Posts by Steve Barnes
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Hard News: Campbell interviewed, in reply to BenWilson,
This frees them up for other more fitting duties like planning, promoting, communicating, analyzing performance
And Golf.
This is one of those rare occasions that I can't agree with you Ben.
promoting, communicating, analyzing performance, looking for improvements, hiring, firing, conflict resolution, getting customer input and feedback, selling the team's output, advocating for more or less or better work, keeping informed about the intended direction etc.
You do say...
All of these tasks could also be separated into specific specialists, but in small but growing teams they tend to fall under the manager's domain.
but that is not a managers job so why are you saying that they are managers? we should have another name for that job and that name is "Hard working business owner" or "overworked employee with too few resources"
Most businesses, that fail, fail in the first 3 years and that is, mostly, put down to undercapitalisation, ie not being able to afford good managers, salespeople, R&D boffins, Personnel people (or HR, how I hate that term) and as for "advocating for more or less or better work," well, dare I say it? that is your Union rep.Astonishingly high pay goes to merchant bankers who are mostly just consultants. Lawyers and doctors can get huge money too.
I, for one, have never been astonished that, not only Merchant Bankers get a high rate of pay that seems out of kilter with reality when they act as consultants but consultants, period, also suck much out of the trough. I have always thought that if you needed a consultant you were in the wrong game but that is another bucket of fish altogether.
In the UK very few Doctors make vast sums for their work and expertise, the same is true here if you work in public health, plus the fact that you have an enormous student loan to repay you may as well push shopping trolleys around a supermarket car-park.
Lawyers, on the other hand can go either way, a public defender earns little compared to a corporate lawyer but does, in my opinion, more important work.A good many capitalists lose their shirts and face years of bankruptcy for taking the risky path that it is. In bad times, most of them go this way.
We both know that the real Capitalists reap the biggest rewards when things go tits up for the rest of us, buying up bankrupt businesses and consolidating their market share, but that is a whole different ball of twine, or is it?.
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Hard News: Meet me at Camera 2: White, in reply to Raymond A Francis,
White Male Privilege is like thinking you are great on your bike forgetting about the tail wind going your way, you just don't notice it
You could substitute Yacht for Bike and the analogy works even better, think America's Cup.
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Hard News: Campbell interviewed, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Why do we insist that managers make all the decisions?
Because, that is their job. What other description can you find for the job of manager?
At the lowest level it is making decisions as to how to get the best productivity from your staff (or team, if you must) the higher levels have more responsibility for outcomes at their level and so on.
The problem lies in how we choose the people at the top. This, surely, should be based on merit but much of the time, especially in a small market such as New Zealand, the choice is a recommendation from people you trust, your friends and colleagues.
So, really, it is just a product of market size and little else.Interestingly, or not, I have a theory about this.
The ideal size of a community is about 150 people and a city should, naturally, be built from units of that size,communities (1 community hall for every 150 people) Wards, Boroughs... an stuff. This is, roughly in line with the numbers you see in military organisation.
"A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–250 .
A battalion is a military unit. The use of the term "battalion" varies by nationality and branch of service. Typically a battalion consists of 300 to 800 soldiers and is divided into a number of companies."
Blah blah I could go on but I'd bore myself.
This ties in nicely with the theories of Professor Robin Dunbar a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist and a specialist in primate behaviour, who, incidentally, has his very own number
And.. that number is... 42.Nah, it is actually 150, the size of a Company.
So, if you are trying to run a company of 1000 people, you will need 6 managers, 12 2ic (second in charge), 10 team leaders and a partridge.....
You get the drift?It comes back to the fact that those in charge of it all are too few and are all members of "The Club". Anyone fancy a week at Bohemian Grove?
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Hard News: Campbell interviewed, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I think there is a place for managers in any organistaion, but it is NOT at the top of the pyramid. They have skills that are useful. We don't let the folks in stores decide our research directions so why should we let the managers decide research directions.
As Hunter S. Thompson said... "The Scum also rises".
There are good managers and bad. Trouble is that those higher up that ladder get to pick the next person behind them. Heard of the Peter Principal?.
Then there is Empire Building, put those two together and you have the nexus of New Zealand buisiness at the highest level.
Shame really because the root of all this is the artisan/patron relationship, "look what we have achieved together" rather than the "winner takes all" philosophy we seem to admire so much these days. -
Hard News: About Campbell Live, in reply to Alfie,
AS an alternative to Road Cops you could try this thing I stumbled upon...
LyngSat Stream has public links to 4441 linear TV channels
and 3276 linear radio channels transmitting on internet
Beats fumbling round TV3's webshite or any "Ondemand" nonsense.
And it is so Random ;-) -
Hard News: Mediaworks: The only horizon…, in reply to Simon Bennett,
A simple interview show can't be prohibitively expensive to produce.
Very true. The interview is going ahead anyway, why not shoot it? live to air, raw.
How much extra is a video feed to the Freeview satellite? -
For those that think we should use the Silver Fern then think again, there maybe a trademark dispute and wouldn't that be amusing?.
The NZRU has trademarked the fern's use around the world and is concerned about other companies trading off its brand.
Is John Key spoiling for fight with NZRU or is that another little deal going on there?. -
Up Front: Stand for... Something, in reply to Joe Wylie,
only to catch the old horror rewarding her performance with a faceful of Jaffas.
That wasn't supposed to be read the way I read it. I guess.
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Up Front: Stand for... Something, in reply to william blake,
I love the Pleiades as a symbol of unity.
Apart from the fact that the main star, Alcyone (pronounced Alckie one) is about 367.71 light years away and the light left there more that 200 years before NZ was even a sparkle in the eyes of The Big Five
It may surprise a few but Hawaii, the bach location of choice by our dear leader, was British in the same war we were until it was illegally annexed to the good ol' capitalists of the US of Eh? and still has the Union Jack on its flag, go figure. -
Up Front: Stand for... Something, in reply to ,
We should probably stop showing off about fixing everything with number 8 wire. It's nothing to be proud of.
On the contrary. I have even, on occasion, used No.8 wire for nails. By cutting into, approximately, 3-4 inch (75-100mm) lengths, No. 8 wire can be, indeed, be used as nails. Bang the wire into the timbers you wish to join until a little under 1" (24.6mm) remains above the surface, then, using the same hammer that you used to insert the nail (No.8 wire), bend over the end and hammer home.
I have also used No. 8 wire as a pool cue, to little success.
