Dana Corporation of the United States is a company with $3 billion in assets that produces general products such as copper propeller blades and gearboxes, mainly to meet the needs of the general secondary market in the automobile and tractor industries. In the early '70s, the company's sales per employee were equal to the industry-wide average, and by the end of the '70s, in the absence of large-scale capital expenditures, its sales per employee had tripled, making it the second largest among Happiness magazine's 500 companies ranked by total return on investment. This is an extraordinary record for a large company in such a tedious industry.

In 1973, when Mr. Macpheison took over as the company's general manager, one of the first things he did was to scrap the four-and-a-half-inch-thick policy guidelines and replace them with a one-page statement of purpose. It is to the effect that:

(1) Face-to-face communication is the most effective means to connect employees, maintain trust and stimulate enthusiasm. The key is to let employees know and discuss with them the full extent of the business.

(2) We are obligated to provide training and development opportunities to production personnel who wish to improve their technical level, expand their business capabilities, or further their education.

(3) It is important to provide employee insurance to employees.

(4) Establish various programs to encourage ideas, suggestions, and hard work, and establish incentive funds.

Macpheison quickly reduced the company's team from 500 to 100 and the organizational hierarchy from 11 to five. About 90 factory managers have become "store managers". Because these people have the responsibility to learn to do all the work in the factory, and they have the autonomy to work.

"I mean let go and let the employees do it," Macpheison said. "If you don't believe in any particular job, you're the one who does it, and we're going to suppress the potential of these people to contribute to the business and their personal development," he said. It is conceivable that in a manufacturing department, in a 25-square-foot radius, who better knows how to operate a machine, how to maximize its output, how to improve quality, how to optimize the flow of raw materials and use them efficiently than machine tool workers, material managers and maintenance personnel? No. He added: "We don't waste our time on stupid actions. We don't have all the formalities, we don't have a large number of administrative staff, we let everyone make a difference according to everyone's needs, everyone's aspirations and everyone's achievements, so that everyone has enough time to do their best...... It's better to acknowledge that the most important people in a business are those who provide services, create and add value to products, not those who manage those activities...... That means I'm in your 25-square-foot space, and I'm still going to have to listen to you! ”

Dana, like Hewlett-Packard, doesn't have a commuting clock. In response, Macpheison said: "Everybody is complaining, 'How can you do without a clock?'" I said, 'How are you going to manage 10 people?' If you can see with your own eyes that they're always late, you can talk to them. Why do you have to rely on clocks to know if people are late? My subordinates said: 'You can't get rid of the clock because the government wants to know the attendance and working hours of the workers.' I said, 'That's true.' As it is now, everyone is on time to and from work, and that's the record. If there are any special exceptions, we will deal with them in a realistic manner. ’”

Macpheison paid great attention to face-to-face communication, emphasizing discussing all issues with everyone. He asked for a monthly face-to-face meeting between the management of each department and all members of the department to discuss the details of each work of the company directly and concretely. MacPherson has a strong focus on training and continuous self-improvement. Dana University alone, where thousands of employees study, have courses that are pragmatic but also emphasize human beliefs, and many of them are taught by veteran deputy general managers of companies. In his opinion, there is no position more respectable than that of a director of the Dana University Board of Trustees.

Dana has never been tough. "No line manager is going to succumb to pressure and be forced to accept something," McPheison said. "Here, the pressure on people is the pressure among colleagues. Twice a year, about 100 managers hold five-day experience exchange meetings, and the pressure among colleagues is the driving force. He said, "You can always deceive your boss, and so can I." But you can't escape the eyes of your peers, they know it. ”

"Don't be on top, keep your eyes closed, and don't notice what is going on, it's the secret to youth," Macpheison emphasized. A 16-year employee at General Motors who was laid off said, "I guess I was fired because of the poor quality of my work." But in all those 16 years, who has asked me for advice on improving quality? Never. "The failure of superiors to perceive the situation will inevitably lead to serious antagonism between superiors and subordinates.

The strategy of "pointing at the mulberry and scolding the Huai" refers to using the method of "killing chickens and setting an example for monkeys, knocking on mountains and shaking tigers" to establish one's own majesty, adhere to principles, and fight back when suffering unfair treatment, so as to recover the impact in a timely manner.