Three Fields, Three Rings, Troika

What makes a company the company one wants and will work for? In other words, why are people leaving in droves from one company, but are clamoring to work at the other? Is it money? Prestige? Benefits? No. Certainly money plays a large role, let’s be honest here. And prestige never has hurt - heck, one would love to work at Google or IBM.  But that’s not what actually keeps employees within the company.  What actually motivates employees to stay with the company beyond the usual 2-3 year span is the way the company approaches its employees. If the company’s management structure has been set up well, both vertically and horizontally, with extra focus on finding and nurturing potential talent, then it has already provided a fertile soil for the employee base that’s not just content but is willing to devote extra energy and time for the company’s goal(s), and thus, its bottom line.

I always think of the plant and soil metaphor when I think of the employment. Just as cactus that flowers brilliantly in desert during the brief days in spring cannot grow in a  temperate climate, the employee that performs the best in small, tight knit team environment will not perform the same at a large, devoid of person-to-person teamwork corporation. And vice versa - the person who is adept at navigating the bureaucracies at a corporation and excels at geographically dispersed corporation will have a very difficult time adjusting to the ad hoc nature of a start-up.  Of course, there are exceptions to the rule - but even there these exceptions have benefited from the way the management structure has been set up.

The education and the innate talents of the employee at a large corporation actually may matter little if the soil the employee is planted into does not allow for that employee to fully leverage his skills and knowledge.  And if the management around that employee fails to recognize it, and fails to actually work with the employee to figure out the ways this situation can be amended, the employee is a lost one for the company, for all the practical purposes.  Then this situation becomes a cancer - the employee becomes demoralized, his/her productivity tanks, his/her reputation within the company is shot, the company itself loses thousands and thousands of dollars in lost potential (be it ideas, initiatives, or projects), and in eventually re-training a new employee.

What a waste…

It’s been absolutely crazy month so far. Global markets are panicking.  I myself made a quick trip to St. Petersburg, Russia.  I’ve got to admit, despite the financial crisis now hitting Russia and the small-medium businesses there, never mind the foreign corporations with offices there, I wouldn’t mind working abroad. Nothing ought to stop an ambitious young individual from maximizing the opportunities and intellectual openings provided by the ability to work in more than one country.

Speaking of the deepening crisis - this is the time at which those who can digest news quickly and derive conclusions and reasonable projections on one’s feet will succeed. I am not speaking of obscure financial instruments such as derivatives or complicated transactions such as foreign currency exchange transactions  made in N currencies (think of such transaction: euro->yen->pound->dollar->euro).  I am speaking of basic conclusions such as that the lower price of oil will eventually give rise to profits at trucking companies, profits at large corporations such as WalMart - those whose products’ prices will lag the trends in oil prices by 6-12 months. Why? Because currently the goods’ prices are higher, have been increased to pass down the increased cost of transportation and oil to the consumer.  Now that oil is trading at $63/barrel, these companies derive higher profit, as they aren’t decreasing the prices of the goods just yet. This will bump up their balance sheets for next 6-12 months, thus improving the overall business sentiment. This will inevitably lead to bull market in stocks, etc.   This is just one of the thoughts.  Obviously, this insight is dependent on assumption that the customer will not cut consumption by say, 30%! Let’s see what happens.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/07/mozilla-geode-released-with-support-from-pownce-and-fire-eagle/

We at Mi-Si have reached a huge milestone - we have finally secured a new office!!! More details later.

Am quite intrigued: http://pandastream.com/

If you get a chance, please check it out and let me know what you think.

In a sign that all those 3rd party developers and companies are keeping pushing the envelope when it comes to apps for iPhone, MokaFive announces iPhone Sentinel: http://www.mokafive.com/solutions/downloads.php

We’re already into August! Lots of changes again - my MBA studies will instead start in January.  Things at my family’s start-up are moving both with spaceship’s speed and with snail’s speed (depending which thing).  I’ve also started tackling some of the financial issues that have been bothering me - hopefully it will be consistent and visible progress will be made.

That’s about it… Oh, and I got the iPhone 3G!

It’s an oft repeated axiom: “time is money is freedom.” Indeed, I lately can’t help but think how valuable time is. The reason we humans were able to evolve so quickly is because we’ve figured out that by specializing and by distributing/sharing the burden of tasks we can become more efficient and thus devote more time to more important tasks.

I do get the programming itch from time to time. Yesterday I came by offices where my friends work, and I stood there, listening to their brainstorming on Java classes, interfaces, etc. Truth be told, sometimes I do like programming, sometimes I hate it. But I love nothing more than working along brilliant programmers, soaking up every gem of knowledge from them, even if that makes me look dumb compared to them.

I got rid of my bloated Eclipse Europa, reinstalled it, installed Spring framework, installed Tomcat 6.06. And now, the only thing I need is TIME… Determination and motivation are there, time is not…

This is a rant, yes, I admit that. I probably should stop being shocked but I still keep being surprised. One would think that after decades of management research and studies, and after decades of professional work, people would learn what works and what does not work. Au contraire… Even at large corporations one can find multiple instances where resources are shuffled on eve of deadlines, for example. Huh? Imagine a Boeing-777. Imagine that it’s literally minutes away from landing, with flaps down, with landing gear activated, and such. Suddenly the tower makes the call: “John and Jack! Switch seats, John will take over the landing process, Jack will be on standby!” Would you be comfortable being on that plane?

Really, I don’t care what project management methodology we’re talking about. There are a gazillion certification programs, be it PMP, PMI, etc. It all boils down to common sense, experience, and again, common sense. One can know nuclear physics ice cold, for example, yet act as a complete moron. No training, no education, no money can replace common sense.

Another thing that rather boils my blood. If you’re a manager with direct reports, e.g. people reporting to you, you must ensure that your subordinates:

1. Are in appropriate environment (think of it as the fertile soil) - with appropriate team members, appropriate responsibilities, appropriate processes.
2. Are given space and opportunity to grow. The moment you sense that one of your subordinates feels out of place or feels intellectually under-challenged - immediately attack the core issue! The range of solutions is great, but a solution must be decided upon and acted upon resolutely. Nothing is worse for the team morale than demoralized, brooding employees who feel ignored, underappreciated, and dumbed down. The productivity of employees is at its highest when they’re intellectually challenged, motivated, and feel part of the team. Period.

In other words, select appropriate plants to grow in appropriate soil. Otherwise, make the soil appropriate for the target plant. Plant a cactus in moist soil, and it will die. Plant a birch in desert, and it will die.

Communication. It’s both the boon and bane in management and companies. Time and time again I come across the same problem: lack of communication leads to deterioration in teamwork, which leads to isolation of an employee, which leads to sagging morale, which leads to neglect of project(s), which leads to crises, which leads to dismissing or reshuffling of the employee(s). Too much communication = distraction from the high priority tasks. Too little communication = disaster (unless you’re a scientist and single-handedly work on your obscure experiment).

What else? Politics! But that deserves a separate book in itself (I highly recommend this book by Joel R. DeLuca, Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind the Scenes, available here at Amazon.com.

I’ll stop now, and think about my own company, and think about the future plans.