“Lead me, follow me or get out of my way,” said the email from David Greer, deputy chief executive of Sakhalin Energy, a Russia-based consortium led by Royal Dutch Shell. The email further said that he despised cowards, according to a report by the Financial Times.
I guess that it might not be a good idea to quote a U.S. general in Russia. (The quote is from WWII general George Patton.) Perhaps the tone and the source is what led to his resignation a few days ago.
The email appears to have been heavily plagiarized from Patton.
Here is an excerpt reported by huliq.com:
On 7 June, the Financial Times published a quarter page follow-up article headlined: “Sakhalin motivational memo borrows heavily from Patton”. Two photographs were displayed side-by-side of General Patton and David Greer. Under each photograph quotes were compared from the Patton speech and the Greer memo. The first quote from Patton stated: “When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players.” The comparison quote from Greer stated: “When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the big league ball players, the toughest boxers.” The FT article recalled the saying “Talent borrows, genius steals”. It gave another example of the blatant plagiarism saying: “Mr Greer’s declaration that ‘I despise cowards and play to win all the time’ is almost straight from the Patton script”.
The Financial Times forum asks, “Is this the worst motivational memo ever?”
ABOUT AUTHOR
Roger Matus is CEO of InBoxer, Inc. of Concord, Mass. and a well-known commentator on the use of email, IM, and messaging technologies.
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