2010

By Bob Lewis | August 30, 2010
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: We are doing well — in fact better than planned — but we are still vulnerable to external factors.

Translation: If it all goes base-over-apex, it’s not my fault.

The phrase comes from Ralph Norris, when he was CEO of Air New Zealand. The translator preferred anonymity.

The more things change …

By Bob Lewis | August 30, 2010
Topics: Industry Commentary, Metrics, Organizational Effectiveness, Strategy and Tactics | 4 Comments »

Imagine a map. Imagine yourself folding the map.

Now imagine an economist who, seeing the crease, complains about the canyon you just dug in the middle of someone’s corn field.

The actual headline read “Shocking New Accounting Rules.” Published in The Economist (8/19/2010), which really should know better, it explains that IASB (the International Accounting Standards Board) and FASB (America’s Financial Accounting Standards Board) are re-thinking the rules for booking operating leases, treating them much more like capital leases. Read the rest of this entry »

ManagementSpeak 8/23/2010

By Bob Lewis | August 23, 2010
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: So-and-so has left the company to pursue other interests.

Translation: We finally fired his worthless behind.

KJR Club member Dave Farris’ interests include interpretation of management phraseology.

Departure tales

By Bob Lewis | August 23, 2010
Topics: Business Ethics, Career Management, Industry Commentary, Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness, Policies and Procedures | 6 Comments »

This is a tale of three departures and their lessons for IT leaders.

Departure #1 is Steven Slater. In case you’ve been living in a cave, Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant, experienced an intense customer relationship opportunity with a passenger who retrieved her luggage before the plane reached the gate.

That’s when Slater achieved greatness: Read the rest of this entry »

ManagementSpeak, 8/16/2010

By Bob Lewis | August 16, 2010
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: We’re making these changes so our program is more competitive.

Translation: Our program is far superior to those of our competitors, which means we’re spending too much. We need to lower our standards.

KJR Club member Dave Liesse’s linguistic standards are, however, impeccable.

Measure? If you can’t predict you can’t manage

By Bob Lewis | August 16, 2010
Topics: Industry Commentary, Leadership, Metrics, Organizational Effectiveness, Process Management and Improvement, Strategy and Tactics | 18 Comments »

Imagine Pacioli took a different tack.

You remember Pacioli. Italian guy. A friar. Invented modern accounting five centuries ago, give or take a few years. Ring a bell?

We still keep the books the Pacioli way. It’s why, when you buy a computer, you credit cash and debit tangible assets but when you train an employee you credit cash and debit training expenses.

Computers appear on the balance sheet. Employees don’t. Their skills, knowledge, judgment, loyalty and drive don’t appear as balance sheet assets.

Imagine they did Read the rest of this entry »

ManagementSpeak, 8/9/2010

By Bob Lewis | August 9, 2010
Topics: ManagementSpeak | No Comments »

ManagementSpeak: Entrepreneurial.

Translation: Good.

This week’s contributor points out, anonymously, how even very good words lose their meaning.

Managing to the numbers

By Bob Lewis | August 9, 2010
Topics: Industry Commentary, Leadership, Metrics, Organizational Effectiveness, Process Management and Improvement, Strategy and Tactics | 3 Comments »

The problem with managing to the numbers is that it doesn’t work. Far too many of those who think having an equity stake in a business qualifies them to run it, is that they think it does.

They are, in a word, naïfs, and in another word, arrogant. Bad combination.

Understanding that the plural of anecdote isn’t data, here nonetheless is an example, provided by a subscriber who understandably needs the details obscured: Read the rest of this entry »

ManagementSpeak 8/2/2010

By Bob Lewis | August 2, 2010
Topics: ManagementSpeak | Comments Off

ManagementSpeak: We are changing the organization of the entire department to focus on client outcomes.

Translation: We don’t understand how our business works.

This week’s anonymous contributor understands how the translation business works, about which we’re delighted.

Apples and whoozits?

By Bob Lewis | August 2, 2010
Topics: Cloud, Industry Commentary, Organizational Effectiveness, Process Management and Improvement, Technology | 8 Comments »

Apple’s profit line has beaten Microsoft’s profit line.

It’s an occasion whose importance rivals one of a bygone era: The day the “Whopper beat the Big Mac,” back when the burger wars were upon us.

Comparing very much of anything having to do with Apple to anything having to do with Microsoft is about as sensible as comparing, say, General Mills and New Line Cinema. They compete where, exactly? Read the rest of this entry »