Alex: Do you want to grow your business? Don’t be an a**hole.
John: Yes
Alex: What do you care about? Well, we’ve got a really high turnover rate. Why do you think your company has a high turnover rate? Just think that through. “I don’t know. Our supply chain is not very reliable.” Well, why is your supply chain not reliable? Are you easy to do business with? Do they trust you?
Those are the conversations that are not happening in MBAs. And I don’t have an MBA. I’m not as smart as you. And I’ve worked for a couple of MBA’s that are way smarter than me, but those conversations don’t happen. Instead they say, “We think you’re too nice to our supply chain. Why don’t you ever get really firm and demand and pound the table?”
How about ‘pound your relationship’?
“I need a favor. I need your help. We can’t solve this problem. I need your help. I’ll owe you one the next time.”
