

Fire Your Relatives. Scare Your Employees. And Stop Whining.  - ojbyrne
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/business/smallbusiness/11sbiz.html

======
ewjordan
Sounds to me like this guy has created a fantastically shitty place to work,
and an equally shitty company to do business with. You can't get away with
abusive behavior towards employees and vendors and expect to keep the good
ones around - anyone that's worth the money has far too many options to put up
with cheapskate asshats like this. If you treat everyone like shit, don't act
surprised when only shitty people continue to work with you.

When a client starts dicking around with payments for work already provided
and doesn't have a really good reason (yes, occasionally things happen and
it's okay to be a little flexible if you're convinced it's on the level), my
rate for future work doubles, and if that means that projects go elsewhere, so
be it. Fighting over payments is possibly the most unpleasant aspect of
providing services to companies, and I'd generally rather pass up the work
than get into those fights.

Don't follow this guy's example - you're not important enough to afford to be
this abusive, and frankly, neither is he.

~~~
jackfoxy
Sounds like this guy's model is very similar to my first employer on my career
path, which I shall not name. This company's specialty was retaining "B" grade
talent and motivating them with fear. Oh, and screwing vendors too. The
company made the founder a household name and fabulously wealthy.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Oracle?

------
Travis
This article almost reads like a list of stuff NOT to do, in my opinion.

Of course, I am more of the "build something lasting, and of quality, and get
on with your life" school than the "money over everything I'm going to die
here at work" type.

I would not want to work for, with, against, near, or around this guy. He
advocates CHEATING his vendors, to force them to basically give you money.
Well, I suppose it would only be fair to not pay his company, right?

Anyone else have any feelings other than general disgust at the idea of
working with this guy?

~~~
aswanson
He's not only an asshole, but he wrote a _book_ about why everyone else should
be one. I don't even know if there's a name for someone who takes it to that
level.

~~~
Lazlo_Nibble
"Management Consultant".

~~~
pavs
Agreed!

Some of the biggest douche I have met in my life are Management Consultants.
Makes me wonder if being a douche is a prerequisite to Management Consultant
position.

------
jimbokun
About half way through, I was thinking I'd like to read a debate between him
and Tim Ferriss. Then:

"Q. What do you think of “The 4-Hour Workweek” [a best-selling book by Timothy
Ferriss]?

A. Oh, forget it. I haven’t even read it yet. I don’t want to die of
laughter."

Of course, this is also a man who:

"I semi-retired for about five years and that was probably something I won’t
do again. They’re going to carry me out of here in my shoes."

Meanwhile, Tim Ferriss is traveling the world, not thinking much about money,
learning languages, winning dance and fighting competitions, etc. If I were a
small business owner, Ferriss' end results would appeal to me much more.

This was also a classic exchange:

"Q. You say, “Love your business more than your family.” What does your wife
think of that?

...

Q. How many times have you been married?

A. This is my third marriage."

No comment necessary.

~~~
Herring
Why didn't he just end the interview right there?...

------
JacobAldridge
First, I have to acknowledge the points I agree with. You do have to love your
business, and you do have to have systems for tracking the correct financial
measurements (backwards and forwards).

But I have to wonder if, at some point before he drops dead in his office,
George will realise the connection between treating your vendors as interest-
free loans and staff as unlikeable, and _his_ experience that "Getting good
people is 100 times more difficult than conventional wisdom says".

~~~
jcmhn
IMO you've got to find the proper amount of indifference and micromanaging. If
you act the way the guy in the article says to act you will have a hard time
finding good people, and actually keeping good people will be impossible.

------
marcusbooster
I once worked for a guy who sounded like this. I can say he was absolutely
brilliant and I learned a tremendous amount from him.

And at the first opportunity to come along that was marginally better, I
jumped ship and took it.

------
coffeemug
I'm surprised how negative most of the comments here are. The guy's views are
a bit extreme, but in my experience there is a lot of truth to what he's
saying. In a perfect world you'll have brilliant, self-driven employees; you
can give them great conditions and direction, collect status reports once a
week, and everything will get done. In a real world this is nearly impossible
- most smart people are _not_ self-driven, if you give them good conditions
they'll sit around and browse the web all day. Think how much this applies to
most of us! Unless there is uncertainty and a reasonable degree of pressure,
most people won't perform well. Employees that are smart _and_ self-driven are
one in million, there aren't nearly enough of them for thousands of businesses
in America.

~~~
BRadmin
I concur.

I think _not_ wanting to implement this type of workplace for my small service
based company is exactly what's been keeping us from taking things to the next
level. For us, it's been worth it to have a relaxed work environment with
happy employees, but I'd be lying to myself if I didn't think it came at the
cost of some decreased profits. I also find myself questioning our motivations
for doing such -- is it just easier on us, as owners, to have a less stressed
workplace? Are we afraid of being disliked by employees? Are these good
reasons?

Anyways, the article does sound like a nightmare for any technical person,
where creative liberty and freedom to innovate aren't fostered while under
micromanagement. However most US businesses, despite HN's demographic, don't
fall into this category.

------
blahedo
This is insidious: whether intentionally or not, this guy is spouting stuff
that validates and reinforces the unfounded beliefs of many (going back many
centuries) that people who meet with success deserve it and people who are
dealt failure must have done something wrong. Anyone who wants to believe that
that's the case will latch onto this guy and say, "see? SEE?"

Unhelpful. Inevitable, probably, but unhelpful.

------
makmanalp
> One guy that worked for me for 10 years wrote, “If I fell dead at my desk,
> George wouldn’t notice for two days.”

This isn't good management. This is neglect. As manager, you should be on top
of everything.

~~~
robryan
At the same time though he says that he is obsessively monitoring every aspect
of the business.

------
calebgilbert
His tough guy stance moved from being somewhat intriguing to laughable once I
got to his comments about family and the subsequent admission of being married
three times. The guy is not without his points, but he's definitely
overstepped himself I think.

------
d4rt
His rules for supplier credit fail the basic rule of reciprocity, unless he
also extends 45 days credit to his customers, which I doubt.

~~~
barrkel
It's also a zero-sum game, where the most interest-free credit accrues to
those in the best negotiating position.

------
_delirium
I don't think most small-business owners are really like this, fortunately.
It'd be a pretty sad world if it were really true that "profits aren't
everything, they're the only thing".

------
gte910h
Sounds like a dick who thinks being hard means he'll succeed.

------
Tichy
"You have to work on stretching your payables because every dollar you get in
extended payables is an interest-free loan"

Wouldn't it be better to simply ask for more money up front, rather than
creating a shitty relationship by trying to stealthily extract more money
through interest? I think trust between business partners is worth a lot, and
not paying bills on time is not good for building trust.

------
noonespecial
I love how this <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1116881> is also on the
front page just a few entries up.

I imagine that these two men are so diametrically opposed that if they ever
came into direct contact with each other, they'd instantaneously cease to
exist!

------
julius_geezer
If this is the American Management Services I remember from years ago, they
were a standard DC-area government contractor. Having once worked for one
such, I have to think that running AMS is not quite the same thing as running
a company that produces something other than billable hours.

------
holdenc
This advice probably works just fine for a chain of fast food restaurants, or
discount clothing stores, but not a business where good people are required.
Judging by his website, he's already scared away good graphic design help.

------
coryl
He's just trying to drum up sales for his book. Most people are smart enough
to know better than to take his advice to heart.

~~~
petercooper
Didn't happen with Tim Ferriss. People will get caught each time :-)

------
teeja
I hear this guy is in the short list for the Ebenezer Scrooge award.

~~~
sfriedrich
And the ghosts of beloved wives, children and colleagues DON'T come to visit
and warn him. No one loves him and no one ever will. He loves only his money,
with which he will be buried. He thinks Scrooge was just weak.

------
madair
In war it's called a _scorched earth_ policy.

------
cookiecaper
This guy is totally sad and horrible.

The first half of the article is mostly OK advice out of the guy -- it was the
reporter who made the outrageous summaries like "cheat your vendors", and the
"micromanagement" part didn't seem micromanagey as much as it seemed to mean
"stay informed" -- but the end is just terrible. Loving work more than family
is seriously one of the worst ideas ever.

Man has no children, third wife, is old and will work until he dies. What kind
of life is that? This article is very sad, and I hope everyone immediately
recognizes its cruelty and myopy and disregards it.

------
Daniel_Newby
Kudos to interviewer Kermit Pattison for letting this penny ante Gordon Gekko
speak so clearly in his own words.

This is actually a good lesson in marketing. Everything he says recasts the
situation in terms of a problem that management consulting can fix with simple
solutions.

 _It's not the recession, it's poor salesmanship._ A problem that can be
solved by a consultant. A massive pan-industry collapse in sales, inventory,
credit, and utilization could not be fixed by three ring binders and training
classes.

 _Lack of vendor financing._ A problem that can be solved by a consultant
tightening the screws, backed up by a long list of companies that were helped.
This is survivor bias. The successes are selected for companies whose vendors
are idiotic enough to finance their customers AND lucky enough to survive the
folly. It also relies on the presence of other parties who are willing to buy
mis-rated bonds and do factoring (loaning against small business receivables).
Both of these are being choked off, and may well come to an apocalyptic end as
the financial collapse continues. Whereupon all his "saved" clients will blow
up.

 _"Getting good people is 100 times more difficult than conventional wisdom
says. The fact is, you’re going to deal with a lot of mediocre people, no
matter how hard you try."_ In other words, your employees are sabotaging your
company, because all employees do this. The only solution is new management
policies.

 _Fear is the best motivator._ Soliders have a word for leaders like this.
Fragged.

~~~
carbocation
Wow - thank you. Before your post, I had never seen the term 'fragged' outside
of the context of video games. Its original meaning that you've alluded to is
far more interesting.

------
sabat
Stop whining? When this guy stops posturing.

