Number of words: 331

He had a great idea and a special talent. He was somewhat charismatic, and for years his sales figures kept climbing every month. His own family and his own community thought he was terrific. But he wasn’t paying attention to his own costs and he didn’t pay enough attention to the quality he was delivering to his customers. The day came when his sales growth stopped and it all came apart on him. 

Much the same as with people who ran Chrysler, he didn’t understand the problem and he certainly didn’t have the objectivity he needed to fix it. Had he been objective, had he designed his own set of accurate forecast measures to show how his company was doing, he might have avoided all the trouble in the first place. 

He had an ego problem and that is common when companies find themselves in trouble. Sometimes, the people in charge are so compelled by their own vision, their own experience, that they can’t see this problem.

To my mind, that puts him into what I would define as the three categories of captains of industry in hard times. First, there are the founders. It was literally their baby, their idea. They brought it to life and watched it thrive. But when trouble arrives, they really can’t get past the belief that all problems are caused by someone else. 

Second, there are the managers. They were there and maybe even created the mess, but they have a terrible time concentrating on the problem and its potential solutions. They had to spend most of their time justifying their actions and demonstrating that it wasn’t their fault. 

The third would be the paratroopers. These are the people who are dropped into a company. They have no previous baggage, but they know the industry and they can be objective. They just roll up their sleeves and go at it. 

Excerpted from Pg 163-164 of ‘Lessons from the heartland of American Business’ by Gerald Greenwald