'Wise' things that CEO's and other fools say...
"It's cool, isn't it? It goes right up to the point of being, like, confusing."
Yes, I’m typing little vignettes. No, I don’t know that that means - look it up! :-D
I used to work for this major tech company. While I was there I worked on some world shaking and game changing (in the technology field) programs. These were huge. Made hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the company.
Then it all stopped.
Here’s why: We got a new president of the company. Now I’m working in a pretty big division of the company with half a billion dollars a year in sales. Biggest division in the company, which had been around for say 50 years at that point (they’re gone now). When this guy stood up to tell us about how great he was, this was his ‘catch-phrase’ his ‘motto’ his ‘philosophy’. This is why they hired him!
Ready? Here it is: “If you never miss a flight, you’re spending way too much time at the airport.”
He said THAT to a room FULL of engineers and programmers. It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard a person say. If I’d been the CEO and wanted the company to succeed (I think he didn’t anymore to be honest) I would have fired that moron on the spot.
Now, I’m sure to some of you it sounds deep, as Invisibly Boy said in Mystery Men: "It's cool, isn't it? It goes right up to the point of being, like, confusing."
But it totally misses the point, shows that the guy knows shit about tech, engineering development, FLYING, airports, or any of that. It’s like saying ‘If you never drink tea, you’re spending way too much time boiling water’. How the hell are those two things even connected? I mean seriously, if you miss your flight, guess what? You’re going to be spending one helluva lot MORE time at the airport. How much time you spend at the airport is NOT related to if you make your flight or not. (This was pre-9/11).
To me, this guy was saying ‘if we don’t miss our deadlines, it means we planned too much.’ Which as this guy killed almost all of the Test and QA at the company, which had taken decades to get to the point where our quality was top notch and we ALWAYS hit our deadlines, was pretty much the death knell. People who don’t understand Test and QA don’t understand engineering and development.
Just like people who think Agile works don’t understand development.
Making your flight is a matter of scheduling, planning, and keeping commitments. If you never miss your flight, it has nothing to do with how much time you are spending at the airport. Back before 9/11 and all of the associated BS that came afterwards, I typically showed up about 5 minutes prior to boarding. Sometimes during boarding. Because it says right on your ticket when they board. Missing your flight shows that YOU have FAILED at keeping a commitment, or did not plan ahead sufficiently - and now you may be waiting hours, or even days to make it up. The consequences of that missed flight could be considerable.
So just missing one flight is going to end up with you spending far more time at the airport than say the last couple dozen flights combined. That whole statement tells me that this guy was slapdash. He has no organization, he has no procedure, he has no process. He knows nothing about developing a product, he is not willing to invest in those things that will ‘get him there on time’. All he knows is how to say things that sound pithy, but which prove he’s completely unfit for the job of running a tech company that selling incredibly expensive devices, to leading edge companies, while signing 8 and 9 figure contracts with said companies.
Yeah, I left not long after that. So did a LOT of people. The writing was, as they said, on the wall.
And of course this once world famous company is long long gone.
Reminds me of the CEO of Gateway computers in the late 90s. "We're going to shut down our call center while the techs have a bbq. With live entertainment." 🤦♂️ I wonder how much that cost him with lost calls or techs quitting because they were slammed by one center going down for an hour. 🤔 I never did get any BBQ that evening, but I did resolve the customer's long-term problem. 👍
Which one, just out of curiosity?