Page 239 - Executive Warfare

Culture

royalty, and when they grow too much attached to the loot handed out by
their leaders.
If you join such a cult, your career can be damaged terribly, even if you
yourself do nothing wrong. Even the people who had nothing to do with
the accounting fraud at Enron were tainted by the scandal, and many of
them had a very hard time finding work after the company collapsed.
Possibly more dangerous than a cult of personality is a culture that has
no values at all, except the bottom line. I call this a “loan shark” culture.
When I was a kid, my dad borrowed
from loan sharks. The interest was five
percent a week, and it had to be paid
THE REAL DANGER
every week. If the loan shark’s collector
IN WORKING FOR A
walked in, and my dad said, “Look, my
LOAN SHARK
kid was in the hospital this week. I can’t
CULTURE IS THAT
pay you until next week,” the collector
YOU START TO
would say, “I’m really sorry to hear
BELIEVE THIS IS
about your kid in the hospital. Pay me
HOW BUSINESS IS
my money.”
DONE.
No matter what anybody said, the
refrain was always the same:“Pay me my
money.”
At some organizations, this attitude is endemic.
If Mrs.Ashford hasn’t yet decided whether to donate her $100,000 to your
organization and needs a few more weeks of persuading on your part, your
bosses may not care. Make the numbers. If the regions you control failed to
sell enough because the retailers couldn’t get your product on the shelves,
your bosses may not care. Make the numbers, make them now, or else.
The real danger in working for a loan shark culture is not the danger
of having your legs broken if you don’t make your numbers. The real dan-
ger is that you start to believe this is how business is done. My advice is,
walk away from those kinds of bosses and those kinds of organizations as
quickly as possible.

219