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Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1998 Smart people, dumb companies EVERYWHERE people cluster to create large organisations of immense ability and power. These seek out and employ extremely smart people, and then have them do really dumb things. It seems to be universally true that highly trained nurses and doctors spend more time filling in forms and being social workers than looking after patients. Technologists wrestle with the laws of nature to solve highly complex problems and realise significant advances, then struggle to get product to market, while simultaneously fighting the bureaucracy of companies. And experts in investment find themselves answering the phone to deal with trivia. Even in the humblest of jobs people are often diverted from their primary aim by some mysterious force inflicted by the dark side of their parent organisation. Why should this be so? Overmanagement now seems to be a potential killer disease that can erupt overnight. Downsizing, right sizing, sticking to the knitting, if you can't measure it you can't manage it, re-engineering, empowering the individual, management consultants and a glut of MBAs all seem to promote or carry the memes causing this condition. Paradoxically, the biggest risk and threat to companies in highly competitive markets, in a world that is speeding up, appears to be themselves. Without a clear and holistic view, organisations mindlessly set on a course to gather data and never bother to distil the vital information from it, cut costs, remove people, optimise individual elements of their operation with little or no idea of the consequences. This results in their employing very expensive people to make the coffee, file paper, answer the phone, distribute the mail; merely to shave a few pounds from marginal budget areas. So what is the solution? Well, it comes down to education, information (not data), modelling and war gaming, a holistic management team, good leadership, decisive thinking and action. Thoughtlessly taking out people usually hurts, while replacing them with technology can generally be made to work, as witnessed by the industrial and information revolution. In most occupations everyone needs to understand and be able to use technology because it is as essential as being able to read and write. We also need insights into economics, marketing, sales, law, technology and the business we are in. But perhaps even more important, we need to understand the business we are not in. The death of companies and sectors often rears up from an unseen direction, in the same way the industry of the whip manufacturer was destroyed by the car. The power of a large corporation with the agility and creativity of a start-up is now a key objective for many companies. They cannot hope to do it without good communication and computers knitted into very low, flat operating structures. A light hand of management, with a good deal of freedom for the individual, is paramount to realise this dream. But does this mean the displacement of more people, and the loss of even more jobs? I think not. There is a huge shortage of skilled people today, and these changes can create even more opportunities, provided people are computer literate. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
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