Many people working in large companies speak business-buzzwords as a second language. Business language is full of pretty meaningless words. I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore article tells that the language of internet business models has made the problem even worse. There are several strains of this epidemic: We have forgotten how to use the real names of real things, acronymitis, and Meaningless Expressions (like “Our goal is to exceed the customer’s expectation”). This would all be funny if it weren’t true. Observe it, deconstruct it, and appreciate just how ridiculous most business conversation has become.
Check out this brilliant Web Economy Bullshit Generator page. It generates random bullshit text based on the often used words in business language. And most of the material it generates look something you would expect from IT executives and their speechwriters (those are randomly generated with Web Economy Bullshit Generator):
“scale viral web services”
“integrate holistic mindshare”
“transform back-end solutions”
“incentivize revolutionary portals”
“synergize out-of-the-box platforms”
“enhance world-class schemas”
“aggregate revolutionary paradigms”
“enable cross-media relationships”
How to talk like a CIO article tries to tell how do CIOs talk, and what do they talk about, and why they do it like they do it. It sometimes makes sense to analyze the speaking and comportment styles of the people who’ve already climbed the corporate ladder if you want to do the same.
The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon article tells that the stupid business talk is longer solely the province of consultants, investors and business-school types, this annoying gobbledygook has mesmerized the rank and file around the globe. The next time you feel the need to reach out, touch base, shift a paradigm, leverage a best practice or join a tiger team, by all means do it. Just don’t say you’re doing it. If you have to ask why, chances are you’ve fallen under the poisonous spell of business jargon. Jargon masks real meaning. The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon article has a cache of expressions to assiduously avoid (if you look out you will see those used way too many times in business documents and press releases).
Is Innovation the Most Abused Word In Business? article tells that most of what is called innovation today is mere distraction, according to a paper by economist Robert Gordon. Innovation is the most abused word in tech. The iPad is about as innovative as the toaster. You can still read books without an iPad, and you can still toast bread without a toaster. True innovation radically alters the way we interact with the world. But in tech, every little thing is called “innovative.” If you were to believe business grads then “innovation” includes their “ideas” along the lines of “a website like *only better*” or “that thing which everyone is already doing but which I think is my neat new idea” Whether or not the word “innovation” has become the most abused word in the business context, that remains to be seen. “Innovation” itself has already been abused by the patent trolls.
Using stories to catch ‘smart-talk’ article tells that smart-talk is information without understanding, theory without practice – ‘all mouth and no trousers’, as the old aphorism puts it. It’s all too common amongst would-be ‘experts’ – and likewise amongst ‘rising stars’ in management and elsewhere. He looks the part; he knows all the right buzzwords; he can quote chapter-and-verse from all the best-known pundits and practitioners. But is it all just empty ‘smart-talk’? Even if unintentional on their part, people who indulge in smart-talk can be genuinely dangerous. They’ll seem plausible enough at first, but in reality they’ll often know just enough to get everyone into real trouble, but not enough to get out of it again. Smart-talk is the bane of most business – and probably of most communities too. So what can we do to catch it?
2,765 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Their own experience, and always mielinpahoitetaan twice: first at that point, when you do not give unrealistic promises, and then complain escalated and the exchange of questions about the recipient until the promise is received. The second time, then at that point when the task is returned to the original author who does not oysty performed miracles, and so the promise of then “violated”. And then, weeping.
Does this sound familiar?
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/uutisia/turha+stressi+pois++tutkimus+ketaan+ei+kiinnosta+vaikka+teet+tyosi+erityisen+hyvin/a990138
Tomi Engdahl says:
Yes certainly of interest, namely those who wagers placed pursuant to give you even more work to do.
Be slow and cumbersome to work passed on to someone else.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/uutisia/turha+stressi+pois++tutkimus+ketaan+ei+kiinnosta+vaikka+teet+tyosi+erityisen+hyvin/a990138
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Business Model: Flexible Silos
http://semiengineering.com/new-business-model-flexible-silos/
While silos continue to be the best way to eke out efficiency, they don’t always work for semiconductor design.
Operational silos within organizations have a long history of streamlining processes and maximize efficiency. In fact, that approach has made enterprise resource planning applications a must-have for most companies, and cemented the fortunes of giants such as SAP and Oracle, as well as the giant consulting companies that recommend them.
But those kinds of delineations don’t work so well for chipmakers—or at least not in all departments. The boundaries change too quickly, or in unexpected ways, to be able to establish firm corporate structures.
And frequently they need different operational structures within the same organization
To compound the issue, power and software run horizontally throughout the development process, while verification often runs vertically at specific intervals
“The top challenge is thinking about the process differently,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Measure of Your Team’s Health: How You Treat Your “Idiot” – See more at:
Every team has someone who at the bottom of its bell curve: an individual who has a hard time keeping up with other team members. By my observation, how your team members treat that person is a significant indicator of your organization’s health.
- See more at: http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/2014/06/02/a-measure-of-your-teams-health-how-you-treat-your-idiot/#sthash.FGJSNj4y.dpuf
Tomi Engdahl says:
The report reveals: IT lags five months after the business requirements
According to a recent survey, nearly two-thirds ( 65 percent ) of IT decision-makers in Europe , the Middle East and Africa, feels that the business wishes it takes up to five months for the information management will be able to implement them.
The study commissioned by virtualization and cloud infrastructure, VMware supplier . It is carried out by research company Vanson Bourne .
Business and IT, the mismatches have important consequences for the organization ‘s performance , competitiveness and growth potential . IT decision-makers , the gap reduces the likelihood of innovation ( 39 per cent of respondents), reduces employee productivity (36 percent) and result in the loss of customers to competitors agile (33 per cent).
VMware CTO Joe Baguley , almost a half -year delay in the business , however , and it ‘s supplies is enormous . According to him, it is constantly balancing between of existing systems to maximize the value and the introduction of new technologies.
According to him, the solution is to increase investment in information management, which could affect the business and reduces delays.
A number of companies are familiar with it , the pressure on the supply of a challenge. Every other IT decision-makers (55 per cent ) feel that the smaller competitors can implement modern IT to more quickly and therefore react more quickly to market changes. As a result, 73 percent of these respondents were from smaller companies either worried or felt threatened by them.
VMware , the responses show that organizations need the right people in the right places to ensure that it supports the organization’s performance , competitiveness and growth potential of growth.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/selvitys+paljastaa+tietohallinto+laahaa+viisi+kuukautta+liiketoiminnan+vaatimusten+perassa/a991378
Tomi Engdahl says:
Business for Engineers: ‘Almost Acceptable’ the New Good?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1322603&
Business is complicated and full of compromises, whether we like it or not, but some compromises make the whole system fail.
As engineers, we often focus our efforts on the details of a product design.
I’m not saying that every component of every product isn’t good. But to me, “product” means my entire experience, from researching for products to selecting candidate solutions to purchasing the chosen product to receiving it. For me, a failure in any part of this supply chain engagement results in, at best, an almost acceptable product.
I’ve recently encountered a series of almost acceptable products — not because the items themselves were poorly designed or manufactured, but because other aspects of the product experience were unacceptable.
These anecdotes illustrate three ways that products can become almost adequate: a change in production methods, a grossly inadequate datasheet, and shipping failures.
We haven’t considered the almost adequate design decisions that are all around us: the Christmas lights that might last a few dozen hours before they fail, “long-life” compact fluorescent light bulbs that fail as fast as their incandescent cousins, supermarket bagels that are moldy when the bag is opened only a few hours after they are bought. The list goes on and on.
There are some truly good products, but all too often we accept mediocrity. It’s time to do away with “almost adequate” and make “good” mean what it says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Back then the economic motor was “build more stuff that people actually want to buy”. which is in my opinion the only reason that can make commerce prosper.
“Make more money” and “Create more jobs” goals are in my opinion just as worthless as economic motors as the old communist “Make everybody equal” goal. Neither of those actually CREATES wealth, only building new stuff that people actually want that actually winds up in the hands of most of the populace creates wealth. The trip that most “make money” companies these days are on (produce in low-wage countries, sell in high-wage countries) will someday come to an end when the former high-wage countries collapse. It’s just a matter of time and a matter of how big a bang they create when they go down.
The vast majority of work available for people throughout the world is manual labor, including trades
And most of that work isn’t going away in the near future. With the current state of robots, you’re talking about taking away the most dull, dangerous, and dirty jobs out there. Some robots will even have jobs that humans aren’t capable of doing because they are so dangerous or dirty. Any jobs for these robots will be a net gain in employment, creating jobs surrounding and supporting the robot that were not possible before.
The central planners will take money out of the productive economy and spend it on a corporate giveaway to favoured interests.
Is there an alternative way of stimulating research in a specific field for the public good?
Source: Comments at http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/06/03/1751215/eu-launches-worlds-largest-civilian-robotics-program-240000-new-jobs-expected
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just my job, generally. They’ve no idea how to run a software business, think agile means throwing a constant stream of changing requirements and bugs at you until the minute before “go live” … then they get annoyed at YOU for not being able to put out an emergency patch release within 24 horus (took me two weeks to track down and destroy a nasty bug, but that was my bad, apparently, not management for letting a piece of shit out the door). then there’s finding out that our Prototype area of the system is being released to the public in a fortnight.
Source: Comment at http://ask.slashdot.org/story/14/06/04/0250230/ask-slashdot-wheres-the-most-unusual-place-youve-written-a-program-from
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Survive in the New Connection Economy
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140604224152-183534487-how-to-survive-in-the-new-connection-economy?trk=eml-ced-b-art-Ch-4-7553737789165154420&midToken=AQFYfUXkrG56aw&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=1RGjpOrxGHDSg1
Since when is good not good enough?
In the old days it was good enough to be competent. People wanted quality, they wanted skill, they and they wanted experience. It was good enough to go to school, get a diploma and get a good job until you turn 65 and retire. Life was simple and easy.
However, the days of competency are gone.
The proliferation of the internet and social media has changed the way we see the world and competency is no longer good enough. We must not just communicate in the new economy, we must connect.
Consumers, business partners, investors, fans, clients, and customers are all bombarded with competency every day. There are millions of quality products, there are thousands of people with integrity to buy from. Honesty is no longer good enough. What our customers are looking for these days is connection.
Our customers not only want to buy from us, but they want to connect with us.
Social media has become a game-changer in the last 10 years where consumers can instantly connect with other consumers to exchange information about another person, product or service. Likewise, these same consumers are not only looking to purchase from their favourite brands, they expect to connect and interact with them online.
In my own business, I have chosen the following 3 channels to connect and interact:
1. Facebook: One of the world’s leading social media sites, I provide relevant, valuable and original content to my fans and customers regularly through this media channel
2. YouTube: Youtube is quickly becoming one of the most powerful search engines in the world. The younger online generation is bypassing Google all together and is searching only on Youtube.
3. Linked-In: Linked-in is the online “professional” community designed for professionals to connect. I have used linked-in mostly for a branding tool and a tool to collect endorsements and testimonials.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why You Hate Work
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/opinion/sunday/why-you-hate-work.html?_r=1
THE way we’re working isn’t working. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a job, you’re probably not very excited to get to the office in the morning, you don’t feel much appreciated while you’re there, you find it difficult to get your most important work accomplished, amid all the distractions, and you don’t believe that what you’re doing makes much of a difference anyway. By the time you get home, you’re pretty much running on empty, and yet still answering emails until you fall asleep.
Increasingly, this experience is common not just to middle managers, but also to top executives.
“I just felt that no matter what I was doing, I was always getting pulled somewhere else,” he explained. “It seemed like I was always cheating someone — my company, my family, myself. I couldn’t truly focus on anything.”
Mr. Kissam is not alone.
More broadly, just 30 percent of employees in America feel engaged at work, according to a 2013 report by Gallup. Around the world, across 142 countries, the proportion of employees who feel engaged at work is just 13 percent.
Demand for our time is increasingly exceeding our capacity — draining us of the energy we need to bring our skill and talent fully to life.
Employees are vastly more satisfied and productive, it turns out, when four of their core needs are met: physical, through opportunities to regularly renew and recharge at work; emotional, by feeling valued and appreciated for their contributions; mental, when they have the opportunity to focus in an absorbed way on their most important tasks and define when and where they get their work done; and spiritual, by doing more of what they do best and enjoy most, and by feeling connected to a higher purpose at work.
THE more effectively leaders and organizations support employees in meeting these core needs, the more likely the employees are to experience engagement, loyalty, job satisfaction and positive energy at work, and the lower their perceived levels of stress.
Engagement — variously defined as “involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort and energy” — has now been widely correlated with higher corporate performance. I
Renewal: Employees who take a break every 90 minutes report a 30 percent higher level of focus than those who take no breaks or just one during the day.
Value: Feeling cared for by one’s supervisor has a more significant impact on people’s sense of trust and safety than any other behavior by a leader.
Focus: Only 20 percent of respondents said they were able to focus on one task at a time at work, but those who could were 50 percent more engaged.
Purpose: Employees who derive meaning and significance from their work were more than three times as likely to stay with their organizations
We often ask senior leaders a simple question: If your employees feel more energized, valued, focused and purposeful, do they perform better? Not surprisingly, the answer is almost always “Yes.” Next we ask, “So how much do you invest in meeting those needs?” An uncomfortable silence typically ensues.
A truly human-centered organization puts its people first — even above customers — because it recognizes that they are the key to creating long-term value
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Disruption Machine
What the gospel of innovation gets wrong.
by Jill Lepore June 23, 2014
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/06/23/140623fa_fact_lepore?currentPage=all
Christensen called “disruptive innovation”: the selling of a cheaper, poorer-quality product that initially reaches less profitable customers but eventually takes over and devours an entire industry.
Ever since “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” everyone is either disrupting or being disrupted. There are disruption consultants, disruption conferences, and disruption seminars. This fall, the University of Southern California is opening a new program: “The degree is in disruption,” the university announced. “Disrupt or be disrupted,”
Most big ideas have loud critics. Not disruption. Disruptive innovation as the explanation for how change happens has been subject to little serious criticism
The word “innovate”—to make new—used to have chiefly negative connotations: it signified excessive novelty, without purpose or end.
disrupt, and you will be saved.
Christensen and Eyring also urge universities to establish “heavyweight innovation teams”: Christensen thinks that R. & D. departments housed within a business and accountable to its executives are structurally unable to innovate disruptively—they are preoccupied with pleasing existing customers through incremental improvement.
Disruptive innovation is a theory about why businesses fail. It’s not more than that. It doesn’t explain change. It’s not a law of nature. It’s an artifact of history, an idea, forged in time; it’s the manufacture of a moment of upsetting and edgy uncertainty. Transfixed by change, it’s blind to continuity. It makes a very poor prophet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 product owner’s besetting sins
Lead, follow or step aside.
This condenses the wisdom of one of the main reasons why an agile project intended to fail. In agile project models, especially in Scrum, emphasized the importance of the role of the Product Owner.
It is true that the theory at the level of ownership of the product seems straightforward task – only reports on the development team, what kind of product or service you want and the team takes care of it at home. However, practice has repeatedly shown that the product ownership is a demanding task, with success comes hard work and participation.
The project as a project, regardless of the chosen approach may in fact ruin the bad leadership, and it is not even difficult.
You do not go into
- Be interested. Inspire and lead others with an example.
You do not have the power to do
- Do not agree to bear the responsibility for building the project without power.
You do not make decisions
- Be aware of the importance of decision-making, and use the power given to you actively in the project.
You do not have the time
- Prioritize management. The team used the time will come back multiplied by the size of the team.
You do not communicate
- Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. There is no shortcut.’
A good product owner is able to lead and to follow the correct times. A really good product owner also knows when it is time to step aside and hand baton to the next.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/viisaat/solinor/5+tuoteomistajan+helmasyntia/a994798
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Fear Factor
http://theamericanscholar.org/the-fear-factor/?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email#.U6ltUbGHjpt
Long-held predictions of economic chaos as baby boomers grow old are based on formulas that are just plain wrong
Tomi Engdahl says:
China Starts Outsourcing From … the US
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/06/24/1815200/china-starts-outsourcing-from–the-us
Chinese companies invested a record $14 billion in the United States last year, according to the Rhodium Group research firm. Collectively, they employ more than 70,000 Americans, up from virtually none a decade ago
Comments:
Welcome Chinese overlords!
Actually we’ve seen this happen in the US for many years with a lot of foreign companies. Often because US companies fail to resolve labor or regulatory issues and a foreign company cuts through the issue to find a way to produce products in the same place without incurring many of the previous costs.
A lot of it boils down to legacy corporations that have grown too large and inefficient.
Things need a reboot on occasion. Many large companies should go through a serious reorganization top to bottom including the renegotiation of all contracts to take into consideration new opportunities and concerns.
Isn’t it strange how success is always the accomplishment of awesome management but failure is never the fault of incompetent one?
You’re apparently about ten years [dilbert.com] behind the times. But considering history probably repeats itself, you’re likely also about ten years ahead of the times.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2003-08-03/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Business for Engineers: Marketers Lie
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1322859&
At the end of the cooking time, the cooled cans were sent through a labeling machine that applied product labels to the cans. I was shocked to see that the same peas, from the same process run, were having two different labels applied. One label was plain white paper with a cartoonish figure and the words “baby peas.” The other was a beautiful silver foil with embossed letters that said “petit baby peas.”
The answer was profound. I wasn’t buying peas. I was buying a mental image of who I was and how I fit into society. The silver foil-labeled peas were man’s peas. The white paper-labeled peas were for kids.
So marketing tells lies — falsehoods — things that serve to convey a false impression. Those are pretty strong sentiments that seem to damn marketing professionals.
Like a great many things in engineering life, sorting the information into bins is the first step. But there is an important message that goes with this sorting: Don’t drink your own Kool-Aid. Another way to look at this is to break everything down into objective measures. It may be easier to get to the essence of discerning fact from fiction by listing a few commonly used phrases.
Then there are statements like “We developed our product with your business in mind.” Another dose of mushware.
Quantifiable, verifiable, and intrinsically fair — these need to be the objectives of getting at the true facts used to drive engineering development. The way to get there is by using engineering principles. Now, marketing professionals are just that — professionals. As engineers, we can work with marketing to ensure that the right followup questions are asked to guide us during the product specification and development phases. The purpose of our questions is to ensure that the product meets the customer needs. Marketing’s purpose is gain answers for us in addition to determining how the product will be branded, positioned, and sold.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Overused buzzwords:
Extensive experience, Innovative, motivated, results-oriented, dynamic, fast-paced, problem solver.
Source: http://fi.linkedin.com/company/arlslab?trk=ppro_cprof
Tomi Engdahl says:
Great Gatsby Curve- Trumps- Horatio Alger’s Rags-to-Riches: Society– More Unequal, Less Mobile– Income Disparity…
http://bizshifts-trends.com/2014/02/23/great-gatsby-curve-trumps-horatio-algers-rags-riches-theme-society-unequal-less-mobile-skewed-opportunity/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The IPO is dying. Marc Andreessen explains why.
http://www.vox.com/2014/6/26/5837638/the-ipo-is-dying-marc-andreessen-explains-why
Tomi Engdahl says:
You need a list of specific unknowns we may encounter? Huh?
Hey CIO, if you want my advice… oh, you don’t
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/27/it_bosses_stop_shouting_and_listen_for_a_change/
Freelancer, independent contractor, casual worker… call me what you will. I tell people I can’t hold down a proper job due to my low boredom threshold but the real problem is that I have an aversion to managers, especially senior managers.
They may not all look like the pointy haired hate-figure in the Dilbert strip but that’s what they are inside. Dear reader, you know what I’m talking about.
My freelance status puts me in a situation that is simultaneously enviable and precarious. Managers understand that I don’t have to put up with the same shit as employees and I could just turn round and walk out the door. How enviable! They also know that by the time I have reached the entrance of the car park, another contractor will have been hired to replace me. How precarious!
As with all contractors, experience has taught me to keep my head down and mouth shut. This wasn’t so easy in the early days, when it used to make me anxious that big companies wasted so much money on poor decisions. Foolishly, I would try to help them curb the waste and suggest ways of improving their productivity and profitability. Oh yes, I truly was that naïve.
Since then, I learnt that big organisations would rather flush vast sums of money down the drain getting things wrong again and again before hitting on a winning formula than spend a fraction of the cash getting it right first time.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BCG Classics Revisited: The Rule of Three and Four
https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/business_unit_strategy_the_rule_of_three_and_four_bcg_classics_revisited/
To mark The Boston Consulting Group’s fiftieth anniversary, BCG’s Strategy Institute is taking a fresh look at some of BCG’s classic thinking on strategy to gauge its relevance to today’s business environment. This first in a planned series of articles examines “The Rule of Three and Four,” a Perspective written by BCG founder, Bruce Henderson, in 1976.
“stable, competitive” industry will never have more than three significant competitors. Moreover, that industry structure will find equilibrium when the market shares of the three companies reach a ratio of approximately 4:2:1.
For corporate decision-makers, the rule of three and four has important implications. First, an understanding of the industry environment is critical. Is the industry one in which classical “rules” of strategy, such as the rule of three and four, apply, or does it demand an alternative—for example, an adaptive—approach?
As we have seen, the rule of three and four remains relevant more than three decades after its conception—in a business environment that is, in many respects, profoundly different—and its implications continue to provide guidance for decision makers working in environments where classical business strategies hold. For companies in increasingly unstable environments, a new set of rules applies, calling for more adaptive approaches to strategy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A 1970 paper called The Market for Lemons discusses an economic concept called information asymmetry. Whereas simplified and classical economics suggest that buyers and sellers have perfect and complete information, so that the market works with perfect efficiency to find the right price and to match buyers and sellers, information asymmetry tries to be more realistic. In some circumstances, a buyer may know much more than a seller (or vice versa), so that one party in the transaction may have a huge advantage over the other.
Assume that most buyers of used cars have neither the knowledge or the resources to examine a car for the kinds of flaws which can make buying the car a poor economic decision in the long run. Buyers know this, and set their price expectations accordingly.
if there’s a 10% chance that Car A may fall apart the minute your check clears and a 50% chance that Car B will do the same, the price of Car B will necessarily be discounted greater than the price of Car A
Many economists and thinkers have applied the principle of information asymmetry to their analyses of various markets. The similarities to and differences computer programming are instructive, especially when considering the adoption of programming languages.
Source: http://outspeaking.com/words-of-technology/the-lemon-market-of-programming-language-adoption.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 Tricks to Appear Smart During Meetings
Here are my ten favorite tricks for quickly appearing smart during meetings.
https://medium.com/comedy-corner/10-tricks-to-appear-smart-during-meetings-27b489a39d1a
Like everyone, appearing smart during meetings is my top priority. Sometimes this can be difficult if you start daydreaming about your next vacation, your next nap, or bacon. When this happens, it’s good to have some fallback tricks to fall back on.
1. Draw a Venn diagram
2. Translate percentage metrics into fractions
3. Encourage everyone to “take a step back”
4. Nod continuously while pretending to take notes
5. Repeat the last thing the engineer said, but very very slowly
6. Ask “Will this scale?” no matter what it is
7. Pace around the room
8. Ask the presenter to go back a slide
9. Step out for a phone call
10. Make fun of yourself
Tomi Engdahl says:
Larry Page explains why it would be ‘stupid’ to run Google like Apple
http://bgr.com/2014/07/07/google-vs-apple-products-strategy/
“I’ve been thinking about this change quite a bit over the years. I think it sounds stupid if you have this big company, and you can only do five things,” Page said, subtly taking a hit at Apple. “I think it’s also not very good for the employees. Because then, you have 30,000 employees and they’re all doing the same thing, which isn’t very exciting for them.”
While Google is not afraid to try several new things at once, Apple has always bragged about the fact that while it has a lot to a lot of interesting ideas and projects, it chooses to only focus only on the best ones. In doing this, Apple is still following Jobs’s lead, who killed many Apple initiatives after he was brought back to the company and chose to focus resources only on a few product lines thereafter.
“I would always have this debate actually, with Steve Jobs. He’d be like, ‘You guys are doing too much stuff.’ And I’d be like, ‘Yeah that’s true.’ And he was right, in some sense.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Types of Workers in the New World of Work
http://www.workintelligent.ly/workstyle/demographics/types-of-workers-workforce/?utm_campaign=ContentSyndication&utm_medium=NativeAd&utm_source=Taboola&utm_content&utm_term=Types+Of+Workers&utm_content=businessweek
To meet the demands of today’s changing workforce, business leaders need to understand that a one-size-fits-all workforce just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Always-on Millennial
Millennials. Generation Y. By now you’ve heard the names and are beginning to understand how this oft-described “entitled” group is impacting the workplace. Simply put, they’ve tapped into different workplace and social abilities that no other generation before them has. These workers are seen as being the most technological and social media savvy, but also perceived as being difficult to work with, or even lonely.
On-the-go Mobile Pro
Nearly 30 percent of employees are what Forrester Research calls “anytime, anywhere workers” – those who work from multiple locations with multiple apps and devices.
Intrapreneur
Employees who behave like an entrepreneur within the confines of their existing role are often referred to as intrapreneurs – those who provide surprising or unexpected value to their companies in a way that capitalizes on new business opportunities.
The Data Analytic
Often seen as introverts, it’s finally time for the analytic personality to shine – not that they necessarily want to. The office analytic sees figures, stats and data as an essential element to any project or task
Seasoned Incumbent
Seasoned incumbents – those employees who have been in the workforce long enough to remember the days before computers – understand that work is work and not necessarily a place to engage one’s personal life and interests.
Who else?
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to slack off successfully at work
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28608097
At some times of the year work feels more of a chore than at others. Summer is one of those times, when if you are stuck in the office, the mind strays to work avoidance strategies, writes Lucy Kellaway.
Be scary
Being hopeless can help
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Motivate Your IT Team After a Setback
http://www.cio.com/article/2464171/careers-staffing/how-to-motivate-your-it-team-after-a-setback.html
It can be difficult enough to manage and motivate your teams when things are going well, but keeping morale high and people productive is even tougher if you’ve suffered a setback – a failed project, layoffs, losing a major client – or if personal issue are affecting a member of your team.
Employee morale is critical to a business’ success or failure, says Piera Palazzolo, senior vice president at Dale Carnegie Training. Managers need to have their finger on the pulse of the workplace and be able to respond accordingly if they notice employees aren’t living up to their full potential, she says.
“Morale’s important because it directly affects creativity and also productivity,” Palazzolo says. “If your employees are in a slump, they’re just going through the motions, robotically, and they’re not engaged or motivated. You’re not making the best use of your available talent,” she says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CMO-to-CMO: Engage With Technology
http://www.cio.com/article/2463965/cmo-role/cmo-to-cmo-engage-with-technology.html
Savvy marketing executives know they need to partner with the CIO to both navigate tricky technology waters and tap the power of analytics to gain insight into customer behavior.
“If you’re a CMO today and not excited and engaged with data and technology, then I question how long you’re going to be in the job,” says Dunaway at KidZania, which creates role-playing theme parks for kids in 16 places around the world. “It’s changed in ways that are really empowering. It enables you to do much more in your company to actually drive top line growth.”
Collaboration isn’t a one-way street, either.
“I found that, while it’s easy for me to give good direction on how to do a big advertising campaign or a big media buy, when it came to giving good direction on technology initiatives, I needed to learn that new language,” Dunaway says. She adds that she needed to find project managers who could act as translators communicating and presenting the grand vision, business requirements and the technology to deliver it.
“As a marketer, you have to dig in, show your willingness to ask questions, and go the extra mile to learn more about technology,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Daimler Employees Can Set Emails to Auto-Delete During Vacation
Workers can look forward to coming back to an inbox exactly as they’d left it.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/daimlers-german-employees-can-set-emails-to-auto-delete-during-vacation/376068/
The Stuttgart-based car and truckmaker said about 100,000 German employees can now choose to have all their incoming emails automatically deleted when they are on holiday so they do not return to a bulging in-box.
The sender is notified by the “Mail on Holiday” assistant that the email has not been received and is invited to contact a nominated substitute instead. Employees can therefore return from their summer vacation to an empty inbox.
“Our employees should relax on holiday and not read work-related emails,” said Wilfried Porth, board member for human resources. “With ‘Mail on Holiday’ they start back after the holidays with a clean desk. There is no traffic jam in their inbox. That is an emotional relief.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Companies That Don’t Understand Engineers Don’t Respect Engineers
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/14/08/17/0151211/companies-that-dont-understand-engineers-dont-respect-engineers
Following up on a recent experiment into the status of software engineers versus managers, Jon Evans writes that the easiest way to find out which companies don’t respect their engineers is to learn which companies simply don’t understand them. “Engineers are treated as less-than-equal because we are often viewed as idiot savants.
Whereas in fact any engineer worth her salt will tell you that she makes business decisions daily–albeit on the micro not macro level–because she has to in order to get the job done.
These are in fact business decisions, and we make them, because we’re at the proverbial coal face, and it would take forever to run every single one of them by the product people and sometimes they wouldn’t even understand the technical factors involved.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the Sharing Economy, Workers Find Both Freedom and Uncertainty
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/technology/in-the-sharing-economy-workers-find-both-freedom-and-uncertainty.html?_r=0
Tomi Engdahl says:
5 Good Reasons to Cancel Your Project
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1323514&
Now that I have your attention, I can add the caveats. Canceled development projects are not good things. They represent lost investment in terms of money and people. They generally lead to poor morale as people who have put considerable effort into a program find that their efforts have been wasted.
But the optimal number of canceled projects is not zero, particularly in the high-tech sector. There are too many unknowns when a project is launched to say emphatically that every program should go through to completion. Here are five situations when canceling a project is a good thing.
1. The project is successful
This goes to the definition of “successful”.
The truth is that there are many technical and market unknowns for any project
Finding the answer quickly and canceling a program early (if the answers come back negative)
is a successful project in itself.
2. Opportunity cost
Let’s say you have a project, and it is expected to deliver a positive but unimpressive return on investment. Should you do it? Maybe not. The decision is not whether to do this project or do nothing — it’s whether to do this project or pursue another opportunity.
3. Sunk costs don’t matter
If you’ve proceeded with a project but find that it isn’t the stellar marketplace winner you had hoped, how do you treat the investment you already made? Answer: Not at all. One of the worst arguments you can make is “But we already invested so much.” That’s a sunk cost.
4. New competition in the market
What do you do if you are proceeding with a project, and a competitor releases a product that obsoletes yours before it is even introduced? It’s time to reevaluate.
5. Acquiring a similar product or product line
This is rare, but I’ve seen it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Spaghetti Code & Meatball Managers
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=28&doc_id=1322433&
There are valuable contributions that management can make to the design process. Let me get back to you on that later.
Here is my advice on dealing with a meatball of a manager who issues an edict that makes no earthly sense: Ignore it.
Yet this particular manager issued the following instructions: “This code is field-proven over more than 15 years. It is completely bug-free and is the result of 15 years of development. Do not change it! Re-compile this C program to the new processor and keep it exactly the same.”
In the first week alone I discovered at least three serious bugs and learned that units in the field suffered from the same defects.
I ended up designing the new system from scratch
Tomi Engdahl says:
VCs suck (but there’s a way you could prove me wrong)
http://fortune.com/2014/08/13/vcs-suck-but-theres-a-way-you-could-prove-me-wrong/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Goodbye, “Everything Store.” Hello, “Everything City.”
https://www.theinformation.com/Goodbye-Everything-Store-Hello-Everything-City
Calling Google a “search giant” or Facebook a “social network” doesn’t capture how these companies think and act today—or will in the future.
Amazon Local Register offers new card readers and a service that allows small businesses to accept credit card payments. The move, which many had anticipated, fits into a conception of Amazon that I have found useful lately. It’s not an e-commerce platform. Or a media or hardware company. It’s a city—an interconnected set of services that affect our daily lives with proximity network effects.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cell Phone-Nokia choked on middle management
Today’s successful companies combine agility on many levels: product development, processes and organization.
Cell Phone-Nokia renewal would have been very difficult due the company’s structure: It can be said that Nokia choked to death on their own middle management.
This said, Nokia, Quality Manager and agility coach in 2007-2011 served as Martin von Weissenberg.
Weissenberg, Nokia cell phone was in the organization of the 13 levels. The middle management was just too much. Initiatives with the best ideas and visions stopped almost always one of the tier Pry of the organization.
- The more levels and cord, the more politics in the organization, Weissenberg.
Can a big company, then the first place to be agile? Coaches agility believe that they can. – Agile large companies does not appear to be a traditional corporate bureaucracy, departments, project managers and our annual budget, Weissenberg and Ziegler say.
The most typical agile house is, however, a newer, smaller software or services. They agility is essential. And in fact, they have to find their own way to be agile.
- If it is the same way agile than its competitors, it does not get a strategic advantage. If it is different, there is a chance of success
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1664:kannykka-nokia-tukehtui-keskijohtoonsa&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Trick To Never Getting Screwed By Terrible Customer Service
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/19/recording-customer-service_n_5683216.html
The hot new thing on the Internet seems to be recording an awful customer service experience and posting it online. Unlike most Internet fads, this one may actually be useful — by helping you get better customer service.
There have been several high- profile recordings of comically bad Comcast customer service experiences shared online over the last few weeks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 ways Google changed tech IPOs (and the tech world itself)
http://www.cnet.com/news/4-ways-google-changed-tech-ipos-and-the-tech-world-itself/
The technology landscape has changed drastically since Google made its market debut 10 years ago. Google’s IPO and its co-founders had a big hand in that evolution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Happened to Motorola
How a culture shift nearly doomed an iconic local company that once dominated the telecom industry.
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/September-2014/What-Happened-to-Motorola/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interpreting Marketing Claims
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1323563
Marketing Spiel Translation
Rugged Don’t plan to lift without major equipment.
Robust Rugged, but more so.
Lightweight Slightly lighter than rugged.
Years of development One finally worked.
Energy-saving Achieved when the power switch is off.
No maintenance required Impossible to fix.
All new Parts not interchangeable with those in previous system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The hidden structure of the Apple keynote
http://qz.com/261181/the-hidden-structure-of-the-apple-keynote/
Tomi Engdahl says:
6 Strategies for Cancelling a Major IT Project
http://www.cio.com/article/2604010/project-management/6-strategies-for-cancelling-a-major-it-project.html
Credit: Thinkstock
Sometimes it’s better to walk away from an IT project, even a big one, than to fall further down the rabbit hole. These tips will help you cancel a project and keep your dignity (and reputation) intact.
What if your project fails?
Still, for those who manage a large IT organization, cancelled projects can cause great stress. They are complex, expensive and often interconnected. Yet, there are times when a project runs out of funds, there’s a change in company direction, or executives realize the project won’t be as valuable to the organization as everyone hoped. Here are six strategies for how to cancel a major IT project once you decide it’s the only course of action.
Get Support From Other Executives
Make Sure You Really Can’t Save the Project
Communicate About the ‘Why’
Know Your Contract
Learn From the Process
Be Specific About the Numbers
Tomi Engdahl says:
Information Technology makes things too complicated
CIO does not know how to simplify the page and it will remain part of the company’s Executive Board discussions, unimpressed by Microsoft’s Tim Hynes.
Business digitalized rapidly. In this turmoil IT department prominence to the importance you would think, but this is not the case. CIO has been part of the page, when the company’s top management is planning for the future digital strategies.
Why? As the IT people do not speak the language used by the management to understand, rumbles Microsoft EMEA region CIO Tim Hynes.
Hynes, the IT leaders would change their behavior radically.
“When the company management turns pulmissaan CIO’s advice, he has a tendency to make things complicated. The majority of IT managers have engineering education, they do not want to solve simple problems. This is the wrong way, the CIO must be able to simplify things, “Hynes calls.
In his opinion, should be helpful in simplifying cloud services. Cloud is an excellent tool for the IT reforms to accelerating implementations.
CIO has to be a vision
Hynes, the digitization of the most successful transition CIO’s, who have a clear vision of the future.
“The IT leader must have a vision of where we are going. Change, and a third of employees resist change fiercely, another third in favor of it and in the end view is somewhere in between. CIO’s want to focus on getting this over with, and the last third to convince them their vision of the operation, “he says.
A successful IT leader needs to actively follow in his opinion, more than just the latest technology trends. His keeping track of economic development, economic magazines and read professional literature in the field.
“Traditionally, information management role has been to be a business enabler. It is responsible for ensuring that the business needed equipment and systems operate”
According to him, this is no longer enough.
“Today, information management should be a role as a catalyst and a genuine business partner.”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uusimmat/89603
Tomi Engdahl says:
Death of a Salesman: Enough with the marketing already
A launch is not enough on its own
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/09/death_of_the_salesman/
Reflecting recently on the changes that I have seen in the enterprise IT market, more specifically the enterprise storage market, I have come to the conclusion that over the past five years or so, the changes have not been technological but rather having to do with everything around the technology and its packaging.
There appears to be significantly less selling going on and a lot more marketing. This is not necessarily a good thing; there is more reliance than ever on PowerPoint and fancy marketing routines. There also appears to be more focus on the big launch and less on understanding what the customer needs.
There are more webinars and broadcasting of information and a lot less listening than ever from the vendors.
Yet this is hardly surprising. As the margins on Enterprise hardware slowly erode away and the commoditisation continues, it is a lot harder to justify the existence of the shiny suit.
And many sales teams are struggling with this shift. The sales managers setting targets have not yet adjusted to the new rhythms and how quickly the market can shift.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CIOs: Want to find out how to break into the boardroom?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/17/getting_cios_on_the_board_roundtable/
Very few businesses don’t rely on technology these days. Yet how often do they place real strategic power in the hands of the people running IT?
There are plenty of tech titles that sound like they get the bearer into the C-suite. But while becoming a CIO, CSO, or CTO might just get you a key to the executive washroom, does it mean anyone is actually listening to you?
Do you find yourself being told to do more with less, or worse still to spin-up a big data analytics project because the marketing director read about the latest “paradigm shift” in an in-flight magazine.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner Reveals The Importance Of Body Language, Mistakes Made Out Of Fear, And One Time He Really Doubted Himself
http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-ceo-jeff-weiner-on-leadership-2014-9?op=1
Who is the best CEO in the country? According to one rating service, it’s Jeff Weiner, CEO of social networking giant LinkedIn. In 5 years of running the company, Jeff has inspired his team, the industry, and Wall Street, and he has helped build LinkedIn into a $25 billion powerhouse.
Jeff recently visited Business Insider to talk to our team.
I’ve been in business for roughly 20 years, and the entire time I’ve been managing people, not a single person has ever approached me and said, “I can’t do my job.” Not once.
So the key is knowing what to do proactively. I think this is one we all learn the hard way, because we have the best interest of people at heart. We’re always rooting for people on our team. We also sometimes act, or don’t act, out of fear. We’re fearful over what people will think if we let that person go. We’re fearful of the morale hit. We’re fearful of the unknown. So we all just look away. And it will come back and bite you virtually every time.
And so when you have to ask yourself whether or not someone’s doing the job the way you hope they’re going to do the job, you already know the answer.
HB: And so part of problem, and why we’ve gotten to this, is Wall Street. Money management has been unbelievably professionalized. Pension funds and everyone else come at you, the CEO of a company, saying, “You work for us, we want X more ROI, whatever it happens to be. Enough with your compassionate management crap, deliver more to me, on the bottom line, because I’m going to get fired if you don’t.”
“We’re going to play up to who we aspire to be and not play down to the lowest common denominator out of fear of what might happen. As soon as you do that, it’s done.”
“I think one of the ways hyper-growth companies go off the rails is that they’re growing so quickly … that they lower the hiring bar to put people in seats to get the work done. And I think that’s the beginning of the end for those companies.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Engineers Should Study Finance: 5 Reasons Why
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=31&doc_id=1323161&
I’m a big proponent of engineers learning financial basics. Why? Because engineers are making decisions all the time, in multiple ways. Having a good financial understanding guides these decisions better.
Even if an engineer remains as an individual contributor as opposed to going into management, experienced engineers often become thought leaders in their organizations, involved in project priorities and strategic direction.
Is it worth it to spend money to engineer a low-cost part?
This is a typical scenario many engineers face. A new part can be created with an NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) investment that saves X dollars per unit. The math is pretty simple. What is the total savings over the lifetime of the product, and will the savings exceed the investment? If not, forget it. But even if it does, there is more analysis.
Is it worth it to delay a project by a quarter to add a feature to increase sales?
Delaying a project introduction is one of the costliest changes an organization can make. But sometimes you have no choice, or the reason is compelling. If you delay by a quarter, how much is it costing you? A lot.
In general a one quarter delay means a loss of all the gross profit (gross margin × revenue) of mature sales for an entire quarter. Even though the delay occurs at the beginning of product availability, it is actually a quarter of peak sales that is lost, since the death of the product is defined by the marketplace, and is fixed.
A competitor has introduced a product that is expected to reduce a new project’s sales by half. Should I continue or cancel the project? I’ve already sunk a big investment into it, but there is more to complete the project. With such a big investment already, should I continue?
Here’s the rule. Ignore sunk costs. Look at only future costs and future returns, but look at them honestly. Anything you already spent is money spent in all scenarios, and can be ignored when comparing the two choices you now have: to keep going or to cancel the project.
I’m in a startup business where the investors are anxious that we achieve break-even as soon as possible. What is the optimum pricing strategy?
Pricing is one of the greatest levers a company has on profit. While many people believe gross margin reflects manufacturing efficiency (it does), it is equally driven by price of the product. After all, one dollar of increased price is one dollar of increased gross margin (actually, gross profit), and with fixed expenses, one dollar of increased operating profit.
If you increase the price, the sales will drop. That is the sales elasticity. You will also increase the amount of gross profit per unit. If you can estimate the elasticity and you know the actual manufacturing cost, you can derive a price that maximizes gross profit dollars and helps achieve break-even for the investors the quickest.
We are doing a strategic review, and have ten great product ideas. Some are small projects, some are large. We can’t fund them all. Finance has calculated NPV (Net Present Value) and ROI (Return on Investment) for each. Which should we use as our prime factor for prioritizing which projects we pursue and which we don’t?
NPV essentially measures return minus cost, while ROI measures return divided by cost. I’ve simplified this a lot, as both discount the time value of money. Essentially, NPV is the absolute value of a project, while ROI is a ratio.
Warning: I’ve even seen finance people get these things wrong.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Making Excuses That Actually Work
No Dogs, No Homework: Hitting the Right Note Requires Nuance
http://online.wsj.com/articles/making-excuses-that-actually-work-1411513318
Saying “No excuses!” is a popular way to show you won’t dodge responsibility.
But when something beyond your control goes wrong, you may need to explain. So how do you make a legitimate excuse without sounding lame?
Certain types of excuses, used sparingly, can avert career damage, research shows. But hitting the right note requires some nuanced skills. For instance, it helps to give specific, truthful reasons for a mishap and show empathy for anyone who was harmed. Surprisingly, making an excuse in advance—when you think you just might perform poorly—can also lead others to be more forgiving.
Many bosses cringe at the mere mention of excuses.
“Left to our own devices, we look around and try to find someone to blame.”
A detailed, factual excuse can fill the void—and is more likely to be accepted by victims than a vague explanation, according to a 2010 study of 173 college students
Managers and colleagues can discourage lame excuses by stressing problem-solving over dodging blame
Making excuses before a potentially poor performance can inspire sympathy, says Andrew DuBrin, professor emeritus of management at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. This tactic, called self-handicapping, pre-empts criticism, leading others to “let you off the hook” if you don’t perform well, says Dr. DuBrin, author of a book on impression management in the workplace.
A salesman starting work in a new territory, for example, might avert the damage a failure would do to his reputation by explaining why he might not meet his quota
In the study, 246 employees from 10 companies were asked to read various scenarios describing a salesman’s assignment to a new territory and then complete a questionnaire. Those who read stories where the salesman expressed concern in advance to his boss about lack of contacts, rising competition and declining product demand reported more favorable impressions of his credibility.
Excuses based on external factors—blaming flight delays for missing a meeting, or traffic jams for arriving late—often work with colleagues once or twice. After that, however, most people start blaming the no-show for poor planning, Dr. DuBrin says.
Claiming circumstances were beyond your control has limits too. Blaming bad behavior on a loss of emotional control doesn’t hold water with most people,
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Increase Your Chances of Getting a Promotion at Work
http://time.com/3456082/how-to-get-job-promotion-work/
Most important, best, and easiest way to increase your chances 1,000%: talk to your boss about what it would take to get promoted.
1. You must know yourself before you can advance.
2. You need to advertise your interest.
3. You need opportunities to showcase your skills.
4. In most organizations, you will not be eligible for advancement without your boss’s approval anyway.
In the end, if you want to advance, engaging your direct manager in a conversation about how to advance will improve your chances more than any other single action you can take.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’m Beautiful, But Hire Me Anyway
http://time.com/3478317/beautiful-women-job-discrimination/
Employers often discriminate against attractive women. Here’s why—and what the women themselves can do about it
But a new study Johnson and two colleagues just published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes does tackle the question more directly. The improbable-sounding conclusion: if you’re beautiful and female, acknowledge it. Simple as that.
Well, not quite that simple. The research doesn’t suggest attractive women say straight out, “Yes I know, I’m gorgeous.” It is, says Johnson, “a little more subtle than that.”
In general, the “employers” tended to hire attractive women more often if they alluded either to their gender and to their beauty. With the unattractive woman, referencing gender directly made no difference—but referencing appearance made them less likely than average to be hired.
The study does have holes—rather gaping ones, actually. For one thing, the construction industry is not remotely typical of the field in which gender bias usually plays out.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Torvalds: I Made Community-Building Mistakes With Linux
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/16/2214216/torvalds-i-made-community-building-mistakes-with-linux
In a Q&A at LinuxCon Europe, Linux creator Linus Torvalds — no stranger to strong language and blunt opinions — acknowledged a “metric sh*#load” of interpersonal mistakes that unnecessarily antagonized others within the Linux community.
“From a technical standpoint, no single decision has ever been that important… The problems tend to be around alienating users or developers and I’m pretty good at that. I use strong language. But again there’s not a single instance I’d like to fix. There’s a metric sh*#load of those.”
Linus Torvalds: I Made A “Metric S—load” Of Community-Building Mistakes
The Linux creator on the open-source environment.
http://readwrite.com/2014/10/16/linux-linus-torvalds-community-mistakes-toxic-environment