Businessman's Prison

Businessman's Prison, JB Gates, Synergy Books, 2004

Magnetize Corporation, based in Atlanta, was once a Wall Street darling. Owned and run by the MacBerger family, under Chairman Richie, the newest MacBerger to run the company, a big series of job cuts has led to financial problems and Wall Street concern. Richie hires a well-known turn-around specialist named L. Randall Morgan to be the new CEO and turn the company around. By the way, Richie is an arrogant you-know-what who only cares about the money and prestige of being Chairman, and Randall (based on a real person) has his own personal bodyguards and brings new meaning to the word "paranoid."

Unsuspecting and loyal employee Michael Wayne mistakenly gets an email from Randall, mentioning something called Operation Sherman (as in Civil War General Sherman, famous for sacking Atlanta). This leads to a wave of covert operations, double-crossing and looking over one's shoulder among all senior management, especially among Doug, passed over for the Chairman's job, and Sully, an ex-Marine with plenty of shadowy "connections." Randall calls together all Division Managers for a very mandatory weekend meeting. At the meeting, he doesn't urge or suggest, but requires an immediate huge jump in profits, and a similar drop in expenses. One of the managers is publicly humiliated by Randall, and is found dead the next day, under mysterious circumstances. Richie takes a lot of Randall's bullying and browbeating, but one thing he won't tolerate from anyone is bad-mouthing of Belinda Sue, his mother and Magnetize's biggest shareholder. She reeks of Old Money, and is the sort of person who would be at home on a Southern plantation 150 years ago. Two different corporate planes, containing Richie and Randall and Doug and Sully, take off for Bermuda, but only one arrives.

The authors have years of experience in corporate America, and it shows. This is a really interesting book about arrogance at the top, and the middle ranks who believe in the company, or just want to make it to retirement. Was Enron ever like this? Well worth reading.