Bedtime Stories for Managers

ONEStories of Managing

Big things and little things are my job. Middle-level arrangements can be delegated.

—Kōnosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic

Managing Scrambled Eggs

One morning years ago, I flew Eastern Airlines from Montreal to New York. It was the largest airline in the world at the time but was soon to go belly-up.

They served food in those days, well, sort of—something they called “scrambled eggs.” I said to the flight attendant: “I’ve eaten some awfully bad things on airplanes, but this has to be the worst.”

“I know,” she replied. “We keep telling them; they won’t listen.”

How can this be? If they were running a cemetery, I could ...