Plain Talk

Perhaps the highest praise for this refreshing little memoir is this: if certain other captains of industry had read Ken Iverson's book when it was published in 1998 and heeded its advice, investors would have been spared billions in losses and a slew of corporate scandals would have been averted. Iverson, head of steel maker Nucor Corporation, injects much-needed common sense into the often-bureaucratic, hierarchical world of corporate boardrooms and corner offices. This persuasive text, written in the sort of clear, muscular prose you'd expect from a steel man, will make you want to give up your executive parking space and embrace an egalitarian corporate structure. We recommend this engaging work to managers who want to look at their jobs a new way.

Ken Iverson has truly earned the right to be called a "Business Maverick". In this book he explains how the culture he created at Nucor became "60% of their competative advantage". He explains how breaking down hierarchy and opening the lines of true communication in all directions can propel a business to success.His unique, but successful, techniques at time agree with, and at times flies in the face of, McGregor, classical management theorists, and others who have studied management, communications and human resources.In chapters entitled, "A Higher Cause", "Trust Your Instincts", "Destroy the Hierarchy", "A Simple Stake in the Business", "The Virtues of Smallness", "Ethic Over Politics", and others Mr. Iverson relates how you too, if you are willing to work hard enough at it, can "turn a confused, tired old company on the brink of bankruptcy into a star player...", while learning that "many of the so-called 'necessary evils' of life in corporate America are, in fact, not necessary".

This is a fantastic and priceless book, by a man who turned an almost bankrupt company around, to a company doing over $4 billion a year in business, with much profit. It's an inspiring book, that gives you faith in human nature...all you have to do is appeal to peoples' best impulses to get them to perform well and enthusiastically (the MANAGERS had to rescue a union organizer from the WORKERS, who wanted nothing to do with unions. Imagine that! WORKERS being hostile to the union representative, and MANAGERS, rescuing him from a hostile group!) This may be the greatest business book ever written, frankly!! I'm almost loath to recommend it, God forbid my competitors should read it!....

Ken details the mechanics of a simple, effective, decentralized framework that aligns the goals of the employees, management, and customers. Base salaries are below industry median. The bonus of a manager depends on the return on equity (capital + equipment + human) that s/he generates. Each team's bonus is tied directly to what they produce.The higher up the manager (there are four layers including CEO), the higher the proportion of of paycut during down times.Has simple effective metrics to monitor the health of each decentralized unit (half a dozen including sales, productivity, expenses).A good mechanism to set goal and measure performance for a business generating tangible goods. Not sure how this could be applied to more intangible value added activities such as IT and software engineering

Ken Iverson is unlike any big businessman and his company, Nucor Steel, is unlike any large corporation. As chairman of America's third-largest steel company, he is a champion of individual initiative and an outspoken opponent of bureaucratic management. At a time when naysayers were predicting the death of American steel, he lifted Nucor out of near bankruptcy: Nucor has turned a profit almost every year since he took the helm, while his employees are among the best paid in the industry.In his new book, Plain Talk, Iverson shows how he achieved his amazing success and offers constructive advice for managers and workers alike. Contrary to popular opinion, Iverson believes that the interests of workers and managers are-and should be-harmonious. Both are after their own ends. Both want to be successful. There is no reason, in Iverson's view, to drive an artificial wedge between the two. The main focus of Plain Talk is on maintaining and nurturing the virtue of productivity in all employees.Unlike other books on business success, this one is free of jargon and quick-fix schemes. Moreover, the book's advice is well grounded in Iverson's spectacular successes at Nucor.In the early 1980s, the American steel industry was in dire straits. As the number of steel workers plummeted from 400,000 to 200,000, some predicted the demise of the industry. But not Ken Iverson. While Nucor's production was down by nearly 50%, he did not lay-off his workers. Rather, he cut hours and salaries-for workers and managers, even including his own. Iverson explains that, "No employee was being asked to carry more than his or her share of the burden." Far from acting altruistically, his decisions were in the long-term interest of Nucor. As a rational manager, he knew that cutting back on his workforce without cutting back on management would have hampered his ability to pull the company out of its low period.Indeed, according to Iverson, a major hindrance to productivity is bureaucratic, heavy-handed management. He decries the layers of management that burden most large American corporations. At Nucor, there are exactly four layers between sooty steel workers and suited upper management.As a means of enhancing profits through productivity, Iverson places great emphasis in trusting his employees. He trusts them to accomplish their goals without undue interference from management. Just as the crowning principle of a proper legal system is "innocent until proven guilty," so Iverson grants his employees the benefit of the doubt, only taking action against them if they fail to live up to their end of the contract. Iverson counts on the rationality of those who work for him-in stark contrast to bureaucratic corporations in America today. Iverson's investment in trust pays dividends: high employee morale, productive excellence and consistent profits for Nucor.Such is Iverson's approach leadership that Nucor has no union. No, he doesn't prevent