Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-At-Any-Price

Rating:
Summary: You reap what you sow. Does this apply to business?
Review: "Chainsaw Al" is a wonderfully written book. John Byrne manages to pull off an amazing double with this effort. First, the story of how Al Dunlap was permitted to bully, excuse me, I mean manage, a company for two years should be required reading for all CEO's and those who aspire to such positions. Secondly, it is a genuinely gripping drama that pulls you in and makes you root against Mr.Dunlap and his valets, aka top executives.

I have an enormous amount of respect for the level of effort and research that Mr. Byrne obviuosly has placed into this book. It shows up on every page. From the mayor of one of the small towns that Mr. Dunlap callously affected, to a low-level accounting department auditor who seemed to be one of the few people with any self-respect in the corporate offices, to the Board of Directors at Sunbeam, you are permitted inside their heads and find out what they thought and did as the company first rose, then spiraled into near oblivion under the care of Mr Dunlap. Incredible.

I found myself amazed at the courage and morality that some showed; and disgusted at the amorality and cowardice of others. How could any "professional" put up with the continual abuse that Mr. Dunlap heaped on them? How could any "professional" have taken his impossible fiscal goals and objectives seriously? For the promise of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that "Chainsaw" had delivered before at Scott Paper,and several other companies.

I think ultimately the importance of this book will be that it will serve as a warning to all those in business who feel that everything,including one's decency, should be sacrificed to maximize profit, stockprice, and one's coffers when it comes time to cash in the options.

Mr.Dunlap got what many felt he had coming. What you will get if you read John Byrne's book is one hell of a story.

Rating:
Summary: Corporate Hellhole
Review: by Dan Moreland

We've all had bad bosses. Very few of us have not had the joy of working for a barbarous, bullying taskmaster that makes you dread Monday mornings.

Then there's Chainsaw Al Dunlap. Think of the most egotistical, arrogant, selfish, greedy, low-class and verbally abusive manager from hell you can think of. According to John Byrne's "Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap in the Era of Profit-At-Any-Price", Al Dunlap is all of these things, and maybe more. He makes Mr. Dithers look like Richard Branson.

Flying the pirate flag of cost cutting, Chainsaw Al made his name rampaging through companies as a high level executive in the 1980s. He cut thousands of jobs and closed factories in the blink of an eye. During his reign of terror, Dunlap became the scourge of those with a corporate conscience while becoming the darling of investors and a media icon.

It wasn't until the mid to late 90s that the financial world got wind of what "Rambo in Pinstripes" was up to. As CEO with Scott and then Sunbeam, Chainsaw ate the heart out of both companies, allegedly falsified financials, and wooed Wall Street to pretty them up for a quick sale. Chainsaw would pocket millions while thousands of regular working stiffs were out of jobs- many after decades of service.

It's the Sunbeam debacle that Byrne documents in "Chainsaw" and boy what a fun ride. From Dunlap screaming and shouting at his bewildered executive staff at his first meeting to the apocalyptic crash from $50 to $5 a share, you get to see and hear it all. The author does an excellent job of recreating what life working for the guy must have been like, and it is obvious that he did very careful research.

Talk about a corporate nightmare. Dunlap, in his pinstripe suits, tinted glasses, dyed blonde hair and very loud voice would arrogantly hand out copies of his autographed book "Mean Business" and scream at anyone that told him anything he didn't want to hear.

My favorite scene is Dunlap is yelling one of his staff. He begins his tirade by telling his victim to be quiet and not to utter a word. After piling on the poor sap, he asks if he is going to respond to his accusations or just sit there silent. The executive reminds Al that he wasn't allowed to talk during the meeting.

"Shut up!" bellows Dunlap, "You don't deserve to speak!" Priceless! Suddenly Gordon Gekko is Ghandi!

"Chainsaw" kind of plods at first as you are barraged with a cast of characters that you quickly lose track of. But time and again Byrne pulls you in with great narratives. For instance one scene depicts the dark side of Darwinian capitalism: the financial travails of a former laid off Sunbeam employee contrasted with a description of Big Al negotiating a new multimillion dollar contract over an expensive steak dinner.

By the second half of "Chainsaw", you are hooked. Wall Street catches on to his shenanigans, and Sunbeam quickly spirals out of control along with our anti-hero.

Besides way too many players, my only other problem with "Chainsaw" is a section devoted to his ill-fated first marriage and the treatment of his only son. The author uses divorce testimony to imply Dunlap abused his first wife, and interview quotes revealing he abandoned his son. We also learn that Dunlap didn't even go to his father's funeral. This is tricky ground. Whether or not this is true, the author already makes a good case that the guy was a creep without having to include so much of his personal life. And, as the saying goes, there are two sides to every story (in Byrne's defense, Dunlap refused to cooperate with the book, but still).

There are other instances where you can really feel the author's venom. Byrne covered the subject in several articles for "Business Week" and reveals a deep personal dislike for Dunlap. He even refers to him as a "loudmouth" and makes other nasty remarks. It may or may not be well deserved, but these comments and the personal detail make John Byrne border on being as mean-spirited as Chainsaw himself.

This is a terrific read, and is definitely a business model for NOT how to manage a company. In the same vein, I also recommend the educational but more tedious "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders" by Jim Carlton, and "Trumped" by John O'Donnell.

If nothing else, "Chainsaw" will definitely make your crummy job seem a lot easier!

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable
Review: Excellent book which just high-lights the fact that people are not resources....a computer is a resource, a screwdriver is a resource....people are not.

I cannot believe that any self-respecting manager would just take over-the-top abuse from Dunlap. Why hasnt someone smacked the little fella a fat lip by now? What won't they do for money?

Rating:
Summary: If You Think You Work For A Jerk...
Review: I found "Chainsaw" in a discounted book bin and picked it up because I wanted to learn more about the man who was hailed by Wall Street analysts as a fast turnaround artist but hated by the many employees who felt the wrath of his cost-cutting sword at the companies in which he was in charge.

Chainsaw primarily chronicles Chainsaw Al Dunlap's rocky two year tenure at Sunbeam Corp., where he closed numerous plants, fired almost half of its employees, ran roughshod over the half who remained, heaped more praise upon himself then the most conceited athlete or movie star and pretty much ran the company into the ground.

The author, John Byrne has spoken to several hundred people who have dealt with Dunlap's rage and unrealistic expectations and has been able to piece together a non-fiction work that reads like a novel. Significant amounts of dialog between Dunlap and his cronies are displayed and it basically says one thing. Chainsaw Al Dunlap ruled through total intimidation and with the exception of his right hand man, listened to nobody but himself, even though he had no experience with the products that Sunbeam sold. He fired (or actually had somebody else fire) everybody who didn't appear to him to be part of the team. Byrne perfectly sets out the tension that occurred when Dunlap was on a rampage.

The reader gets to see the desperate measures a company will go through to try to meet investor and Wall Street expectations, including accounting games which have come to the forefront as a result of the Enron debacle. I'm not an accountant, but I even have to admit that things they did were pretty shady.

Byrne wraps the book up with the final straws that led Al Dunlap to go down in flames at Sunbeam, ending in his firing at a secretive board meeting in New York City. I see that a paperback version is coming out soon, which I hope will bring the story of Dunlap up to date, including his required payment to a trust fund to settle civil lawsuits against him.

Byrne's only fault is that he is not totally objective. It's easy to tell that he despises Dunlap (he calls him a loudmouth, comments on the large size of his teeth, attacks his love of his dogs over everything else), so I knock the rating to four stars, but it's still a pretty good business case book. Bryne would be a great candidate to writeup the Enron story as he does have a way with story telling and research.

Rating:
Summary: The Next Best Thing to Being There
Review: I loved this book. I've seen corporate boardrooms from up close and inside, first as an attorney with corporate clients and then as a manager or an executive in a couple of corporations.

The words in this book ring true. While I've been fortunate to work with some really fine people, everything in this book feels believable to me. It's entirely consistent with the way I imagine a corporation with an out-of-control egomaniac as President would be run. I did for a brief period experience life in another company that was run by a guy who specializes in selling off or shutting down pieces of companies in order to gussy up the balance sheet for a sale. The experience was close enough to what I experienced that I felt as if I were really there watching while I read this book.

Sadly, this book is the story of a desparate board of directors that was looking for a dramatic step to save a very sick company. They selected a CEO who really was not an operationally experienced manager but who was a quick fix artist who made the balance sheet look better by a fast sell-off of apparently nonperforming assets, and who then would sell the company before the extent to which it had been crippled became apparent. It's amazing that in many ways sophisticated and experienced business people serving on corporate boards can become so desparate that they suspend their critical judgment and select CEOs whose appearance as fire-breathing madmen seems like the only solution.

A few years ago I read Dunlap's book "Mean Business" and I marvelled at the ease at which he had arrived at the moral judgment that the only thing that mattered was return on investment to shareholders. What "Chainsaw Al" pretty clearly reveals is that the true moral choice Dunlap made was that the only thing that matters is the aggrandizement of Al Dunlap.

Every corporate director in America ought to read this book and recognize that there is no "quick fix" for a sick company. Ailing companies need solid leadership not self-aggrandizing maniacs. It's not hard to identify that characters like Dunlap are bad leaders, it is hard to identify the hard work and real leadership necessary to fix a company in trouble.

Rating:
Summary: A difference between tough and cruel
Review: If John Byrne's "Chainsaw" were a work of fiction, it would likely be considered unpublishable because its main character is so absurdely evil. Unfortunately -- especially for those who had to endure his wrath -- the story of Al Dunlap is all too true. Byrne's portrayal of Dunlap, who was hailed by Wall Street as a turaround genius before his leadership of Sunbeam ended in debacle, is that not of an admirable business leader, but of an hysterical, violent sociopath who, if his life had turned slightly differently, might well have ended up in prison, a mental hospital, or an early grave. "Chainsaw" paints a portrait of a man who was abusive -- mentally, emotionally and even physically -- to nearly everybody in his life, from his business associates to his family to the few whom he considered friends.

"Chainsaw" chronicles the rise and fall of "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap so compellingly that even those who wouldn't think to read a business book will be hooked. However, the book is in many ways fascinating the way that a car wreck is fascinating. The reader will marvel at the amount and intensity of abuse Dunlap hurls at even his closest friends and allies, the coldness with which he treats his family (he abandoned his son at age 2 and couldn't be bothered to attend the funerals of either of his parents), and the near-perverted bounds of his ego. In fact, as Sunbeam lurches toward collapse, his only apparent interest was in signing copies of his autobiography.

Defenders of Dunlap will say that he did the dirty work of downsizing and layoffs to save dying companies, sacrificing the needs of the few for the good of the many. And true, the modern business world is filled with harsh realities and tough decision-making. But Dunlap's approach to downsizing in "Chainsaw" teeters between indifference to those downsized and pure sadism. At points in the book, he actually seems to enjoy cutting jobs and closing factories (though he usually had others do the dirty deeds). As the author says, there is a business world between being tough and being cruel -- and Byrne leaves little doubt about where he places Dunlap. Worse, Dunlap's moves at Sunbeam didn't seem to have been done with any level of intelligence, other than to get Dunlap a quick win so he could cash out fast. The result was the near-total destruction of Sunbeam rather than long-term gains from short-term pain.

In "Chainsaw," Byrne stresses that either through fear, greed or naivetee, others enabled Dunlap. The way that each of these characters is drawn creates a fascinating if morbid portrait of a dysfunctional, cannibalistic organization revolving totally around Chainsaw Al.

Byrne is a terrific writer, and "Chainsaw" is a great read. My only quibble is that, since Byrne and Dunlap apparently have had great animosity toward each other, Byrne often sacrifices any attempt at objectivity. But perhaps objectivity isn't possible when chronicling such an extreme personality.

It's good to see "Chainsaw" returning to print in paperback. Now, in the era of Enron and WorldCom, Sept. 11 and the War on Terror reminding us what real toughness is all about, and with the Wall Street euphoria of the '90s in the rear-view mirror, its perspective is needed now more than ever...

Rating:
Summary: A difference between tough and cruel
Review: If John Byrne's "Chainsaw" were a work of fiction, it would likely be considered unpublishable because its main character is so absurdely evil. Unfortunately -- especially for those who had to endure his wrath -- the story of Al Dunlap is all too true. Byrne's portrayal of Dunlap, who was hailed by Wall Street as a turaround genius before his leadership of Sunbeam ended in debacle, is that not of an admirable business leader, but of an hysterical, violent sociopath who, if his life had turned slightly differently, might well have ended up in prison, a mental hospital, or an early grave. "Chainsaw" paints a portrait of a man who was abusive -- mentally, emotionally and even physically -- to nearly everybody in his life, from his business associates to his family to the few whom he considered friends.

"Chainsaw" chronicles the rise and fall of "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap so compellingly that even those who wouldn't think to read a business book will be hooked. However, the book is in many ways fascinating the way that a car wreck is fascinating. The reader will marvel at the amount and intensity of abuse Dunlap hurls at even his closest friends and allies, the coldness with which he treats his family (he abandoned his son at age 2 and couldn't be bothered to attend the funerals of either of his parents), and the near-perverted bounds of his ego. In fact, as Sunbeam lurches toward collapse, his only apparent interest was in signing copies of his autobiography.

Defenders of Dunlap will say that he did the dirty work of downsizing and layoffs to save dying companies, sacrificing the needs of the few for the good of the many. And true, the modern business world is filled with harsh realities and tough decision-making. But Dunlap's approach to downsizing in "Chainsaw" teeters between indifference to those downsized and pure sadism. At points in the book, he actually seems to enjoy cutting jobs and closing factories (though he usually had others do the dirty deeds). As the author says, there is a business world between being tough and being cruel -- and Byrne leaves little doubt about where he places Dunlap. Worse, Dunlap's moves at Sunbeam didn't seem to have been done with any level of intelligence, other than to get Dunlap a quick win so he could cash out fast. The result was the near-total destruction of Sunbeam rather than long-term gains from short-term pain.

In "Chainsaw," Byrne stresses that either through fear, greed or naivetee, others enabled Dunlap. The way that each of these characters is drawn creates a fascinating if morbid portrait of a dysfunctional, cannibalistic organization revolving totally around Chainsaw Al.

Byrne is a terrific writer, and "Chainsaw" is a great read. My only quibble is that, since Byrne and Dunlap apparently have had great animosity toward each other, Byrne often sacrifices any attempt at objectivity. But perhaps objectivity isn't possible when chronicling such an extreme personality.

It's good to see "Chainsaw" returning to print in paperback. Now, in the era of Enron and WorldCom, Sept. 11 and the War on Terror reminding us what real toughness is all about, and with the Wall Street euphoria of the '90s in the rear-view mirror, its perspective is needed now more than ever...

Rating:
Summary: This book is a hatchet job
Review: John Byrne does a fantastic job of portraying a sad, lonely man who has made greed the major pursuit of his life. Al Dunlap stopped at nothing to get what he wanted, eventually believing that he could get away with whatever he wanted to while still preserving his image and wealth.

One of the more fascinating parts of this book was how Sunbeam stretched its accouting practices to give the appearance of profit and growth. A solid example of the truth that you must look at the numbers very closely in order to get a company's true picture.

Hopefully people will read this book and realize that the Dunlap way is NOT the way to manage a company and that a good manager does more than provide short-sighted, short-term gains for shareholders.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent - a superb portrait of a sad man
Review: John Byrne does a fantastic job of portraying a sad, lonely man who has made greed the major pursuit of his life. Al Dunlap stopped at nothing to get what he wanted, eventually believing that he could get away with whatever he wanted to while still preserving his image and wealth.

One of the more fascinating parts of this book was how Sunbeam stretched its accouting practices to give the appearance of profit and growth. A solid example of the truth that you must look at the numbers very closely in order to get a company's true picture.

Hopefully people will read this book and realize that the Dunlap way is NOT the way to manage a company and that a good manager does more than provide short-sighted, short-term gains for shareholders.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story with one flaw
Review: John Byrne has presented a fascinating portrait of the fall of Al Dunlap at Sunbeam. He goes into great detail on all the irrational decisions that were made, the impossible targets, the pressure to fudge numbers and the final inevitable collapse. Byrne also spends some time on the rather unsavory private life of Dunlap (he didn't attend his parents funerals, he never meets his son or his sister). By and large I agree with the other positive reviews.

Byrne writes very well. Many business writers tend to get bogged down in detail when writing a book (as opposed to a small article) or get distracted or get stuck in flashbacks. Byrne does none of these and keeps your interest level high throughout.

If I have one gripe with the book (which is why I give it 4 rather than 5), its that it relies too much on people who dislike Dunlap or were trying to shift responsibility to him. Yes, the man is an egoist, a hypocrite, a braggart etc. But its a little hard for me to believe that every bad business decision at Sunbeam can be traced to Dunlap (or his consultants), and it seems to me that at least some of the other managers are trying to shift responsiblity to Dunlap on occasion. Also, Dunlap's attitude at Sunbeam was wrong in most ways -- still the company itself was unhealthy when he came in. The original management deserves at least some blame for the pre-Dunlap situation.

Similarly, a number of people in the book claim that they were always skeptical of Dunlap's business skills. Maybe after the Sunbeam collapse -- but I find it hard to believe they were all skeptical initially. Example -- an analyst claims that he doubted the Sunbeam turnaround story from the beginning, but he still kept on churning out positive reports on Sunbeam for his securities firm.