Machete Moments

Joseph Paul Camarte has lived the life portrayed in Machete Moments. For 34 years he led for-profit manufacturing companies and not-for profit human service organizations. Throughout this entire time, he served each of his employers as a crisis manager compiling the following accomplishments: 
• The turnaround of a manufacturing plant on the brink of closure due to labor/management problems which had led to a violent 5-month long strike. 
• The startup of a plant moved from another state. 
• The turnaround of a plant whose customers were ready to bolt over chronic quality and delivery issues. 
• The turnaround of a company threatened with bankruptcy and weak management. 
• Leading a community's recovery from a 100-year flood. 
• Leading a local United Way from stagnation in fund raising and community apathy to become a major force in the funding human service efforts and leading social change on many fronts. 
• Development of a co-location of over fifty human service agencies and programs in 160,000 square feet of space under roof in order for their clients to have more convenient access to multiple services and for agencies to serve those clients more effectively. 
• Rebuilding from a $5,000,000 fire in the co-location and keeping the tenants together in temporary off-site facilities for a year so that the valuable co-location concept would not be lost. 

And in the middle of that long management career, he made the life-saving change from the depression he suffered as a result of his for-profit work to an uplifting adventure in the not-for-profit world. Joe proclaims, "I accepted a not-for-profit job for exactly half the money I had been making, and my wife and I felt our quality of life improve ten-fold. I never looked back. Every morning I got up and was never tempted to crawl back between the sheets. Every evening I went home with a feeling of accomplishment that I had positively affected the lives of people who needed help. What a great trade that was!" 

Doug Otto has been Joe Camarte's closest friend throughout the forty+ years covered by this book. He has captured not only the facts surrounding Joe's career but also the nuances, the thinking, the feelings of joy, and the lingering doubts. The reader will find himself feeling that he is part of Joe's life. 

Otto doesn't claim that Machete Moments is a cure-all for managers whose businesses in either the for-profit or not-for profit sector are in crisis. And it is not a one-size-fits-all for executives in their fifties who find themselves needing a major career change whether because of their own decision or by downsizing. But if you are in either of those situations, you will more than likely find something in this book to start you thinking in the right direction to put your crisis behind you. 

The names of people, organizations, and places have been changed, but the story is true.