W h y s o m e c o m p a n I e s m a k e t h e

Good to Great from the Level
5 chapter that Gault quipped in response to the accusation of being a tyrant, "Yes, but I'm a sincere tyrant" Gault brought strict disciplines to Rubbermaid-rigorous planning and competitor analysis, systematic market research, profit analysis, hard-nosed cost control, and soon. "This is an incredibly disciplined organization" wrote one analyst. There is an incredible thoroughness in Rubbermaid's approach to Precise and methodical, Gault arrived at work by and routinely worked eighty-hour weeks, expecting his managers to do the As chief disciplinarian, Gault personally acted as the company's number one quality control mechanism. Walking down the street in Manhattan, he noticed a doorman muttering and swearing as he swept dirt into a Rubbermaid dustpan. "Stan whirled around and starting grilling the man on why he was unhappy" said Richard Gates, who told the story to Fortune. Gault, convinced that the lip of the dustpan was too thick, promptly issued a dictate to his engineers to redesign the product. "On quality, I'm a abitch," said Gault. His chief operating officer concurred "He gets Rubbermaid rose dramatically under the tyranny of this singularly disciplined leader but then just as dramatically declined when he departed. Under Gault, Rubbermaid beat the market 3.6 to After Gault, Rubbermaid lost
59 percent of its value relative to the market, before being bought out by One particularly fascinating example of the disciplinarian syndrome was Chrysler under Lee Iacocca, whom Business Week described simply as, "The Man. The Dictator.
Iacocca became president of Chrysler in
1979 and imposed his towering personality to discipline the organization into shape. "Right away I knew the place was in a state of anarchy and needed a dose of order and discipline-and quick" wrote
Iacocca of his early In his first year, he entirely overhauled the management structure, instituted strict financial controls, improved quality control measures, rationalized the production schedule, and conducted mass layoffs to preserve "I felt like an Army Surgeon. We had to do radical surgery, ving what we In dealing with the unions, he said, If you dot help me outgoing to blow your brains out. declare bankru cy the morning, and you'll all be out of produ ed spectacular results and Chrysler became one of the most celebrated turnarounds in industrial history. About midway through his tenure, however, Iacocca seemed to lose focus and the company began to decline once again. The Wall Street nal wrote "Mr. Iacocca headed the Statue of Liberty renovation, joined a

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