Criminality and Business Strategy: Similarities and Differences

Criminality and Business Strategy: Similarities and Differences explores what can be learned from criminal organizations on four continents based on comparisons of their historical and cultural origins, chosen governance and power structures, and business models. It discusses how these contexts determined their applications of the principles and practice of effective, but amoral leadership, and whether these lessons can be applied to legitimate business enterprises.

In this book John Zinkin and Chris Bennett argue that defining a "crime" is a contested issue and that criminality can be viewed as a spectrum, comprising a range of different types of crimes, the harms caused, and the variety of punishments involved. They discuss the critical role of the state in determining where criminality is perceived to sit on the crime continuum.

The authors delve into how the state and organized crime are natural competitors, and how organized crime and legitimate businesses are subject to many of the same internal and external strategic considerations. They contend that the resulting similarities between criminality in organized criminal organizations and legitimate businesses are greater than the differences and that the differences are only in degree and not in kind.

This thought-provoking study of criminality will be of immense interest to professionals, coaches, consultants, and academics interested in the techniques and ethics of leadership. The book is, in effect, the result of an intellectual journey of the authors from the ideas presented in their earlier book, The Principles and Practice of Effective Leadership, to the issues in this book discussing important, difficult, and contested subjects. The journey continues in their third book: The Challenge in Leading Ethical and Successful Organizations.

John Zinkin is the Managing Director of Zinkin Ettinger Sdn Bhd, a boutique consultancy specializing in corporate governance, brand-based change, vision, mission and values and marketing strategy. He is a coach, affiliated with Foresight Global Coaching in Sydney, Australia. He was a faculty member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM), and of the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC).He was a member of the working party that launched the Malaysian Green Book on Corporate Governance in 1999 and was involved in the roll out of the Malaysian Corporate Governance Code in 2000. He was a member of the working party that drew up the Malaysian Corporate Governance Blueprint in 2011 and the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance 2012 and drafted the IOSCO Emerging Markets Corporate Governance Task Force report on behalf of the Securities Commission Malaysia in 2016.
John used to speak regularly on leadership and governance and wrote for The Star on governance-related topics (2007-2013) and Focus Malaysia (2019). He was voted "Writer of the Year" on CG matters in 2014 by the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group. His other specialties are "Leading Brand-Based Change", "Reconciling Leadership and Governance" and "Ethics in Business". He is a certified training professional who has done extensive training in branding and leadership. Since 2007, he has trained more than 1,500 directors in CG as well as senior managers of public listed companies. He has also trained ASEAN regulators on behalf of the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Australian Government as part of their capacity building programs in ASEAN and APEC.
John has led board effectiveness evaluations in banking (commercial and development banks), insurance, telecoms and government statutory bodies. He has developed codes of conduct and board charters for two development banks.
John was Associate Professor, Marketing and Strategy at Nottingham University Business School, Malaysia Campus and in charge of the MBA program (2001-6), CEO of Securities Industry Development Corporation (2006-2011), Managing Director, Corporate Governance of Iclif Leadership and Governance Centre (2011-2013). Before coming to Malaysia, John led businesses in office products distribution, and food distribution across Asia-Pacific based in Hong Kong and was the Chair of the Marketing and Change Management Practices of Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific.

Chris Bennet is an experienced director, and senior executive with significant international exposure. He has lived and worked in 6 countries, held directorships for major British and American companies in 13 (and held senior managerial responsibilities in more than 20) in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Australia, NZ, and the Americas.
Chris is now focused on research, writing, and facilitation/teaching. His research interests are centred around how corporate governance is impacted by human behaviour as it occurs in Boards and Top Management Teams, particularly in how those factors manifest in different cultures, and in complex company groups. He is a regular commentator on those topics. His doctoral research is titled "Cultural cognition and decision making in multicultural boards of directors in South East Asia and Australia". His writings have appeared in The Business Times, and The Edge (Singapore), The Edge (Malaysia), Company Director Magazine (Australia), Chris has served on committees advising on corporate governance and human resource matters in Singapore.
Chris is a director of BPA Australasia Pte Ltd a social enterprise founded in 2008, concerned with improving corporate governance through delivering research, professional education, and advocacy in the area where human behaviour meets governance, risk management and strategy in the Boardroom and "C" suite.
He served as Managing Consultant of Towers Perrin (Malaysia), and Watson Wyatt (Malaysia and Singapore). In both roles he was responsible for board level consulting including board effectiveness, and executive compensation. He has led board evaluations, notably the first board effectiveness evaluation conducted by Bursa Malaysia (The Malaysian Stock Exchange).
In his work as Faculty at the Australian Institute of Company Directors he has facilitated on the International Company Directors programme and the International Foundations of Directorship programme in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Dubai for the past 9 years, and continues to do so. He has designed and reviewed modules for these programmes.