Page 213 - Executive Warfare

Position

Now, how people as witless as this can close a $100 million sale or
squeeze $25 million in donations out of old money is a mystery known
only to whatever god you believe in. But
in every arena, these people are the rock
stars. HUNTERS ARE
The intellectuals may sit around and ALWAYS GIVEN THE
say, “Well, that guy’s got 40 IQ points GREATEST RESPECT
less than I do. Here I am teaching AND THE WIDEST
nuclear physics, but he’s making $7 mil- POSSIBLE BERTH.
lion a year. There’s something wrong.” AFTER ALL, THEY
The answer is, there’s nothing wrong. ARE THE ONES
Society rewards what society rewards. WITH THE SHARP,
So what do you do if you’ve never POINTED SPEARS.
bagged a bear or two? What if you’re a
skinner or a diner?

STOP WHINING! GO HUNT!
It’s not impossible to rise to the top of an organization as a diner or a skin-
ner. Just unlikely.
If, for example, you are a very, very good financial analyst, that is how
you will be typecast. You may rise within your organization’s financial
function, but nobody will instantly think of you as the person who should
be running a large business.
That said,this is an era of highly complex financing and accounting—and
accounting scandals—so good skinners have come to command somewhat
more respect in recent years. They, too, can deliver gold. They’re just more
like alchemists than hunters.They figure out some tax loophole or investment
method to turn lead into gold. These days, you will occasionally see a CFO
promoted into the CEO’s job without a lot of operating experience.
But the diners? People who are diners have a much harder time because
they’re the spenders in organizational life. They’re spending money on

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