Articles

Work hard to get yourself fired

Written by Tim Spring, Consumer Goods Turnaround CEO

This article is a quick follow-up on a presentation I made to many of you in April at the Marketing Clinic’s annual client seminar.  One of the most memorable quotes from that presentation, which has generated a lot of feedback to me, was “…now go ahead.  Go back to work tomorrow.  And work hard to get yourself fired.”

Especially for those who didn´t attend the MC seminar and perhaps even for some who did, I believe some clarification of exactly what was discussed is important.  What was said was for folks to go back to work and get yourselves fired -- fired for passionately doing the right thing.

During a recent consulting assignment I had in Finland, and throughout my career, I have had to watch people get fired for all the wrong reasons.

Rarely, if ever, have I seen executives get fired for strongly proposing a course of action which is a bit risky, or internally unpopular.  And who, despite strong internal resistance, continue to push the idea.  Then when told that they actually can go ahead and implement the idea with the understanding that if it fails it could mean their career is put on hold – or even that they might get fired – they still go ahead and implement with confidence.

The point I was trying to make was that type of behaviour too rarely happens in companies, yet we wonder why these same companies get themselves into financial trouble?  Or are too slow to react to more aggressive, smaller competitors.

Resistance to change at the larger firms is pervasive.  Sometimes it is subtle, couched in vanilla corporate expressions like “that’s an interesting idea, let’s test it.”  Or the certain death blow, “that’s an interesting idea, let’s see if we can get a majority on the team to endorse it.”

The smaller firms do not work in committees.  They do not seek majority consensus.  They openly discuss a broad range of ideas, and if even one individual has an idea that is factually sound AND they have a deep passion for the idea, it generally gets implemented.  Not safely “tested” in a controlled environment in some distant area that cannot truly represent the total business.  These entrepreneurs “test” their ideas live, in the real market.  Their passion for the idea fixes problems with the execution as it is being implemented.

The recent success of Skype and Facebook illustrate the point on a grand scale.  These successes were not results of a single entrepreneur, but of a corporate culture encouraging “let’s try that!” attitude.  No matter how ambitious the idea, the entire organizations at Skype and Facebook told themselves over and over again, “…it seems like a good idea.  A little risky, sure.  But we can always fix it or kill it, if we need to.  Let’s give it a shot.”
My challenge at the presentation last month was strongly related to that attitude.  “Go back to work and get yourself fired”, I boldly pronounced.  “But do it because you believe it to be the right action deep inside yourself. 75% based on fact.  The other 25% pure gut.

If you take my challenge, you will not be disappointed.  But please be sure to discuss your plan with your CEO first.  See, that´s the message.  Good CEO’s never fire executives actually willing to stand up for unpopular ideas.  Even if they fail.

They have spent most of their careers recruiting to find you, and people like you.