William Fisk Harrah – The Life and Times of A Gambling Magnate

“We grew just as businesses that start with six employees and get to thousands.”

“But on the management end, we still tried to operate the old way and we knew we were spinnin’ our wheels.” It could very well have been Maurice Sheppard’s Daily Report that triggered the notion of rationalizing management: at any rate it was becoming clear that something had to be done if Harrah’s were to be run in Harrah style. There was a problem with that – Harrah didn’t know how to do it. So he did what was coming to be instinctive: “I think I read about the George S. May Company in TIME. They were called ‘business engineers.’
“So we got in touch with them. They came in and they really turned us around. I mean – we were doing so many things just like a bunch of little kids. It’s just what evolved, just hit-and-miss.

“Our chain of command and our management chart – we were just terrible.” Certainly by the time of the business study, Harrah’s was committed to the idea of bringing in consultants on most major decisions. It is Maurice Sheppard’s view that these consultants served a dual purpose. The substance of their reports was important, of course. But they were also there to make recommendations reinforcing decisions that Bill Harrah had already made. In many cases this entailed acting as Cassandra, for surely if there was one part of his job that Harrah hated, it was being the bearer of bad tidings.

“We must have had four or five or six or eight (consultants). We’ve learned (that) every two, three, four years (they) should come in and take a look. “They’re super, and that’s why we are as efficient as we are. We get credit for being very efficient and our accounting system and all that, which, of course, is our doing. But the incentive came from these concerns, these business specialists.”

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