Franklin D Roosevelt used a particularly ruthless technique
based on competition, when he requested his aides to find some
information. One of his aides told the story as follows: ‘He
would call you in, and he’d ask you to get the story on some
complicated business and you’d come back after a couple of days
of hard labour and present the juicy morsel you’d uncovered
under a stone somewhere and thenyou’d find out he knew all
about it, along with something else you didn’tknow. Where he
got this information from he wouldn’t mention, usually, but after
he had done this to you once or twice you got damn careful
about your information.’
Robert Townsend’s approach to delegation when he was chair -
man of Avis was to emphasize the need to delegate ‘as many
important matters as you can because that creates a climate in
which people grow’.
When he started, the head of a supermarket chain, told his divi-
sion managers: ‘I don’t know anything about the grocery busi-
ness but you fellows do. From now on, you’re running your
division as if it were your own business. You don’t take orders
from anyone but me and I’m not going to give you orders. I’m
going to hold you responsible.’
Franklin Moore related the following example of strong dele-
gation: Ralf Cordiner, the head of General Electric in the US
for 10 years, had a vice president who wanted to see him
urgently about a problem. The vice president explained his
problem, and the choices he thought he had. ‘Now, Mr Cordiner,’
he said, ‘what should I do?’ ‘Do?’ Cordiner answered, ‘You’d
damn well better get on an airplane and get back to your office
and decide. And if you can’t decide we’d better get someone
who can.’
Peter Drucker (1967), writing about responsibility, referred to a
news paper interview with a young American infantry captain in
the Vietnam jungle. The reporter asked: ‘How in this confused
situation can you retain command?’ The captain replied:
‘Around here, I am the only guy who is responsible. If these men
don’t know what to do when they run into an enemy in the
jungle, I’m too far away to tell them. My job is to make sure they
know. What they do depends on the situation which only they
64 How to be an Even Better Manager