Iverson, Ken

"We have told our managers to "trust your instincts"-and we have meant what we said. We've urged them to confer the same kind of decision-making autonomy to their people-to make their own decisions based on what they think is best for the business-and we have never backed off our commitment. Before making your choices, you must think through which decision-making structures will best serve the operations you manage. We chose decentralization to gain the innovation, tion, speed, and flexibility that stem from operating like twenty-one smaller companies instead of as a monolithic corporation. We're willing to live with the redundancies and "inefficiencies" that go with that choice."

"• We are in a labor-intensive and technology-intensive intensive business, yet we've built most of our manufacturing facilities in areas that have more cows than people."

"I'm not so much a champion of decentralization centralization as I am an advocate for decisiveness. Managers at all levels need to assess what is most crucial cial for the operations they manage and-based on that assessment-choose where the locus of decision-making making power should reside. Then they must implement ment that choice thoroughly, and stick to their choice over the long term."

"Believe me, I think long and hard before I overturn turn a standing rule or urge a manager to forgive an employee's dishonesty. And I don't do it very often. The main thing I think about in deciding how to respond to such situations is: "When everybody else in the company learns of it (as they surely will), will they believe we did the right thing?" If I suspect that our action will be seen as contradicting our basic values, ues, I won't make an exception. If I think they'll see bending the rules as a demonstration of our caring for one another and as something that will be good for the company in the long term, I will."

"There are some boundaries for what's acceptable in the general managers' meetings, of course, and I'm often the one who points them out. I take into account that these are people with big egos. We're all for big egos. But we're against building up your ego by stepping on the back of someone else. As a firm rule, we don't discuss personalities. If I see that happening, pening, I step in and put a stop to it as quick as I can."

"The way we see it, making a living in today's economy omy is like crossing a broad and stormy sea. You could jump straight in and start swimming. Of course, that would be foolish. People with sense will get together and build themselves a boat. And when the seas get a little rough, you could run around pushing your shipmates overboard. People with composure work together to pull through the storms. They deal with the perils of the moment together, never forgetting that the people around them represent their best hope of reaching a better future."

"A focus on long-term survival over shorter-term considerations can change every aspect of your business, ness, because it drives fundamentally different priorities. ties. Most of all, it is a safeguard against management's tendency to make business decisions solely in response to the pressures of the moment."

"I ask our managers to focus, day in and day out, on maintaining close bonds with employees, because I believe people are our company's most valuable resource."

"You can't wait for someone else to come along and relieve you of the burden of information overload. load. You have to do it for yourself. You have to fight back. The key is to identify the fraction of information tion that truly is useful to you, so you can concentrate on it. That was how I gradually pared down the information I'd allow others to burden me with to the handful of data points I've just described."

"In short, while we work hard to get the information tion we need, we've worked just as hard to keep our reports streamlined and ourselves free of "information tion overload.""

"I always ask a caller if he has discussed the problem with his supervisor, department manager, and general manager. If he has not, I urge him to try that path first, knowing he's likely to get a full and fair hearing. Our managers will try their best to work out a solution. That's their nature. Besides, they know that if they won't listen to their employees' problems, I will."

"MANAGERS TEND TO see promoting equality or "empowering employees" as a product of their noninterference. interference. Even I find myself counseling managers to "just stay out of the way" of their employees. But the truth is, you can't be passive. You must attack hierarchy. You have to destroy it."

"MOLTEN METAL is a wild and restless force. Engineers, neers, supervisors, and production workers will gather around a new caster like kids at the lighting of a bonfire, fire, staring in silent expectation while the maiden melt of steel spits and hisses its way through the apparatus. ratus. If the caster works, the long rectangular shells of cooling steel will secure the still-molten core, glowing in its persistent fury, and the onlookers, having caged the beast, will clap one another on the back, celebrating ing their collective triumph over a power not one of them could hope to master alone."

"We refuse to do it. I like to remind our managers: "We're not dogs on a leash, doing tricks to manage the stock price or maximize dividends quarter-by-quarter. quarter. We're eagles. We soar. If investors want to soar, too, they'll invest in us. The speculators, we don't need.""

"My objective during the call itself is to listen to the employee, not to resolve his problem. I find out what the facts are, get their side of the story, and take time to hear how they feel about it and why they feel the way they do. I think most managers and executives have a tendency to think they have to come up with a brilliant answer, Bing!, when what the caller really wants is simply to be heard. Being heard is liberating. It demonstrates to employees that they are not buried under layer after layer of bureaucracy. If an employee is concerned enough to bring a problem or issue to you, then you ought to listen. It's common courtesy and it's good for the business."

"What's the difference? Time. Over a three-to-five-year five-year period, the success and growth in equity of a business will be reflected in its stock price, rewarding ing the investor. I've received letters from shareholders ers who assured us they won't cut and run should our earnings dip or our share price drop. "Do what's right," they say."

"Our relations with employees are based on these four clear-cut principles: 1. Management is obligated to manage the company in such a way that employees will have the opportunity tunity to earn according to their productivity; 2. Employees should feel confident that if they do their jobs properly, they will have a job tomorrow; 3. Employees have the right to be treated fairly and must believe that they will be; 4. Employees must have an avenue of appeal when they believe they are being treated unfairly."

"Our strategy was what executives now call "focusing on our core competencies," although that's not what we called it. We just placed the few chips we had left on the businesses nesses that were turning a buck."

"I'd suggest that you try to focus on information that tells you what you need to know under ordinary circumstances, and that will give you early warning when something extraordinary is going on. If you experience a precipitous drop in orders, for example, you want to know immediately, so you can find out why and figure out what to do about it. You should also take care to differentiate between objective and subjective information."

"SHARING INFORMATION is another key to treating ing people as equals, building trust, and destroying the hierarchy. I think there are really just two ways to go on the question of information-sharing: Tell employees everything or tell them nothing. Otherwise, each time you choose to withhold information, they have reason to think you're up to something. We prefer to tell employees everything. We hold back nothing."

"We track and manage costs more closely than just about any business you can name, yet we anticipate and accept that roughly half of our investments in new ideas and new technologies will yield no usable results."