DOGE is Not a Turnaround Strategy

But David Friedberg and Guests See it that Way.

by Walter Simson

?Company owners are often frustrated with—take your pick—the sales organization, the IT department or the CFO. “I can’t take it anymore,” they say. “I want you to go over there and fire that worthless sonofabitch!” So, I go to the, say, sales head, who agrees with his boss on an essential point. “Sales suck and the boss is unhappy,” he says. “And our products are outmoded. Our prices are high. Our quality is awful and nobody gives the clients the service they want. And you want to fire ME? Sure, go ahead.”

The owner then might be armed with a different perspective and decide that blaming people for his own management failure is not a good look. He could still decide to change the people in the seats, even dismantle the department. But does that bring the desired result? No, which is why owners always elect to constructively address root causes. This takes courage, brains and time, and in business, it is ALWAYS the way out of a bad situation.

In our business life we make constructive decisions. We would never permit irrational, widespread destruction of our companies by anonymous no-talent thieves who need the cover of night to achieve even their destructive aims. This is happening to our national enterprise as we speak, however.

I speak of the uncontrolled moveable burglary operation known as DOGE. This effort to shock and awe the Federal bureaucracy is a kind of unconstitutional felony. If only DOGE had lawyers who could read the constitution. I refer to Article I: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”

But some in the business community who are cheering this effort on. David Friedberg, an Ag Bio entrepreneur and investor, is a fan:

"If you zoom out on what DOGE is doing, I think the best way to describe it is zero-based budgeting…?In organizations that go through zero-based budgeting, you do a cycle, typically annually, where you take all of your OpEx, all of your expenses in running a company down to the studs."

To be clear, DOGE is not a budgeting operation. It has attempted to fire people, offered illegal contractual changes, locked public buildings while forbidding entry to elected representatives, and has accessed and modified computer systems in uncontrolled ways. It has torn up contracts and infiltrated the center of the US government’s payments system, illegally withholding funds to legal recipients without notice or oversight. It has refused to identify the operatives and arm-twisted public servants.

Calling this a budget operation is like calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a three-day holiday.

(Zero based budgeting is almost never used in business., by the way. This grizzled hand remembers the Harvard Business Review article that originally espoused ZBB. The author: Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. I’m sure his big-D Democratic ghost will now gladly haunt Mr. Friedberg.)

Antonio Gracias, a veteran of the Twitter takeover, is also on team DOGE.

“It (DOGE) happened just in the nick of time. Eighty-plus people there, all patriots, going full time to make this happen," he said. "So, I'm just so grateful." Please. Someone hand Mr. Gracias some tissues. He’s about to be overcome by the overthrow of our national infrastructure.

While Musk said in December that DOGE would operate in maximum transparency, he has had a change of heart. The Associated Press reported on February 9th that the kids acting under this were previously employed by Musk’s companies, and Musk has said in response it is a crime to reveal their names.

Oh, really? I'll take my chances. Let me at 'em.

A Trump-appointed prosecutor said that “we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes [DOGE’s] work or threatens your people.”

Turnarounds take forethought, organization, process thinking and coordination. DOGE is not a turnaround. It is a blitzkrieg of gleeful destruction. And wrecking balls are not transparent.

Nobody espousing DOGE has, with or without gratitude, invited this crowd to Zero Base Budget their own operations. Possibly because they would hate to see workmen on ladders removing their own operation’s name from the fa?ade.

Because, you know, transparency.

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