
The Taming of the Crew (Worker Management at Lucky Dogs) (1999) - peter_d_sherman
https://www.inc.com/magazine/19990801/830.html
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peter_d_sherman
Excerpts:

"But Strahan demands virtually nothing from his employees, which is why he has
survived 28 years in a position Job would have quit on the second day. As
general manager for the approximately _$3-million hot-dog-vending company_ ,
Strahan rides herd on a workforce lousy with drifters, alcoholics,
insubordinates, petty thieves, not-so-petty thieves, brawlers, and the
occasional psychopath. To tat a profitable enterprise from these loosest of
loose threads, he has learned to be endlessly patient, flexible to the point
of fluidity, and content to take his victories where he finds them."

[...]

"But at Lucky Dogs rules are made to be broken, not to mention laughed at,
ignored, or simply not understood. "We make a set of rules and they're good
for about 10 minutes," says Strahan. "You have to set rules, you have to semi-
enforce them, you have to be very forgiving when they're not followed;
otherwise you don't have carts out. You can't eliminate the madness. Sometimes
you can control it."

[...]

"Between calls, Strahan tries to explain the strange mathematics by which--
even though staff appear and disappear without warning and no one can predict
who will show up on any given day--there are always enough bodies to keep hot
dogs flying off the company's 22 carts. "The key to being successful in this
type of transient business is to have enough dependable people who know how to
do enough different things so that there's always someone in control..."

[...]

Replacing people is made easier by the fact that there's not much to learn: in
many ways the 52-year-old Lucky Dogs is still a 1940s business. Vendors need
no skills beyond making change; managers must be able to set up carts and
count the day's takings. Technology presents no learning curve because, aside
from the PCs that Strahan and owner Talbot use, _there is no technology_.

[...]

Three out of five is dandy by Strahan, who dismisses the traditional code of
business behavior as impractical for Lucky Dogs. "Most companies will say, 'If
you don't show up for work, you're fired. If you show up for work drunk,
you're fired," says Strahan. "Here, if you show up for work drunk, at least
I've got to give you a C minus because you showed up."

[...]

"With pickings so meager, Strahan doesn't turn away many applicants. Anyone
who is clean, reasonably personable, can make change, and has an ID--even the
occasional prison ID is OK--gets a cart. The general manager doesn't check
references, although for years he gave the names of all applicants to the FBI,
which wanted to keep track of who was drifting in and out of the Quarter.
("The good thing was that it showed me we weren't having major problems. That
was refreshing," Strahan says.) And even after 28 years of almost nonstop
hiring, Strahan doesn't claim extraordinary prescience about who will or won't
work out. "I've seen guys that I thought would steal the money by 8 p.m.
who've stayed here for years," he says. "I've seen guys I thought would stay
here for years take the money by 8 p.m." His only rule of thumb: Don't trust
the applicant who tries to sell himself. "Many times guys will come in here
and they'll say, 'I'm looking for permanent work," says Strahan. "They're gone
in two or three days. They said that just to impress me. So give me the guy
who says, 'I'm only going to be here for a day or two,' because at least he's
telling the truth."

[...]

"Strahan describes his approach as a "fluid type of management, person by
person, instant by instant."

[...]

"For all that Lucky Dogs' vendors are unreliable, volatile, occasionally
dishonest, and sometimes violent--they are not bad salespeople. Otherwise the
company wouldn't be profitable, as it has been almost every year since Talbot
bought it."

