Titanic Courtesy of Wikipedia
The captain goes down with the ship” is the maritime concept and tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his or her ship and everyone embarked on it, and he or she will die trying to save either of them. The concept may be expressed as “the captain always goes down with the ship” or simply the “captain goes down with his ship.” Although often associated with the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and its captain, Edward Smith, the phrase predates the Titanic by at least 11 years.[1] In most instances the captain of the ship forgoes his or her own rapid departure of a ship in distress, and concentrates instead on saving other people. It often results in either the death or belated rescue of the captain as the last person on board. (Paragraph courtesy of Wikipedia.com)
So let’s talk about how that works in small business. The Captain is the owner of the small business and has the ultimate responsibility. The passengers would be the employees, other shareholders and customers. What happens so many times is that owners fail to realize that the Captain is responsible for the safety or in this case the financial health and success of the business way before it is sinking. They are responsible to be sure that if a particular employee is hurting the business they are removed from the ship. As I talk about in my book “Check Your Drawers” in the chapter titled “Taking Care of Mama” Your boss is expected to get you away from the business when it is found that you are a detriment to that businesses succes. That can mean an employee is bad for the morale of the other employees. They could be stealing, they could be running off the customers with rude behavior or poor service. The point is if they are not doing the things that increase business and provide everthing they are expected to do. The Boss or Captain is responsible to act before the business is in financial trouble.
I have managed many business turnarounds and every single one had something in common. They all had a trusted person in charge as manager who was not doing the job, not even close. The owner or Captain was too close to that person or was too weak to hold them accountable. So when that happens the behavior like other things rolls downhill! The manager is not holding people accountable either. It is very difficult to hire excellent people who will stay in an enviroment like this. You may be able to get them to take the job and even begin it but they will leave first chance becuase they lose respect for leadership. They also are almost universally rejected by the mediocre staff.
A ship that is being managed and operated by all mediocre people is one where when danger is on the horizon no one bothers to share that with the Captain. They don’t maintain the equipment, keep the customers relationships in tip top shape and they tend to dip into the supplies at an inappropriate rate.
The Captain or Owner will definitely go down with the ship in business because employees don’t sign leases, owe for supplies or parts or inventory. They aren’t responsible for payroll taxes, insurance premiums, bank notes etcetera. The Captain gets the whole responsibilty and I have never heard in my lifetime of a company with employee’s who took up a collection to bail out the owner when the business goes under. We are talking small businesses where the relationships should be closer and more personal.
The Captain or Owner needs to realize that if they have evidence of problems by virtue of cash flow is insufficient or sales are declining and so on, then if they cannot see the problem or identify it personally, it’s time for professional outside help. All to often the owner will literally let things go until the foreclosure or bankruptcy notices are going out to realize it didn’t have to happen.
If you own a small business and things are trending down ask your banker, accountant or insurance broker for advice on finding a good business coach or management consultant before you let years of hard work and your life savings go up for no good reason! Pride really does go before a fall and with that fall usually your life savings and years of debt payments ahead of you.