The MICE Alliance

Far too many companies that should be focused on the advancement of humanity by providing valuable services have been deterred from this important mission. Take the example of Silicon Valley which served as a bastion of technological innovation but has been led astray by activism. Vague subjective concepts like ESG scores and DEI initiatives serve to distract and sometimes even focus on counterproductive approaches to progress; oftentimes, these programs encourage corporations to meddle in public affairs in a socially acceptable form of crony capitalism under the guise of being “conscious of the greater good.” Companies, especially tech companies, need to prioritize creating meaningful tools for humanity because that has been the most proven methodology for improving baseline human conditions. Deviating from the core mission of advancing humanity is why Silicon Valley lost its way. How do we get companies back on track?

There needs to be a value shift towards MICE:

• Merit

• Innovation

• Character

• Excellence

Merit advocates for the most qualified individuals who deserve the role to get the role using transparent, objective, and measurable criteria in the hiring process. By focusing on Merit companies will lay the groundwork to succeed in other essential areas of business.

Innovation encourages companies to focus on creation rather than displays of virtue or becoming overly invested in politics. The core thing of value every company has to offer is a good product; generating such products through innovation should be the primary focus.

Character offers a means for being mindful of team dynamics and looking past surface-level demographic details. Behind every good product is a team of people with complementary characters who could work together to make it happen. An individual’s character should take precedence over sex, skin color, or any other demographic traits that might hold people back in a bigoted society.

Excellence hints at what should be rewarded. When people or companies do great things, that excellence deserves to be recognized so as to incentivize others to strive for similar feats of greatness.

Why was “MICE” chosen as the acronym? Along with the individual letters symbolizing important values, the pronunciation (“mice”) offers a subtle reminder of one of the great inventions of the 20th Century, the computer mouse, which gave people greater control over computational devices and reduced the barrier of entry into technical fields. Through MICE (Merit, Innovation, Character, and Excellence), the hope is to give organizations concrete values to focus on so they can maximize their ability to create important tools for the advancement of humanity. Let’s work together as an alliance to make MICE the leading set of values for organizations to aspire towards.

If anyone ends up reading this article and wishes to adopt MICE please consider leaving a comment indicating your desire to do so and encourage others in your network to follow your lead.