Some time ago, I had the distinct pleasure of heading the finest salesforce ever developed in a particular segment of the equipment financing industry.
Some of the most important keys to our overall business success was the open structure of our management approach wherein we applied common sense to decision-making, chose productivity over protocol, and built the finest state-of-the art, automation driven, internal processing capability our industry segment had ever seen.
Our business approach, coupled with the capabilities of our young, aggressive, extremely talented, always learning employees permitted and fostered incredibly rapid business growth.
As we grew, our profile was such that we drew the attention of one of the largest businesses in the nation, who at the time was attempting to build a diversified financial resource of their own. And as it turned out, for our particular specialization segment, it made more sense to them that instead of building their own operation, to simply write a check and buy us.
I mention this because, while reading about the health care tax “glitches,” I recall a district manger calling me one morning after we were purchased. She was in a town in the Midwest, and told me about a tradeshow she’d been invited to the next afternoon for which she needed promotional material, supplies and some assistance. The fact that I was the senior officer responsible for our entire sales organization never occurred to her. She needed help, she picked up the phone and called Mike.
I packed up a supply of needed materials and decided to print up some show-special promotional offerings, but having no time for professional preparation, I had some one-page sheets laid out and photocopied, zipped off to the airport and took off for my destination.
A few weeks later a troop of guys, looking like Fed’s, walked into my office and told me that they needed to meet with me immediately. It was more than urgent, regardless of what I was presently doing.
In a closed door conference room they began to grill me about my recent trade show activities. To which I replied that I had absolutely no idea of what they were babbling about. That’s when one of them slid one of my hastily made trade-show fliers across the table as if I’d shot the parent corporation’s chairman, to tell me that the crime I’d committed was unauthorized use of the company logo, which required legal department approval, that I had failed to comply with.
Having no excuse, no alibi, no knowledge of the requirement and even more important, no interest in addressing the matter any further, I got up from my chair, and left the room, only stopping momentarily to suggest a good place where each of them might roll up and stick a trade-show flyer.
So, here we have a tiny example of how a bloated behemoth with far too many worthless employees having far too much time on their hands can take a streamlined, ultra-efficient operation and bleed it to death like leeches applying no intellect whatsoever. In all, it took them just four years to kill our business and sell it for peanuts.
And what’s even more pitiful is that the major corporation in this scenario is still today a growing concern in its core industry, despite its bloat and self-inflicted barriers to even greater accomplishment. However, if this is how major corporate America works in the free economy, its beyond comprehension as to what government bureaucracy will do to the health care system.
That’s it for today folks.
Adios
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