Memos from the Chairman

Summary

This book was a bit of a disappointment. Having heard so much about it, and read about it before it seemed like a book full of wisdom of how to run a company. Instead it was more of a petty account on a company where the chairman of the company is writing passive aggressive "joking" emails to his employees all the time in order to minimize cost and remind them to be as frugal as possible.

The disconnect between the methods proposed and the actual "success" of the company couldn't be more stark. Sure, being frugal is a helpful trade but there is something where frugality becomes an obsession that is so strong that it is suffocating all the creative inputs and all the good parts of a company and therefore makes sure that nobody really get's their work done efficiently anymore. There is such a thing as too much frugality and ultimately that this company has died shows that this was the case here too, no amount of frugality could have helped and besides this the book is quite empty in ideas.

Somehow the only merit of this book is that it is short and somewhat funny but I am feeling bad for the poor people who had to work for this boss and his weird way of micromanaging, I can only imagine the water cooler talk and it somehow reminds me a bit of the people from the show "The Office".

Detailed Notes

The shoe usually falls on your head when you least expect it.

Our unrelenting enemies—complacency, overconfidence and conceit.

PSD - poor, smart and a deep desire to be rich. Not with an MBA degree and highly educated. Taleb would call these people "street smart".

The idea of your boss sending you a memo about leaving word where you can be found and mockingly suggesting to get you a radio collar from the zoo if you don't comply is beyond stupid.

Stick to thine own business. Watch thy shop. Limit thy losses. Watch thy expenses like a hawk. Stay humble, humble, humble. When dealing with a new account, know thy customer and know thy customer's money is up.

Honest men may differ, but when the difference becomes animosity, you can have problems.

The idea of cost cutting by any means possible is ridiculously portrayed by the examples given. No more buying of paper clips, because they can be re-used is improving the bottom line of the company.

We try to cut expenses all the time, but particularly when business is great.

Thought: The subtle hints of threat mixed with "fun and jokes" throughout the memos make my hair stand on end. It sounds like a really horrible place to work at and in general all of this didn't even help them because the firm still folded in the financial crash of 2008.

The best time to hire productive people is when conditions are difficult.

The harder you work, the luckier you get.