Misunderstanding the Logic of Rank-and-Yank 2021 Style
June 7, 2021
Many years ago when I worked at a big time consulting firm, GE was a good customer. Anecdotes about Neutron Jack were frequent. After departing the estimable firm, Neutron became a management guru, an author, and an esteemed business luminary. One comment about Neutron has remained with me for more than 40 years was:
Stack and rank or the more upscale vitality curve.
My fave for this concept which the big time consulting firm enthusiastically embraced was “rank and yank.”
“Amazon’s Controversial ‘Hire to Fire’ Practice Reveals a Brutal Truth About Management” is adrift from Neutron Jack’s method. In fact, the write up is critical of Amazon’s implementation of this logical and realistic practice. Not everyone is intellectually or socially equivalent. In a profit making entity, it is necessary to cultivate an environment in which winners win. Losers — that is, who don’t perform either in terms of meeting objectives or socially in terms of making colleagues love them like a puppy — have an opportunity to find their future elsewhere.
The write up states with little awareness of the rich principles of Neutron Jack:
Amazon managers are hiring people they otherwise wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, just so they can later fire them to hit their goal. That completely defeats the point since–if the metric is based on sound business principles–there are people keeping their job who shouldn’t, at the expense of the sacrificial lamb.
The write up does not understand the dynamics of a big time, 21st century profit machines. Athletes cheat. Honest executives cheat on their taxes. Ministers in Kentucky find interaction with some congregation members the best thing ever.
The consequence of hiring to fire and Neutron’s rank-and-yank approach is to further one’s own success. Does the reader of the Inc. article think for a New York minute that an executive at a monopoly like company is into public good, doing what’s right for a fuzzy idea like ethical behavior, or being honest. Even the glittery Apple executive Tim Apple revealed that the app store 30 percent was to enrich Apple, not help the gamer.
Net net: Please, connect with reality in 2021.
Stephen E Arnold, June 7, 2021
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