There was once a great company where the middle management were afraid to tell the senior management bad news.
'I don't think they want to hear that', was the watchword for any report, or any part of a report, which contained bad news about the company's performance, or news about how well competitors were doing.
The senior management had no chance to make the right decisions because they didn't know what was happening to their business.
But it was the senior management which had had fashioned this rod for their backs, because they had inculcated a fear among middle management that bad news would be punished, and that discussion of difficult issues was discouraged.
The company fell upon hard times.
MORAL: An environment of fear leads to paralysis.
TOMORROW MORNING: THE TEN MOST SEMICONDUCTOR-SAVVY BOSSES
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