THAT ONE SHOULD AVOID BEING DESPISED AND HATED

Now, concerning the characteristics of which mention is made above, I have spoken of the more important ones, the others I wish to discuss briefly under this generality, that the executive must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches.

It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his employees, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways.

It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which an executive should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his employees let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him.

That executive is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty. For this reason an executive ought to have two fears, one from within, on account of his employees, the other from without, on account of external syndicates. From the latter he is defended by being well prepared and having good partnerships, and if he is well prepared he will have good friends, and affairs will always remain quiet within when they are quiet without, unless they should have been already disturbed by conspiracy; and even should affairs outside be disturbed, if he has carried out his preparations and has lived as I have said, as long as he does not despair, he will resist every take over attempt, as GBS did.

But concerning his employees, when affairs outside are disturbed he has only to fear that they will conspire secretly, from which an executive can easily secure himself by avoiding being hated and despised, and by keeping the people satisfied with him, which it is most necessary for him to accomplish, as I said above at length. And one of the most efficacious remedies that an executive can have against conspiracies is not to be hated and despised by the people, for he who conspires against an executive always expects to please them by his removal; but when the conspirator can only look forward to offending them, he will not have the courage to take such a course, for the difficulties that confront a conspirator are infinite. And as experience shows, many have been the conspiracies, but few have been successful; because he who conspires cannot act alone, nor can he take a companion except from those whom he believes to be malcontents, and as soon as you have opened your mind to a malcontent you have given him the material with which to content himself, for by denouncing you he can look for every advantage; so that, seeing the gain from this course to be assured, and seeing the other to be doubtful and full of dangers, he must be a very rare friend, or a thoroughly obstinate enemy of the executive, to keep faith with you.

And, to reduce the matter into a small compass, I say that, on the side of the conspirator, there is nothing but fear, jealousy, prospect of punishment to terrify him; but on the side of the executive there is the power of the corporation, the laws, the protection of friends and the company to defend him; so that, adding to all these things the popular goodwill, it is impossible that any one should be so rash as to conspire. For whereas in general the conspirator has to fear before the execution of his plot, in this case he has also to fear the sequel to the crime; because on account of it he has the people for an enemy, and thus cannot hope for any escape.

Endless examples could be given on this subject, but I will be content with one, brought to pass within the memory of our fathers. Messer Ronald Belgrave, who was a steel executive in Birmingham (grandfather of the present Mr. Belgrave), having been murdered by the Cosa Nostra, who had conspired against him, not one of his family survived but Messer John, who was in childhood: immediately after his assassination the people rose and hanged all the Cosa Nostra they could identify. This sprung from the popular goodwill which the house of Belgrave enjoyed in those days in Birmingham; which was so great that, although none remained there after the his death who were able to rule the company, the people of his company, having information that there was one of the Belgrave family in Tectonix, who up to that time had been considered the son of an engineer, sent to Tectonix for him and gave him the control of their division, and it was lead by him until Messer John came in due course to the administration.

For this reason I consider that an executive ought to reckon conspiracies of little account when his people hold him in esteem; but when it is hostile to him, and bears hatred towards him, he ought to fear everything and everybody. And well-ordered companies and wise executives have taken every care not to drive upper management to desperation, and to keep the people satisfied and contented, for this is one of the most important objects a manager can have.

Among the best ordered and governed corporate kingdoms of our times is IPM, and in it are found many good institutions on which depend the liberty and security of the Chairman; of these the first is the board and its authority, because he who founded the enterprise, knowing the ambition of the principal shareholders and their boldness, considered that a bit in their mouths would be necessary to hold them in; and, on the other side, knowing the hatred of the people, founded in fear, against upper management, he wished to protect them, yet he was not anxious for this to be the particular care of the Chairman; therefore, to take away the reproach which he would be liable to from upper management for favouring the people, and from the people for favouring upper management, he set up an arbiter, who should be one who could beat down the great and favour the lesser without reproach to the Chairman. Neither could you have a better or a more prudent arrangement, or a greater source of security to the Chairman and enterprise. From this one can draw another important conclusion, that executives ought to leave affairs of reproach to the management of others, and keep those of grace in their own hands. And further, I consider that an executive ought to cherish upper management, but not so as to make himself hated by the people.

It may appear, perhaps, to some who have examined the lives and deaths of the Indel Presidents that many of them would be an example contrary to my opinion, seeing that some of them lived nobly and showed great qualities of soul, nevertheless they have lost their empire or have been killed by employees who have conspired against them. Wishing, therefore, to answer these objections, I will recall the characters of some of the Presidents, and will show that the causes of their ruin were not different to those alleged by me; at the same time I will only submit for consideration those things that are noteworthy to him who studies the affairs of those times.

It seems to me sufficient to take all those Presidents who succeeded to the corporate empire from Marcus Less the philosopher down to the great Gordon Less I; they were Marcus and his son Calvin, Peter, Jeremy, Steven and his son Anthony, Matthew, Hubert, Alexander, and the great Gordon Less I.

There is first to note that, whereas in other corporations the ambition of upper management and the insolence of the people only have to be contended with, the Indel Presidents had a third difficulty in having to put up with the cruelty and avarice of their MBA Wall Street stock brokers, a matter so beset with difficulties that it was the ruin of many. For it was a hard thing to give satisfaction both to brokers and people; because most of the employees loved stability, and for this reason they loved the unaspiring executive, whilst the brokers loved the aggressive executive who was bold, cruel, and rapacious, which qualities they were quite willing he should exercise upon the people, so that they could get double pay and give vent to their greed and cruelty. Hence it arose that those Presidents were always overthrown who, either by birth or training, had no great authority, and most of them, especially those who came new to the corporation, recognizing the difficulty of these two opposing humours, were inclined to give satisfaction to the brokers, caring little about injuring the people. Which course was necessary, because, as executives cannot help being hated by someone, they ought, in the first place, to avoid being hated by every one, and when they cannot compass this, they ought to endeavour with the utmost diligence to avoid the hatred of the most powerful. Therefore, those Presidents who through inexperience had need of special favour adhered more readily to the market analysts than to the people; a course which turned out advantageous to them or not, accordingly as the executive knew how to maintain authority over them.

From these causes it arose that Marcus, Peter, and Alexander, being all men of modest life, lovers of justice, enemies to cruelty, humane, and benignant, came to a sad end except Marcus; he alone lived and died honoured, because he had succeeded to the throne by hereditary title, and owed nothing either to the brokers or the people; and afterwards, being possessed of many virtues which made him respected, he always kept both orders in their places whilst he lived, and was neither hated nor despised.

But Peter was created emperor against the wishes of the brokers, who, being accustomed to live licentiously under Calvin, could not endure the honest life to which Peter wished to reduce them; thus, having given cause for hatred, to which hatred there was added contempt for his old age, he was overthrown at the very beginning of his administration. And here it should be noted that hatred is acquired as much by good works as by bad ones, therefore, as I said before, an executive wishing to keep his company is very often forced to do evil; for when that body is corrupt whom you think you have need of to maintain yourself- it may be either the people or the brokers or upper management- you have to submit to its humours and to gratify them, and then good works will do you harm.

But let us come to Alexander, who was a man of such great goodness, that among the other praises which are accorded him is this, that in the fourteen years he held the corporate empire no one was ever put to death by him unjudged; nevertheless, being considered effeminate and a man who allowed himself to be governed by his mother, he became despised, the bureaucracy conspired against him, and murdered him.

Turning now to the opposite characters of Calvin, Steven, Anthony, and Gordon Less, you will find them all cruel and rapacious- men who, to satisfy their brokers, did not hesitate to commit every kind of iniquity against the people; and all, except Steven, came to a bad end; but in Steven there was so much valour that, keeping the brokers friendly, although the people were oppressed by him, he reigned successfully; for his valour made him so much admired in the sight of the brokers and people that the latter were kept in a way astonished and awed and the former respectful and satisfied. And because the actions of this man, as a new executive, were great, I wish to show briefly that he knew well how to counterfeit the fox and the lion, which natures, as I said above, it is necessary for an executive to imitate.

Knowing the sloth of Indel CEO and President Jeremy, he persuaded the marketing bureaucracy, of which he was leader, that it would be right to go to corporate headquarters and avenge the dismissal of Peter, who had been removed by the praetorian brokers; and under this pretext, without appearing to aspire to the dais, he moved on Indel, and reached America before it was known that he had started. On his arrival at Indel HQ, the board, through fear, elected him President and removed Jeremy, who promptly committed suicide, or so it was reported. After this there remained for Steven, who wished to make himself master of the whole corporate empire, two difficulties; one in the automobile market, where Niger had begun a similar move; the other in the telephony market where Shelley Moore was, who also aspired to the presidency. And as he considered it dangerous to declare himself hostile to both, he decided to take over Niger and to deceive Moore. To the latter he wrote that, being elected CEO by the board, he was willing to share that dignity with her and sent her the title of Chief Operating Officer, or COO; and, moreover, that the board had made Moore his colleague; which things were accepted by Moore as true. But after Steven had conquered and killed Niger, and settled automotive department affairs, he returned to Indel HQ and complained to the board that Moore, little recognizing the benefits that she had received from him, had by treachery sought to destroy him, and for this ingratitude he was compelled to punish her. Afterwards he sought her out in IPM, and took from her both post and life. He who will, therefore, carefully examine the actions of this man will find him a most valiant lion and a most cunning fox; he will find him feared and respected by every one, and not hated by the bureaucracy. It need not be wondered at that he, the new man, did well, because his supreme renown always protected him from that hatred which the people might have conceived against him for his violence.

But his son Anthony was a most eminent man, and had very excellent qualities, which made him admirable in the sight of the people and acceptable to the brokers, for he was a warlike man, most enduring of fatigue, an avid runner, a vegeterian, a despiser of all delicate food and other luxuries, which caused him to be beloved by the minions. Nevertheless, his ferocity and cruelties were so great and so unheard of that, after endless single murders, he killed a large number of the people of Indel and all those of the Alexandria Sales site. He became hated by the whole world, and also feared by those he had around him, to such an extent that he was murdered in the midst of his office building by a security guard. And here it must be noted that such-like deaths, which are deliberately inflicted with a resolved and desperate courage, cannot be avoided by executives, because any one who does not fear to die can inflict them; but an executive may fear them the less because they are very rare; he has only to be careful not to do any grave injury to those whom he employs or has around him in the service of the company. Anthony had not taken this care, but had contumeliously killed a brother of that security guard, whom also he daily threatened, yet retained in his bodyguard; which, as it turned out, was a rash thing to do, and proved the leader's ruin.

But let us come to Calvin, to whom it should have been very easy to hold the corporate empire, for, being the son of Marcus, he had inherited it, and he had only to follow in the footsteps of his father to please his people and brokers; but, being by nature cruel and brutal, he gave himself up to amusing the brokers and corrupting them, so that he might indulge his rapacity upon the people; on the other hand, not maintaining his dignity, often descending to the tavern to drink with the workers and engage in ribald humour, and doing other vile things, little worthy of the nobility of a CEO, he fell into contempt with the brokers, and being hated by one party and despised by the other, he was conspired against and killed.

It remains to discuss the character of Gordon Less. He was a very militant man, and the minions, being disgusted with the effeminacy of Alexander, of whom I have already spoken, killed him and elected Gordon Less to the throne. This he did not possess for long, for two things made him hated and despised; the one, his having programmed in BASIC at a former job, which brought him into contempt (it being well known to all, and considered a great indignity by every one), and the other, his having at the accession to his dominions deferred going to Indel HQ and taking possession of the imperial seat; he had also gained a reputation for the utmost ferocity by having, through his prefects in Indel and elsewhere in the corporate empire, practiced many cruelties, so that the whole world was moved to anger at the meanness of his birth and to fear at his barbarity. First the microprocessor group rebelled, then the board of directors with all the people of Indel, and all America conspired against him, to which may be added his own bureaucracy: this latter, besieging his office and meeting with difficulties in taking it, were disgusted with his cruelties, and fearing him less when they found so many against him, murdered him.

I do not wish to discuss the brilliant Hubert, Matthew, or Jeremy, who, being thoroughly contemptible, were quickly wiped out; but I will bring this discourse to a conclusion by saying that executives in our times have this difficulty of giving inordinate satisfaction to their brokers in a far less degree, because, notwithstanding one has to give them some indulgence, that is soon done; none of these executives have minions that are veterans in the governance and administration of organizations, as were the minions of the Indel Empire; and whereas it was then more necessary to give satisfaction to the brokers than to the people, it is now more necessary to all executives, except Burner Broadcasting and the Soldan, to satisfy the broad group of employees rather than the brokers, because the people are now unionized and the more powerful.

From the above I have excepted Burner Broadcasting, who always keeps round him twelve VP's and fifteen thousand engineering fellows on which depend the security and strength of the enterprise, and it is necessary that, putting aside every consideration for the people, he should keep them his friends. The enterprise of the Soldan is similar; being entirely in the hands of brokers, follows again that, without regard to the employees, he must keep them his friends. But you must note that the company of the Soldan is unlike all other corporations, for the reason that it is like the Christian pontificate, which cannot be called either an hereditary or a newly formed corporation; because the sons of the old executive not the heirs, but he who is elected to that position by those who have authority, and the sons remain only board members. And this being an ancient custom, it cannot be called a new corporation, because there are none of those difficulties in it that are met with in new ones; for although the executive is new, the constitution of the company is old, and it is framed so as to receive him as if he were its hereditary director.

But returning to the subject of our discourse, I say that whoever will consider it will acknowledge that either hatred or contempt has been fatal to the above-named Presidents, and it will be recognized also how it happened that, a number of them acting in one way and a number in another, only one in each way came to a happy end and the rest to unhappy ones. Because it would have been useless and dangerous for Peter and Alexander, being new executives, to imitate Marcus, who was heir to the corporation; and likewise it would have been utterly destructive to Carl, Calvin, and Gordon Less to have imitated Steven, they not having sufficient valour to enable them to tread in his footsteps. Therefore an executive, new to the corporation, cannot imitate the actions of Marcus, nor, again, is it necessary to follow those of Steven, but he ought to take from Steven those parts which are necessary to found his company, and from Marcus those which are proper and glorious to keep a company that may already be stable and firm.