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I don´t know if it is just me, or maybe the industry I am in, or perhaps the type of company that would hire someone like me in the first place, but small businesses, especially cabinet companies, seem to be awash in the most abysmal management methods imaginable. I realize that to be a business owner, one may at times perceive him or herself as better, smarter or more ingenious than anyone else doing their particular shtick – in fact some would believe this is an indispensable element in success – but these fools seem to be simply pompous, arrogant capitalist sweat mongers.
I have recently terminated yet another redundant engagement with one such bipedal and myopic risk taking association which, in addition to the new cabinet company foray, owns a conglomeration of small penal colony-like businesses around the southeast. They had been conned into injecting themselves into the business by a scoundrel whom they eventually had to fire for mismanagement of company assets, and who they did not really even know in the first place. These poor people were talked into buying a cabinet business (in the last months of 2007 – think about THAT one) by purchasing the repossessed equipment of yet another dead company whom the scoundrel had worked for just prior to it´s demise.
This corporation, an LLC of course, did not even bother to check the references of this person before "investing" three million dollars into a business they knew nothing about and placing it under the control of a person whom they did not personally know, nor even bother to have investigated by anything even as simple as a couple of phone calls to others in the business.
When I interviewed, I was desperate and over fifty, so I did not turn and walk out when I heard that the equipment had been moved to its new location and had not been set up by competent factory personnel. That was my first mistake.
I could see the pattern unfolding before my very eyes.
There seem to be two main types of personality in this business. One is the "surround yourself with good people" pharaoh type and the other is the inept micromanager. Though there are undoubtedly more types in the business owner continuum, the standard curve seems to be inverted, with the frequency of these types occupying the two ends of the spectrum and accounting for the main population density.
Type one looks good, for a while. Then the hopelessness of the situation presents itself like the feeling you get when you have taken a short cut and realize that you are undeniably and embarrassingly lost. You suddenly realize that the ´surrounding´ part is fine, but that the ´good people´ part is ambiguous at best. Then to your horror, you realize that you are one of those bricks in the king´s wall!
Type two is immediately repulsive and unless you can swallow your pride and see that this is only another journey into the arrogant dreams of a business psychopath, you begin to speak truth to this person and attempt to ensure your unemployment benefits as soon as possible.
Both types are prevalent here in the south and particularly in the cabinet business. I wonder if they are as rife in the north and west as they are here. Or if in foreign lands they pervade the business world as they do around here. I also venture to say that in consideration of these types and mentalities, there is little doubt for the reason that our economy and world in general is in the condition it is today.
Years ago, there were calendars that featured chimpanzees dressed in business suits or nurses uniforms, maybe wearing top hats and tuxes, placed into the most hilarious poses in the most mundane vignettes. I wonder now if these were not prophetic images, snapped somehow capturing the future of American Business.
But if they are not, then by all means, bring in the chimps!
I have recently terminated yet another redundant engagement with one such bipedal and myopic risk taking association which, in addition to the new cabinet company foray, owns a conglomeration of small penal colony-like businesses around the southeast. They had been conned into injecting themselves into the business by a scoundrel whom they eventually had to fire for mismanagement of company assets, and who they did not really even know in the first place. These poor people were talked into buying a cabinet business (in the last months of 2007 – think about THAT one) by purchasing the repossessed equipment of yet another dead company whom the scoundrel had worked for just prior to it´s demise.
This corporation, an LLC of course, did not even bother to check the references of this person before "investing" three million dollars into a business they knew nothing about and placing it under the control of a person whom they did not personally know, nor even bother to have investigated by anything even as simple as a couple of phone calls to others in the business.
When I interviewed, I was desperate and over fifty, so I did not turn and walk out when I heard that the equipment had been moved to its new location and had not been set up by competent factory personnel. That was my first mistake.
I could see the pattern unfolding before my very eyes.
There seem to be two main types of personality in this business. One is the "surround yourself with good people" pharaoh type and the other is the inept micromanager. Though there are undoubtedly more types in the business owner continuum, the standard curve seems to be inverted, with the frequency of these types occupying the two ends of the spectrum and accounting for the main population density.
Type one looks good, for a while. Then the hopelessness of the situation presents itself like the feeling you get when you have taken a short cut and realize that you are undeniably and embarrassingly lost. You suddenly realize that the ´surrounding´ part is fine, but that the ´good people´ part is ambiguous at best. Then to your horror, you realize that you are one of those bricks in the king´s wall!
Type two is immediately repulsive and unless you can swallow your pride and see that this is only another journey into the arrogant dreams of a business psychopath, you begin to speak truth to this person and attempt to ensure your unemployment benefits as soon as possible.
Both types are prevalent here in the south and particularly in the cabinet business. I wonder if they are as rife in the north and west as they are here. Or if in foreign lands they pervade the business world as they do around here. I also venture to say that in consideration of these types and mentalities, there is little doubt for the reason that our economy and world in general is in the condition it is today.
Years ago, there were calendars that featured chimpanzees dressed in business suits or nurses uniforms, maybe wearing top hats and tuxes, placed into the most hilarious poses in the most mundane vignettes. I wonder now if these were not prophetic images, snapped somehow capturing the future of American Business.
But if they are not, then by all means, bring in the chimps!
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