Into the Frying Pan

The below summary is based on a story printed in INC MAGAZINE ,

“Into the Frying Pan”

Author Leigh Buchanan. Grayed sections represent Auditors Inc commentary.

Eric van Merkensteijn lectured at the Wharton Business School to M.B.A. students for 30 years. “People are basically trustworthy, honest and loyal the associate dean would proclaim and employers should treat them that way.”

Shielded by the ivy-covered walls of academia, it is easy to be blinded to the realities of life.

Mr. van Merkensteijn retired and opened van M’s Music Bar and Grille and soon found that his “trustworthy, honest and loyal employees. . were fleecing the business through a combination of pilferage and outright theft . . .My basic stance has shifted from assuming all to be honest to assuming all to be dishonest until they prove otherwise.”

Welcome to the real world Mr. Van Merkensteijn!

“Despite his years of preaching the essential honorability of man, van Merkensteijn never expected that all his employees would be paragons. What surprised him ‘was the intensity and the extremeness’ of their dishonesty.”Obviously, Mr. Van Merkensteijn is a fair minded and honest man that expected his behavior to be returned in kind.

Thirty years behind academia produces naiveté – that is understandable. What isn’t understandable is the naiveté exhibited by savvy business owners.