Page 162 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

What they really want, in any case, is for you to go away. But mere
resentment may boil over into rage if you pretend to understand in a few
weeks what they have spent half a lifetime learning.
My advice is, don’t insult the experts. Get some outside help instead.
Hire a consultant you trust who can help you understand whether your
people are doing the right thing. Don’t hit them over the head with the
consultant, either. Use her discreetly, just to keep yourself informed of
potential problems.
And then listen really, really carefully to your people. Defer to their
expertise whenever you can. Instead of questioning them on the finer
points of their business, probe the fundamentals. Ask the kinds of ques-
tions that can be posed in layman’s terms: Is this going to work? Why are
you so confident? What happens if it doesn’t?
When I took over the investment areas at John Hancock, some of the
investment people had zero respect for the experience I brought to the
job—or even the fact that I had helped to win the many billions of dol-
lars in insurance premiums and assets under management that they now
invested. Some of them were under the impression that every day some-
body came from Vermont with a big truck and dumped money for them
on the loading dock. That was the extent of their interest in the revenue-
generating side of our business.
The investment people’s sole objec-
MERE RESENTMENT tive was to earn the company money by
MAY BOIL OVER putting those revenues out at the high-
INTO RAGE IF YOU est rates of return. They were even com-
PRETEND TO pensated differently than the rest of the
UNDERSTAND IN A company, on the degree to which they
FEW WEEKS WHAT beat the average returns other compa-
THEY HAVE SPENT nies experienced on similar invest-
HALF A LIFETIME ments. In other words, if they took on
LEARNING. riskier investments that paid better,
their paychecks rose.

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