A 67 year old owner and president of a Mattress Manufacturing Company is looking to hire a new “Son” to replace the one he had to “fire”. Wanted: an intelligent and experienced Sales Executive with the ability to manage, attract new talent and improve the performance of a debilitated couple of remaining sales people.
It all started 2 and a half years ago when this business owner thought his only son was finally ready to join in and learn the business after “His Boy” had finally graduated from an out-of -state big-ten university. As a student he just-got-by enough to remain eligible on the varsity football and track team. As a partier and ladies-man he was getting all “A’s”. He’d not had nearly as much enthusiasm for the prospect of taking an active role in “his Dad’s business” until over a year after graduation. He still did not have “a real job”; not counting the “re-stock clerk” he was paid minimal wage for at the local Walmart.
So, Dad, (Let’s name him, Bob) proud as always of his Son, Bruce’s sportsmanship and his ability attracting pretty women; “just like his dad, chip of the ol’ block”, gives him “the opportunity to start in at a good paying senior management level, as VP of Sales. Bob admits now that part of his motivation was that he was only paying Bruce “a little more per month than Bruce was already costing Bob in keeping him afloat”, (still living at home) during his, “never-ending, half-hearted” search for “a decent paying job”.
Without going into details unnecessarily, Bruce as VP of Sales is not not working out well at all. Sales are down under 50% of what they were in June of 2009, three of the five salespeople have quit or been fired by Bruce, two of whom are now working for a competitor, and Bob does not have the same glow of pride when discussing his son’s prospects. The two are not on speaking terms with each other, (at least not civil); each separately accusing the other of being “stubborn”, and “stupid”, among the only words that can be reported here.
The missing ingredients in the above situation was Objectivity, Planning, and Evaluation that often comes best from a neutral 3rd party perspective . Instead of recognizing the danger signs, and staying objective about the likelihood of Bruce’s failure, Bob operated with his totally biased, wishful, “proud of my boy” mentality. That blind, or at least blurred decision-making can be overlooked when they do not seriously effect the lives of others. In a business or any organization, those traits and the resultant behavior can be difficult or even impossible to recover from.
About Mark
