Mr. Boruta, the Barracuda!

One of the things I typically do each day is peruse the obituaries in the local metro paper since I did spend over twenty years of my life commuting each day into the concrete jungle. I’m always on the look out for someone I worked with or someone I had contact with over the years. Sadly, many times I find folks that I worked closely with, or they worked in my organization, or it is someone who helped lead our company. When I do land on one I recognize I then think back on my dealings with that person.

A few weeks ago I saw where Mr. Boruta had passed away. He was a high profile executive who was brought in to help lead a subsidiary company we had purchased. He was a hard driving, take no prisoners kind of leader who had quite a reputation for being able to right a ship and get it going again after it had been foundering. The subsidiary was located in Tulsa and the computer group there was dotted line to me. They had a number of grandiose plans which were not in ours or their best interest long term, therefore, I put a hold on all their major purchases unless and until I approved them.

They somehow convinced Mr. Boruta to go forward on a brand new computer system. Being the take charge kind of guy he was he approved the purchase and I was only made aware of it when the equipment was delivered to their computing center in Tulsa. I had previously vetoed this system because it was a horrible deal for everyone except the folks who sold it. Once I found out about the machine being on their premises I had a very simple solution, send it back. That’s right, send it back.

This sent shock waves all over the place and set up a showdown with Mr. Boruta who was known as the barracuda. I wasn’t just angry because they had gone around me on this purchase but it was the wrong solution, period, much too costly, and with very little prospects for future growth and development. I will admit that nothing gets me stirred up more than when someone challenges the “rightness” of my position. This can be a real liability because I know there have been times when I wasn’t as right as I thought I was, but that was not the case in this situation.

My boss who was a group vice president and I took a company plane to Tulsa for a sit down meeting with Mr. Boruta. Essentially I had put my boss in a tough position because he was forced to back me in this showdown. Mr. Boruta was cordial but very much to the point. He said for us to stop this system would be a set back for him in trying to gain support from his team as they attempted to improve operations. I explained why it was the wrong system at the wrong time and why, going forward, this would create more problems than it would solve. He hit the table a few times and was still convinced we needed to allow them to proceed.

My boss had no choice but to play his trump card. He told Mr. Boruta that while he did have signature authority for the payments for this system, the total cost was outside of his limit, and it required corporate approval from him, and he was not inclined to approve it, therefore, for the good of the subsidiary and the entire company, the deal needed to be cancelled. There was some more harsh words forth and back, some red faces, but in the end he had no choice but to accept defeat.

I knew it was the right thing but these kinds of meetings take it out of you and I was exhausted when it was over. We had to pay a $25,000 restocking fee to have the equipment returned as well as making other concessions to the vendor who sold it, but in the end it went back. I then proceeded to bring in a used larger capacity machine for a fraction of the cost to tide them over until a more comprehensive plan could be developed. I was told at the time that this particular equipment vendor, one of the largest in the world, had never had a system this size returned unopened. I do know this. The people in Tulsa no longer wondered if dotted line meant they had to consult with and gain my approval before moving forward on major purchases. My understanding is that Mr. Boruta actually drew very little salary but was paid an incentive based on results, which in this case netted him many millions before he moved on to his next assignment.

His obituary was long as it recounted his many accomplishments in life. There was no reason for the incident I was involved in to be listed but reading his story did bring back a vivid memory of the day I went one on one with Mr. Boruta the Barracuda. …More later.