InformationWeek

May 10, 1999

Secret CIO:
Let The Task Force Decide

There's nothing like the group approach for a CEO who hates making decisions

By Herbert W. Lovelace

y boss, Phil Whitehead, has an excellent understanding of our industry and has steered the company in a sound direction. He is also a CEO who hates making decisions. What he hates even more is anyone thinking that he hates making decisions.

Phil views himself as a decisive, no-nonsense business leader--a warm human being with the ability to talk tough and keep a firm grip on the reins of power. A man of compassion and a decisive leader. The way I see it, we're all entitled to our own little fantasies. It wouldn't be fair to deny Phil his simply because of his seven-figure salary.

Recently, it became apparent that the company's overall inventory levels were way too high. Inventory is to a company as cholesterol is to the human body: Some is necessary to keep things going along smoothly; too much gums up works. It costs money to have excess inventory--money to build it and money to store it. So, when Sid Gornish, our CFO, made a presentation on the impact of the inventory splurge on our financial health, the room was deathly silent. The subject wasn't just the economic well-being of the company. No, it was even more serious than that--he was talking potential impact on executive bonuses.

The next hour was like watching sumo wrestlers in action. The ground in the board room rumbled and shuttered. The titans of our company argued back and forth as Phil sat silently with a grimace on his face.

Everyone with any skin in the game had his or her say. Kratmeyer, emperor of International Operations, railed about the need to maintain inventory for customers' emergencies and the potential added cost of shorter manufacturing runs. Gornish, the lord of the corporate scorekeeping machine, fumed over inventory draining the lifeblood of the company. Finally, the posturing and occasional valid comment faded into silence. Heads turned to Phil. It was time for the great umpire of the Executive Committee to make the call.

"Well," he said, "it seems to me that Sid has identified one heck of a serious problem here. There are a lot of valid points around the situation. Excess inventory costs us a fortune and can hurt us dearly on earnings. But, we can't risk alienating valuable customers by not having product when they need it. And we have to pay attention to manufacturing runs, or costs will increase. It seems to me that we need a task force formed immediately to recommend what to do."

It was a typical Phil solution. Although everyone in the room was intimately knowledgeable about the problem and a half-dozen possible strategies had just been discussed, the boss wasn't willing to make a decision in the midst of all the fervor that had been expended. No one was surprised, and thus the names of the overworked underlings who would populate our latest creation were quickly picked.

Our dependence on task forces and committees (Phil thinks task force sounds more powerful than committee, although the rest of us are hard-pressed to tell the difference--both either randomly exist forever or fade away quietly) fascinates me. Rarely are unique ideas developed or new information unearthed by them. The meetings take valuable time from people's normal duties and delay important decisions.

But the process somehow seems to work. When the Inventory Task Force report is presented, the conclusions will be sound. The ensuing discussion will replay much of what was previously said, but in a less-emotional state. Finally, a consensus will emerge and the Executive Committee will shift its attention to the next burning issue.

And I'll be left with the thought that maybe, just maybe, Phil knows what he is doing. I, for one, can't quite discount that possibility.

Herbert W. Lovelace is the CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty. Send him E-mail at lovelace@home.com. He'll provide real answers--and whimsical comments--to your questions on InformationWeek Online at www.informationweek.com.