Mike
You hit the nail on the head. iSeries/SAP not withstanding - Corporate
wisdom, if used in all areas of the company like it is in IT, would surely be
the
death knell of business as we know it. I was the IT manager of a fairly
large company back in the 70s and found that nothing could be accomplished
without months of meetings that generated memos, then memos that generated
meetings, nothing productive was actually accomplished. I had systems and
programming people with nothing to do. I suggested laying them off but was
told that
we had good people and would soon have proper direction. We never did.
I got disgusted, resigned, and went off on my own as a consultant (have been
since 1977). The majority of my accounts are smaller companies where the
owner looks at things as though there are spending their own money, mostly a
good thought, as they want accomplishment, not BS.
I have several clients, owned by larger conglomerates, that are hog-tied by
corporate nonsense. We had a situation about a month ago where corporate IT
got wind of a change I made (as requested, and a great improvement) that
generated a two page memo asking âhow this could happenâ?â to seven
people with
copies to at least another three on each. Give them something to do!
The original company where I resigned is now bankrupt. My only advice is to
keep the faith and do the best you can with what you have. Perhaps the board
of directors should out-source top management to India instead of IT.
Warren
