Sloane Montgomery

I'll receive an email from one of you ... my first thought is "here comes a new project!".

More often than not, it's an email about a fictional character in a months-long case study. A character named Sloane Montgomery. She's the Chief Merchandising Officer at the fictional company being analyzed. She doesn't hold back. She says what she wants to say, nobody in Human Resources is going to restrain her.

It seems like some of you work with this individual.

Spend any amount of time on LinkedIn and you'll read dozens of hopelessly simple stories about how "brands" can improve. Read the comments ... professionals saying that something Bed Bath & Beyond did is a "cautionary tale". Sure it is.

Have you ever tried to change something that a company does, only to have an individual get in your way, and the individual is somebody you cannot control? The person doesn't report to you. The person is lawless, arrogant, craves power, has power.

The person has power.

Often, the person is not the CEO. I once worked with a Manager-level individual who could stop any initiative cold dead. He'd just say "we're not working on that" and that was it, nobody worked on it. When the person retired, progress happened.

I once worked with the President of a Merchandise Division. This person was not smart. This person was powerful. This person posted substandard results for years, but was a golden child, adored by Leadership. This person used up staff. This person stole ideas.

Most of you work at "brands" that know what to do, that know what must be done. I've yet to work with a catalog brand that knows the brand should have moved into the future twenty years ago but failed to do so ... and is now trapped by the customer who shops the catalog, the merchandise preferred by a customer who bought from catalogs in 1989, and the vendors who are dependent on the brand to keep spending money on catalogs. The employees know they need to change. And yet? Change doesn't happen. Because somebody like Sloane Montgomery has power, and won't let change happen.

Your job, of course, is to make change happen.

What does Sloane Montgomery (or your version of Sloane Montgomery) need to look good?

What is Sloane Montgomery afraid of?

What motivates Sloane Montgomery?

What motivates you?

Is there an intersection between what motivates Sloane Montgomery and what motivates you?

Is the person simply corrupt / corrupted? If so, it might be time for you to work somewhere else.

Does the person have morals? If so, there is a solution. It will be your job to identify the solution.

You won't find the solution on LinkedIn. Your problem is a local problem (a unique individual with unique personality traits) ... the stuff people share on LinkedIn are global problems with pithy solutions.

There's a reason many of you email me about this fictional individual.

Do you work with somebody comparable to Sloane Montgomery? If so, email me your story (kevinh@minethatdata.com) ... how did you get break down the barrier between you and the individual?