@bluestevon @bizzaro ruthlessness in business is an interesting subject as on the one hand you certainly require more than a degree of ruthless to succeed, yet the negatives associated with ruthlessness make supplier, customer and staff relationships that much harder.
I'm of the view you have to be absolutely ruthless in setting objectives, standards, discipline and targets, but you have to be far more flexible, indeed intelligent, in your dealings with people which ultimately is what supplier, customer and staff relationships are. I think this strategy applies regardless of the size of business as ultimately a business is only as good as the relationships it maintains with the people who do business with it and work for it.