Monday, June 25, 2012

Are you a snake killer or meeting caller?

You don’t hear much about Ross Perot anymore. Some of you may remember him. Ross Perot made a run for the presidency and was I believe the founder of EDP, and at one time he was on the board of General Motors. EDP is a large, successful data processing company with HQ in Texas.
As I understand the story, after several heated conversations about the distinction between EDP executives and GM executives, the president of General Motors asked Ross Perot, “What makes EDP executives so different from the executives at General Motors?” 
Ross Perot replied, “EDP executives are snake killers.” 
The GM CEO asked, “What do you mean?” 
Ross Perot replied, “If a GM executive sees a snake in the office hallway, they call a meeting to decide when to have another meeting to discuss what to do about the snake, to discuss snake agenda issues, to determine if GM had a snake policy, to establish a snake killer budget and to assign responsibility for handling the snake matter. And of course by that time the snake is gone and the snake has killed several people. 
Perot continued to say, “If an EDP executive saw a snake in the hallway, the executive would kill the snake, then call the meeting.
Are you a snake killer or a meeting caller?

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