“We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong”. Bill Vaughan
I love reading the sports pages – well, to be accurate the sports web pages. Reading about the trauma and drama of players, teams, coaches, fans and owners offers a great microcosm into life in general and business specifically. When you watch these ultra wealthy pro franchise owners, who became wealthy by being successful business people, make some of the most lame-brain decisions and do things they would NEVER do with their companies its great entertainment in a head scratching way.
What I’ve been watching recently involves the ongoing saga of my alma mater Indiana University. I’ve written some past blogs on some of it and it appears to be about to come to a sad close and maybe, just maybe, they can get back on the road to not being embarrassing again.
The final chapter in this mess involves the resignation of Rick Greenspan the Athletic Director. Under Greenspan the University hired and subsequently fired a known rules violator in Kelvin Sampson. Because he repeated his bad behavior IU is being penalized. Because no one monitored Sampson’s behavior Greenspan has been forced to resign. The big debate is did the former IU President force Greenspan to hire Sampson. Rumor suggests this to be the case. That President, however, is gone and not talking. So was Greenspan the fall guy?
Many moons ago I got my first promotion to “Vice President”. The title came with a relo to a new region with lots of problems. The new General Manager recruited me to come in and “fix things”. What I learned was that his idea of fixing was essentially getting rid of the entire existing management team. This became my duty. Greg Strouse, Ax Man. He ID’d them, I whacked them. I thought some of them were pretty decent employees and certainly had a ton of experience. But, I was told to whack, so I whacked. Once all the cleansing was done and new people hired the performance of the place went even deeper into the hole. Too many new people and morale was terrible. I was unceremoniously fired. After all, everyone hated me and blamed me for the problems.
Now my story has a happy ending that I’ll tell you someday but here’s what I learned.
If you are an executive level performer with a large budget, lots of employees and the responsibility of running a successful operation it is your duty to assess the entire landscape and if need be go to battle with your boss on the proper path. You may lose. Actually, you’ll probably lose. But personal accountability and professional honor should win out.
Read the sports pages, see how it’s usually done these days in the world of sports…and do the opposite.
I love reading the sports pages – well, to be accurate the sports web pages. Reading about the trauma and drama of players, teams, coaches, fans and owners offers a great microcosm into life in general and business specifically. When you watch these ultra wealthy pro franchise owners, who became wealthy by being successful business people, make some of the most lame-brain decisions and do things they would NEVER do with their companies its great entertainment in a head scratching way.
What I’ve been watching recently involves the ongoing saga of my alma mater Indiana University. I’ve written some past blogs on some of it and it appears to be about to come to a sad close and maybe, just maybe, they can get back on the road to not being embarrassing again.
The final chapter in this mess involves the resignation of Rick Greenspan the Athletic Director. Under Greenspan the University hired and subsequently fired a known rules violator in Kelvin Sampson. Because he repeated his bad behavior IU is being penalized. Because no one monitored Sampson’s behavior Greenspan has been forced to resign. The big debate is did the former IU President force Greenspan to hire Sampson. Rumor suggests this to be the case. That President, however, is gone and not talking. So was Greenspan the fall guy?
Many moons ago I got my first promotion to “Vice President”. The title came with a relo to a new region with lots of problems. The new General Manager recruited me to come in and “fix things”. What I learned was that his idea of fixing was essentially getting rid of the entire existing management team. This became my duty. Greg Strouse, Ax Man. He ID’d them, I whacked them. I thought some of them were pretty decent employees and certainly had a ton of experience. But, I was told to whack, so I whacked. Once all the cleansing was done and new people hired the performance of the place went even deeper into the hole. Too many new people and morale was terrible. I was unceremoniously fired. After all, everyone hated me and blamed me for the problems.
Now my story has a happy ending that I’ll tell you someday but here’s what I learned.
If you are an executive level performer with a large budget, lots of employees and the responsibility of running a successful operation it is your duty to assess the entire landscape and if need be go to battle with your boss on the proper path. You may lose. Actually, you’ll probably lose. But personal accountability and professional honor should win out.
Read the sports pages, see how it’s usually done these days in the world of sports…and do the opposite.
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