Power and Opportunity

One cannot underestimate the critical role that organizational and societal power plays as either a catalyst or a detriment to the opening of doors of opportunity. We know that there are great examples in life and in business where personal power has been used to promote learning and development opportunities in places where power is low and doors are often locked.

One recent example comes from an CNBC interview with Merck CEO, Kenneth Frazier. Frazier talked with CNBC morning show, Squawk Box, on June 1, 2020 about an extraordinary program he participated in as a youth called Year Up. At the time, Year Up bussed less fortunate inner-city kids to more affluent schools in order to provide a better environment for learning. In the interview, Frazier said, “I know for sure that what put my life on a different trajectory was that someone intervened to give me an opportunity”. (see 7:51 mark of the interview) Frazier rose from an underprivileged start as an African-American child with very little opportunity to an Ivy league university education and ultimately to the CEO position of one of the most successful and largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. This happened because one or more people in a position of power created a program that provided access to greater learning and development where there was none. That is how positively impactful power can be for those lacking not will or ability, but only access.

Division of power is inherent in social groups, schools, corporations, organizations of every kind and even in families. Unfortunately, everyone can think of public and private examples where those in power worked against or even squashed opportunities for those of lower status. If those in high-power positions withhold access, then progress is stalled and opportunities for learning and development are lost for the whole of society. There is a saying that power corrupts, suggesting that accumulation of power itself is the problem. I do not subscribe to this notion. Power is potential. It is progress waiting to happen.