"7 days": Going from great to mediocre.

What really happened to the big car companies to ruin them? What has happened to a lot of the companies that seemed to be doing great, had employes that loved the job, product, and work place? Accountants.

In a book that I can't remember by a writer who's name I wish I could remember outlined, on a radio interview with Jerry Doyle, what really happened. The big three were definitely having troubles with a bunch of different areas but, the biggest thing they gave up was their identity, vision, and true leadership. You see, these companies were originally started and ran by creative visionaries that loved cars. If you have ever met a car guy, you know how passionate they can get about their ride. Anyhow, we had these guys that loved cars running companies that grew from their vision and passion. Then in the 90's something changed. The leadership was being swapped out not for more car guys but for accountants.

Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with accountants. They play a vital roll within any company. What I would argue though is this. Should a company be lead by a person who is passionate about the product and business or by a person who pours over the metrics? Often times these accountant types are not known for their vision, leadership, or love of the particular product. What they love is numbers. That's great and there is a place for that, but not behind the wheel of the company.

I used to work for a large transmission parts distributor. The company was started by a man who loved cars, knew allot about transmissions, and saw a need that was not being filled. Because of his passion, and his deep understanding of the product, he grew that company past himself into a large organization with around a 100 employees who loved him and where they worked. The company was very profitable, growing at a steady rate, with a high morale. In under 20 years it become one of the largest transmission parts distributors in America. Then something changed.

After several offers the owner of this company finally sold the business he created from nothing for millions of dollars (more than 10) to a "holding" company. Holding companies normally have little vision but lots of cash. They typically buy already successful growing business. They are typically all accountants who can do crazy figures and graphs and other types of financial metrics. Generally speaking they are not creators. This holding company bought us and we switched hands several times. They eventually replaced the previous manager of the company with a... You guessed it, accountant. Over the past couple of years they have cleaned house of all the previously upper management who were all cars guys without degrees with people who know nothing about the industry but, have master degrees with long names. So they ultimately replaced the people who understood the industrie with people who have theory about the industry. The gain? Productivity down, sales down, the highest turnover rate ever and low moral.

Here is a video that illustrates what I'm saying.

What I'm trying to get at is this. A company doesn't need a bean counter as its leader, it needs a leader with vision, passion, and compassion. Enthusiasm and love for your product is what pushes a company forward. People want to be under a leader with passion because we get swept up into something bigger than ourselves, we get excited. When people feel they are a part of something, productivity goes up. No one gets excited by the pages and pages of financial metrics, they get excited by a vision fueled by passion.

What do you think? Am I way off base here? Do we need more accountants and less vision people? Have ever experienced what I described above?