Goodbye Chainsaw. RIP.
Gary Green
2024 Inductee to California Music Hall of Fame │ Television Personality │ Author │ Strategist │Keynote Speaker │renowned Brander│ Iconic Folksinger/Recording Artist │ casino guru
I just heard that Al Dunalp died. Chainsaw” Al Dunlap was the layoff and books-cooking executive often cited on lists of the worst CEO’s in the history of American business.
I wrote about him on LinkedIn in November of 2017: (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/what-can-i-learn-from-corporate-dck-gary-green/)
He and I had offices in the same building and we were the only ones who worked early Sunday mornings, so we often saw each other.
The first day we met, in 1998, we exchanged autographed copies of each other’s books; basically saying “nice to meet and good luck”. He had a best-seller called “Mean Business” and I had just written a guide to doing business on the “internet superhighway: called “Do It Right”.
After that exchanged autographs encounter, we frequently swapped elevator-and-lobby small talk about nothing. Eventually he began inviting me into his office for a half hour or so of more small-talk once a week.
He had a dream of moving from Boca Raton to either Tennessee or Ocala (Florida) to raise horses; and for some reason he thought my opinion on that subject would be interesting. (Probably because I ware cowboy boots and have a Southern accent.)
When he would arrive in the parking lot of the building, in the back seat of a white Mercedes, his heavily-armed body guard / driver would get out of the car and “sweep” the parking lot and roof tops for snipers or lurking assassins. The man really was THAT hated.
One Sunday morning around 1999, I was discussing techniques of start-up financing with him. He was running Sunbeam at the time but had a keen interest in the dot-com world; and I was then a dot-com guru in the midst of an IPO process.
Though I am reluctant to quote him about anything, one morning in his office he offered me a critique of his peers. It was an assessment that resounded with eerie accuracy, “Gary, let me tell you, corporate America has its head so far up their collective asses that they will never see the light of day. Stay as far away from the bastards as you can.”
I rarely put stock in unsolicited pulpiteer observations, especially from such a source; but I remembered his pithy advice years later when I observed the fraud-smelling corporate casino hijinks that robbed small investors and sacked retirement nest-eggs while paying millions to company insiders.
My old pal, Chainsaw, died Friday in Ocala; he was 81. Rest in peace, Al.
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5 年I remember reading the original article, thanks for the update.