The Tyranny of the Quarterly

As the evening news begins to trickle out the results of the first quarter of economic activity, some unpleasant memories begin to crop up.

My last stop in corporate life was with a group I now call BOHICA HYDRAULICS. Bohica is an acronym for “Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.”

(Please note: the actual name of the organization has been changed to protect the guilty.)

I had hoped those were the last of the Bohicans, but I still find members of this tribe in many of the organizations I consult with. They seem to be particularly resilient.

I may not have been as sensitive (and my being sensitive was a big problem for them) to the Bohican style of business if I had not spent so much time at Big Jim’s School of Business. While Big Jim’s was certainly not perfect, we operated with the philosophy that ideas won and lost, but people remained intact. We could have sharp disagreements, and even have raised voices over issues, but the disagreements were not personal. It was an example of what I call a “conflict-positive” organization.

Thus, the contrast effect was great when the Bohicans took over. In fact, it was the exact opposite of the culture at Big Jim’s. People won and lost, and ideas were never fully considered. Energy was spent on self-defense and protection, rather than productive discussion of ideas.

The Bohicans were particularly oppressive during the ritual known as the quarterly review, or simply “The Quarterly.” Four times a year, six of us would huddle around a conference table for 6-7 hours and review every detail of the company's performance.

The meetings were civil - for about the first 15 minutes - and then they turned loud and vulgar. Faces grew red, eyes bulged out, veins in necks looked like they would explode.

The favorite phrase in the Bohican language begins with an F. I was not aware that there were so many words that could be modified with this adjective.

I still have vivid memories of the day the CEO came out of his chair and leaned across the table, pointing in the face of our CFO and screaming about how he was “f..n away the little old lady shareholder in Pittsburg’s retirement.” And then he said “forget that little old lady. I am the largest stockholder – you’re f..n away my money!”

Unfortunately, that was the norm not the exception.

Everything we did in that organization was done with an eye on the quarterly. Decisions that would have been in the long-term best interest of the organization were avoided because of the impact it might have on the quarterly results.

Fortunately, I escaped the Bohicans and went back to graduate school. But in a way, Bohica Hydraulics was also a school:

It was there that I that I learned that the unmitigated bane of the American approach to business is the Tyranny of the Quarterly.