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| Sometimes Stupid Goes all the Way to the Top! |
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My boss hired a business consultant to come in and review our firm, and let him know what we need to change to make the company more profitable. The gentleman does this for a living, has years of experience helping small and medium-sized companies grow and is known in the business community as a smart and helpful advisor.
After three months, he released a report to our boss indicating there were (as he put it) "eight holes in the dam" that need to be plugged or repaired. He went over each one, discussing in detail what was wrong in accounting, what was wrong in production, what was wrong in sales and marketing, what was wrong in management.
When he finished he told our boss he wanted to work with him for the following three months to eliminate the problems, rearrange the company structure and develop new methodologies and techniques designed to enhance performance and accountability and decrease mistakes and cost over-runs.
My boss agreed. Then the war began . . .
Every change that was suggested was fought by the managers in place. Information that was requested was either lost or delayed in arriving. "Employment replacement" (hiring and firing) was argued about at every level. Data that was critical to developing a successful QA/QC program was deliberately distorted so as to be considered useless.
The consultant gave the boss a list of names of managers who either needed to be demoted and hired over, have their pay lowered so as to match their market value or else terminated and replaced immediately based on (a) their lack of production, (b) their attitudes toward co-workers, subordinates and upper management, (c) their outrageous pay scale.
The managers met with the boss, explaining why NONE of the suggestions made by the consultant will work, and how they could not continue working for the firm if his plans were implemented.
The boss took a long weekend out of town with his family to decide what to do. When he returned on Monday he did the one thing any great aspiring successful company owner would do in his situation – he let the consultant go!
That was six months ago. Since then he has laid off half of his work force, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and continues to struggle financially.
The consultant confided in me that in his 25 year history he has only had three companies refuse to follow his advice after consulting with them. ("Because by the time they call me in, it is 'situation critical' and they are desperate for change.") My boss is # 3. The first two went out of business or were bought out by their competitors.
It just goes to show you – sometimes STUPID goes all the way to the top!
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