Not to mention the absurdity of his potential candidacy for president.  I'm convinced it's just a ploy for more nourishment to feed his bloated ego.  He couldn't possibly run a viable campaign; he doesn't have skeletons in the closet, he's got entire skyscrapers full of them.  I can imagine the Dems licking their chops at the prospect.

Middle managers may not like his practices, but look at some of the greatest, most successful businessmen, from Hughes to Rockefeller. They all had deep personalities that did not conform to the accepted business and personal practices of the day.

Forest Wilson
Cherokee Fire Protection Co.
www.cherokee-fire.com

Mike,

I certainly hope you're wrong about managers actually watching and taking lessons from this show. It's clearly meant to entertain, not to educate. The fact that you watch every week indicates that you find it entertaining. Your insights from this article indicate that you understand that it has zero or negative value as a guide to doing business.Let's hope that others are able to draw the same distinctions.

Thomas Pyzdek  

https://www.pyzdekinstitute.com/training-and-certification-programs

The man is a complete joke, as he proved with the birther issue. Not to be taken seriously-he won't run, bank on it.

Rich

Reward programs can have the same effects that fear causes due to internal competition and suboptimization.

Well, Mike. I have to disagree with you again. I wonder, if you are correct, how he got all his money? Maybe God gave it to him? Maybe the State...like welfare? I have watched team after team and their sub-optimal performance –right out of Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints.

It seems as if nobody took the movie Gladiator seriously like they did the Godfather. Everybody quotes from the Godfather movies like they should quote Shakespeare. Recall the scene in the movie Gladiator, after they have been taught to fight as individuals, Maximus says, “No matter what comes out that door…if you want to live then we have to fight together…” Probably a truism. The Roman army won as much as they did because they trained for 5 years together – trained to fight as a team, not as individuals – and they won, victory after victory until the Mediterranean was a Roman Lake. What did they have that the others did not have? They had an Aim; they had a system; they had leadership; they had training; they had spirit; they had excellent tools; they had good military processes. What they did not have was good political processes like peaceful succession.

Rich, don't be so politically naive. The birther thing was a ploy. It worked pretty well no matter what political side you were on. Based on the reactions, like a big Maverick-style poker game, 'The Donald' got a look at everyone’s hand. Pretty sharp.

Trump is a New Yorker. That, in and of itself, says a lot. He has a big ego because people expect him to have one. It’s a “face.” All famous politicians have ‘faces’ they wear in public – Roosevelt, Stalin, Nixon, etc. Their public side was very different from their private side. How he acts on television is not necessarily how he acts in the company. Howard Hughes was the “real thing, baby”. Nothing phony about him. He had vision. He had drive. He was all business, 24x7. Many successful business men were driven by some 'inner vision'. They come from all ends of the political spectrum – Perot and Spielberg are to opposites, yet both successful. Trump is that type of individual.

Thomas and Forrest, I tend to agree with you. I have seen ‘Chainsaw’ Al Dunlap and “GEe” Jack Welch on television. Both have reputations for grossly misusing Juran’s Pareto Principle. You cannot keep firing the bottom 10% forever and expect to have anything left…let alone people who trust each other. You get the same thing that Deming warned against –fear. Yet they are constantly held up as business icons to be listened to on CNBC and Bloomberg.

I wonder if Mike watches Survivor? Now that is a show that I could recommend to an Organizational Behavior course in any MBA school. “Dog-eat-dog” and the “winner-take- the-hind-most”… Week-after-week we see petty alliances forged and forgotten for convenience. Something that I have seen in all 40 years of my work life and several companies.

Thomas is right again. These shows are for entertainment. The only show not mentioned is Undercover Boss. I have never worked in a company whose processes would not have benefitted from this practice. Unfortunately, the idea came along too late – despite the movie Brubaker.

I agree that Trump's egomaniacal style would make for a horrible President, ignoring any political positions. Trump is always bragging about how smart he is, which tells me he isn't really that smart.

Another Republican primary candidate, Herman Cain, has a business background. I saw him speak back in 2004 and blown away with his leadership style and approach to people. I heard him on the radio in Dallas yesterday and he talked about taking over as CEO of Godfather's Pizza. Cain talked about how they were near bankruptcy and he didn't have all the answers - so he relied on the people closest to the work, the ones that know the problems best and they turned things around. It sounded a lot like Lean leadership, servant leadership.

Trump is all about Trump. Herman Cain seemed to be in service to other people and THAT is the type of man I'd want to see as President (or CEO of a company).

"We think it's worth reading now not so much for political reasons but rather to emphasize the enduring usefulness of quality management tools."

I was born at night, but it wasn't LAST NIGHT!  It is clear why this article was rerun.

If QD wants to become a left-wing blog, then FINE, but have the intellectual honesty to admit it.

Dirk, will you be posting a counter-point article? I doubt it.

How about QD rededicating itself to a focus on Quality theory, management and practices, while leaving politics where it belongs - anywhere else!