Page 127 - Executive Warfare

Rivals

defect in the jackets that caused them to explode, and it ended with a very
funny montage of entire landscapes going up in flames.
I used this video clip to begin my presentation Friday morning, and it
was a sensation. People gasped in shock that I’d been able to pull off some-
thing so pointed so quickly. And then they roared, particularly those sans
jackets.
That night, right from the meeting, I left for a long-scheduled trip to
Europe. When I got back 10 days later, my jacket video was still the talk of
the company. Harry was furious, furious, furious.And the chairman called
me into his office and just eviscerated me, interrupting, of course, every
few minutes to say, “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. But don’t
ever do anything like it again.”
Now, if my performance had been down and I hadn’t been making my
numbers, I’d have done my presentation as straight as an arrow. You can
only pull off a stunt like this if your own
house is in impeccable order.
But we were doing well, so I took a IF MY
risk. I knew that my video was not a fir- PERFORMANCE
ing offense, so I was willing to take what HAD BEEN DOWN
was clearly going to be a hit from my AND I HADN’T BEEN
superiors to make a point. I hadn’t MAKING MY
attacked Harry personally, but I did NUMBERS, I’D
point out a problem with his attitude HAVE DONE MY
toward the company as a whole, some- PRESENTATION AS
thing the big bosses should have done
STRAIGHT AS AN
much earlier. And I’d done it with some
ARROW. BUT WE
humor, which makes many an aggres-
WERE DOING WELL,
sive move more forgivable.
SO I TOOK A RISK.
Interestingly enough, not too long
afterward, this rival was no longer a
rival at all. Harry was sent to work for me. No problem. He was a very tal-
ented guy, and I was happy to have him on my team.

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