Holly's Helpful Hints

Dear Holly,

I am the head of a large-scale multinational business concern.  I have an arrangement with other CEOs in my industry about territorial rights for our respective enterprises.  Most of the time this works out great and we can avoid unpleasantness like say, drug wars.  Oops bad example.  Excessive marketplace competition.  Yeah, that’s what I meant to say. 

One of these CEOs tells me the other day that one of my guys killed his guy’s career.  Killed is such an ugly word.....let’s just say his guy is out of the industry permanently.  So my, um, colleague, wants to have some of his people show my guy the errors of his ways.

I don’t have a big problem with this concept in general.  After all, we’re all big boys and our industry is pretty dog-eat-dog.  Thing is, my guy is really, really good at what he does, the best I’ve ever seen, in fact.  I greenlighted the other CEO to have his people approach my guy for a friendly discussion, only I asked him to wait till my guy can finish cooking up a big, uh, presentation.  He says he can’t guarantee his guys are in the mood to cool their heels because the guy who, er, took an early retirement was close to them.  Sort of like family, really.  

I sort of feel like the other CEO is playing chicken with me.  My question is this:  if the other organization’s goons, er, middle managers mess up my guy’s productivity before he turns in the final product I need, is it okay for me to unleash the hounds of hell on their entire operation, top  to bottom?

Sincerely, Gus in Albuquerque


Dear Gus,
Yes.  Please do.
Peace, Holly