Chainsaw Al Dunlap redux

I know why I was looking... for Al Dunlap But I cannot explain why my post on Dunlap is the most popular page on my blog. Can you? For me, it was a simple search for wisdom concerning our present economic times. Al Dunlap understood hardships, at least up until his Sunbeam years. He understands focus and the value of having the right team on the field. Few people understand the number of jobs he saved at Scott Paper. Yes, Dunlap saved jobs! I have blogged at great length how wrong lay offs are for the most part, but at Scott, cutting the deadwood QUICKLY saved the company. Did some great people get let go? Sure. But the blame must be placed on the shoulders of those that created the situation. Doctor Dunlap had little time to analyze every aspect of operations at Scott in great detail before starting surgery to save the patient. Think ER (as in Emergency Room). Remember the wrong members of the management team? It happens. If you turn your personnel function over to HR and then storm off to attack the next bottleneck without conveying the mission and culture of your business, there will be mistakes. Wrong people get hired. Some wrong people will be promoted. Good people will leave. But I digress... Guess I figured it out: people are searching for insight on how Chainsaw Al Dunlap saved companies to fight another day. Please tell me that you recall mentoring is learning how to gleen valuable lessons from (flawed) humans. Yes, his "four simple rules" are just as valuable today as when he shared them in his book, Mean Business:

1. Get the right management team
2. Pinch Pennies
3. Know what business you are in
4. Get a real strategy

-ski ---- Jeff 'SKI' Kinsey, Jonah Strategy, Tactics & Execution Dover, OH | Hilton Head Island, SC | Las Vegas, NV ©2008 Throughput.us LLC. All rights reserved.