Why Trump Is Bad for U.S. Business

Editor’s note: This column first ran May 10, 2011, more than five years before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. We think it's worth reading now not so much for political reasons but rather to emphasize the enduring usefulness of quality management tools. We’re also interested in readers’ views on the relative importance of management as a science vs. an art, both of which are highlighted here.

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There is one show on TV that I try to watch religiously. It’s Donald Trump’s Apprentice series, even though I cannot stand him or the message he delivers to U.S. business managers week after week. The message is one of instilling fear in the workplace. The contestants on the show are constantly on guard and fearful of getting fired. It becomes painfully obvious that they will do whatever it takes to make sure that the other contestants look bad and they look good, in the eyes of Trump.

I know, I know… if I despise him and his message so much, why do I keep supporting him and his show by watching week after week? I can’t answer that question. Perhaps I’m like the person who goes to church every Sunday and loves to watch a weekend murder mystery, or the person who despises gossip but watches soap operas, or the person who weighs 400 pounds but watches nonstop ESPN.

What is so wrong about the message that Trump sends to naive, young, and impressionable American managers? That it’s OK to drive fear into the organization and have employees compete against each other, not just between two teams (or departments), but within teams (departments). This is the equivalent of the head of an organization telling those within a department that the most talented employees will retain their jobs and the others will be fired.

Forget about the outside competition. Forget about the customers. Forget about teamwork and working together to try to overcome the department’s or team’s shortfalls. It’s all about internal competition within the department or team. The main concern on everyone’s minds is not to screw up and ensure that if someone else screws up, don’t help that person, and in fact, pronounce their failure.

This is exactly what happens week after week as we faithfully watch the “Apprentice” and as others watch at their own work places. We see people quit the task, become disengaged, stifle their own creativity, work within the system instead of challenging the system, and sometimes even purposely sabotage the effort. We see this at work, and we see this on the “Apprentice.”

The boardroom

Toward the end of the show, after it has been announced which team has lost and the winners have been released from the dreaded boardroom, we see Trump ask the remaining teammates of the losing team which person he should fire, building up even more resentment and less teamwork for the remaining survivors moving on to the next week’s event. And week after week, though the editors try to make nearly every project look successful, the customer continues to be neglected because they are not the true focus.

This is why Trump is bad for business. He is teaching the wrong lessons. Why? Because it makes for good TV and it feeds his already extra-large ego. It also allows him to openly practice nepotism when he puts his three children in positions to openly judge other contestants. Nice message to send to small-business owners out there, as if they didn’t already know it’s OK to put your kids in positions that they do not deserve and for which they are unqualified.

The boardroom and the critical decision of who will be fired that week is like a wide-open performance review that allows individuals to gang up against each other with vicious venom. There is no talk about how to improve the system, how to make more money for the customer or charities, what was done, and how the team can work better together the next time. It’s all about who was the lousiest and who should get canned that week. Yes, it is entertaining, but there are a lot of impressionable young people out there who think this is the way to manage.

The firing usually comes down to Trump’s judgment and mood that week. If you are a beautiful sexy model or ex-Playboy bunny, you will last at least half the season no matter how incompetent you are because Trump obviously likes beautiful women in the workplace. If you say as team leader that you are to blame and should be fired, one week “The Donald” says that he respects someone so honest, and the next week he says he cannot stand a quitter. Complete inconsistency. If you’ve gone to rehab, one week Trump will commend you for doing so, the next he will berate and embarrass you. The decision process is so obviously judgmental and subjective.

It really all depends on how much he likes you for whatever reason—just like a real performance review. The problem is that there might be young managers who look up to Trump as a model of who they would like to be. What a shame and what a damaging message he’s presenting.

It is this same very ego-driven and greed mentality that led to the Great Recession we are finally exiting from. Stay tuned for the rerun.

W. Edwards Deming stated that we need to drive out fear. To the wise and informed, Trump has demonstrated why this is so important. To the rest, they see the selfish benefits of driving in fear. Deming also talked about a greater long-term purpose in business. Developing a constancy of purpose, one based on long-term performance, not short-term results. The Donald has shown us that there is no other purpose in business than to live for the short term and bury everyone along the way as long as you come out on top.

Trump is extremely damaging to American business. He doesn’t care though, as long as he looks good and makes more money.

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