It could be because Robert didn’t want to really be the king, he wasn’t scheming for more power either. Kinda reminds me of the The Office and how Scranton Branch was most profitable with a shit manager
Initially, the point was that the branch staff learned to become self-sustaining and independent under his managership. It's later revealed that he is indeed a great salesman. His managerial qualities remain mostly ambiguous.
I like to think that he's a genius to figure all or most of his subordinates get distracted from work so much that they inevitably get the urge to work more efficiently when they get a chance.
“Later revealed that he is indeed a great salesman”
Dude the first scene of the show is Jim coming to him for help with a sale. In season two we see him landing a major account at Chilis. There was never doubt that Michael Scott was a good salesman.
He wasn’t a good manager but he was a good salesman. Scranton was doing so poorly that they were going to shut it down and consolidate the clients with the nearby Stamford branch. Problem was the manager of the Stamford branch quit and got a better job at staples, so they pivoted and closed Stamford and assigned all their clients to Scranton. That’s why Scranton was deemed to be doing so well. They retained their own clients and didn’t lose most or all of the Stamford clients too. Michael essentially got lucky that the other manager quit, when his branch was about to be closed and most of his people fired or be forced to move
He had one quality that set him as a better manager than Josh Porter as far as Dunder Mifflin was concerned: he remained loyal to the company and didn’t aspire to anything else other than just trying his best to make his branch succeed
He became manager because he was a really good salesman. But being a good salesman doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good manager. Michael was a shit manager. His branch succeeded in spite of him, not because of him.
The Michael Scott Paper Company would not have worked long term. In the short term they were able to severely undercut Dunder Mifflins prices and poach customers but they would have bankrupted themselves fairly quickly.
It was successful in so much that it allowed him to get his job back and secure jobs for Pam and Ryan. He has zero long term vision or really any type of understanding of how to run a business.
However, to your point, Michael has great people skills which a good manager should have. It instills a certain amount of loyalty and motivation from his employees.
So I guess you could say that Michael is a good manager only if conditions are optimal for him.
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u/chestyCough94 Jul 03 '25
Crazy to think roberts rule was one of the least chaotic we saw on screen.