The Case for Wasting Time and Other Management Heresies

By Howard Pines

Understanding the basic tenets of management is certainly important, but following the conventional wisdomsuch as not wasting timeis not necessarily the key to solving problems or achieving personal success. Providing advice that goes against that conventional wisdom is exactly what this book is about, whether it concerns how to get things done as you move up in a company or how to develop relationships and support both inside and outside an organization.

In fact, not only is the advice unconventionaland in many cases hereticalso too are the subjects covered. For example, the importance of validating assumptions is not something you are likely to read about in most business books. But as Howard Pines explains, if you dont, you are likely to make both embarrassing and sometimes costly errors. Similarly, while there are many books that will tell you how to get a job, there are virtually no others that explain how to determine the best time and way to leave a job and/or a business. In addition, even when discussing aspects of business that are covered in other books, such as negotiating or dealing with change, the author enables you to see those subjects in a way that is both different and helpful.

Wasting Time does not, however, provide simple answers. Rather, based on the authors fifty years of hands-on experience as a human resources executive, successful HR consultant, and business owner, the book shows how even issues that appear to be straightforward may, in reality, provide interesting dilemmas that require creative
thinking and non-traditional approaches if you want to achieve the best solution!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481722988

Howard Pines

Howard Pines’ fifty years of hands-on experience in the business world has enabled him to develop a keen awareness of and a pragmatic approach to what is required to make the various functions within an organization work together effectively, efficiently, and profitably. At BeamPines, which he co-founded in 1981 with Dr. Jerome Beam, he led the coaching and consulting practices, where both the company and its clients relied on his ability to coach senior executives, and a number of successful entrepreneurs utilized the business consulting services to locate, purchase, and operate their ventures. During his thirty plus years with the company he also co-founded the Beam Group, an executive search firm, and the BeamPines/Middlesex University Master’s Program in Executive Coaching. Before founding BeamPines, he was corporate senior vice president of human resources for Standard Brands Inc., a Fortune 200 Company, where he held worldwide responsibility for all human resources functions. His previous assignment with Standard Brands, as vice president and chief administrative officer for their Consumer Products Group, involved restructuring and upgrading its U.S. food companies. Previously at SBI he had partnered in the development of the corporate performance management system, which was used for determining and measuring the achievement of business goals for the three hundred most senior executives throughout the company’s worldwide operations, and became the basis for the corporation’s executive and succession planning activities. He began his career at SBI when he joined P. Ballantine & Sons, prior to which he worked at the Prudential Insurance Company. Mr. Pines holds a law degree from Seton Hall University. Over the years, he has served as a director on several boards within the consumer products and financial services industries. He presently lives with his wife, Judith, on Amelia Island in Florida. While he still takes on an occasional consulting assignment, he now spends most of his time playing golf and writing a bi-weekly column for the Fernandina Beach News-Leader.

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© 2013 Howard Pines. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 3/19/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2296-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2297-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-2298-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013903823

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 On Wasting Time

2 On Adding Executives

3 On Negotiations

4 On Anticipating Change

5 On Assumptions

6 On Acting Tough

7 On Being Supportive

8 On Price

9 On Coaching

10 On Finding the Right Place

11 On Evaluating Future Leaders

12 On Risk and Surprise

13 On Communications

14 On Hard Workers

15 On Having Successful Meetings

16 On Controlling Leaders

17 On Unions

18 On Investors

19 On Leaving When It’s Time to Go

20 On Credibility

21 On Teams

22 On Successful Leaders

23 Some Closing Thoughts

About the Author

Acknowledgments

One thing I learned from the experience of writing this book is that it was certainly more difficult than I imagined it would be, and without support it may have been impossible. I want to acknowledge the great help I received from Rob Kaplan, who provided skill and insight into the editing of this book far beyond what I expected when we agreed to work together. In addition, my wife, Judith, as usual was a great partner, and along with Charlie Albright, Jack Johnson, and Steve Ardia, was terrific in providing me with honest feedback. And of course I can’t forget Peggy Stanton, who listened to my stories and then encouraged me to put them on paper.

I also need to acknowledge some great clients who don’t play big parts in the book—like Rick Goings, Fred Corrado, Andy Hines, Linda Quaranto, and Laurane Magliari—who were not only there for BeamPines, making our assignments challenging and fun, but also became good friends along the way. In addition, clients like Art Baer, Brian Koenig, Bill Holland, David Jaffee, Matt Kissner, and Karl Wyss were there early on for BeamPines, and made it possible for us to grow. In addition, there were my partners Russ Glicksman, Jay Santamaria, John O’Neill, Mike Keosky, and Jerry Beam, who helped make our business a success. To all of them, thanks for your efforts and support.

Introduction

A great many changes have taken place in business since I joined the workforce fifty years ago. For example, in those days we always took a lunch break, and the more senior the executive, the longer the lunch. We also stayed around after work socializing and having drinks with colleagues. This was where deals were made, ideas developed, and relationships secured. That’s why, as a young executive at P. Ballantine & Sons, I often had meals with department heads and union leaders as well as with key personnel who were not executives. We talked about business, of course, but we also talked about many others things, from sports to current affairs, from movies to music, and virtually everything in between. While doing so didn’t get me everything I wanted, the relationships I developed provided valuable information and insights that became the key to success in the future. In fact, some of my biggest successes can be attributed to what my wife, Judith, lovingly calls my wasting time with others.

It was in thinking about the importance of wasting time that the idea for this book came to me. It made me realize that while the tenets of Management 101 are important, following the conventional wisdom—that is, not wasting time, for example—isn’t necessarily the key to solving problems. Not following that conventional wisdom is what this book is about, whether it concerns how to get things done in a company or who to work with both inside and outside the organization. Toward that end, I’ve provided suggestions for dealing with a variety of questions and issues that literally everyone in business has to deal with at one time or another. And, as you’ll see, these suggestions are not based on theory, they are based on my fifty years of experience in dealing with people in the workplace both as an executive and a consultant in human resources.

Not only is the advice unconventional—in many cases even heretical—so too are the subjects I discuss. For example, the importance of validating assumptions is not something you are likely to read about in most business books. As I explain, though, if you don’t, you are likely to make both embarrassing and sometimes costly errors (On Assumptions). Similarly, while there are many books that will tell you the best way to get a job, there are virtually none that explain how determining the best time and way to leave any job and/or business usually pays dividends (On Leaving When It’s Time to Go). But even in those instances in which I cover subjects discussed by others, I offer a different take on them. The ability to negotiate, for example, is something that many business writers have stressed. But you are unlikely to find any others that discuss the fact that all discussions are basically negotiations, even those with people on your own team and/or side, and that forgetting that fact can have very negative results (On Negotiations). I also discuss subjects like Hard Workers and Price, again providing different perspectives on how to look at them.

The intent of this book, however, is not to provide simple answers. The intent is to show that even subjects and problems that appear to be relatively straightforward may in reality provide interesting dilemmas and puzzles that require creative thinking and non- traditional approaches if you want to achieve the best solutions.

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On Wasting Time

What many people call wasting time is not only crucial to building relationships and trust, but many times helps you uncover opportunities you might have otherwise missed. I learned the importance of developing relationships and trust early in my career. I discovered that with people who shared similar interests and objectives it was easy for me to develop relationships, because it was so easy to spend quality time together. However, it was much more difficult to do so when our interests and/or objectives were not similar. I realized, though, that particularly if I wanted to achieve difficult objectives, these were the people who really counted. The key is to show them that, while you may have issues with their objectives and/or approach, you are supportive of them personally. And spending time discussing issues and listening to their point of view is one way to bring this about. So while all of this may look like wasting time to someone else, to my mind its potential value is immeasurable.

One of my first experiences along these lines occurred in 1967 when I was working as the benefits manager for P. Ballantine & Sons, the famous New York brewery. We had close to 4,000 employees and ten unions, so doing something about controlling workers’ compensation costs was considered important. It wasn’t until after I was hired, though, that I learned this area of my department was very dependent on the company’s medical doctor. I also learned that the doctor, who was thirty-five years my senior and spoke better Russian than English, did not have any use for the management of the industrial relations department, and that he and my boss did not speak to each other. When I called my boss to discuss the issue, he admitted it was a problem, but he stated it was not his problem. Someone has to make this work, he said, and I have chosen you. What to do? The doctor wouldn’t set up regular meetings with me, and I was not only becoming frustrated but worried, because my boss had told me that if the doctor failed to cooperate I rather than the doctor would be in trouble. I’d also heard that the doctor was close to the Badenhausen family, which owned the company, and was therefore untouchable.

Finally, I learned that the doctor came to the office on Saturdays to catch up on his paper work. I decided this might be my best opportunity to develop a relationship with him, so one Saturday I went to the office. No one else was there, but the light was on in his office. Around lunchtime I knocked on his door and asked if he wanted to share a sandwich and a soda. He said okay and invited me in. He immediately began to vent about the company’s failures and how the industrial relations department was a disaster. I listened for almost three hours, asking some questions about the situation and the key players. While he obviously had a slanted view, especially about the department’s management, some of his insights about the union leaders proved helpful.

The next few Saturdays, and many other times over the five years I remained at P. Ballantine & Sons, I would stop in and visit the good doctor. Most of what we discussed was not substantive, nor did it usually add to the company’s bottom line. However, he began to cooperate with me and my department, and we actually began to reduce our workers’ compensation costs. To many executives these meetings would be construed as wasting time. However, to me, this relationship made my job much easier to perform. In addition, the fact that I was able to pull it off impressed not only my boss and some of the company’s senior executives, but also the union executives who found the doctor irritating.

This success also made an impression on me, leading me to the realization that most people, regardless of their status, need people around them who they feel are supportive. And this, in turn, led to another success. Ballantine had three different Teamsters Union locals and seven craft unions, and the Teamsters had a reputation for being extremely tough negotiators. Because of that, it was said that the breweries agreed to a forty-hour-week even before the railroads and automobile companies. So the unions had a big effect on our business. In fact, because of all of the burdensome seniority rules, overtime clauses, and working condition restrictions, the overall effect of the unions on Ballantine was a killer financially.

Four breweries—Anheuser-Busch, Pabst Brewing Company, P. Ballantine & Sons, and Rheingold Beer—negotiated together with all of the unions every three years. By 1970, when the contracts were due to be negotiated, I had been promoted to director of benefits. Just as the negotiations began, Ballantine’s president, Steve Haymes, and the VP of industrial relations, Bob Geiger, decided that I should take on more responsibility, including becoming involved in labor relations. My role during most of the negotiation was limited to carrying Bob’s bag and learning. However, at the end of the negotiation, when we were discussing how to pay for the agreement, I came up with an idea in the health insurance area that saved each of the breweries about $100,000 annually. This impressed Charlie LaMotta, who was the strongest of the Teamster leaders, and something of a scourge to Ballantine’s senior management. He was so tough, in fact, that he intimidated the managers at all four breweries. They felt he was unreasonable, but because of his strength and aggressive behavior they were afraid to take him on, which only made him more powerful. Fortunately, Charlie now reached out to me and we began to meet regularly—often for lunch or dinner—to discuss the issues affecting the breweries. Many of the older department heads couldn’t believe I would waste time and money eating out with him, believing there would be no benefit. And indeed, if all I got was good advice, one could have made an argument that I had wasted my time