Page 81 - Executive Warfare

Bosses

Your boss’s future is just as uncertain.
When I worked at Control Data years ago, we had two major divisions.
One sold computer time-shares that would allow companies that didn’t
want to invest in their own mainframe
to use a satellite computer instead. This
business was doing fantastically well, the UNLESS YOU HAVE
most profitable business in the com- AN EXCEPTIONALLY
pany. GOOD
The other division sold something RELATIONSHIP
less glamorous—data-processing serv- WITH THE
ices for payrolls and general accounting. MONARCHY, YOU’D
This business was merely trundling BETTER ASSUME
along. A guy named Bob ran it. When THAT WHATEVER
we had our monthly staff meeting, Bob YOU SAY WILL GET
would come with his charts and show BACK TO THE BOSS.
all his numbers. He was struggling, his
expenses were high, but there was noth-
ing arrogant about him. He just kept pushing the business along.
Running the time-sharing, on the other hand, was a guy named
Mickey, an unpleasant guy with a Marine’s haircut. He was really just
riding a trend but was so arrogant that you’d think he’d built this suc-
cess out of sheer genius. He’d come to the monthly staff meeting, and
when his turn to present came around, he would just pull a little scrap
of paper out of his pocket and drawl,“Yeah, sales were up 28 percent this
month.”
The president never said to him, “I want to see charts from you like I
see from everybody else.” He just waited. He waited until it was time for
a change and the brass ring was on the table. Then he gave it to somebody
else—to Bob, who was now Mickey’s boss.
There were many astonished people in that organization, namely a
whole army of fraternity types who’d tied their careers to Mickey because
his numbers were so outstanding. They’d spent 10 years following him,

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