A friend of mine works for a company that refuses business with clients who have low Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scores, Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) Scores, or that operate in vice industries (tobacco, gambling, and firearms). There is enough business to be had with clients with similar social values: they don’t need to take everything … Continue reading Turning down business for ethics
The Product Development Banana
A client tells the industry rag he wants a banana. The industry rag identifies a trend in “Linear Fruit.” Vendor Executives read the article and innovate on “Linear Food.” Vendor product team develops “Sausage Services” Vendor Sales asks the client if he wants a hot dog.
Anchoring Culture and Attitude
Amazon (I'm told) anchors their culture with a metaphor. Every employee uses a cheap wooden door for a desk. It's the key to getting a $107B company to act like a start up. Baseball players anchor a culture of winning and mutual support by growing playoff beards. Personal Culture Attitude is a kind of personal … Continue reading Anchoring Culture and Attitude
Technology Debt
Code Debt is the result of borrowing against future effort to speed short term delivery of code- the cost inevitably being paid back with interest when it must be fixed to be upgraded or changed. Ben Horowitz points out that the concept applies elsewhere- like managerial debt, which is often paid back with politics and … Continue reading Technology Debt
Service Management Office
How is IT doing, and how could it do better? Can you say (after all of the hard work and late nights) that you have made measurable progress on improving service delivery quality, or is it a struggle to even define what that means? Having perspective on this question is critical to setting and achieving … Continue reading Service Management Office
