“I don’t promote man to management,” my friend, a CEO of a 100-employee company that does trading and services in Asia, said to me. I was astonished. “What if one is very good at management?” “Their failure rate is too high for me to consider,” he said. “Besides, I would never know, since it takes years to become a good manager and I never gave them the chance to begin with.”
This CEO is a man himself. He later explained that men used to make great managers when business was more combative. The intensity and drive of the male gender won wars. As the society moved to require more coordination, communication, and collaboration, men began to fail. He also observed that boys were more babied and sheltered. (It is the corner of the world that favors boys.) Girls tend to be tougher, dealing with stress and criticism better, and have better work ethic. He adopted that “woman only manager” policy about 15 years ago. It was, of course, an unwritten one. His staff, except of the head of sales, are all female. For the entire employee base, it was about 50-50 in gender split.
Usually, managers that discriminate end up losing, since better employees won’t work for him and his competitors do not discriminate. But my CEO friend, who is clearly discriminating, may end up winning, since if he is right, he will be more efficient. He may also have better managers than those managers who are fair.
That is. If he is right.
If so, does it make it right?
