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Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
Lee Iacocca has a new book out
called, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone.”
In it, he soundly
bashes our current crop of
political officials, calling them uninspired
and uninspiring. He wonders why we
haven’t seen an Abe Lincoln, or FDR, or
Harry Truman to lead us out of our current
mess. It seems that, during previous times of
travail, somebody stepped forward and
reminded us how great our country was,
and how much better it could be. These
previous great leaders did not divide us into
factions, but rather showed us a common
goal and shined a bright light on the path
to get there. According to Iacocca, there is
nobody on the horizon who even comes
close to filling this crying need.
Iacocca outlines nine qualities
of a true leader. He calls them the Nine
“Cs”: Curiosity, Creativity, ability to
Communicate, personal Character, Courage,
Conviction, Charisma, Competence,
and Common Sense.
I think he’s onto something
there. I also think he’s onto something
when he says that no leading American
political figure measures up to any of the
great leaders of the past. Not one.
He also says that leaders are made, not
born. Circumstances often lead ordinary
people to do extraordinary things. Think
about Iwo Jima (“uncommon valor was a
common virtue”), the recovery from the
Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement.
In each of these cases, ordinary
people displayed the leadership qualities detailed
by Iacocca, and in each case, historical
leaders emerged.
I have a question. Is it possible
that our elected officials are of such
poor quality because we, as a people, are
in decline? After all, our leadership
springs from the same stock as the rest of
us. If we, in general, don’t spend enough
time with our kids, see a found wallet as
a sudden windfall, fudge a little on our
tax returns, are quick to sue if we see a
financial advantage, spend more time
watching sitcoms than news broadcasts, and
don’t take the time to vote intelligently,
then just what should we expect from our
“leaders?”
So much has come to us so easily for so
long that we seem to buckle when the going
gets a little tough. We seem to want easy
solutions to difficult problems. We also seem
to be breaking into groups: Whites/blacks/hispanics,
educated/uneducated, insured/uninsured, pro-Iraq/anti-Iraq. But
instead of disagreeing with the other guy,
we demonize him. Instead of our leaders
pushing toward common ground, too many of
them put a crowbar in the cracks of our
society so that they, the officials, can
carve out a cushy place for themselves on
the public payroll. They don’t see
themselves as representing “the people,”
only their narrow constituency of
green-haired, 4-armed, gay/straight
Republicrats who want a bridge built to the
new cultural center in the desert.
This factionalism has got to stop. The
extremism on all sides has got to be tempered
by the common sense of those people
who have turned off to the system for
whatever reason. People who don’t vote should
be ashamed of themselves. Not only do they
have fewer grounds to gripe, but their
inaction is enabling the crazies and the
dividers to hold sway. We’re too good a
country for that.
Maybe if we took it upon ourselves, as
individuals, to be more
curious/creative/communicative/courageous, and competent,
our commons sense would let our character
show through and enable us to stand up for
our true convictions. Maybe, just maybe, if
we were better people, we would get better
leaders.
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As we go to press on this edition
of the Items newsletter, we have just
learned that the importers have increased
their prices again. By our count, this is
the third price increase in the past few
weeks. Rumor has it that the published
prices for imported pipe are now HIGHER
than the published prices for most
domestic material, including AB&I’s.
It seems that
the days of selling below cost and
subsidizing cast iron foundries in the People’s
Paradise may have come to an end, at least
for now. So many price increases in
such a short period of time indicate to me
that the import foundries don’t have a
good idea of what their true cost of
production is.
Now, I will be
the first to tell you that in a complex manufacturing
environment, it is difficult at best to
know your true costs. Many managers of
modern companies will, even today, be hard
pressed to give you a straight answer as to
real costs of production. But in today’s world,
such management information is critical to the
success of the enterprise. Without it, you’re
flying blind and hoping you don’t hit a
mountain.
Which brings up the real point of this story.
How many of you know what your true costs
of a sale are? Allocating overhead, advertising
and marketing, travel, salaries – the whole
nine yards – to each product category is a
daunting task, but more than worth the candle
it takes to get it done.
Even a first-draft stab at
the process will provide a wealth of information,
no doubt uncovering both waste and
missed opportunities. If you’re like most
of us, you’ll probably find that you do
some things very well, and sell some
products very efficiently. Other things,
not so much. The point is, you can’t refocus
your business without data. And there’s no
better time to start gathering that data, and
taking a close look at what it’s telling you,
than now.
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