'No one is above the rules': 'Rags to riches' CEO fires VP who broke the single rule that every employee must follow

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    "No one is above the rules, and I mean no one call me if he pulls rank" LOC I used to work for a marketing company that serviced small and medium-sized businesses across America. It was a multi-billion dollar revenue company. The CEO was a true rags to riches story. He joined the company right after he got out of jail in his early 20s for a small dg charge and worked his way up over 20 years to eventually become the CEO of the company.
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    The CEO strongly believed that the success of the company did not come from the brilliant and intelligent minds that he hired for his executive team, but the hard work, sweat and tears of the infield sales reps, service reps (made sure the customer services where properly installed), collection reps (chased after customers who fell behind on their payments), and sales managers.
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    He would often say, without sales we don't have the revenue to pay your salaries Without customer service customers will drop us faster then we can bill them Without collection reps we'd lose too many accounts due to non- payment And without sales managers to hold it all together we'd fall apart And he had a rule
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    EVERY SINGLE EXECUTIVE team member would spend 1 full week of each quarter in the field with a Sales Manager, Customer Service Rep, Collections Rep, or Sales rep. In addition when they are in the field they are to SUBMIT to whoever they've been assigned too and they may not pull rank.
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    This rule applied to EVERYONE to include the CEO. I know this, cause the CEO personally road along with me for 5 days in the field. He was a legit cool guy (I got a story at the end about this)
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    So...apparently we had hired a new VP Of Marketing from a major brand that I'm sure everyone in this sub would know of. Anyway apparently the first time he went in the field the VP Of Marketing pulled rank on a sales manager and the sales manager reported this directly to the CEO.
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    A new quarter went by, and I got an email stating that the VP of Marketing will be joining me in the field on such and such week. Ok cool, not the first time I had some higher up come out and ride with me. But about an hour later I got a call from my CEO. CEO: PJ the VP Of Marketing is going in the field with you Me: Yes sir, I got the email... CEO: PJ I picked you cause when I was in the field with you, you seemed like the kinda guy that wouldn't be bullied or let someone run all over you Me: O
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    CEO: This VP is new to the company, and the last time he went in the field he pulled rank. I've told him not to pull rank again, and if he does I want you to call me as soon as you can. PJ: I understand CEO: Thank you The VP meets me up, honestly for the first two days everything was fine. However on the 3rd day I was meeting with an existing client. This client was a difficult to please customer, he would always say we weren't worth the money, but I knew we were cause I could see his results, a
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    Now I told the VP what would happen, that it would be a long sales call, and a difficult high tense one. But to let me handle it, I've dealt with the client quite a bit and was well prepared. Now this meeting with the client lasted 2 1/2 hours but I'll get to the point. The client wanted a discount and was threatening to go to our competitor, he wouldn't. That's when the VP spoke up and said "I'm the VP and I'll personally give you a 15% discount on your current plan if you agree to sign a 1 yr
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    One thing to mention my commissions depended on me generating MORE REVENUE and this VP just me over. We get in my car, and I go "You pulled rank you shouldn't have done that" he said "I got the deal done" I said "Had you kept your mouth shut I'd have gotten more money, not given 20% back" he goes "We got the contract signed" I said "We gave away tens of thousands of dollars that we didn't need to" he goes "Look I'm the VP..." I then called my CEO, he saw the name pop up on my cars bluetooth CEO
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    PJ: The VP pulled rank on me and gave my customer a 17.5% discount on his current plan right as I was about to close him for more money CEO: That's not right, where is the VP? PJ: Your on speaker, he can hear you CEO: Excellent, hey VP VP: Yes sir CEO: Tell me what happend VP: Told his side of the story, which he admitted the truth but also admitted to pulling rank and giving the customer a discount CEO: Ok, thanks for your honesty. Your fired. VP: Excuse me?
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    CEO: Your fired, you have a 1 yr probation clause your done you don't pull rank when in the field VP: You can't do this CEO: I just did, you are to get on a plane come back to your office and clean it out, PJ take Mr. VP back to his hotel and drop him off. PJ: Sure, no problem And for the next 20 minutes I had an awkward car ride back to my former VPS hotel. Later in a all hands on meeting, the CEO made sure to talk about how if an executive is in the field and pulls rank its a firable offense f
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    Side Story on this CEO The company had a data plan, which gave us 4G on our Ipads, Phones, and Laptops. Well the company changed the service plan, and our data plan went down to ONLY our phones and we had to hotspot off that. They said this move would save us $80,000 a month (we had like 4,000~ employees in the field) Well 2 months later we had a conference (we had 3 conferences a year) and after the conference, everyone went to the hotel bar. That's when I approached my CEO with another sales r
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    The CEO nodded and said "Tell you what, in 2 weeks the CIO is supposed to go in the field, I'll have him to go in the field with you and if he agrees that its costing our reps productivity and causing to many workflow issues I'll bring back 4G data to all devices The CIO was there and said "CIO, your going to XYZ area and you will be riding with PJ, pay attention to how he uses his 4G data and if you think we should go back to the old plan where all devices had 4G" The CIO went into the field wi
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    Do you still work there? If so why not? No I do not work there I was much better at maintaining and growing existing clients than acquiring new ones. The company ended up buying another company and started laying people off, and made acquiring new business more important then maintaining the current business meaning I was going be let go so I quit and switched jobs before ethey fired me.
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    Sounds like a great CEO/he's what I wish all CEOs would be comments He's still a ruthless business person, I'll give you an example of what he did to a lot of managers. When he bought out his competitor. He had a lot of redundancy and a lot of managers on rock-solid employment contracts which he couldn't just "lay off" so he took the managers with those contracts and turned them into phone reps. Imagine being a sales manager or even a VP and getting a call and being told you are no longer a mana
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    Those managers obviously didn't perform very well after being demoted and would be written up for poor performance and let go. I know of a VP in the company who was demoted to a phone rep position. And literally got written up for poor performance for his first month. O and he was still getting his VP salary (per the contract, they could change his position/duties but they could not pay him less and the only way they could fire him would be through poor performance) Also another thing he did, he
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    I want to work for them, can give me the company name/etc No, for two reasons First reason, the company is currently not hiring and actively laying people off. Their primary revenue comes from small, and medium-sized businesses. As you can imagine due to the economic circumstance those small businesses can no longer afford to pay their bills, which includes my former employer. As a result, they've had to downsize. I'm sure the company will survive, they had crazy healthy margins, and I heard rig
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    What's my opinion of this CEO Honestly nothing but fu respect. The dude is inspiring. He is also not someone I would not want to be, he's an obvious work alcoholic, his personal net worth is in excess of $100+ million and he doesn't need to work ever again but according to all the VPs/Managers I spoke to the dude literally works 7 days a week at all hours of the day. Put it this way, he travels SO MUCH in his biggest markets he keeps a car that he bought since its cheaper then buying a rental ev
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    What did I take away from my time with them? Honestly, I think a lot of companies could learn a lot from this company. Seriously why more companies don't force their top leadership to work within the ranks on a regular basis is beyond me. Its one gripe I have with my current employer.
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    This is how he reduced his sales staff When he bought out the competitor he removed all sales objectives. He then made maintaining current/growing current client worth 1x he made acquiring new clients worth 5x. Also losing revenue cost you 1.5x Everyone was ranked against everyone, and he placed everyone in quadrants if you fell in the bottom 25% for 2 months in a row you got laid off. And this created for some interesting results. Example I had a family emergency. I took off for one week. For t
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    It created for some depressing performance reviews, a co-worker of mine closed decent sized new business and he thought for sure that'd save his job. It didn't, because another person sold more then he did, and it kept him in the bottom 25% and he was fired. Thursday evening he was so excited about his new account, thinking it saved his job. Friday afternoon he let go.
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    creepyflyer D, a ceo that actually cares. That is a rare gem
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    theWrite Amy This CEO is amazing. I want to work for him.
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    Faranocks CEO: "don't pull rank." VP: pulls rank. CEO: "ur fired." VP: Surprised pikachu
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    Perzec If more CEOs were like this, not only would the work environment be a lot healthier for a lot more people, but there would be more successful companies out there because he thinks big-picture and long-term, which is the key to sustainable success.
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    conipto It's cool that he stuck to his word and all, but putting you in that position of dealing with a fired VP you just told on is kind of a sh move. Would have been better if he'd just called him back to the office immediately.
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    S bb8c3por2d2 Cool CEO and he didn't even do Undercover Boss he just jumped in the weeds with everyone else.

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