Fire the Teacher Not the Student

“Kaiser used the integrity issue to teach lessons in management. A bright, aggressive young man had worked his way up from the mail room to salesman in one company. Unfortunately, greed overcame him and he offered a prospect an “under-the-table” deal. Kaiser called a conference to discuss the violation of company ethics. All present agreed that the culprit should be fired. Kaiser leaned back, lit a cigar, and started talking. He reminded them that the man had a superb record, except for one serious slip. He then turned to the salesman’s superior and said, “... you have had this boy for all these years, you have trained him. You should have instilled in him all of the rights and wrongs and... that you never do anything under the table even if you loose [sic] the contract. If anybody gets fired, you’re the one that should get fired.” While the men sat, stunned, Kaiser said, “Now, let’s go around the table again.” Once more the vote was unanimous. The salesman kept his job and later headed his division. Everyone learned a valuable lesson.”

“Kaiser remained somewhat removed from the day-to-day operations in his many enterprises. He approved creation of Kaiser Industries; when commitments involved tens of millions of dollars, he made the ultimate decision. However, he included promising subordinates in his deliberations. In addition, rising executives and established senior managers made many important operating decisions. The tougher the choices, the more men grew; he tolerated mistakes as long as men learned from them.”