No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits: No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Really Getting Rich

by Dan S. Kennedy

What does it really take,

Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos are two great examples,

known for being harsh, brutal, enraged by incompetence, mercurial, willing to embarrass executives in front of others, imposing autocratic rules and disciplines, and making it “my way or the highway.”

If you go back in time and really study Walt Disney, you discover a guy who, very often, created the un-happiest place on earth for his executives.

Walt was dictatorial, confrontational, unreasonably demanding, hated being told “no,” and was prone to rage.

The Disney parks are run with an iron hand, with strict rules and dis...

and swift elimination of those who can’t c...

There is no laissez-faire.

And one thing they all have in common: gripes, complaints, disappointments, frustrations, pain, and agony with regard to their employees.

Much of this has to do with unreasonable expectations and a misunderstanding of the actual nature of employer-employee relationships.

Leadership, Management, Supervision.

I do tell my clients: the fewer, the better—none if possible.

I’m much happier without them, and you would be, too.

And most businesses have many more th...

there are things you must do continuously to keep them from ...

to force them to perform to your sp...

to reward those...

to rid yourself of those ...

the Professor of Harsh Reality

start managing your business as if it really is your business.

initially out of need and self-defense—

microdetailed, fail-safe systems spanning selection and hiring of the right people for each purpose to managing people, information, and activities by the navigational star of maximum profit.

installing better management systems and coaching owners, CEOs, and managers.

I once told a new client offering me $2 million to fix his advertising and marketing not to hire me and instead go get the way his stores’ phones were answered fixed, the way his salespeople sold fixed, the way they followed up on unconverted leads fixed, and their own internal misinformation mess fixed.

It was like bolting a rocket engine onto an old biplane made of rotting wood and held together with duct tape. You really can’t separate marketing from management.

management is not an expense—it is a way of making money.

You want to be prepared to find, develop, and retain a productive workforce that produces maximum profit for your business.

managing people for PROFIT.

Nowhere does it say any of these “experts” ever took over a troubled company with horrid employee morale and massive quality control problems and turned it around.

Of course, YOU are a real business owner in the real world,

Of course, you want to surround yourself with people smarter than you are if you can. But “better educated” does not necessarily mean “smarter.”

the relationship between employer and employee

is inherently adversarial.

It is adversarial because your agenda is in conflict with theirs, and you are constantly interfering with their ability to act out their agenda. To impose your agend...

Bluntly, you are a giant pa...

They do not own your business. You do.

It’s like trying to make the zebras on display at Disney’s Animal Kingdom® park care deeply and profoundly about how many tickets were sold at the front gate today!

The zebras care about getting enough good food to eat and not being eaten by a bigger animal. You can put ’em in team-building retreats all you want; they’re still coming back with eating as #1, not being eaten as #2, finding warm sun to lay in #3, and it’s a long, long way down their list before ticket sales comes up.

Your business is your life and your life is your business. They are intertwined and inseparable...

You care passionately about profit. They probably don’t think about it at all or, if they do, they resent how much of it you make at their expense, through their sweat and blood.

You own the zoo. They are zebras.

On top of all that, there is the unavoidable resentment that comes with disparities in wealth and power.

Your employees tend to believe they are doing all the work and you are getting all the money, and they count gross, not net.

The very fact that you can fire them but they can’t fire you, that you dictate when they can take a vacation but you take yours whenever you feel like it, pisses them off.

They think they are smarter than you are, know better than you do, and resent having to go along with your crazy schemes and new ideas.

Little is ever said about these people’s need to educate themselves,

develop more valuable skills,

raise themselves up to a l...

They are not your friends. You can and, to a degree, should be friendly with them and encourage them to be friendly with you.

Just don’t lose sight that if trapped together in the foxhole when all the food runs out, they won’t hesitate to carve you up for dinner.