Plain Talk Hardcover - 1997

From the jacket flap

"We have little tolerance for the politics, the pettiness, the fixation on rank and status, or the insensitivity to employees' needs that people in most big companies endure as a matter of course."

Ken Iverson, the Chairman of Nucor Corporation, says many things you wouldn't expect to hear from a Fortune 500 executive. But then, few top executives are such fervent champions of the frontline worker.

Now, in his long-awaited book, this visionary maverick shares valuable lessons about what it takes to build a super-competitive, world-class business. Nucor--a $3.8 billion dynamo of profitable growth--disdains committees, job descriptions, performance appraisals, and everything else bearing the taint of bureaucracy. Iverson believes people should earn according to what they produce. And he relentlessly "destroys hierarchy" to eliminate the trappings that distance managers from employees.

"When is laying people off the practical and sensible thing to do? Can we expect employees to be loyal and motivated if we lay them off at every dip of the economy, while we go on padding our own pockets?"

Nucor has never laid off an employee or shut down a facility for lack of work. Instead, the company has followed Iverson's controversial "painsharing" approach. When times get tight, everyone takes paycuts--starting with the executives at the top.

"When a friend showed me an article that listed me as the lowest paid Fortune 500 CEO that year, I wasn't ashamed. The company was not performing. I'd have been ashamed to earn more."

Ken Iverson led Nucor Corporation from near oblivion to its current place as America's third-largest steel company. In the process, he showed a once-faltering U.S. steel industry the road back to global competitiveness. Plain Talk unveils the refreshingly sensible rationale that:

• Makes Nucor production employees the best paid workers in the steel business, while giving Nucor the industry's lowest labor costs
• Lets Nucor operate a $3.8 billion corporation with a headquarters staff of just twenty-two people (including clerical help) and just four layers of management, from the CEO to the frontline worker
• Makes Nucor a runaway leader in innovation with no R&D department and no corporate engineering group

"During the demonstration, a ten-foot pinwheel of molten metal shot through the garage wall like a buzz saw going through butter. It cut the building in half. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I learned that day that even a board of directors can be compelled to run very, very fast."

Plain Talk is peppered with anecdotes from throughout Iverson's storied career. He recounts days of gloom and glory alike with the same wry humor and the same unshakable appreciation for adventure.

Plain Talk is unlike any business book you've ever read. No pat leadership formulas. No intricate management models. Just a legendary business maverick, speaking straight to you.

Media reviews

Citations

• LJ Best Business Books, 01/01/1998, Page 39
• Publishers Weekly, 10/13/1997, Page 66