When my father learned that I had been drafted by a board of  directors to lead a failing software company through a financial  turnaround, he reacted:

 “But, what do you know about running a  business?”

 The words stung – but he was right: I knew nothing. I’d been  an attorney for a wide variety of businesses for years – but had never  been responsible for a bottom line, never done a budget, never managed  people and had never created a strategic plan! 

 I began looking everywhere I could for advice. I devoured business  and management books by the carload. Most often, I found good counsel in  the talented people that surrounded me. They brought the experience and  skills to the corporate table that I lacked. But, the single most  unusual source of wisdom came one night when my CFO, Paul Byrne, and I  drank a bottle of Thompson’s Bourbon Whiskey in the corporate house we  shared in Wisconsin and watched the 1990 movie The Memphis Belle.   

The namesake of the movie is an Army B-17 WWII bomber (“Flying  Fortress”) whose crew had flown 24 missions into enemy territory.  According to military policy, the crew would return home if they  returned safely from their 25th mission. 

The movie tells the story of  that final mission.    

We were in the early days of our trench warfare trying to save the  company, so it was natural that we felt a kinship with the pilot and  crew of the Belle. As we drank and watched, we began to discover  business rules and management lessons within the war-movie plot. By the  time we were done, we had Ten Rules of Management From The Memphis  Belle. Then, Paul came up with an 11th. I swore and said “you can’t  just have an odd number like 11” – so we replayed the movie in our heads  and thought of 9 more.     

And thus we discovered the 20 Lessons From The Memphis Belle. We had  them printed up on little cards (reproduced at the end of this post.) and handed  them out to employees. We gifted them to strategic partners and  customers. We printed them on posters and hung them in our offices. When  we ran into a hard issue in the business we would refer to the Rules:  more often than not there was a rule that was right on point.   

Each time we’d be amazed, but then we’d say: 

“Ah! The Rules know all!” 

I credit these rules with getting me through the very successful turn  around of the software company.  Even today, I see the continued  applicability of these rules to the difficult times we face today. I am putting the finishing touches on a book describing the Memphis  Belle and explaining their applicability to real life situations. In the  mean time, please feel free to contact me with any questions or  comments you have about the Rules. I’d love to hear about any  opportunities you have had to apply the rules.             

A synchronistic postscript…

Following is an email I recently sent to Paul Byrne, Art Petty and Scott Harward., who were all on the turnaround crew with me: We made friends with a couple we met at the Greenbank  Grille  here on Whidbey Island. Kathy and Gary Hammer had us over for  dinner tonight. Gary had a poster on his wall of the woman that is  painted on the side of the Memphis Belle. The poster is signed by Petty,  the artist.
Trying to show my superior knowledge and extraordinary intelligence, i said, “That’s the picture on the Memphis Belle.” June told them the story of the Memphis Belle rules.  Gary said “come downstairs and I’ll show you something.  We followed him  downstairs to a room lined with more Petty posters and a scale model of  the Belle and patches issued to the Belle crew and a pile of Belle  memorabilia.  He reached into a drawer and handed me a photo. 

 “I want  you to have this “. 

That’s the photo at the top of this page. A black and white photo with the actual signatures of the crew. Holy cow, Batman!            

()