Ed Cracks The Whip

'At the general managers' meeting I'm going to put the vp of the analogue division on the spot', writes Ed, 'he'll hate it having to answer in front of all the other GMs, but it'll probably keep him honest.'

A few days later another entry in the diary reads:

'At the general managers' meeting I let a few humdrum items take priority then quietly drop my bombshell. "With the analogue market set to grow 30% this year why is it our analogue orders are on track for single digit growth?"'

'Of course, as intended, all eyes swivel onto the vp for analogue who looks furious. Gotcha, I think.'

'Remember what happened six months ago?"' asked the analogue vp.

'" I remember your design team walking out," I told him.'

'Do you remember me telling you it would take five to six years to train up newly graduated  analogue designers or we could poach some from other companies at higher salaries?"

'"Yes", I said.'

'"And do you remember my recommendation that you should offer higher salaries and incentives to the ones who resigned to keep them?"'

'"Yes"'

'"And your response was: let them go?".'

'Yes'

'Well we couldn't poach experienced designers at the pay levels you set; so we had to recruit inexperienced designers; so our new product flow has stalled; so our orders are not growing with the market", said the analogue vp.'

'Silence falls. The GMs look at me with scorn. So much for whip-cracking.'

'Oh well, only 102 days to the IPO and I'm off from here with a fat, fabulous, flipping    fortune.'