issue 1 - Roland Berger

Commentary DOSSIER #01
Seven surefire ways
to run your company
into the ground
REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU RUN AN INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE GROUP OR
A MOM-AND-POP STORE: WIRTSCHAFTSWOCHE AUTHOR FRIEDRICH THELEN HAS
DISCOVERED RULES OF FAILURE APPLICABLE TO ALL ENTERPRISES.
RULE 1: GET THE WHOLE FAMILY INVOLVED!
If you are a family business, do what Napoleon did.
The emperor placed blood relatives on thrones in
countries he had conquered throughout Europe.
Your Napoleon-like conviction that those family ties
in high places will last forever will surely let you
outsmart all well-intentioned non-family advisors.
The historic outcome is well known, as well as the
demise of many family-run companies—which did
not get to retire on St. Helena, however.
RULE 2: BELIEVE IN PROPAGANDA!
Allow your confidence to be shaken by the success
stories of your competition. After all, they are also
active in the same market as you are. Experts
working for your rivals would never spread
untruths, now would they? All you need to do is
invest in these “guaranteed success” technologies.
Better yet, go right to your finance director and ask
about the next line of credit or capital increase; just
don’t worry anymore about the
likelihood of your new business
ideas being implemented. The situation
gets even clearer when
one of your competitors runs into
difficulties. All you have to do
now is hold on to his shirttails. There’s no faster
way to fail than by perfectly duplicating someone
else’s mistake.
RULE 3: STOKE THE COMPETITION!
The end is in sight when all of your employees are
more focused on polishing their own spotlights and
dimming those of supervisors and colleagues than
enhancing the competitiveness and profitability
of your business. So just add a little more gasoline
to the fire in order to really heat up internal power
»Consistently avoid
the boring meetings
with financial experts
and controllers.«
struggles. In-house battles between colleagues
won’t increase your company’s operating results,
but will give you a head start on achieving disaster
quicker. And whenever you learn about a senior
manager hoarding knowledge as a weapon, reward
that person. This manager has what it takes to
pound another nail into your corporate coffin.
RULE 4: BLOW OFF ANALYSES!
What good are statistics, reports or even centralized
data exchanges? Don’t slow yourself down
with reporting that would only highlight the weaknesses
of your company and consistently avoid
the boring meetings with financial experts and
accountants. This will keep your head free for big
goals and will ensure that you drown much faster in
red ink than you had ever hoped possible.
RULE 5: TRUST YOUR FEELINGS!
Success is the result of gut feeling. Therefore blindly
trust your instincts and don’t
let so-called experts tell you
otherwise. Avoid all contact to
your in the know people and
don’t obtain advice from external
sources. You’ll be saving
irritation and money, and be assured to keep
repeating the tried-and-true mistakes.
RULE 6: GET IN OVER YOUR HEAD!
Ensuring business success requires that you not
shy away from any effort. Initiate as many projects
at the same time as possible and forgo any quantitative
goal-setting methods. Customize all projects
according to your taste, stick your nose into everything
and use nightly phone calls to put your team
into a state of constant stress. This way you ensure
FRIEDRICH THELEN, 63, heads the office
of Wirtschaftswoche, the most successful German
business magazine, in the country’s capital Berlin.
A former guest fellow at the John F. Kennedy
School for Government at Harvard University, the
journalist with a doctorate in law is a much sought
after and popular TV commentator and author on
economic and sociopolitical matters.
that the entire company admires your dedication,
that your projects die on your desk and no room for
important tasks remains. A lack of capacity and a
very noticeable deficit in expertise are sure signs of
coming bankruptcy, especially in times of extreme
expansion measures.
RULE 7: PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET!
Relying on just one major customer is indeed
tempting—and for good reason. Why in the world
should you bother to go the extra mile looking for
suitable customers out of hundreds of companies,
when your earnings are already pouring in? Why
bother driving yourself crazy meeting the piddling
requirements of small-account customers, when
the prize hen already resides in your coop? Don’t
listen to the worrywarts undoubtedly present on
your board of directors. They will want to persuade
you that the prize hen too will eventually fall off its
perch, due to old age.