If you're the head of a company, would you give a job to a friend?
Don't do it, says Thomas F. Faught Jr.
"Involving friends in business dealings is courting problems — if not a disaster."
Faught, who teaches corporate strategy at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, has come out with a dead-serious, yet often smile-provoking book: "So You Want to Be a CEO" (Fortis Publishing, Jacksonville, Fla., 301 pages).
Himself an ex-CEO — of Pittsburgh's Dravo Corp., a few decades back — Faught has no truck with the idea of succeeding in business without really trying. A true careerist, he says (never using the word disparagingly) is always trying. Even when in love.
This could be the least romantic how-to hardcover of 2010. But give Faught credit for calling spouse and family the "most significant relationships" in a careerist's life. The book is dedicated to his six children.
If you want to get to the top, says Faught, never fall for someone with silly parents. Because the adage holds true: "like father like son." Likewise mother and daughter. So take the time — and three years wouldn't be too long — to get a good understanding of the beloved's environment. And when finally tying the knot, aim for contentment more than ecstasy. "Forget the flowers and birds of happiness."
The essential talent of a CEO, he emphasizes, is picking the right people to get a job done. An upward striver has to go from being a doer to a delegator. And if the subordinate picked for a job messes up, he's got to refrain from stepping in and completing it himself. "Do this once and you fail as a manager," warns Faught. You also deny the underling a learning experience.
Faught suggests that every CEO line up a "personal advisory group" — outside the company and paid out of pocket: an attorney, banker, accountant, physician and media specialist. Notice the omission of a politician. With few exceptions, he says, politicians "don't want your ideas, most of which they couldn't grasp anyway. They want your support ... your money." Yet government intervention in business, so often counter-productive, is "only going to increase."
More from a Faught sampler:
• When meeting with an individual, "remain standing instead of sitting. ... You will be surprised how fast even significant matters can be resolved."
• Pick up your own phone. Forcing callers to go through the menus of automatic answering systems is "the greatest insult to common courtesy that industry has yet inflicted."
• Golf takes too much time "and usually involves sub-par social relationships, which waste even more time." Better are jogging, swimming and skiing to stimulate thinking.
• Movies, television and radio also mostly waste time. But "always have a good book with you." It "dissuades intrusions."
• "Avoid lawsuits above all else. They pervert your conscience, impair your health and dissipate your property."
That last is not the CMU prof speaking but a French sage he admires from 400 years ago. He lists two dozen books, some quite ancient, that the most up-to-date careerist could read with profit.
