JUNE 1998 · VOLUME 19· NUMBER 6

The June 1998 Lawrence Summers Memorial Award* honors "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, who earned his moniker and reputation through implementing massive downsizings in the companies he has headed. In June, the board of directors of Sunbeam, the household appliance maker where Dunlap landed as CEO in 1996, fired Chainsaw Al. Here are some comments from Dunlap's 1996 book, Mean Business: How I Save Bad Companies and Make Good Companies Great:

• "You're not in business to be liked. Neither am I. ... If you want a friend, get a dog. I'm not taking any chances; I've got two dogs."
  
  
• "You cannot overpay a good CEO and you can't underpay a bad one."
  
  
• "The most ridiculous term heard in boardrooms these days is 'stakeholders.' ... Stakeholders [including employees and home communities] don't pay a penny for their stake. There is only one constituency I am concerned about and that's the shareholders."

*In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current Deputy Secretary of Treasury Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" Summers wrote. "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic.