arthur.gutow...@compuware.com (Art Gutowski) writes: > Patterned after centuries (millenia?) of cultural character - raze the > conquered and build your empire on the remains.
re: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#74 IBM Doing Some Restructuring? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#76 IBM Doing Some Restructuring? I had sponsored Boyd's briefings at IBM in the 80s ... and he had a very interesting scenario for this. some Boyd URLs from around the web as well as past posts http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subboyd.html Part of his briefings was that at the entry to WW2, the Army had to deploy a huge forces with little or no experience. To leverage the small amount of skilled/experienced resources they created a rigid, top-down command and control structure. He would then observe that this was then starting to have a significant downside on US corporate culture ... as former young WW2 officers, skilled in rigid, top-down command&control structures were started to climb corporate ladders. They were beginning to implement similar infrastructures that assumed only the very few at the very top knew what they were doing and required rigid controls for large hordes that didn't know what they were doing. Something similar was touched on in "Tandem Memos" (even before I met Boyd) ... from IBM Jargon Tandem Memos - n. Something constructive but hard to control; a fresh of breath air (sic). That's another Tandem Memos. A phrase to worry middle management. It refers to the computer-based conference (widely distributed in 1981) in which many technical personnel expressed dissatisfaction with the tools available to them at that time, and also constructively criticised the way products were are developed. The memos are required reading for anyone with a serious interest in quality products. If you have not seen the memos, try reading the November 1981 Datamation summary. ... snip ... I had been blamed for online computer conferencing on the internal network in the late 70s & early 80s (part of which was "Tandem Memos") ... misc. past posts mentioning the internal network http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/subnetwork.html#internalnet part of the folklore was that when the executive committee was informed of online computer conferencing (and the internal network), 5of6 wanted to fire me. Boyd's explanation has been used more recently to explain a report that the ratio of executive compensation to employee compensation had exploded to 400:1 ("Age of Greed", mentioned in earlier post, claims it spiked over 500:1), after having been 20:1 for a long time and 10:1 for most of the rest of the world. The other downside is that people at the bottom that may appear to know what they are doing, can be viewed as a threat. other recent posts mentioning "Age of Greed": http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#12 Sun Tzu, Boyd, strategy and extensions of same http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#19 "Buffett Tax" and truth in numbers http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#29 The speeds of thought, complexities of problems http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#43 Where are all the old tech workers? http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2012b.html#54 The New Age Bounty Hunger -- Showdown at the SEC Corral -- virtualization experience starting Jan1968, online at home since Mar1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
