From the Boss’s Perspective, Two Types of People Are Needed: Hands and Feet, and Eyes and Ears

The hands and feet are when you're confirmed on what to do, you go do it — or you take a few people with you and get it done.

What are the eyes and ears? They're to help me judge whether we should do something at all.

A company that has only eyes and ears but no hands and feet will simply fail to make money. At worst, apart from labor costs, it won't burn through cash quickly. But a company that has only hands and feet and no eyes and ears can set money on fire like snowflakes.

Why, whenever a company gets into difficulty, do they lay off the workers first — while the finger-pointers stay?

The answer is simple: the cost of action is enormous. If you head in the wrong direction, losses mount into astronomical sums the moment you start. So when performance drops, they instantly cut off their own limbs, hunker down, and wait until the direction becomes clear before hiring again.

This truth was hammered out by countless bosses who burned through countless fortunes.

Overtime isn't about getting things done. Its greatest purpose is speed of information. I get the information first, so I can report it first.

What do two bosses really compete on? This — who gets the first notification.

If an important message comes in at 11 PM and he knows about it at 11:10 PM, he's already won. He can make all kinds of targeted moves. The other boss won't hear from his employees until the next morning, won't reach the manager until noon, won't get to the executives until the afternoon, and won't find out himself until evening.

He's already lost everything.

Profit comes from information asymmetry. Everything you do is aimed at capturing it.