Why Your Dictatorship Will Destroy Your Business

(for those who want to build sustainable companies) Say you're about to hire Chuck as the CEO of your company. You start thinking: <ul> <li>"This dude will become boss of everything."</li> <li>"We will rest on his laurels."</li> <li>"He will dictate the direction of our company."</li> </ul> The next thing you know: <ol> <li>He comes in with grand ideas.</li> <li>He starts messing with your culture.</li> <li>He starts revamping things that have taken years to build.</li> </ol> In short, he gradually destroys your business with his incompetence. <h2>Why Do Dictatorships Destroy Countries?</h2> <ul> <li>They're accountable to no one.</li> <li>They can do as they please.</li> <li>They're given supreme power to do what they believe is needed. </li> </ul> When that happens, you get a recipe for disaster. Think of the Merrill Lynch CEO dude who decked out his office using millions of shareholder $$$, probably thinking: <ul> <li>"I should give myself $X,XXX,XXX compensation."</li> <li>"That will make me happy and super comfortable."</li> <li>"Therefore, I will perform better for the business."</li> </ul> Given enough power, person X will rationalize their profitably-effed-up decisions for what they believe will make a better business; their biases corrode their decision-making, and ultimately hurt a company in the long-run. BOO. <h2>The Greatest Country in the World</h2> You know has made America sustainably the strong mother #@$@#% for the last few centuries? <ul> <li>a separation of powers (legislative, judicial, executive) </li> <li>no one $#@^ can mess up the country</li> <li>you don't rely on person X's competence, since the other two -- equal in power --  can override X's incompetent decision </li> </ul> That means if Johnny can't perform X -- but thinks he can perform X, but two others with equal power say: "Nuh uh. You think you know X, but you have no idea about X", that means Johnny's incompetent ideas are disqualified before they can destroy the organization. <h3>Checks-and-balances to the #$@!.</h3> A separation of powers consistently drives the best ideas to the top of the pack; sure you might have hiccups, but you ensure that the best ones rise freakishly-freshtastic much more than the bad ones. It's why Google, probably the most well-run organization in the world, has a triumvirate (Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt) that decides the direction of its company. <ul> <li>If Larry thinks Q is best, but Sergey and Eric think T is best -- then T wins</li> <li>No one person has supreme power</li> <li>The best ideas/decisions/stuff rise to the top </li> </ul> <h2>Consider. Triumvirate.</h2> If you have a company with just one person in charge, consider forming a triumvirate: <ul> <li>one person that's elected by your employees (ding! ding! power to the front-line!) </li> <li>one person that's elected by your senior execs </li> <li>one person that's elected by your: _________ </li> </ul> Then do this: <ul> <li>Give each an integral responsibility (e.g., CEO of products, CEO of strategy, etc.).</li> <li>Ensure each can check-and-balance the other, so that power is equally distributed across the board.</li> </ul> Accountability, sustainability, freakish-fantastic results. <h2>Separate powers.</h2> 2009-02-17T10:06:48-08:00 true 730 why-your-dictatorship-will-destroy-your-business

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2009-11-06T21:45:48-08:00