Strip-and-flip strategy a recipe for irrelevance.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: RUNDLES WRAP-UP - Column

In my time, I have had to endure some world-class bonehead bosses. There was the twerp from corporate who came to our office one Christmas to announce there would be no holiday bonuses that year because last year's meager payments had pushed a few people into a higher tax bracket and actually cost them money.

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And, of course, there was the senior vice president who blew into town to lay off the entire staff, including me. He tried to lighten our load by regaling us with his planned vacation weekend in Aspen; no better way to display compassion than by contrasting unemployment with the perquisites of being a senior executive.

What defines the bad boss most, however, is not the innate ability to handle almost every task poorly, although that is always there, too. It is rather this: All bad news is a "corporate" decision made by some amorphous power ("I'm just the messenger"), and all good news is always a directive that manager is personally responsible for. All mistakes were made by underlings, all positives the result of great senior management.

I have covered business for a long time, and I have come to understand that bad managers whittle away at the best employees so they can garner most of the spotlight for themselves. The very good managers, on the other hand, surround themselves with the best and the brightest, and do their utmost to spread the light around. Unfortunately, I know a ton of people who do great work in the dark.

I used to think this was all some measurement of management, that business management somehow favored the bland and emotionless. But I have broadened my view. It is not really an attribute of management, for there are plenty of examples of perfectly good managers in all kinds of businesses. No, it is that bad managers are bred in bad organizations, and the business world is getting more and more bad organizations.

I have had the opportunity to work with small organizations where the owner was right there, and for the most part these were great environments. Oh, yes, from time to time they could be goofy and often capricious, but more often than not the owner/manager did the right thing because, ultimately, the people really did matter.

I have also worked for large corporations, and it is nearly cliche that these are impersonal organizations. However, your average large corporation at least pays lip service to its people, listing them as assets, and trying its best to offer...