Extra Readings - Gary Loveman and Harrah's & Diamonds in the Date Mine

These articles about Gary Loveman and the transformation of Harrah's into a modern corporation ready for the 21st century are a text book example of excellent Decision-Making Processes. When starting as COO he first spent as much time as possible identifying programmed decisions and nonprogrammed decisions within Harrah's. This way he could assume that the employees responsible for the programmed decision were more than capable of managing this part of the business, so he could work on the nonprogrammed problems that really required his creativity and intellect. Focusing the company's energies on empowering the employees to run the business better and marketing to the correct customer base with the correct marketing tools. It was these two main goals of Gary's that really took Harrah's to the next level during 1998-2003. I am especially impressed with the terminations and new hires he executed to change the company. They were supportable, calculated, and very logical - the Meritocratic management style he champions seems to be highly effective. I find it interesting that some of the core ideas that he has implemented since becoming COO and then CEO have started to wane since 2007. That being said, his style of managing the company and rebuilding its corporate culture right out of a our text book, Figure 9.1. From Recognizing the problems, gathering data, selecting the best course of actions, implementation, gathering feedback, and then following up. Overall, a very impressive job by an academic that was previously an unproven manager. I have always been very impressed with the Total Rewards program Harrah's has for its players club, and enjoyed reading a first hand description of how Gary and his team put it all together.