Says she: ''There's no leader of a turnaround who's a beloved leader.'' What makes such bosses tick? Dr. Wachner, the only boss who didn't start her own company, specializes in salvaging deeply troubled companies. They do whatever works without looking at the consequences of their behavior on other people.'' No surprise, then, that six of our seven toughest are entrepreneurs of the winning-is-everything variety. Says Peller Marion, a San Francisco psychologist who helps fired executives: ''Such bosses are often not self-aware. That's where the cruelty is.'' Sometimes driven demandingness can be downright abusive. Today you're dealing with a variety of head games. Says Abraham Zaleznik, a professor emeritus of leadership at the Harvard business school: ''Tough is passe. Think of it as a penchant for psychological oppression - an especially sadistic way of making a point, say, or a bullying quality that can transform underlings into quivering masses of Jell-O. No, over-the-top toughness today implies something more - something the taskmasters who made our final cut possess in spades. But in an era beset by unending restructuring, where almost any boss worth his stock options has ordered layoffs, we concluded it wasn't enough to be a mere iron-fisted cost cutter or maniacally frugal type. Grundhofer has banned green plants from the premises as too expensive and forced managers to justify their private offices in writing in order to keep them (few could). Impressive also-rans include big names such as Edwin Artzt of Procter & Gamble, known inside P&G as the ''Prince of Darkness'' for his willingness to close factories and reduce head count, as well as lesser lights like John ''Jack the Ripper'' Grundhofer of Minneapolis's First Bank System. What does it take to make our list? In pursuit of toughness, we thoroughly checked out more than 70 of corporate America's hardest-nosed head persons. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor, who will cut off a paycheck when a manager temporarily falls behind in his work Herbert Haft of the Dart Group, a national retailer, who fired his wife and son because he thought they were usurping his power Jack Connors, founder of Boston advertising firm Hill Holliday, whose explosive ''Jack Attacks'' can terrify unwary employees and Harvey and Bob Weinstein of New York City film distributor Miramax, whose crazed and driven style, by their own admission, isn't ''healthy'' for them or their workers. The others are Linda Wachner of giant apparel maker Warnaco, who once kept an out-of-town manager waiting three days for a meeting and advised an executive to fire people if he wanted to be taken seriously T.J. Steve Jobs is one of seven CEOs FORTUNE has chosen as America's roughest, toughest, most intimidating bosses.
Says a former employee who was present at the meeting: ''Tell Steve you can't do something because it violates the laws of physics, and he says that's not good enough.'' And you thought that your boss was demanding. Of course, the shell of Next's ill-fated computer ended up costing $200. The expletive-laden tirade lasted three to four minutes. After roughly two minutes, Jobs, his face turning red, cut the startled man off in mid-sentence and began screaming wildly that the shell had to cost $20, that the manager didn't know what he was talking about, and that he was going to ruin the company. A manufacturing manager started explaining that making its black, space-age magnesium shell would cost $200 a unit or more. (FORTUNE Magazine) – ONE FALL afternoon in the late 1980s in a glass-walled conference room at Next Computer's California headquarters, Steven Jobs, five other company founders, and a smattering of employees met to review the design of their embryonic computer.
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