Kieron Bradley, one of my colleagues at Sun, during a piece of client consulting recently had reason to use financial option theory & language to justify why CPU’s in Sun’s large systems are more expensive to buy than those in the smaller ones. He and the customer had examined all the TCOO factors they thought were relevant and the fact remained that if one wanted to take a utility view of CPU supply, it was cheaper to buy and run smaller systems rather than larger ones. (This particular analysis did not perform a variable utilisation analysis. It was assumed, (or defined as policy) that all CPUs would run at a given % utilisation. Contradicting this assumption, it is a fact that large (and flexibly partitioned) systems are easier to keep busy.) …
Consulting! Profession or Trade?
Over the Xmas break, I had fun by reading Elizabeth Edersheim’s “McKinsey’s Marvin Bower”, a biography of the de-facto founder of “McKinsey & Co.”. He not only co-founded McKinsey & Co., but also arguably founded “Management Consultancy” as a profession. The book argues that McKinsey’s success is based on putting Clients first. …
Dragon’s Den & Flying Cars
The BBC are showing a TV program series called “Dragon’s Den”. Despite my interest in fantasy, this is about venture capitalism, not sword & sorcery, albeit with a very British spin. Yesterday, a show went out which sums up the crapness of British industrial management. Each week the show gets a bunch of self-made rich tossers into a loft and asks would-be entrepreneurs to beg them for money to invest in their business.
Yesterday, Kestrel Aerospace, who are building a personal air vehicle based on a proprietary and innovative engine within a craft that looks a bit like the aircraft flown by Arnie in the fim “The 6th Day”. …
The Dark Side of HR???
Some comments based on High Stewart’s review of a book subtitled “Understanding and avoiding employees leaving, thieving and deceiving”. In Management Today, Henry Stewart reviewed Furnham & Taylor’s book “The Dark Side of Behaviour at Work”. Its an interesting reinforcement of the relevance of McGregor’s Theory XY model …
Don’t bet on “buyer beware”
I have worked for the public sector (central government), small owner run businesses and large joint stock companies, while most management theorists agree with my first law of business, it is my experience that many so-called entrepreneurs don’t. …
UNIX Consolidation – Top tips for right sizing
There remain some good ideas in this article, which talked about Sun UK’s consolidation planning methodology but it is now mainly interesting as a then contemporary comment. See my comment. DFL 9 Jan 2015 …
Maximising Creativity
For various reasons, I decided to see if one of the early people motivation theories was still currently in use. This is the “Theory X, Theory Y” model. It was first stated in the “Human Side of Enterprise” by Douglas McGregor, published in 1960. This is listed on Amazon as out of print, but they do quote a price and shipment date, and has been reviewed in the last year by Sheila Ale. The top “Google, search site” offers http://www.businessballs.com, which holds an article about the Theory XY model here….
The model poses two forms of management behaviour, one is hard arse (X), the other enabling (Y). Theory X can be characterised as a directorial approach based upon a deep cynicism about staff (or people), which is described in the businessballs article, as based upon the view that people don’t want to work and have to be “forced” to do so. Theory Y was first described to me as “if you look after your people, they’ll look after you”. Again quoting the businessballs article “The capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving organisational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population”.
I find it interesting in that once one reduces Theory X to its minimal components, it comes as no surprise that only underachieving enterprises permit Theory X to be the dominant management culture. Belief in your staff leads to competitive performance, it is this which is the essential part of the theory. For top performance, believe in, enable and liberate your people; we no longer live in a production line economy.
ooOOOoo
…In simplistic terms, I suspect that Theory Y only works when people are enjoying what they do. If they’re not, then Theory X might be the only way to get any productivity. When someone’s in the wrong job, Theory Y gives leeway for taking advantage of the organisation’s culture.
Posted by Sylvia on December 13, 2004 at 01:17 AM PST
More about managing the professional services firm
This is an article I original wrote as at the date posted and brought across to this blog in Nov 2015. It is a review, and maybe a development of some ideas published by Geoffrey Moore in an article entitled “Just Shoot Me!”, which was published in Under the Buzz, Nov 2002. The article was subtitled “Managing the Services Function inside a Products Company”. The article was sent to me by a colleague, Mike Habek after reading my previous article. It astonishes me how useful it remains, eleven years after first reading it and thirteen after its initial publication.
Moore believes that the service functions of product companies are trapped inside a life cycle inimicable to optimal service strategies, but that by understanding the cyclical nature of these factors, management can build valuable and valued service delivery companies. In 2015, I’d add that his model offers insight to both data centre architects and consultancy strategists looking to avoid areas that lead to the conflicts Moore describes as endemic in product attached consultancy. …
More about managing the professional services firm
For some reason there are two copies of this in this blog, this one is the older and more original. Mike Habek after reading my last article, kindly sent me a copy of Geoffrey Moore’s article “Just Shoot Me!”, which was published in Under the Buzz, Nov 2002. The article is subtitled “Managing the Services Function inside a Products Company”. Moore believes that the service functions of product companies are trapped inside a life cycle inimicable to optimal service strategies, but that by understanding the cyclical nature of these factors, management can build valuable and valued service delivery companies. … …
Where the real & virtual worlds collide!
The G2 supplement in the Guardian yesterday, see here… covers the phenomenon of real life trading of virtual objects, that only exist in online game worlds. I had hoped to ease myself into the world of games industry punditry, mainly because I don’t play enough to be a player’s doyen, nor do I work closely enough with the industry as a consultant, but blogs are useful for unfinished thoughts as well as polished polemic. …