David Wolfe over at Ageless Marketing has coined the term ironic management to describe the counterintuitive management style of what he calls firms of endearment. David’s one of the most astute people I’ve ever read on these issues; I suggest you head over there and start reading. There’s enough mind-blowing material to last you a while.
While he writes often about what makes FoEs so special, this post distills the results gained from their unique management style:
- FoEs decentralize decision making, but do so in ways that increase rather than decrease top executive influence at all levels of a company.
- FoEs pay frontline staff above norms in their category. Rather than increasing cost of sales, this reduces the percentage of a revenue dollar that goes to employee-related costs.
- FoEs typically depend little or not at all on conventional marketing practices, yet often experience explosive growth due to the affectionate regard stakeholders hhave for them and the word-of-mouth promotion that results.
- Publicly traded FoEs tend to be less influenced by expectations of Wall Street analysts but typically achieve higher price/earnings ratios.
- FoEs operate with greater transparency than most companies do but get sued less often.
This kind of management style ties in with the revolutions taking place in the worlds of media production/distribution, open source, and branding & marketing. Ironic management is yet another identifiable characteristic that our once familiar landscape is completely rearranging itself right beneath our feet as we walk.
