Wednesday, April 30, 2014
No, that's not the problem
In the idiotic discussion about this senile sport team owner, the real point seems to be missed. Leaving aside all the Satan-Sharpton ratshit, this is an unfortunately common problem in organizations with a single long-term owner.
What happens when the owner grows senile and gets involved in estate-custody disputes between Trophy Wife #2 and Trophy Wife #3? What happens when the senile owner says unwise things that ruin the business for all employees?
The responsibility shouldn't fall on the senile owner. He's senile and thus irresponsible by definition. The responsibility belongs to the next level of management. If they want the company to keep going, they need to insulate the owner from contact with the public and contact with the company. Clearly the team's management should have taken these steps a few years ago.
Ford ran into a similar problem in the late '30s and early '40s. Henry had a series of strokes that left him stupid. He didn't know he had become stupid, so he kept running things with an increasingly heavy hand, making all sorts of bad technical and labor decisions. The company, which had been absolutely supreme before Henry's strokes, dropped behind Chrysler and was having trouble with defense contracts. Finally the government had to step in, ordering grandson Henry II to run the company.
¶ 5:25 AM 
