Archive for August, 2009
ManagementSpeak, 8/31/2009
Monday, August 31st, 2009ManagementSpeak: Your company’s future depends on this.
Translation: We sell it, and at premium prices.
KJR Club member William Adams explains the nature of dependencies.
Searching for logic
Monday, August 31st, 2009Why exactly does Microsoft care about search?
Microsoft is a software company. Sure, it has made forays into hardware (keyboards, mice, joysticks, and the ever-semi-popular Xbox), on-line services (the ever-semi-popular MSN.com) and information delivery (the ever semi-popular MSNBC).
What pays the bills is the sale of software licenses. Microsoft is a software company.
So why Bing.com and the [...]
ManagementSpeak, 8/24/2009
Monday, August 24th, 2009ManagementSpeak: While we have the same goal as the FCC – to keep our networks running during times of emergency – we believe that having the flexibility to adapt to unique emergency situations will better serve American wireless consumers.
Translation: We don’t care if cellular phones work during an emergency and we’re going to fight any [...]
Cloudy disruptions
Monday, August 24th, 2009What if the Cloud really is a disruptive technology?
It’s been called that enough times. Usually, though, those using the term never actually read Clayton Christenson’s seminal work in the field, The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business.
These folks will tell you “disruptive technology” means a technology that disrupts [...]
ManagementSpeak, 8/17/2009
Monday, August 17th, 2009ManagementSpeak: Right or wrong, let’s stick to the process.
Translation: I agree it is a bad idea, but the process protects me from having to make or defend a real decision.
Bryce Alexander joined the KJR Club by sticking to our simple process: He listened carefully, interpreted accurately, and e-mailed the result to RDLewis@ISSurvivor.com.
A modest proposal
Monday, August 17th, 2009Let’s talk about ITIL.
Regular readers of this column might be under the impression that I’m hostile to the very notion of ITIL. But I’m not. It’s a rich source and organized catalog of ideas and techniques for running IT processes effectively.
Not that I’m an unquestioning admirer. Based on what I’ve learned about the subject, ITIL [...]
ManagementSpeak, 8/10/2009
Monday, August 10th, 2009ManagementSpeak: You need to be creative.
Translation: I can’t give you a budget, or the people you really want, or any other useful support, but you need to do this anyway.
This week’s anonymous contributor helps us understand what creativity really entails.
Lost and found
Monday, August 10th, 2009Tell me how this makes sense.
Sitting on every corporate desktop is more computing power than existed in the average 1980 data center.
We’re going to use that computing power to run a browser and nothing but a browser. Through a complex combination of networking, virtualization, elaborate security provisions, and even more elaborate management and invoicing systems, [...]
ManagementSpeak, 08/03/2009
Monday, August 3rd, 2009ManagementSpeak: Just give me a quick, Volkswagen solution.
Translation: Just give me a Rolls-Royce solution, and do it as quickly and cheaply as the Volkswagen version.
Tim Lawrence joins the KJR Club by giving us a Rolls-Royce translation of a Volkswageny phrase.
Pentagonalitil
Monday, August 3rd, 2009When you have a flat tire, do you:
A. Keep driving, complaining about how bumpy the road is?
B. Pump air into the tire and hope it won’t leak out this time?
C. Bolt on a new axle?
D. Repair or replace the tire?
In far too many companies the answer is, for some reason, “Anything but D.”
Bob Lewis is president of 