CFO Bookshelf

Would You Work for Chainsaw Al Dunlap?


Listen Later

They called him 'Chainsaw Al.' In 1996, Al Dunlap took over a struggling Sunbeam and did what he did best: he cut. He let go 6,000 employees and closed 18 factories. The stock price? It nearly quadrupled in less than two years. To Wall Street, he was a superstar. But the 'turnaround' was a house of cards. 

To meet impossible targets, Dunlap used 'cookie-jar' accounting and 'channel stuffing'—basically booking future sales today to hide massive losses. 

By 1998, the board fired him, the SEC banned him for life, and Sunbeam was headed for bankruptcy. So, was he a genius who saved companies, or a corporate 'psychopath' who destroyed them for a quick buck?

In this episode, I bring back my friend Gordon Graham, the author of The Intrepid Brotherhood, who knows what it's like to work for a psychopathic leader. We explore this topic as we go through some of the key ideas in John Byrne's book, Chainsaw.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

CFO BookshelfBy Mark Gandy

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

32 ratings


More shows like CFO Bookshelf

View all
The Ben Shapiro Show by The Daily Wire

The Ben Shapiro Show

153,248 Listeners

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch by Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

2,835 Listeners

WSJ Your Money Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Your Money Briefing

1,720 Listeners

WSJ What’s News by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ What’s News

4,345 Listeners

The McKinsey Podcast by McKinsey & Company

The McKinsey Podcast

406 Listeners

HBR IdeaCast by Harvard Business Review

HBR IdeaCast

145 Listeners

CFO THOUGHT LEADER by The Future of Finance is Listening

CFO THOUGHT LEADER

127 Listeners

The Accounting Podcast by Blake Oliver & David Leary

The Accounting Podcast

347 Listeners

TRIGGERnometry by TRIGGERnometry

TRIGGERnometry

2,177 Listeners

The Long View by Morningstar, Christine Benz - Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning, Ben Johnson - Head of Client Solutions, Amy Arnott - Portfolio Strategist

The Long View

930 Listeners

The Journal. by The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

The Journal.

6,089 Listeners

CFO Weekly by Personiv

CFO Weekly

45 Listeners

The Memo by Howard Marks by Oaktree Capital Management

The Memo by Howard Marks

418 Listeners

The Megyn Kelly Show by SiriusXM

The Megyn Kelly Show

39,483 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

15,592 Listeners