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Management by a need to tell basis?

Posted by oskar on May 27, 2007 at 16:22
I used to work for a company in the US, just for a short while, and the whole corporate culture lived by something called ?management by a need to know basis?. Basically, in summary what that meant for me: 1) I didn?t need to know anything 2) I didn?t know anything 3) I couldn?t do anything A very interesting approach to leadership I think, though (hard as I try!) I can?t seem to understand why the stock-owners would agree to such a totally fucking insane way of treating the human resource. They probably wouldn?t. I guess the management had no stock in the company, otherwise I doubt that they would run it so badly. No one knew anything. To top that, I sat alone in Chile and didn?t know how to tell someone that I didn?t know anything. A vicious circle of ignorance. One day I received a phone-call. This is an extract: ME - Oskar speaking. Manager ? Hi, bla bla ?. bla bla ?. by the way don?t contact any clients right now. ME (confused because I worked in sales) - Why? Manager - Have patience, you don?t need to know that right now. Just sit tight. ME (I had been sitting tight for 3 months; the walls in my apartment/office were approaching me rapidly. I was definitely going crazy, just a matter of time) - When will I know what is happening? Manager - Things take time. Don?t worry. Enjoy Chile. I actually started to write a book about the management culture at that company, and I named it: ?How not to do business - A painful journey through lack of planning, incomplete communication and no common understanding regarding the business mission? (bad translation from Swedish). I rapidly presented two models in the introductory chapter, as should be in business literature. The first one said AIR below an empty box. Instinct might tell you that AIR is a great tool for underachievements, maybe an acronym for ?Allocate Insufficient Resources?, but it?s not. It?s very simple, it?s a tool for managers to look at (the empty AIR-box) and think to themselves: ?Do I treat my employees like this?? If they do, they could use my second model PHONE under a picture of a? phone. Anyone with proper training from Business Schools will know that a phone is used for communication and a very strong tool for leading something, anything, forward through the spreading of information. It also had a second meaning: ?Please Help, Oskar Needs Everyone?. After a while I realized that a young guy, whose only real business experience can be defined as a random-number-generated pile of failures from all possible angles, might not be an interesting prospect for authoring a book about business. And after I had written some 60-70 pages, I pretty much got over the worst frustration and - most of all - I woke up one day and blamed others for EVERYTHING, except one little tiny detail. If I was a little bit older and not so thankful for the job, I would have told various people to get their fucking act together or ?I will resign by tomorrow and not let you destroy another single day of my life?. I suffered for 9 months and I would never do that again. So, that I have learned hopefully. If those who are responsible don?t act accordingly, tell them or stop whining. I was whining and I never told anyone. Silent complains will take you nowhere. I also learned (deducing from the law of opposites, heaven or hell) that any organization, if prosperous, must (it just has to be so) be transparent and information must be in abundance. This blog is one way to make sure we are understood as an open organization. I think business secret belong in the past. That said there will always be some things that can?t be disclosed, for various reasons. But I am sure that the damage involved in not telling anyone anything (let?s call it the Safety-vault-CEO) is far worse than telling a little bit too much? so here goes: So far we have raised capital to survive for another 6 months, 15% of the company is owned by external stock-holders. We have a great business plan, from product-development to marketing and support. The missing Swedes arrive in Chile in one month. One of our stock-holders lives in California and will help us to some (hopefully) interesting meetings in July, in Silicon Valley. We are aiming to do quite an aggressive capital raise in 3-5 months from now. We are confident and we think that we have the most critical factors in place, and that we are a successful prospect to VC-company. Interested? E-mail me at oskar@needish.com We need programmers and IT-engineers in Chile. Right now we can?t offer you the same safe position (for as long as you live) as Lan Chile and other biggies, but we can offer something completely different, and a thrill that you can become a part of in its baby days. E-mail Dany at daniel@needish.com We turned down a journalist who wanted to do a piece on us in Qué Pasa. Why? We really don?t have anything to say right now. But be patient! We can?t tell you enough how much we appreciate your interest. We will call you whenever we feel that it?s a good timing! I was happily drunk last night, haven?t had such a relaxing weekend in a long time (NEEDISH is quite time-consuming). Now, stock-holders don?t fear, joy gives me energy. And as a counterpart to that, I can tell you that we are still not lifting any salaries from the company (we, the 3 founders), despite the fact we asked for an embarrassing amount of money in the business plan? it?s surprising that no one has told us to go to hell. Now, I will need to get a humble raise (from 0) in July? Puss & Kram Oskar
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