Comments on FORTIFY YOUR OASIS: The Peter Principle turns 40

Hi Rowan, Sorry I don't know where I pulled "Just...

2009-06-16T10:14:02.792+01:00

Hi Rowan,

Sorry I don't know where I pulled "Just Jack" from ... the name of the book is "Jack Welch - Straight from the Gut". I "read" it on audible, I have a monthly subscription that lets me buy audio books there at a significant discount. Check it out, its a great service for movers and shakers with limited reading time like ourselves.

After reading the unabridged version of "Jack Welch - Straight from the Gut", I would be inclined to recommend the abridged version if there is one. He name checks far too much, and alot of the time I got lost trying to figure out "who is who", rather than focusing on the content.

Best regards

Ray Kinsella

Ray - Absolutely! We're back to the "interchangeab...

2009-06-16T09:18:40.455+01:00

Ray - Absolutely! We're back to the "interchangeable parts" model here. When your company is three people in a garage, it's all about the idea and the shared energy of those people. Build it up to a 30 person company and everybody still knows everybody very closely and "we're all part of making this happen together" is the backbone of the thought process. Gladwell touched on this in Tipping Point where he wrote about the still personal nature of the extended cave family group of 150. As soon as you go past that number, impersonality starts creeping in. When you're a giant conglomerate with the world around you changing, and some economist is projecting the future telling you you need to shave $7bn from your "costs" then the people stop being people and they start being "costs." It's easy to cull a ratio, to trim an expense line. It's very hard to visit a neighbourhood afterwards and realise the devastation that your cost reduction exercise has wrought. Like him or hate him, Michael Moore captured that very well with Roger & Me. It's a defense mechanism - no CEO wants to be up close to the carnage that these actions require.

Incidentally, I haven't read Just Jack – I must pick up a copy, it sounds fascinating.

Hi Rowan, Thanks for the response, I do remember ...

2009-06-15T21:03:50.555+01:00

Hi Rowan,

Thanks for the response, I do remember raising an eyebrow during "Just Jack" when he talked about about not listening when managers complained that he was cutting too much, that "all the fat was was gone, he was cutting in to bone!". He isn't completely ruthless though, Jack spends time in his book talking about how much people's personal development mattered to him. So there is a contridiction at work here.

I think this was what unsettled me a little, I got the feeling that unless Jack knew and valued me as an employee personally that I was a statisic to the enterprise. To be practical how likely is that in such a large firm I would know the boss?. It just felt cold, I work for a large enterprise now, and even though I work my ass off, it just struck home how your contribution can mean so little from Jack's 10,000 feet perspective.

Regards

Ray Kinsella

Hi Ray, I agree - JW was utterly ruthless in his ...

2009-06-15T16:48:08.312+01:00

Hi Ray,

I agree - JW was utterly ruthless in his approach and did much to propagate the 'staff-as-interchangeable-parts' model of management. As to his apparent ratification of the Dilbert Principle, he used R&Y to cut massive numbers of middle management out of GE - and the company prospered by any measure you care to apply. I heard another line ascribed to him in which he posited that you could take any person, who was more than 2 steps removed from the customer, out of a business and not appreciably harm that business.

Hi Rowan, I didn't quiet understand your statemen...

2009-06-15T16:35:34.798+01:00

Hi Rowan,

I didn't quiet understand your statement about GE? I recently re-read Jack's autobiography "Just Jack" with wry smile.

Jack advocated getting GE out of the business of making stuff (or at least less so in this business), and got them into the financials business. GE's share price is now trading at just a fifth of what it was when passed on the CEO mantle.

I am not saying I disagree with Jack's culture of performance, just the opposite. He just seem to be pretty ruthless about it to me. I can't help feeling that perhaps some of the leveller heads at Irish Banks fell foul of this process over recent years for not "performing" enough.

Regards

Ray Kinsella