested in the frameworks mentioned here, specifically the "Instrumental vs. Substantive" model, they are detailed in our book, Buddha in Pinstripes, and research on the Wheel of Mindfulness.