The finance director was a more difficult person to convince. He
could easily assess the costs but found it difficult to accept largely
subjective views of the potential benefits. In this case James Hale did
not try too hard to persuade him against his will. He knew that the
majority of the board was now in favour of the plan, including the
managing director. Hale felt safe in leaving his financial colleague in
an isolated and ultimately untenable position. The qualitative argu-
ments, as absorbed by the other members of the board, including the
managing director, had the ring of truth about them which no purely
quantitative arguments could overcome.
Hale was content that he had enough support. To clinch the argu-
ment he played his last political card by warning the marketing and
production directors that there might be some financial opposition.
He then got them to agree with the thesis that they wouldn’t allow
‘Mr Money Bags’ to adopt a narrow financial view and thus dictate
the destiny of the firm.
James Hale had no difficulty in getting his proposal accepted at the
next board meeting.The non-legitimate use of politics
The following is an example of non-legitimate use of politics.
Unfortunately, it is a fairly common one. In most organizations
there are people who want to get on, and do not have too many
scruples about how they do it. If it involves treading on other
people’s faces, then so be it.
Two directors of a company both aspired to be the next managing
director. Mr Gray, the finance director, had the ear of the MD. Mr
White, the technical director, was more remote.
Mr White had a number of ideas for introducing new technology
and had proved, to his own satisfaction at least, that the pay-off was
considerable. Unfortunately, he jumped the gun in order to anticipate
comments from Gray, and presented a paper to the managing
director which was not as well argued as it might have been. Gray
carefully lobbied the MD and convinced him that the proposal was
full of holes – he also hinted that this was yet another example of
White’s inability to understand the wider commercial issues.
The MD accepted this view more or less completely and agreed
with Gray’s suggestion that the whole proposal should be off-loaded
on to a board sub-committee – a well-known device to delay if not to
stifle new ideas. This was done, and the introduction of new tech-
nology was unnecessarily delayed by 18 months. But Gray had made
his point as the practical man of affairs who would not allow the
company to get involved in expensive and unrewarding projects.258 How to be an Even Better Manager