The ABC of bad management: or, how not to manage a Company

The ABC of bad management: or, how not to manage?a Company

Many of you would be following the slow-moving train-wreck that is the ABC wallowing?in disarray?as it tries to extricate?itself from a problem entirely of its own making. ?

Briefly: the problems began when they hired a freelance announcer for a few days, pre-Christmas, 2023. She was fired a few days later?for allegedly making comments about the war in Gaza.

Herein lies the first of a litany of errors that ABC management fell into. Why am I telling you this? Because?running any kind of company (printing, broadcasting, etc) involves following the same set of principles, ''first principles'' if you like, that could also be called ''best practice'' or even?just ''common sense'' - sadly lacking in our national broadcaster.

Without going into the Jewish/Palestine ''politics'' (a fraught area) let's just focus on how?well the?ABC managed the situation - and would we in the printing industry fall into the same traps?

1st: no reference checking: Antoinette Lattouf is of Lebanese background, which is of no real consequence, other than she ''may'' have brought a more sympathetic?perspective to the plight of the Gazans than, say, someone from a different background. The point is: if the nervous-nellies at the ABC had any misgivings about her views, why did they?hire her in the first place??

2nd: no job specs: she was virtually given the job (on short notice as a fill-in) pre-Christmas when the ABC management probably thought nobody would be listening anyway so she can pretty-well say whatever she?likes. But commentators - be they on air or in a newspaper - must have some latitude. It's called ''editorial freedom'' and so long as you don't say anything defamatory or untrue, you should have a fairly?wide scope. And surely you want announcers to err on the provocative side: you don't want your audiences falling asleep.

3rd: sending conflicting signals: no sooner had she come onboard than one of her managers said ''don't mention the war''. Was that a directive? a suggestion? a hint? Nobody knows where it came from, other than ''from above'' (an ominous sign in the media?world).

4th: inconsistent messaging: she was also ''asked/told/advised'' to only use posts from ''reliable sources'', so she did - a UN press release?about food shortages?- for which she got castigated. Only to discover the ABC had quoted from the same source the night before - when no one was actually listening.

5th: conflicting advice - after the event: if a worker commits an indiscretion, one hopes that management can form some consistent view about the ''rights and wrongs'' of the matter. Not? the ABC - one of her managers said she had clearly committed a breach - another said she had not!

6th: contractor or employee? what was her status?during her brief five day contract? Probably a ''contractor'' but the terms were not clearly?spelled out - and senior management didn't have a clue?- as they dumped her with no right of reply - something their CEO, David Anderson admitted in court: they ''missed a step'' somewhere?along the way. Even a contractor has their rights.

7th: there are?six layers of management between Lattouf and the chairman (who should not have got involved anyway). This is getting to the nub of why the?ABC is so dysfunctional.

For there to be an effective ''chain of command'' it's impossible for there to be so many layers of managers - all doing?what? Such a multilayered?management structure breeds rampant finger-pointing as everyone ducks for cover and says, ''not my problem!"

8th: the Chair getting embroiled in management issues: this is possibly the worst example of bad governance I've seen. Every director of every public company is brow-beaten in boardroom protocol: do NOT under any circumstances (is that clear!) get sucked into the vortex of interfering in day-to-day management. Yet Ita Buttrose, icon of magazine publishing - fell into the trap. She succumbed to the temptation of bowing to dark forces (we know who they are), who objected to the ABC allowing a Palestinian-sympathetic?announcer on air. Putting aside the rights and wrongs of the conflict, no chairman of any company should start telling management what they should?or shouldn't?do!?

There you have it - how NOT to run a business. It'd be different if it was a private company where the directors can ruin the business if they so choose. But the ABC is a taxpayer-funded?enterprise and the MD is on more than a million dollars per year. He appears to be no more than an overpaid?baby-sitter.

For those of us lesser mortals (in the print sector) the lessons are laid out before us -?

?- do some reference-checking

?- know if they are an employee or a contractor

?- put clear job specs/guidelines in place

?- make people report?to one person - not several

?- thin-out the management?ranks!

?- no micro-managing?from ''above''.

For more advice on how to run your company - or how to hire good staff, contact?JDA Print Recruitment, Sydney and Melbourne.