Leadership Lessons from the Mafia, Hell’s Angels, and Gang Bangers
Would your organization thrive if governments spent billions of dollars trying to destroy it?
Criminal organizations overcome all the challenges and obstacles of legal organizations plus the opposition of law enforcement. And they still thrive.
Organizations that last a long time, “Hold on to a credo.” Daniel Forrester
- Attract the right people. Passionate believers deliver great results.
- Embrace values: customer focus, freedom, loyalty, resourcefulness, speed, and immorality. (The inclusion of immorality is not an endorsement but an acknowledgement of criminal values.)
Organizations that outlast the competition, cling tenaciously to values and attract the ‘right’ people.
3 things that are remarkable about criminal organizations:
#1. Decentralized decision-making.
They push down almost all the day-to-day decisions to the people on the streets.
Mafia bosses do not decide which heists to do.
#2. Long-term recruiting mechanisms.
It’s difficult to get in. You might have to do crime for 8 or 10 years before you’re finally admitted to the Mafia.
#3. Incredibly strong culture.
It’s a badge of honor to belong. Even if you’re just a friend of a Mafia boss, they’re going to protect you.
The primary role of the boss:
Top leadership in organizational life solves the challenges of Strategy-Incentives-Alignment. Beyond that…
“The primary role of the Mafia boss is keeping peace in the family.” Jerold Zimmerman
Organizational success distills into 4 pillars:
- Effectively delegate. (empowerment)
- Consistently measure performance.
- Reliably reward or punish performance. (incentives)
- Intentionally create corporate culture that executes on strategy.
“The Four Pillars determine what is produced, how it is produced, and for whom it is produced, and as such determines an organization’s success and survivability.” Relentless: The Forensics of Mobsters’ Business Practices
How might leaders build organizations that outlast the competition?
This post is based on my conversations with Jerold Zimmerman, Ph.D. and Daniel Forrester, authors of, “Relentless: The Forensics of Mobsters’ Business Practices.”
Jerold L. Zimmerman, Ph.D., is the author of Relentless: The Forensics of Mobsters’ Business Practices. He is a globally recognized microeconomist and author of seven books and has taught organizational economics, accounting, and finance at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School for more than forty years.
Daniel P. Forrester is the author of Relentless: The Forensics of Mobsters’ Business Practices. He is the founder of THRUUE, Inc an expert consultancy that assists leaders in bridging the gap between corporate culture and corporate strategy.
https://www.danielforrester.com – Daniel on Twitter.
How might leaders build organizations that outlast the competition?
Build an organization (hire, train, & develop people) that has strong alignment around the company’s mission, vision, and values.
Separate what should never change from the things that need change as the marketplace changes.
Being adaptable is critical.
Thanks Paul. It takes wisdom to identify the things that shouldn’t change and the things that should. That’s where values need to be clear and fully embraced. We might change from using film to digital photography, but the goal of serving customers doesn’t change.
Embrace values: customer focus, freedom, loyalty, resourcefulness, speed, and immorality. The challenge here is building and/or developing these attributes in employees. I’m of the opinion that one has to have the building blocks of these; curiosity, grid, questioning mind, hard work, positive attitude etc. within one before one can embrace the values noted above.
Thanks Roger. Some would say that hiring for values is essential. Hire the type of person you want and then develop their skills. There’s more to success than skill.
Good stuff! I’m going to be reading and watching these this week.
BROKEN LINK – to “Relentless: The Forensics of Mobsters’ Business Practices”
Thanks Paul. Sorry about the link. I think it’s working now.
Dan,
The values of family, Loyalty, surely speak out, the pillars stated above become the building blocks of success for many. Those who adapt seem to survive and those who can’t fall apart, so it seems.
So true Tim. We should not believe that being rigid over non-essentials is virtuous. Flexibility and adaptability are essential, especially during turbulence.
Thanks everyone for your kind words on Relentless and very interesting conversation. It should be noted that having the “right” four pillars aligned with the firm’s strategy is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for success. But having the wrong pillars almost always cause failure. Think of Wells Fargo branch banking fiasco, Enron, and even VW emission cheating scandal.
Thanks Dr. Zimmerman. Very useful input. Thanks again for Relentless.
Thanks for this Dan. I never would have thought at looking at the mafia for leadership advice. There is gold in that.
Thanks Zech. Gotta say thanks to Daniel and Dr. Zimmerman. I’m thankful I had a chance to talk with them.
Humm.. when your a crime organization and you “execute on strategy” what are you really –
….never-mind
🙂
thanks for the alternate path.
LOL…thanks Ken!
Interesting. When the Mafia or Hell’s Angels “recruit”, the aspiring member actively beats a path to their door, goes through a series of increasingly-stringent tests and waits to be permitted to be a full member. Their people are “all in” or not in at all. Nobody is going to take a six-month stint with the Gambino family to polish their CV.
I see the point of the message, but I can’t see that you can apply the levels of structure and loyalty that Vinnie Gigante got to the staff at the local widget works.
Thanks Mitch. I sometimes think that when military organizations are compared with business organizations. Having said that, there’s something to learn.
I was surprised to learn that people are not forced into mob life. They want it! Perhaps it’s useful to ask ourselves why anyone would want to be part of our organization. I suppose for many, the best answer is a paycheck.
Dan, I agree about the military, especially when people are talking about modern, all-volunteer militaries. As for the Cosa Nostra, apart from the paycheck, hey, what about the respect?
Yes, the respect is important. It works for me! 🙂
Reliably reward or punish performance? Failure isn’t usually an acceptable learning experience in a criminal organization, it’s a death sentence for “team members.” You make a mistake and you end up in the bottom of the river – that’s a strong incentive to perform well. Loyalty is promoted, but if you don’t like the boss, you take them out justifying as “it’s just business” without all of the red tape, policies, and procedures – and then hope you can now survive in your new leadership role. I have always appreciated the concepts, but not the practices associated with criminal activity and ignoring the rules to further the organization. Interesting post. Thanks.
Thanks Bill. I appreciate your observations. I’ll add that “taking out” the boss is more problematic that we might think. There are some surprising things that are not acceptable in mob culture. Killing someone in law enforcement, for example. Cheers