Demoting A Loyal Friend

I think this presents a false dichotomy because it is possible to bring in outside support to develop areas of your organization without changing the leaders of those organizational areas. This is one of the rare times where business consulting is not a scam. You have to be careful because you don't want some junior consultant, who is really a fresh MBA with no real world experience, coming in and reading you things from his textbook. But if you get real seasoned consultants with actual industry experience, you will get the benefit of that real expertise without losing the overall organizational expertise, loyalty and trust you have in your inexperienced friend.

Dear demoted loyal friend, if you hear please write what is your point of view? Do you see yourself as a demoted loyal friend or a demoted successful something?

I wish I could read the other side of this story too. Finally everyone writes as if they are the king, and they see, decide, change, demote, promote and they live in a continuum of rightness and success, or?

"As hard as it may be, you need to take a Confucian approach. You must consider first all of the other employees and second your friend. The good of the individual must be sacrificed for the good of the whole."

Citation needed on how that is "Confucian". Early-Spockian, perhaps. Or Benthamian.

On a more general note, I've seen quite a few instances where early stage companies brought in "expert" executives as replacements for founders/early employees and the "experts" really and truly fucked things up. I think more discussion is needed about deciding when and why this transition actually has to be made rather than just assuming that when you hit a certain point you need new people.