Recycled - Today's Machining World

john batiste
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you could get.
LG: In what respect?
JB: I was in Kosovo for 14 months, Turkey for four
months, and Iraq for 13 months in that period working
hard. There could be no wasted effort. There was no
room for inefficiency because we were too busy.
LG: Tell me about the chain of command in the
military versus the chain of command as it’s practiced
today by you and the company you work for.
JB: There was a misconception at Klein Steel before I
got here that I would be all about command and control,
be very centralized and domineering and be very dictato-
rial. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the
Army, the good units are very decentralized. There’s lots
of input from subordinates. Great units are decentralized
and leaders are not afraid of subordinates making mis-
takes because that’s how they learn. So my techniques
today are precisely the same as they were when I was
the Commanding General of the 1st Infantry Division.
I value input. I want dissent. At some point there’s a
decision made and then we all go do it, but up until that
point there’s a freewheeling discussion, and during the
execution of a mission it’s always decentralized to the
lowest level. You give your subordinates what they need
to accomplish the mission and you get out of the way.
NG: What’s the difference between the Army and
civilian business?
JB: The biggest difference, and this is something that’s
getting better and better at Klein Steel, is the element of
discipline. That is to say, once a decision is made people
proceed in that direction whether they agree with it or
not. In private business that’s not always true. Talking
to my peers in business in Rochester, there’s a tendency
far beyond the decision point for passive aggressive be-
havior. The challenge of leaders is to figure out where this
is going on, who the resisters are, and get rid of them.
LG: It strikes me that in the military, at least out in the
field, you have to have built-in redundancies because
people get hurt; they get killed; they leave. In lean manufacturing,
one of the problems is lack of redundancy.
JB: You’re exactly right. There were multiple levels of
redundancy in the military where you could plug them in
all very quickly. In lean manufacturing, one person could
make a huge difference if he or she is sick. Klein Steel is a
very lean organization. As a Commanding Officer, I had
a personal staff and another dozen consultants, from
security people to cooks to take care of things. I don’t have
any of that right now. It’s a lean organization in every
respect. That was something I had to get used to.
LG: Do you think that’s necessarily good?
JB: It’s not bad.
LG: There’s a guru I’ve listened to a lot who always
said, “Frank Sinatra didn’t move pianos.” The idea
is that you should do what you do well and let other
people fill in the holes.
JB: I certainly delegate as much as I can. At the
moment I’m doing my own schedule, my own calendar,
and answer my own phone. I think that’s okay; that
communicates to people that Klein Steel still has an
entrepreneurial ethos. It’s not extravagant. It’s not
spending money where it doesn’t need to.
“You give your subordinates what
they need to accomplish the mis-
sion and you get out of the way.”
LG: Political question: Do we really want to find
Osama bin Laden and kill him?
JB: Gosh, it would’ve been nice to get him in Tora Bora
back in 2003.
LG: What I’m really getting at is, isn’t he a convenient
symbol of terrorism?
JB: Sure, he’s nothing but a symbol, and he would be
replaced multi-times over. You’ve got to remember,
Al-Qaeda is a very decentralized organization. There
are plenty of Osama bin Ladens out there. His legacy is
going to live on whether he’s alive or dead.
NG: Is he a uniter for terrorists?
JB: Sure he is. But again, he’s going to unite whether
he’s alive or dead. Do I think we need to get him? Yes,
and I think that we diluted the main effort when we went
into Iraq.
Today’s Machining World