Corporate and gang cultures are surprisingly alike By Carol Pine Saint Paul Pioneer Press, MN   Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News   TOLEDO, OH - At age 39, Tony DaDante is the vice president of human resources for a Fortune 500 industrial company on the East Coast, having worked for Hewlett-Packard, Harley-Davidson and General Motors. Twenty-five years ago, however, DaDante was a teen-age gang member. It was only through competitive sports and a few good role models that DaDante says he got a good education leading him to corporate life, rather than to jail. From the executive suites of five major American companies, DaDante has had a rare opportunity to compare the cultures of corporations and gangs. Teamwork. While the gang preaches teamwork and members usually come from the same neighborhood and know each other, DaDante says few trust each other. Ultimately they look out for themselves. That is also true in companies, says DaDante: ``Corporations generally reward individual behavior, even though we put people in work teams and emphasize a shared goal. Is it surprising that someone takes credit for a co-worker's idea or fictionalizes a resume when we promote the idea that people need to go outside boundaries to make it?'' Trust and teamwork depends on the situation. ``In the heat of battle, gang members will stick up for each other to the death, but when the heat is off, no one trusts anyone else,'' says DaDante. An equivalent in the corporate world might be a new product launch, he says: ``The team works hard to develop the product and gain market share together, but underneath it all, some team members are wondering `How can I be one-up?''' Attack sparks emotion. When a gang is under attack for turf or survival, says DaDante, ``The reaction is strictly emotional: You're threatening my neighborhood, my family.'' When a company is the target of an unwanted takeover, he says, ``The leadership comes out scratching and clawing. It becomes emotional very quickly.'' As the stress increases, says DaDante, decision-making can be quickly compromised: ``Leaders get myopic and focus on how will a decision affect them personally, rather than how it will affect the whole organization.'' Decision-making. ``Some executives have a remarkable ability to rationalize all decisions `for the good of the shareholders,' whatever it takes,'' says DaDante, ``in the same way that gang leaders rationalize actions for the good of the drug trade or prostitution ring.'' Leadership is not ensured and succession may be swift in a gang, says DaDante. ``Gang members know that if the boss goes overboard or underperforms, they can rise up and remove him or kill him. The corporate board serves the same, albeit bloodless, function.'' Career-makers. ``Gang kids are rewarded for being willing or stupid enough to risk it all and key executives who make it are rewarded for taking extraordinary risks,'' says DaDante. Career-breakers. An unacceptable gang member will be shown the door or the wrong end of a pistol, says DaDante, and the termination is quick. ``A corporate culture will kill a career in a more covert way by using the good old boy network, the glass ceiling and expensive severance packages.'' Business savvy and high-tech solutions define the front-runners in both corporations and gangs. Successful gang leaders run their operations like franchisees, says DaDante, and like companies, they're smart about demographics, financial tracking and product distribution. When a major gang decides to expand into new territory, it considers the risks and barriers to entry. For example, says DaDante, it is much easier to gain a foothold in a smaller Minnesota town where the police expertise, firepower and technology is limited, compared with choosing the Twin Cities. ``Greed and rationalizations are the real driving forces for decision-making in gangs and many corporations today,'' says DaDante, a realist, who still holds out hope for healthier kids and corporate cultures. In his spare time, DaDante works with Children's Services in Toledo, Ohio, counseling young gang members to stay in school, shed the ``false sense of security they find in gangs'' and prepare themselves for straight jobs. Carol Pine is the founder of Pine & Partners, a Twin Cities-based business consulting firm. Pine does not write about companies she has worked with or is currently working with. Visit PioneerPlanet, the World Wide Web site of the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.