Management is controlling the things you can. There are only three things that you can control in business and no more than three. The first is time, the second is money, and the third is quality. These are the only things that thought leadership or manager can control. Note that there is no mention of people.
This is the triple constraint of management: If quality drives your project, it will take you more time and more money. If money controls your project, you will sacrifice quality and lose time. If time controls your project, it will cost you more money and affect quality. Whichever one drives, the other two suffer. That’s the art of control in business. You need to know which one is driving and then manage the suffering of the others.
As for people: You can’t control people. You can’t control what goes on in the mind of an employee. It’s impossible to manage people, you can only lead people. Every time I hear someone say “I manage eight people,” I cringe (see Motivating, the Impossibility Of ). It worked for me in China too. One rainy day when we were building the new Radica factory in China, I walked by an open ditch where the sewer pipe was being laid.
I could see that the pipe was being laid with no “fall” (downward slope) and that the sewage would not flow properly. I tried to explain the situation without success, so I took off my shoes and jumped into the mud. I demonstrated with a contractor’s level how to slope the pipe (1/4″ per foot is the standard): I laid two sections of pipe while they were watching. I then watched them lay two sections of pipe (correctly). I led, “pulled” them (by demonstration) not telling, “pushing” them—until they understood. Then I left. The staff was shocked that I jumped in the mud and did the dirty work. I received a lot of respect from that episode that carried over everywhere. I still use this “pulling” style in my retirement in the Bahamas: I jump into the dirty work, show them how I want it, assist them until they get the concept—at which time I disappear. Gets respect every time.
Cream
When you find a new niche and that market is growing, you have to go in and take out the 80% of sales before the bottom feeders come in behind you, and then get out. So, go in, take the cream and then go out and find the next market.
Culture and Trust
Lack of trust is lack of culture. If the company has the right culture and personnel, you do not need rules. And if there is an employee who violates your trust, replace that employee.
Culture of Responsibility
The human side is always the difficult side. So, whenever I would build a company, I always started with the culture. The culture is right when everybody communicates well and trusts each other—and they own their problems. I call problems “monkeys.” When they own their monkeys they feed them, change their diapers and take care of them. But to get people to own their problems is very, very difficult.
In China, because of Mao Zedong, anybody—such as the intellectuals—who took any responsibility was at risk of being killed. Hence, an environment emerged in the country in which no one would take responsibility because they might die. So, starting a company in China with the goal of getting everyone to take responsibility—when they’ve been culturally trained not to take it—is a really tough problem. A lot of times employees would try to get me to make their decisions, to pass me their monkey. I would shock them: “You get paid at the end of the month right?” They’d agree, wondering what this had to do with their question. I’d say, “Well, you get paid by check at the end of the month, right?” They’d agree again. So, I’d say to them, “You’re asking me to take away your happiness.” They wouldn’t understand. I’d explain then, “Well, you know how good you feel when you open that envelope, see that check, and know you earned it. But if I make your decision today, when you open that envelope, I’ll steal all your happiness because you will know that I did your job for you. You received your paycheck, but I stole your happiness. Now, do you really want me to take your monkey and steal your happiness?”
Decisions, Stealing Them
Decisions need to be pushed down to lowest level possible. A poorly led company allows decisions to go up to the next management level. Eventually, the CEO winds up swamped and ineffective. In China, no one wants to take responsibility (authority) because if it goes wrong, they cannot handle blame and they lose “face”; it was tough to change the culture in Radica because of the patriarchal tradition they have had for centuries. All of the decisions go up to the top.
I would draw the pyramid to show the decision paths; then, I would ask, “Do we push the decisions up and have one brain working or should we push the decisions down and have 8,000 brains working?” Eventually, decisions were passed to everybody. Even the janitors had to plan the toilet paper supply and authorize the purchases. “Authority comes to those who steal it” the phrase came to me while at IGT. No one would take charge when the leader was away, so I did. I became the leader and later when reflecting on how I became the leader, this phrase was born. A well-run organization prospers when decisions are passed down the lowest level possible, get all the brains working.
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