“Hey, you! They didn’t care who I was.” Peter explained. I was talking with Peter Schutz, former CEO of Porsche (1980-1988) about car racing. But Peter’s stories always have a point.

Standing in the pit, as the car would come in for fuel and tires, there was no pleasant conversation. All energy was focused on the flawless execution of the fundamentals. They had mere seconds to get the racecar out of the pit and back on to the track.

“Can you imagine,” Peter explained, “what would have happened if the guy working on the left rear tire had pulled the wheel, set it on the ground and then started a conversation. -You know guys, I have been thinking about a few things that I would like to bring up to the group.-”

Peter continued to explain that winning the race depended on the dynamics of a rather stern dictatorship. “How is that possible?” Peter asked. The answer was simple. They could operate like a dictatorship in the pit, in the heat of the moment, because they had spent months planning very democratically.

Execute like a dictatorship, plan democratically.

“The problem in business,” Peter said, “is that most managers get this exactly backward.” -TF

You can get Peter’s book Driving Force on Amazon.com.