Set a Good Example, Or Your Team
Will Follow the Bad One.
Your
team will always be looking for clues about how to behave toward customers,
vendors and each other. Right now, they’re getting nothing but bad advice from
the highest level.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V
AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1
May 27,
2025
As a young lawyer, I was
introduced to a custom in our firm in which the rookies had to handle the many
strange and simple lawsuits regularly initiated by one of our most litigious
clients. This gent was in the towel-and linen rental business and whenever a
customer failed to pay their bill or to return all of his items, he would
insist that our firm immediately file a lawsuit.
These were not
substantial dollar claims, and it quickly became apparent that filing them made
no financial sense because the hourly legal costs far exceeded the value of the
claim. The older attorneys in the firm believed that the client was more than a
little nuts and each had their own war stories about their time in the “towel
tank” as it was called.
In truth, the “honor” of
handling these largely frivolous cases was halfway between helpful (learning
the ins-and-outs and the arcane procedures of Chicago’s civil trial courts) and
hazing (making sure the newbies knew their place), which bordered on harassment.
To be slightly fair, learning to cultivate friends in low places at the clerk’s
offices and begging them to help you learn the ropes was an invaluable life
lesson. More importantly, even though young lawyers quickly concluded that this
work was just slightly above ambulance chasing, the client loved every battle
and happily paid for the privilege.
In fact, he absolutely
prided himself on his reputation as a lunatic who would sue anyone who crossed
him. He wasn’t stingy or frugal in the rest of his affairs and, in fact, he
owned a great deal of property and bought and sold many businesses over the years,
which was clearly why the firm’s senior partners were happy to appease him. But
he relished his reputation – well-known across the city and his industry – as a
guy who would sue you for a song.
If this propensity to
sue everyone for little or no reason sounds sadly familiar these days and
reminds us of the daily, illegal threats and extortionate practices of a
certain Orange Monster, it’s not an accident.
But the point of the
tale isn’t about the stupid or ugly actions of the client. What’s interesting
is the impact on his customers and how it changed their behavior. In the very
same way that Trump seeks to have the entire country bend a knee and obey his
every demand, the Towel Tyrant made sure that every single customer knew that
he wasn’t someone to be trifled with, put off, or stiffed. Result: his accounts
receivable balances and bad debts were a wonder to behold.
Unfortunately, it’s not
easy or often even possible to control the scope, distribution or reach of
these actions and philosophies, or the messages they send, or exactly whose
behavior they impact. Suffice it to say that there were plenty of prospects who
happily found other vendors rather than having to deal with this guy. And
others in the industry who – taking a page from his playbook – treated him just
as shabbily as he treated his customers.
Enough has already been
written about the direct results of Trump’s illegal orders, actions, and
schemes. But we’re just beginning to see how his in-your-face actions and
constant outright grifting have begun to change the behaviors of millions of consumers
and customers. Any day now you can expect to start seeing the costly and
unfortunate behavioral changes in your own businesses that we’re already seeing
all over Chicago.
The Trump rot is
spreading, and it seems that millions of aggrieved individuals – especially the
younger generation of inner-city kids – have decided that, if Trump can do
whatever he pleases and get away with it, then why should they follow the rules,
obey the laws, respect their neighbors? Why shouldn’t they simply take whatever
they can get their hands on?
If you’re in a
consumer-facing business – food, entertainment, education, medicine or
government service – you’ve already seen dozens of social media videos and news
stories showing stores robbed and trashed by hordes of teens. They smash
display cases and throw registers around malls, refuse to pay for fast
food meals and attack staff. At big box and warehouse stores, security
teams have been overwhelmed, outnumbered and beaten by thieves and other
troublemakers.
Making it okay to behave
badly.
In a word, Trump’s overt
and shameless lawlessness has given permission – if not direct approval – to
every kind of deadbeat, bad actor, teenage wannabe gangbanger, malingerer and
criminal to act out, cheat, steal and attack people and property with an inflated,
unfounded and arrogant sense of grievance, entitlement and reparation. Trump
will never be a good example of anything, but at least his corruption and
narcissism can serve as a horrible warning of where we’re headed.
As the videos
convincingly demonstrate, these aren’t people to be reasoned with, appeased or
placated. The turmoil and the thefts are all an intended and important part of
the exercise and the entertainment. They start with the proposition that
“what’s mine is mine and what’s yours, we’ll talk about.” Chicago’s own racist
mayor tells these fools that they’re entitled to take back what was stolen from
their ancestors centuries ago and that he’s happy to lead the charge.
So, what exactly is any
business owner or manager supposed to tell their team about how to respond to
these growing threats to their operations? Customer service takes a backseat
every time to server safety. The last thing any employer wants is to have their
employees injured as they unsuccessfully try to protect the company’s property
and merchandise. This chaos and loss of control plays into the hands and
demented plans of an aspiring autocrat who would love nothing more than to
invoke martial law and send troops into our major urban centers.
We’ve already seen that
major retailers like Apple have instructed their employees (for insurance and
liability reasons) to just stand by and let the thieves abscond with whatever
they can quickly grab. No one thinks that this policy makes sense, but other
than intensifying their onsite security and securing their doors, it’s not
clear that any vendor has come up with a better solution. Some of the high-end
jewelry and clothing stores in major cities are reconfiguring their entries to
resemble the sally ports that traditionally limited direct access to prisons,
banks, and other secure facilities.
CVS has addressed its
“shrinkage” issues by locking up the store’s expensive merchandise inside
plastic cases which – as you would imagine – has adversely impacted the
shopping experience for actual paying customers. The high security approach
gives their own staff another set of distracting duties—they have to open the
cases for customers– and time-consuming responsibilities. And, in those areas
where things are really out of control, we’re seeing stores simply closing.
It’s easy to lose faith
and feel that things are hopeless and getting worse and, worse yet, that
there’s no solution in sight. But that’s not the way that good people and great
entrepreneurs think. We’re able to see and honestly admit that the challenges
ahead seem daunting, if not overwhelming, and that our current leaders clearly
aren’t up to the task of making things better.
But we still put our
heads down every day and move forward with the heart, the critical energy and
the determination that it’s going to take to make changes for the better.
Chicago has been reborn many times over its resilient history and it’s up to
all of us to do it again.
