I have always noticed achievers who stand above the crowd. I can't help but notice when people work together to achieve the extraordinary.

Today, I'd like to call special attention to a special breed of executive or manager. Their expertise has nothing to do with increasing productivity, enhancing communication, encouraging teamwork, or improving profitability. In fact, it's the exact opposite. I like to call them Profit Prevention Managers. They are the ones who invent and later enforce the profit prevention policies that make it so difficult for those around them to be productive employees.

How do you know when you've met a Profit Prevention Manager? Here are a few clues:

1. They're the first to shoot down a new idea. "That's not the way we do things around here," or "We've always done things this way," describes their decision-making rationale. They are incapable of realizing that what worked in the past will not always work in the future. (If everybody thought like this, we'd probably still live in caves.)
2. Their concept of a hiring process is best described as hire and hope. They keep hiring until they get an employee to stick. (How much is wasted on recruiting and unnecessary retraining?)
3. They think that time and money spent on educating an employee are wasted when an employee leaves and that training is a waste of money. (What about the cost of ignorance?)
4. They think they have to hire anyone who walks in the door. Unemployment is low and it becomes an excuse for bad hiring since there are open positions and only a few candidates to fill them. (Just because someone is looking for a job, it doesn't mean they are looking for work. High-risk candidates steal, fake injuries, show up late, or don't show up for work at all.)
5. They think they should send a sales rep into the field without any training so that they can evaluate if the new guy can take the rejection and is tough enough to stick it out. (The average cost per sales call is approximately $200-$350 per call. I don't think there is a more expensive way to teach salespeople how to sell than to have them practice in front of current or potential clients.)

I'm convinced that it takes hard work to master the art of profit prevention. Someone must be willing to ignore all the books, audiocassettes, videos, consultants, and educators who make the strategies for success accessible. They must be willing to sacrifice their ego and fend off common sense. Their reputation for profit prevention hinges on their ability to eliminate the distractions associated with total quality or process improvement initiatives. And, if you can believe it . . . they always get the blame when things don't go well.