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All the Wrong MovesONE day when the sun had come back over the Forest, bringing with it the scent of may, and all the streams of the Forest were tinkling happily to find themselves their own pretty shape again, and the little pools lay dreaming of the life they had seen and the big things they had done, and in the warmth and quiet of the Forest the cuckoo was trying over his voice carefully and listening to see if he liked it, and wood-pigeons were complaining gently to themselves in their lazy comfortable way that it was the other fellow's fault, but it didn't matter very much; on such a day as this Christopher Robin whistled in a special way he had, and Owl came flying out of the Hundred Acre Wood to see what was wanted. “Owl,” said Christopher Robin, “I am going to give a party.” “You are, are you?” said Owl. “And it's to be a special sort of party, because it's because of what Pooh did when he did what he did to save Piglet from the flood.” “Oh, that's what it's for, is it?” said Owl. “Yes, so will you tell Pooh as quickly as you can, and all the others, because it will be to-morrow?” “Oh, it will, will it?” said Owl, still being as helpful as possible. “So will you go and tell them, Owl?” Owl tried to think of something very wise to say, but couldn't, so he flew off to tell the others. And the first person he told was Pooh. “Pooh,” he said, “Christopher Robin is giving a party.” “Oh!” said Pooh And then seeing that Owl expected him to say something else, he said, “Will there be those little cake things with pink sugar icing?” Owl felt that it was rather beneath him to talk about little cake things with pink sugar icing, so he told Pooh exactly what Christopher Robin had said, and flew off to Eeyore. “Party for Me?” thought Pooh to himself. “How grand!” And he began to wonder if all the other animals would know that it was a special Pooh Party, and if Christopher Robin had told them about The Floating Bear and the Brain of Pooh, and all the wonderful ships he had invented and sailed on, and he began to think how awful it would be if everybody had forgotten about it, and nobody quite knew what the party was for; and the more he thought like this, the more the party got muddled in his mind, like a dream when nothing goes right. And the dream began to sing itself over in his head until it became a sort of song. It was an ANXIOUS POOH SONG.
3 Cheers for Pooh (For Who?) For Pooh— (Why what did he do?) I thought you knew; He saved his friend from a wetting! 3 Cheers for Bear! (For where?) For Bear— He couldn't swim, But he rescued him! (He rescued who?) Oh, listen, do! I am talking of Pooh? (Of who?) Of Pooh! (I'm sorry I keep forgetting). Well. Pooh was a Bear of Enormous Brain— (Just say it again!) Of enormous brain— (Of enormous what?) Well, he ate a lot, And I don't know if he could swim or not, But he managed to float On a sort of boat (On a sort of what?) Well, a sort of pot— So now let's give him three hearty cheers (So now let's give him three hearty whitches?) And hope he'll be with us for years and years, And grow in health and wisdom and riches! 3 Cheers for Pooh! (For who?) For Pooh— 3 Cheers for Bear (For where?) For Bear— 3 Cheers for the wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh! (Just tell me, somebody—WHAT DID HE DO?)
While this was going on inside him, Owl was talking to Eeyore. “Eeyore,” said Owl, “Christopher Robin is giving a party.” “Very interesting,” said Eeyore. “I suppose they will be sending me down the odd bits which got trodden on. Kind and Thoughtful. Not at all, don't mention it.” “There is an Invitation for you.” “What's that like?” “An Invitation!” “Yes, I heard you. Who dropped it?” “This isn't anything to eat, it's asking you to the party. To-morrow.” Eeyore shook his head slowly. “You mean Piglet. The little fellow with the exited ears. That's Piglet. I'll tell him.” “No, no!” said Owl, getting quite fussy. “It's you!” “Are you sure?” “Of course I'm sure. Christopher Robin said 'All of them! Tell all of them. '” “All of them, except Eeyore?” “All of them,” said Owl sulkily. “Ah!” said Eeyore. “A mistake, no doubt, but still, I shall come. Only don't blame me if it rains.” But it didn't rain. Christopher Robin had made a long table out of some long pieces of wood, and they all sat round it. Christopher Robin sat at one end, and Pooh sat at the other, and between them on one side were Owl and Eeyore and Piglet, and between them on the other side were Rabbit, and Roo and Kanga. And all Rabbit's friends and relations spread themselves about on the grass, and waited hopefully in case anybody spoke to them, or dropped anything, or asked them the time. It was the first party to which Roo had ever been, and he was very excited. As soon as ever they had sat down he began to talk. “Hallo, Pooh!” he squeaked. “Hallo, Roo!” said Pooh. Roo jumped up and down in his seat for a little while and then began again. “Hallo, Piglet!” he squeaked. Piglet waved a paw at him, being too busy to say anything. “Hallo, Eeyore!” said Roo. Eeyore nodded gloomily at him. “It will rain soon, you see if it doesn't,” he said. Roo looked to see if it didn't, and it didn't, so he said “Hallo, Owl!”—and Owl said “Hallo, my little fellow,” in a kindly way, and went on telling Christopher Robin about an accident which had nearly happened to a friend of his whom Christopher Robin didn't know, and Kanga said to Roo, “Drink up your milk first, dear, and talk afterwards.” So Roo, who was drinking his milk, tried to say that he could do both at once... and had to be patted on the back and dried for quite a long time afterwards. When they had all nearly eaten enough, Christopher Robin banged on the table with his spoon, and everybody stopped talking and was very silent, except Roo who was just finishing a loud attack of hiccups and trying to look as if it was one of Rabbit's relations. “This party,” said Christopher Robin, “is a party because of what someone did, and we all know who it was, and it's his party, because of what he did, and I've got a present for him and here it is.” Then he felt about a little and whispered, “Where is it?” While he was looking, Eeyore coughed in an impressive way and began to speak. “Friends,” he said, “including oddments, it is a great pleasure, or perhaps I had better say it has been a pleasure so far, to see you at my party. What I did was nothing. Any of you-except Rabbit and Owl and Kanga—would have done the same. Oh, and Pooh. My remarks do not, of course, apply to Piglet and Roo, because they are too small. Any of you would have done the same. But it just happened to be Me. It was not, I need hardly say, with an idea of getting what Christopher Robin is looking for now”—and he put his front leg to his mouth and said in a loud whisper, “Try under the table”—“that I did what I did—but because I feel that we should all do what we can to help. I feel that we should all—” “H—hup!” said Roo accidentally. “Roo, dear!” said Kanga reproachfully. “Was it me?” asked Roo, a little surprised. “What's Eeyore talking about?” Piglet whispered to Pooh. “I don't know,” said Pooh rather dolefully. “I thought this was your party.” “I thought it was once. But I suppose it isn't.” “I'd sooner it was yours than Eeyore's,” said Piglet. “So would I,” said Pooh. “H—hup!” said Roo again. “AS—I—WAS—SAYING,” said Eeyore loudly and sternly, “as I was saying when I was interrupted by various Loud Sounds, I feel that—” “Here it is!” cried Christopher Robin excitedly. “Pass it down to silly old Pooh. It's for Pooh.” “For Pooh?” said Eeyore. “Of course it is. The best bear in all the world.” “I might have known,” said Eeyore. “After all, one can't complain. I have my friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. And was it last week or the week before that Rabbit bumped into me and said 'Bother!' The Social Round. Always something going on.”
Nobody was listening, for they were all saying, “Open it, Pooh,” “What is it, Pooh?” “I know what it is,” “No, you don't,” and other helpful remarks of this sort. And of course Pooh was opening it as quickly as ever he could, but without cutting the string, because you never know when a bit of string might be Useful. At last it was undone. When Pooh saw what it was, he nearly fell down, he was so pleased. It was a Special Pencil Case. There were pencils in it marked “B” for Bear, and pencils marked “HB “ for Helping Bear, and pencils marked “BB” for Brave Bear. There was a knife for sharpening the pencils, and indiarubber for rubbing out anything which you had spelt wrong, and a ruler for ruling lines for the words to walk on, and inches marked on the ruler in case you wanted to know how many inches anything was, and Blue Pencils and Red Pencils and Green Pencils for saying special things in blue and red and green. And all these lovely things were in little pockets of their own in a Special Case which shut with a click when you clicked it. And they were all for Pooh. “Oh!” said Pooh. “Oh, Pooh!” said everybody else except Eeyore. “Thank-you,” growled Pooh. But Eeyore was saying to himself, “This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated, if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it.” Later on, when they had all said “Good-bye” and “Thank-you” to Christopher Robin, Pooh and Piglet walked home thoughtfully together in the golden evening, and for a long time they were silent. “When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what's the first thing you say to yourself?” “What's for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting to-day?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It's the same thing,” he said.
“And what did happen?” asked Christopher Robin. “When?” “Next morning.” “I don't know.” “Could you think, and tell me and Pooh some time?” “If you wanted it very much.” “Pooh does,” said Christopher Robin. He gave a deep sigh, picked his bear up by the leg and walked off to the door, trailing Winnie-the-Pooh behind him. At the door he turned and said, “Coming to see me have my bath?” “I might,” I said. “Was Pooh's pencil case any better than mine?” “It was just the same,” I said. He nodded and went out... and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh—bump, bump, bump—going up the stairs behind him. All the Wrong Moves
sports supplement has been recalled because of a “new and improved” ingredient. The company’s CEO wonders: Why do the decisions we make keep coming back to haunt us? HE COLD JANUARY SKY was just dawning gray over Minneapolis as Don Rifkin awoke. With every cell in his body, he longed to put a pillow over his head and sleep, but the alarm added in- sult to injury. Slapping the off button and pulling on his oversized Turkish bathrobe, he stole from the bedroom and quietly shut the door behind him, leaving his wife to sleep. He padded toward the kitchen and turned on the coffeemaker. Sitting down at the kitchen table, Don sleepily clicked a few keys on his laptop and began glancing through his favorite stock chat. Scanning the list of senders, he saw a red exclamation point next to the name Stan with the headline “Bad news!” When he read the message, Don gasped: Did anyone hear that Wally Cum- mings just resigned from Dipensit? Turns out he lied on his resume – never received that PhD from U.C. Berkeley as he’d claimed! The stock’s gonna drop fast once this hits the street. Don felt slightly queasy. A year ear- lier, his own company, Nutrorim, had purchased a small stake in Dipensit. “Sheesh, I didn’t exactly trust that guy,” he grumbled.
He recalled how smoothly the whole decision process had seemed to go when Laurence Wiseman, the hard-driving CFO of Nutrorim, had championed the purchase of the Dipensit stock, insist- ing that the small company might make an excellent acquisition candidate in the future. A subcommittee had been formed to carefully review the purchase decision. Don vaguely remembered that the best-selling performance-enhancing sports powder on the market. The following year, when the new ver- sion of ChargeUp had been in its final stages of development, Don and R&D head Steve Ford had dressed in white coats and walked through the com- pany’s huge lab, agleam with chrome and white tile. They wended their way Wiseman, Ford, and a group of others tended to form strong opinions and push them aggressively. And while Don had his own opinions–and often voiced them – he also worked hard to keep the company’s decision-making processes open and democratic, and made a point of asking for input from as many people as possible.
there had been a few murmurs of con- cern–someone had even questioned the credentials of Cummings, the start-up’s CEO. But in the end, the subcommittee seemed to have addressed the concerns, and the senior team stood behind the decision. Don cinched his bathrobe tighter. “For decisions with a certain amount of built-in predictability…the process seems to work really well. But if a decision involves clear winners and losers, it stalls.” During the past year, Nutrorim had suf- fered from a spate of bad decisions. In fact, that’s what today’s meeting was about. A consultant, hired to review the company’s decision-making processes, was coming in that morning to present the results of his individual interviews with senior managers.
To Everyone’s Taste? The previous spring, Nutrorim had been at the top of its game. Founded in 1986 by an organic farmer and his wife, the company had sold its products through a network of individual distributors before Don had joined as CEO in 1989. Thanks to a series of testimonials of- fered by doctors and personal trainers, Nutrorim’s products had gained na- tional attention. Then, following an en- dorsement by a famous Olympic ath- lete, sales of ChargeUp, the company’s organic, performance-enhancing sup- plement powder, had gone through the roof. As a result, Nutrorim had hired hundreds of new employees, expanded its production facilities, and acquired two vitamin firms. After going public in 1997, the company had expanded dis- tribution of ChargeUp through exclu- sive deals with nutrition stores and ath- letic clubs, and by 2002, ChargeUp was past stainless steel tables where techni- cians milled seeds and blended the all- organic ingredients that comprised Nu- trorim’s various lines of vitamins and nutritional supplements. “Hey, Darlene, how are you?” Don waved at a lab technician who was wear- ing gloves, a hair bonnet, and a face mask and pushing a trundle cart down an aisle. Though she was recognizable only by the walnut-rimmed glasses she wore, she smiled –he could tell by the wrinkles around her eyes – and said a brief “Fine, boss, thanks.” Don loved being in the lab. Though he was a manager and not a scientist, he was an increasingly enthusiastic student of microbiology; every day, he learned something new about the nutritional benefits of Nutrorim’s products. He also believed strongly in management by walking around. From the start, he had tried hard to foster a happy, participa- tory, democratic culture at Nutrorim. This had seemed relatively easy, since most of the company’s employees hailed from the Minneapolis area, where“Min- nesota nice” was practically a state law. It was also partly an act of defiance: When Don was fresh out of business school, he’d had a terrible run-in with his boss, the dictatorial CEO of a retail chain. Of course, there were some excep- tions to Minnesota nice, especially among the more competitive, highly analytical types in upper management. Steve stopped at a table where a tech- nician was mixing raspberry-colored powder from two large canisters into two beakers of water. “Hey, Jerri, mind if Don does the blind taste test?” he asked. “Not at all, it would be an honor,” Jerri replied, pouring some liquid from a beaker into two cups. “Shut your eyes,”said Steve. Don com- plied, and Steve handed him one of the cups.“Down the hatch.” Sipping from the first cup, Don recog- nized the familiar taste of ChargeUp. It smelled like a combination of dried raspberries, newly mowed grass, and burnt toast. “Here, take a sip of water before you try the next one,” Steve offered. Don drank some, then tried the second cup. “So?” Steve inquired. “No difference.” Don opened his eyes and looked at Steve. “That’s what we like to hear,” said Steve. “The only real difference is that the second cup is the one with Lipitrene in it.” “Ah,” said Don. Lipitrene, developed in Nutrorim’s labs, was a new combina- tion of organic oils and seeds that ap- peared to enhance fat burning. Steve wore his pride in the new ingredient like a new father. “We’ve finished with all the tests, and now we’re gathering final input on the taste,” Steve said, his eyes glinting. “The handoff to marketing and sales
I was invited to the product marketing meeting at 2:00. Any chance you’ll be there?” “I’ll drop in,” Don replied,“at least for a minute.” ••• The meeting started out peaceably enough. Cynthia Pollington, the prod- uct marketing manager, presented three final designs for the new ChargeUp can- ister, all of which had “Now with Lip- itrene”splayed across them in large, em- bossed letters. She asked everyone in the room for feedback. In the end, the majority – including Steve and Don – liked the label with the gold letters. But when asked for her opinion, Nora Stern, a former entrepreneur whose company had been acquired by Nutrorim the pre- vious year, was recalcitrant. “Do I have to vote?” she asked. “Well, we’d like your opinion, yes,” said Cynthia. “Okay, here it is,” Nora responded. “I know this whole thing is already a done deal, but I don’t understand why there was this huge need to improve ChargeUp. It’s selling very well as it is. Why fix something that isn’t broken?” Steve shot back,“Nora,you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Everyone stared at Steve; the silence was palpable. DECISION MAKING
Don jumped in, feeling the need to re- store peace. “Tell you what, Nora and Steve. Let’s take this off-line, OK?”
The Recall By late September, at the end of the first quarter, sales of ChargeUp with Lip- itrene had leapfrogged the standard product by 20% in the test market of greater Minneapolis. Plans for a state- wide launch, followed by a national one, were well under way. Don was pleased. In an all-staff meeting, he asked Steve and the ChargeUp team to stand and be recognized.“You have all demonstrated the kind of gung ho spirit that makes Nutrorim a leader,” he noted, nodding to Steve while the audience broke into applause. ••• The phone call came on October 5.“Mr. Rifkin?” said a male voice.“My name is Matthew Norton, and I’m an investiga- tor with the Minnesota state depart- ment of health. I’m calling because we’ve been investigating 11 cases of gas- trointestinal distress among people who took your ChargeUp supplement with Lipitrene.” “What? Are you sure?” “Unfortunately, yes,” the inspector responded.“The affected parties are all members of Syd’s Gyms, and they all
June Rotenberg looked increasingly grim. When Don finished, she spoke up. “I just checked my voice mail,” she said. “It was Linda Dervis at KXAQ radio. One of the people who got sick must have contacted her.” She looked around the room.“Guys, once this news hits, things are going to go downhill quickly.” Jerry Garber, the general counsel, chimed in. “I think we have no choice but to pull ChargeUp off the shelves,” he said.“If we don’t, we could be facing a class action lawsuit. Talk about PR problems…” “Why are we even considering a re- call?”asked Ned Horst, who headed the Sports Supplements division. “There’s nothing wrong with the product.I should know, because I’ve been using it since it came out.” “I suspect you’re right,” Jerry added. “And a recall will cost us.” “Well, thank God we haven’t ex- panded distribution yet,” said Don. “Recalls are expensive,”said June.“But under the circumstances, I’m with Jerry. Besides, think about the cost of not re- calling a potentially bad product.” “Damn it, people, there’s no way ChargeUp is unsafe!” Steve exclaimed, slamming his hand down on the confer- ence table. “We put Lipitrene through
enough. The public always seems to re- member how a crisis is handled more than the crisis itself. People will remem- ber only how long it takes us to act.” Suddenly everyone began talking at once. Steve took an increasingly en- trenched position against June, who tried to get him to see things from the public’s perspective. Ned worried openly about Nutrorim’s relationships with Syd’s Gyms and other channel partners. Jerry tried to remind everyone of fa- mous recall cases – the Tylenol crisis faced by Johnson & Johnson, Suzuki’s recall of its 2002 and 2003 auto mod- els–and noted how the companies dealt with them. The din in the room grew louder and louder. Don, frustrated, whistled every- one to attention. “Look, we’re getting nowhere,” he said. “The first question here is, What are the criteria for making a recall deci- sion? What lenses should we use to reach such an important decision? We need that kind of framework to come up with an answer, and we need that an- swer fast. You, you, and you,” he said, pointing to June, Jerry, and Ned. “Go find out as much relevant data as you can, and pull together an analysis in the next 24 hours. I’ll meet with you, and
recall using the product there between September 25 and 29. The victims range in age from 19 to 55.” Don felt the blood drain from his face. “Are you telling me that the product has to be recalled?” “It seems like everything is a matter of debate.” Nora sighed. “Ever since I came here, I’ve been in too many meetings about meetings.” “I don’t have the authority–or the ev- idence – to make you do that. So for the time being, I’d simply like your cooper- ation in conducting an investigation. I understand that distribution is limited to the Twin Cities area, is that correct?” “Yes.” “That’s fortunate. Meanwhile, you may want to consider a voluntary re- call,” he said just before hanging up. Don asked his assistant to call an emergency meeting with the heads of PR, sales, R&D, Sports Supplements, and legal. As he described his discussion with the inspector to the team, PR director two full years of testing. We ran all kinds of toxicity studies in animals and on human volunteers. Then we did another tier of clinical trials in humans.” He looked hard at June.“If you need me to defend ChargeUp to the health depart- ment, the reporters, or anyone else, I have about 500,000 pages of documen- tation to show them.” “Of course we all believe you, Steve,” June replied tentatively, “but that kind of response can look like defensiveness, and it can backfire.” She looked plead- ingly at Don. “I’ve already drafted a press release saying we’ll fully cooperate with any investigation, but that’s not we’ll form a preliminary view. I’m call- ing all the senior managers for an 8 am meeting tomorrow. You can present our findings, and we’ll take a vote.” He looked hard at Steve, who was scowling. “Steve, I want you out of the discussion for the time being. You’re a little too passionate about this, and I need some cool analysis here. You can speak your mind at tomorrow’s meeting.” The following morning, after hearing the analyses and prognoses, the major- ity of senior managers quickly agreed with the subcommittee’s view that re- calling the product was the only choice. Following the meeting, June issued a
press release announcing the decision. The release included a quote from Don, assuring the public that Nutrorim was “doing everything possible to cooperate with the investigation.” Two weeks later, Don received an- other call from Matthew Norton.“I have good news,” he said. “It turns out that the people who got sick picked up a bug from the gym’s smoothie bar.” Don gasped.“So that means Nutrorim is exonerated?” he asked. “Yes, and fully,” the inspector replied. “We’ll send out a press release saying so today.”
Calling All Volunteers The boardroom was abuzz as Nutrorim’s 15 top managers settled into their seats. The consultant sat quietly on Don’s right, sipping coffee. “Okay, let’s get started,” said Don. “As you all know, we’re going to hear this morning from Synergy Consulting Group’s Gibson Bryer, who will present his preliminary findings. But first, let me review quickly why I, with the full sup- port of the board, wanted this process review.” Don reported that the board had been heartened by a recent analyst’s report calling the series of unfortunate events with ChargeUp a “fluke” for an “otherwise solid firm that has a history of making sound decisions.”Despite the fact that the analyst had recommended a “buy,” the board members were con- cerned about the damage to the Charge- Up brand and adamant about making absolutely sure that this type of thing would never happen again. To that end, the board strongly recommended a top- to-toe process review. Gibson, having worked with two CEOs who sat on the board, was the “obvious choice” for a consultant. Someone turned down the lights as the first PowerPoint slide appeared on the conference room screen.“I want to thank each of you for allowing me to speak with you during the past month,” the consultant began. “My initial find- ings show areas of agreement and dis- agreement about the effectiveness of the decision-making process at Nutrorim.” He clicked to another slide. “You told me that for decisions with a certain amount of built-in predictability – deci- sions like how to improve your distribu- tion network, whether to alter your print ads – the process seems to work really well.”He clicked to the next slide. “But if a decision involves clear winners and losers, it stalls.”Click.“A preliminary survey about the inner workings of the process itself, however, reveals mixed re- views.” Click. “Some of you feel that this company is too consensus driven and that things don’t get done in a timely fashion.”Click. “Others say that the decision-making process is fine the way it is. Still others get a bit frustrated at times, wishing that the CEO would make definitive calls more often.” Click. “Some say that the company deals well with tough is- sues; others say that conflict is too often suppressed or swept under the rug and that this causes resentment.” Click. “Some feel that the culture of the com- pany is democratic and inclusive; oth- ers worry that the louder voices and squeakier wheels dominate. Lights up, please. I’m assuming many of you have questions.” Some hands went up, and Bryer spent 45 minutes methodically addressing the concerns. Don looked at the clock and then stood up to thank him.“It’s almost time for us to end this meeting, but be- fore we do, I need three volunteers for a subcommittee,”he said.“The next phase of our work with Gibson is to come up with a better, more resilient decision- making process that works well both in calm times and in rough. Anyone?” No one volunteered. Then Anne Han- nah, who headed the vitamin division, and Ned Horst tentatively raised their hands. Don looked around the room and gazed at Nora, the former entre- preneur. “Nora, I’d like you on the team,” he said. “Your perspective is al- ways invaluable.”
Just Make a Decision! “Hey, Nora,”Steve said sarcastically, wav- ing to her as the meeting disbanded, “congratulations for volunteering. Jolly good show.” Don, who was talking to another manager, pretended not to hear. A few minutes later, he walked to Nora’s office and tapped on the door.“Got a second?” he said, poking his head in the door. Nora nodded, and Don perched on the corner of her desk. “You don’t look very pleased about this,” Don said soothingly. “Well, no,” Nora said, clearly peeved. “I’m completely buried in this market- ing launch at the moment, and I have other fish to fry. And to be honest,” she went on, “I’m pretty tired of all this navel-gazing nonsense.”
“Well, I picked you because you seem to hold back in the senior management meetings,” Don replied, trying his best to be gentle. “You know, the ChargeUp problem presented us with a real oppor- tunity to look at what’s broken. You come from outside the company, and you have clever, fresh ideas. I think you are just the person to bring these issues to the fore.” “Look, Don, I appreciate that, and I completely sympathize with what you’re trying to do. But I come from a com- pany where all decisions were made in the room. I didn’t allow anyone to leave until a call was made. Here, it seems like everything is a matter of debate.” She sighed. “You know, this consultant- driven committee is just more evidence of what’s wrong. Ever since I came here, I’ve been in too many meetings about meetings.” She tightened her lips. “Maybe it’s time for you to take a more dictatorial approach to decision making.”
What’s the right decision-making process for Nutrorim? •
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Christopher J. McCormick is the president and CEO of L.L.Bean in Freeport, Maine.
f I were to give points for good intentions, then Don Rifkin would score pretty well. He seems honest and genuinely interested in doing the right thing. Both are laudable attributes in a leader, but they go only so far. Rifkin does not appear to have a problem making decisions and, as evidenced by his choice to launch the new and improved ChargeUp, he appears to encourage creativ- ity, innovation, and risk taking. On the other hand, it seems that Rifkin has created a culture devoid of candid inquiry, where objective analysis and oversight take a backseat to maintaining a “happy, participa- tory, democratic culture.” As a consequence, Rifkin now realizes that the outcomes of de- cisions made in this kind of culture are lead- ing to an unhealthy organizational dynamic, paradoxically creating the type of corporate culture he disdains. Rifkin’s biggest problem is that he doesn’t ask enough questions.I often say that my com- pany’s greatest asset is its people, and that this asset is at its best when engaged. Without
But how they utilize and play off the strengths and skills of their in-house experts is key. This ability to juggle skill sets includes knowing how to leverage personalities so that each team member is continually challenging status-quo thinking and developing new problem-solving techniques. For Rifkin in particular, this skill also involves asking the right questions of the people he relies on to provide critical information. Granted, there is an art to creating this type of engagement, but it seems as though Rifkin doesn’t have even the slightest idea how to initiate those conversations. A look back at how my organization re- cently responded to a change in local labor market conditions speaks to the value of this interplay. As site work began on a new L.L.Bean customer contact center, another company announced its plans to locate an even larger call center right next door. Be- cause this development posed a reasonable threat to our seasonal staffing needs, the challenge I put forward to the organization was “Is it too late to reconsider? What are
By asking the right questions of the experts in his organization, Rifkin would put into play healthy dynamics that would lead to more cross-functional collaboration.
a culture of inquiry, engagement doesn’t hap- pen. In addition to being a champion of inno- vation, a CEO is responsible for constantly assessing risk through questioning. Unfortu- nately, Rifkin is not asking the types of ques- tions that will create the environment of ac- countability his organization needs to succeed. By not probing the experts on his staff, Rifkin has missed a huge opportunity to re- shape the culture of his organization and es- tablish himself as a strong leader. A stricter mode of inquiry would have, among other things, made the decision about whether to recall ChargeUp much easier. Of course, it must be understood that suc- cessful top managers are rarely experts in more than a few organizational disciplines. our options, and what are the costs?” These questions led to countless others that imme- diately mobilized the entire company to con- sider alternatives, despite the fact that ground had already been broken. The result is that we found a new location and started opera- tions in the same amount of time and on bet- ter terms than we had for the original project. Rifkin’s challenge is complicated by the fact that his decision-making process has led to a reactionary culture characterized by consider- able resentment and second-guessing on the part of his management team.With a renewed focus on inquiry, Rifkin would experience two important benefits. First, he would create ac- cess to the information he needs to make bet- ter decisions.Second,he would set an example for his own managers that speaks to the value of diligence and personal accountability. By asking people the right questions, Rifkin would put into play healthy dynamics that would lead to more cross-functional col- laboration, greater acceptance of decisions, and better business results in which his en- tire team would feel more fully vested.
former boss and has strived to form a corporate culture that takes into account the “Minnesota niceness” of most of his em- ployees. While these objectives are good starting points, the lack of consistency in
The decision-making crisis at Nutrorim is a blessing in disguise, for it offers Rifkin a chance to install irm management rules and build trust within the company.
Rifkin’s approach to management and deci- sion making undermines trust. It’s difficult for teams to function well together when there is so much inconsistency and volatility at work. Let’s start with Rifkin’s leadership style. In the case of the bad stock purchase, he showed poor judgment, a lack of professionalism, and an inability to view facts objectively. In addi- tion to not taking simple business precau- tions by personally vetting Dipensit, Rifkin demonstrated selective hearing that kept him from absorbing dissent. The picture is different in the case of the recall. If you look at it from the perspective of decision theory, Rifkin reacted in a rational manner. Nutrorim faced two scenarios: Ei- ther ChargeUp with Lipitrene would be found all quality of decision making. Fortunately, there are a few things he can do to improve matters. First, he should demonstrate strong leadership by setting firm management pro- cess rules – especially for investment and M&A decisions, product launches, and risk management – that are easy to apply and transparent to everyone. M&A decisions, for example, should be formed on the basis of precisely defined cri- teria that cover everything from due dili- gence, strategic and operational aspects of the merger, and a clear exit strategy. Trans- parent rules prevent management from growing too bullish, practicing selective hear- ing, and ignoring risks. They also go a long way toward establishing trust, because peo- ple know what to expect and what they’re responsible for. I would also recommend that Rifkin un- dergo intensive coaching to help him de- velop a consistent leadership style and learn to take a more active role in managing his team. Coaching could help Rifkin do a better job of developing his people. For example, it’s clear that Nora Stern is a hands-on man- ager, rather than a talker, so Rifkin should keep her on practical tasks – such as giving her responsibility for a plant where she can develop her skills–rather than force her onto subcommittees. He should also let his man- agers know what is expected of them, espe- cially in terms of team behavior. He can praise Steve Ford for his R&D expertise but Hauke Moje (hauke_moje @de.rolandberger.com) is a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Hamburg, Germany. to be the cause of the customers’ illness, or it would not. Likewise, Nutrorim had two op- tions: Recall the product, or don’t. If the product turned out to be faulty, keeping it on the market would most likely have meant the company’s demise, given the possibility of a lawsuit. Management could not take that risk, since the probability of the product being faulty was obviously beyond a negligi- ble level and there was no time for further in- vestigation. Rifkin did a good job of hearing people out and decisively following the sub- committee’s recommendation to withdraw the product immediately. But Rifkin’s inconsistent approach to these events undercuts his authority and the over- make him understand that his is only one viewpoint among many, and that he must remain a team player even if he does not agree with particular decisions. As the Swiss novelist Max Frisch wrote,“A crisis is a productive situation–you only have to take away the flavor of catastrophe.” The decision-making crisis at Nutrorim is a bless- ing in disguise, for it offers Rifkin a chance to install firm management rules. And Rifkin can build trust within his management team by setting an example and openly commu- nicating his intentions and goals for the company. In accomplishing both, he’s doing what is necessary to improve the company’s decision-making processes.
“What’s the right decision-making process for Nutrorim?” raises another question: “What’s the right decision-making process for Don Rifkin?”
columbia.edu) is a professor of professional practice in the management division of Columbia Business School in New York. agree with Gibson Bryer that the current decision-making process at Nutrorim seems to work fine for decisions with some built-in predictability but not for those with clear winners and losers. Day-to-day opera- tional and procedural issues are one thing; important problems or strategic matters that involve conflict or debate are quite another. And when it comes to the latter, the process at Nutrorim is broken. The problems with the decision-making process at Nutrorim stem primarily from Rifkin’s aversion to conflict. He believes that he keeps the process open and asks for input, but he doesn’t realize that his approach to building a friendly culture squelches dissent and debate. He’s trying to build a “nice” cul- ture by making it homogeneous, and that’s causing trouble. Murmurs go unaddressed, opinions are unbalanced, top managers feel increasingly frustrated, and bad decisions are the norm. Hence, the final question–“What’s the right decision-making process for Nu- trorim?”–raises another question:“What’s the right decision-making process for Rifkin?” It would help if Rifkin could view conflict as an important source of energy and see that it’s his responsibility to understand all sides of an issue. To do this, he needs to ex- plore his own issues first. If I were coaching him, I would begin by asking him why he hasn’t investigated the “murmurs” he’s over- heard, and why he chooses to deal with con- flict in private rather than in public. I might ask,“How has the decision to take things off- line helped you in the past? What are the benefits and drawbacks of doing things this way?” The difficulties he’s had with his man- agers reflect his aversion to conflict. All lead- ers face people like Steve Ford from time to time. Commitment and passion are worth encouraging in direct reports, but assertive- ness and conviction can have their down- sides. To become more comfortable dealing with people who possess these qualities, par- ticularly in group settings, Rifkin needs to get away from his and others’ personal feel- ings. In a group meeting, he could say, for ex- ample,“We’ve heard a strong case for Y. Does anyone else have data or experiences that might suggest another approach?” Rifkin should also take a good, hard look at the way he selects members of his subcom- mittees. In his desire to avoid disagreements, he seems to seek out homogeneity. Public re- lations and legal, for example, are corporate kindred spirits, and leaving the head of R&D out of a discussion on a product recall looks a lot like deck stacking. If Rifkin wants a better balance of views and, hence, better decisions, he should choose members more carefully. Nora Stern makes an important point when she says that in her former company, debate was held out in the open, and differ- ences were worked out in the group. Follow- ing this example would cut down on the frus- tration among Rifkin’s managers, reduce lobbying, and bring to light some key opin- ions. I recommend that Rifkin use subgroups to gather data, identify assumptions, and cre- ate options. Each subgroup should report regularly to the larger group, which can then debate a given issue’s pros and cons. These groups can be set up like teams of lawyers, with one critical exception: Those individu- als with the strongest opinions should argue the case for the opposing side. This kind of decision-making structure can go a long way toward unearthing the opinions of all in- volved, including those who feel left out, and toward building the kind of balance Rifkin needs to develop in his company. I would stress to Rifkin that he has two pri- mary responsibilities: to guide the decision- making process so that all the data, opinions, assumptions, and options are identified and fairly discussed, and to make the final deci- sions. It would also help if he explained the reasoning behind his decisions to his direct reports.
Nora Stern, as the outsider, is the voice of reason when she notes that there is too much navel-gazing at the company. Too many people, including Rifkin, are operat- ing on hunches and gut reactions that could put the company at risk. Rifkin abdicates his responsibility when he fails to sponsor a learning organization that builds knowledge as a competitive advantage. He needs to show leadership and a willingness to make decisions. The stock purchase is a perfect case in point. The CFO, Laurence Wiseman, may have his talents, but it seems he pushed through the decision to purchase stock in Dipensit without exercising due diligence. Investing in a company is like buying a house: One makes the purchase decision based on a combination of hard factors such as price, condition, and school system, as well as soft factors such as general impres- sions, conversations with neighbors, and so on. It is inexcusable that Rifkin allowed share- holders’ money to be spent on a stake in Rifkin can’t allow his team members to create their own versions of reality. For exam- ple, Ford, the R&D head with vested inter- ests and a difficult personality, prevents people from having candid conversations when they are most needed – during times of crisis. Rifkin needs to buckle down and make it clear to Ford and everyone else that they will be held accountable for their ac- tions and their results and that no one gets to steamroll others. Without this rule, the com- pany can only react after the horse has left the stable. To ensure better decision making, Rifkin should work hard to create a culture that re- wards on the basis of unit performance as well as individual contributions. He should spend more time developing leaders – I like to think of them as mini-CEOs – who have a passion for results and understand how their actions affect the company. Rifkin’s job is to monitor his managers’ progress, motivate them, and give them feedback. He should make sure that results are openly celebrated and that when failure occurs, everyone learns
Paul Domorski (pdomorski@ avaya.com) is the vice presi- dent of service operations at Avaya, a communications network and service provider in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
The payoff for a lot of hard work and seemingly endless preparation occurs when it’s time to make hard decisions.
Dipensit without having launched a thor- ough investigation of the CEO’s background when questions first arose. Rifkin and his team should have delved into any rumors, probed any allegations, studied the business model, and fully understood any contractual obligations. The same fact-finding failure occurred with the ChargeUp fiasco, which should have been investigated immediately. Rifkin should have dispatched a qualified team to Syd’s Gyms to investigate the facts and interview the people affected. Ford and his team should have reviewed the allegations in light of ear- lier toxicity studies and clinical trials to deter- mine whether any of the alleged problems had ever occurred during testing. Indeed, a thorough investigation might have prevented the crisis in the first place. from it. Like members of a sports team, every one of these individuals is accountable for his or her own assignment. Without that accountability, the team cannot win. In the end, Rifkin should play the role of a quarter- back and be the one calling all the plays. Getting this role right sometimes leads to tough discussions, but the results can be outstanding. Sometimes the answers to dilemmas will be obvious; other times, more analysis will be required. Either way, the teams at Nutrorim must do a better job of getting at the heart of problems. The payoff for a lot of hard work and seemingly endless preparation occurs when it’s time to make hard decisions.
. Date: 2014-12-29; view: 732
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