Saw my therapist on Sunday, just so you know. I know what you guys are thinking. Mike, you're the CEO of large corporation, why do you need to have your head examined? Should we worry about the stock price? Rest assured, yours truly is perfectly fine and my head is superb.
Serge says it's a Sarbanes-Oxley requirement to make sure the CEO is not living a psychosis while making strategic decisions. So I went to this guy, his name is Paul and I gotta say he's a very smart man.
Our sessions are pretty informal, I talk about CGI and our core values, why profitable growth is leading us to the future, why outsourcing is the right decision for a Fortune 500 company. Then I talked about why decisions need to be taken by a small core of people, and why delegating power is the straight road to perdition. Paul seemed amused by this nugget of management wisdom. Mike, he said, do you trust your lieutenants, I mean the hundreds of VPs and thousands of directors scattered in your business units? Of course I trust them, I said, I trust them to approve time sheets and maintain a tight grip on expenses so that each BU can return a huge share of their revenues to the HQ. Paul seemed thoughtful. You manage people Mike, he said, and yes while generating revenues is an essential part of your business, you should also consider that they are human beings.
Hold on buddy, I said, my middle managers are doing one thing - that is managing the middle. And the middle is just a conduit between our clients wallet and our company bank accounts. That's it. Of course once a year I hop into a plane and tour some of our less profitable BUs to kick their ass and spread the CGI gospel. But middle managers have too much expectations, they all think they will rule the kingdom one day. Truth is, they are the layer that we enjoy squeezing the most because they rarely complain. People at the bottom of the food chain have no expectations except a job. But those who venture past the lowest floor want to work triple hard and maybe one day have a shot at becoming a lazy ass in a corner office.
So we beat them with unrealistic expectations, tons of paperwork, no real power, and guess what - I always get a warm round of applause whenever we pack them in a room. What CEO could ask for anything more?
Paul didn't say much, but he said we should continue the therapy for a while. Shit, did I say something wrong?
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