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Comment by readlikeasloth | Hacker News Reader

Why does it have to be the CEO? My first association was that Winston Wolfe character from Pulp Fiction. Wouldn´t it be neat if companies had that kind of fixer who you could call for the real hard problems? Like problems that arise from the structure of the organization and cannot be fixed on a micro level. Asking half joking, half serious.

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That's who I aspire to be, but my batting average isn't that fabulous, maybe .200, and it's really difficult to sell to people, because you have to catch it right on the cusp of being a recognizable problem.

So people are inherently skeptical, and by the time it becomes obvious that they need some outside heavy hitter, it's too late for that strategy to be effective.

I'd really like to systematize it, to be known as the solution for that kind of problem, but that's a different skillset than actually solving the problem, of course.

i have a bit of a reputation for doing this, and a few personal relationships with business leaders who have tapped me for these kind of projects. in the end its kind of dysfunctional every time because various people in the org own the relevant responsibilties already and you are basically micromanaging them against their will as a prelude to termination or reorganization.

its not like the solutions are usually that hard to figure out, it's always a problem with people and their incentives ultimately.

the fixer role is basically to give confidence to the CEO that disempowering certain people is safe and there's a path out.

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