Book Order Form | Table of Contents | Preface | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 
Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First I want to thank all the clients who have paid me for my services and allowed me to encounter a multitude of experiences.

Thanks to Helen Welch for helping me with my thought process for the book and the encouragement to do the project.

Thanks to my wife and daughters for all the support and grunt work they performed and the many hours (unpaid, they will add) they spent assembling the original copies.

Thanks also to my two little dogs, Samantha and Maggie, who somehow managed to only chew up papers that were not important.

Most importantly, thanks to Karen Miller for the many hours she spent editing and formatting the material I gave her to work with into a book. Without Karen there would be no book, and I would still be sitting at my computer typing away with two fingers.

And finally, thanks to Tom Miller, whose patience and tenacity paid off in reading everything before it went to print.

PREFACE

I would like to dedicate this book to all the people who have asked me for advice through the years, especially those who have actually paid for it. Strangely, my wife and children have never asked me to advise them, even though I would never charge them for my services. But I feel it is appropriate to include them in this dedication because they have inspired me by laughing every time I mentioned this project. They may yet have the last laugh, if I get no further than this.

Originally, I thought to call this book One-Liners, The Handbook for Executives and Corporate Directors, because I try to get people to think in terms of one-liners when defining a problem or reporting on a task. I believe this encourages focus and is consistent with my overall style and approach to problem solving. This one-liner methodology has the added benefit of keeping me from drawing out a point and perhaps boring my intended audience.

I also thought about calling this book I Am Standing On My Tiptoes. I have been told that I didn't present the correct management image for an executive because I am short and portly (a polite term for fat). I have had a successful management career in spite of this handicap, and I thought this title makes it seem that I am sensitive. I don't perceive myself as sensitive at all. Ah, perceptions! I have little to be sensitive about because I have accomplished all I wanted to in my management career, except to write a book. I can take some comfort in the fact that I have helped several friends develop great estates by being in their employment or supporting them as a consultant or director.

As to the book, I now present The Laws of Management Physics -- A Handbook for Hands-On Managers. This format allows me to use one-liners and call them laws. In fact, some of them sound very much like laws, for example, "The goesinnas must exceed the goesouttas," and "For every delegation there must be a control." I want The Laws of Management Physics to reflect the experiences I have had in various aspects of management: participating in start-ups and turn-arounds, performing in several international roles, working for a multi-billion dollar corporation, and experiencing a wide variety of issues as a consultant.

With all of this experience, I have had many chances to see how to do things the wrong way. If it is true that you learn from your mistakes, then I am quite an accomplished scholar. This is why, when discussing an issue of concern with my clients, I encourage them to listen carefully to all the ways it can be approached incorrectly. Many times however a client may want to do it their way, even if their way is one of the many "wrong" possibilities I have enumerated for them. This is the most frustrating part of being a consultant. Oh well.

I have also taken my responsibilities as a director seriously, and I am proud of the results I have been able to achieve in that capacity. I have also been frustrated by other directors who lack either the interest or experience to ask pertinent questions in any given situation. Someone in a director's position ought to be able to come up with a little more original and insightful question than, "When and how are you going to reduce G & A?" So the real purpose of The Laws of Management Physics -- A Handbook for Hands-On Managers is to present insights that stimulate the right questions for directors and encourage executives and managers to keep their hands on when it comes to their management style.

I do not profess to be an expert, but I do profess to be a keen observer, so listen to my observations after years of experience, and accept there is more than one way to do things. In fact, listen to how I have done things wrong as well as right, if only to avoid the same mistakes. Then, if I have challenged your mind set and encouraged you to consider alternatives, I have accomplished my task. Hopefully there will be some wisdom in what follows that helps the reader focus on correct management.

INTRODUCTION

As an executive, and more recently as a consultant, I have written many memos and articles for both my management and my clients through the years. Since I am a string saver, I probably have copies of most of them somewhere in the house or in boxes in my rented storage bin down the street.

Once in a while I run across someone who quotes from something I said in the past that seems to have helped in some way. Since I promised my wife I would go through one box per month (I am falling behind), I find myself coming upon written thoughts and ideas that might just help someone today.

I therefore decided to start putting some of these philosophies into a book, and I originally did it in loose leaf fashion to make it easier to add articles as I went along. The material gradually expanded in scope, and the book eventually grew large enough that it became practical to mold it into its present form. This is how The Laws of Management Physics, A Handbook for Hands-On and Managers was born.