Page 219 - Executive Warfare

Position

I’ve seen it happen a number of times: A hunter spends a year and a
half putting together a product. He has priced it, and he has run models
against it. The sales force is eagerly
anticipating it.
SKINNERS ARE
Yet, right before its final approval, a
PARTICULARLY
top-level skinner emerges out of the
DANGEROUS IN
shadows and starts to cast doubt on it.
THAT THEY HAVE
“Our models show that the profit lines
ALL THE NUMBERS
aren’t quite what you’re suggesting,”the
AT THEIR
skinner may say. She then sketches sce-
DISPOSAL.
narios that suggest that the hunter is not
looking at all the possibilities. Or that he
is being irresponsible. And it’s a way of
running him down.
There is only one way to fight back: You need to have the right allies.
Among your financial people, you must have somebody who can hit the
ball with the same velocity as the CFO of the company. Who can come
back instantly—certainly within a
day—to prove why the CFO’s models
are wrong.Your lawyer has to be as good
AMONG YOUR
the general counsel. Somebody on your
FINANCIAL PEOPLE,
staff had better be as sharp as the head
YOU MUST HAVE
of human resources.
SOMEBODY WHO
What you cannot afford to do, even
CAN HIT THE BALL
as a great hunter, is underestimate the
WITH THE SAME
passive-aggressive powers of the skin-
VELOCITY AS THE
ners and diners. They can stop you in
CFO OF THE
your tracks, particularly now that there
COMPANY.
is a post-Enron flight to safety on the
part of boards. Directors don’t want to
offer power to anybody who might embarrass the company or, heaven
forfend, bring down the regulators.

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