Elections and Voting

Two years ago this week I was at our polling place by 5:30AM. Not this year. There seems to be no rush this time around. The outcome of this election has been forecast and talked about so much it seems to be a forgone conclusion. But I will still be going.

Two years ago I was the first car in the parking lot at the polling place. Not this year. Two years ago as I sat in my car to stay warm I wound up second in line outside the door to the polling place. The man in front of me seemed nice enough, holding a text book and reading while we waited. I started a conversation with him and found out that he was unemployed and going back to school to learn to be a carpenter. He was going to one of those for-profit schools that the current President seems to have some trouble with. The man was twice as likely to be unemployed as I was at the time and his number had come up at the worst possible time, and yet he was not yielding to the conditions. He was fighting back in the best way he knew how, by educating himself. He was twice as likely to be unemployed only because of his race, he is black.

Two years ago I was enjoying voting in a historic election, having yielded my coveted “first in line” position to a black man trying to make ends meet without a job. I believe he walked to the polling place as I did not see any car in the parking lot other than mine.

Two years later the tables have turned and I find myself voting in an election where everyone is blaming the incumbent party for our economic conditions, caused by eight years of abuse by the other guys. Are we all that ignorant? Misinformed? Lazy? I hope my new friend in line two years ago has found a job by now and that he is happy. Two years ago I was half as likely to be unemployed as he was then, but my number came up too, two years later.

In spite of my “spin of the wheel” I am convinced we did the right thing two years ago, and that we should be giving a bit more leeway to those we elected back then. Our economic life was hanging over the cliff then, but now that we have been pulled back from the edge we want to blame those with their hands on the rope for the scare that was induced. This is wrong and we should say so with our votes.

CTO vs. CIO

I ran across a question raised on the CIO forum last night that I found to be very interesting for a few reasons. First off it seemed to be a genuine question about how to explain the difference between a CTO and a CIO in an enterprise. Second, there seem to be respondents saying that the person asking the question should know the difference without asking the group at-large. Third, when I thought about my answer it took me a few minutes but I came up with a response that made sense to me. The big question is am I right?

I intended to respond like this "a CTO is a tool maker, a CIO is a tool user." Seems simple enough to me. An enterprise CTO can be working on creating tools in the abstract, such as an architecture decision to support their internal operation, or in the absolute such as creating software to support a product the enterprise would sell. Take the android operating system as a good example. Google created the android software as a project to create a tool that could be used by suppliers of mobile devices. Their own mobile device has not done well in the marketplace but Motorola and HTC have created a product around the andriod software. The CIO of the enterprise would not necessarily create andriod but could put the tool to good use for an enterprise application or business process that creates value. Software reporting tools, data mining tools, business intelligence tool all fall in the category of things the CIO would use to help their enterprise create value.

There are some organizations that look to the CIO as a tool maker as well as a user. That is all fine and good but it takes a really deep technical person to pull that one off. There are some around but not many. There are CTOs out there that are great tool makers but can not apply them for business purposes as well as a true CIO might.

Seems a simple enough question but there sure was some confusion out there among senior executive types as to how to answer it. Or am I over simplifying it?

First Flights

Today was one of those days that was perfect in lots of ways, not the least of which was the weather. After having nearly 10 inches of rain in the past few days we woke to perfect weather for flying. Luckily my wife had auctioned me off (she prides herself in trying to rid herself of me a piece at a time) for a charity sightseeing flight and today was the day. Perfect. The flight went flawlessly and the "winner" of the auction appreciated having a chance to see the fall colors from the air.

The days activity reminded me of the opportunity I have had to introduce some new college graduates and interns as well as some current students to interesting aspects of IT projects. I am not one to use anything but real life projects and case studies as much as possible. I have spoken to some other IT managers recently who have agreed with me but I know there are some who provide "busy work" to interns, depriving them of the opportunity to prove themselves along with making a contribution at the same time. This is clearly the wrong approach and should be avoided at nearly all costs.

While fall colors come at a predictable time of the year you never know when a younger employee or intern will be able to show their true colors if they do not have the opportunity.

Health Care

Today was the day that some of the new health care legislation provisions went into effect, mostly for kids and young adults. It took a while to find a news outlet that carried the story. Finally I came across a good summary put together by the good folks at the Baltimore Sun.

The highlights go something like this (not a complete list):

• Insurers can no longer deny coverage to children based on pre-existing conditions
• Annual limits will be banned on new plans (and all plans in 2014)
• Consumers will be able to appeal claims decisions through an external review process
• Up to 4 million small businesses become eligible for tax credits to provide insurance
• An estimated 4 million seniors will begin to receive $250 checks for prescription coverage gaps
• New resources will be used to crack down on health care fraud and waste
• New state or federal pools will offer coverage for adults with pre-existing conditions*
• Incentives such as scholarships and loan repayments will be offered to build up primary care
• States requiring insurers to justify premium increases could win grants and ban insurers from exchanges
• Extra payments will be available to rural health care providers in under-served areas

Above all, full time students can be carried on a parent's insurance plan until they turn 24 years of age.

Now we hear that there is a move afoot to repeal some or all of the reforms. This has become a political football based not in facts but ideology. Someone has decided that it would be cheaper to go back to the old way of doing business rather than getting what we are doing right, while at the same time helping others. What they do not realize is that it is in the best interest of the country from a security standpoint to take care of our own as best we can. Citizens that are unhappy with the basic needs they receive are more likely to create problems.

Most of all it is the kids that are going to be paying for the mistakes of those who have come before them. Doesn't it make sense to have them live longer in order to pay more of our way?

The complete Baltimore Sun article can be found at http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/health-care/bs-hs-health-insurance-for-young-20100920,0,1703938,full.story

Turning Your Back

Nearly seven years ago I was called to the home office of some friends of ours after a phone call my wife took. The friend complained that her husband was about to throw out his PC because of poor performance, putting their business at risk. My wife asked me to go over and help them, which I did.

I provided them six years of technical service and advice on how to advance their business using technology to achieve sales growth. Their business more than doubled without requiring any additional people. They were put on the web for the first time, provided with reliable email, fax to email conversion, server based storage and application delivery, mobile devices that worked, and a PC that did not need to be punted from the 50 yard line. Then one day they decided to move to an office.

The move was going to be complicated for them but I had offered a plan that would do it without service interruption. Being a small business I was sensitive to their need to watch costs but they were making the right investments. They failed to inform me of the move until we were right on top of the date they wanted all the work done on. I was working full time for another firm but achieved most of the move without incident, until we suffered a death in my family. I tried to explain how this occurrence would impact my ability to get the project done on time. What I got was "oh well, you have to die sometime". Immediately after that I was informed that my services were no longer required and that they were transitioning to a "real" company.

Ordinarily I would have said that this was "not personal, just business" but a weird thing happend recently that indicated otherwise. It is my daughter's senior year in high school and we have always gone to parent night to meet her teachers. In the last year since the above "transition" the business owner's daughter has transferred to the same high school. Walking down the hall last night in between classes we encountered the couple walking the other way. In the middle of the hallway they both turned their backs to me as I walked passed them in the opposite direction. As of that moment I realized their decision was not a business decision but rather a personal one.

Now that their business is growing strong they have elected not to share or give any credit to others for enabling their success. It just got personal. I do not turn my back to anyone and would like to think I deserve the same courtesy. One thing is for sure, they were the ones that showed their asses last night, not me.

Poll Update-The State of the Economic Recovery

On June 30th I put a poll out via LinkedIn in which I asked respondents to provide an answer to the following question:

"At what point, now or in the future, do you expect to consider the "great recession" to be over?"

Fixed answers were provided in ranges from "there now" to "3 years or more away"

As of today we can see the following results:

• Having solicited a pool of about 400 potential respondents we received input from 37 people.
• Out of those respondents none indicated we were to consider the "great recession" over as of now.
• A majority (56%) indicated they felt we would be out of the woods within the next 2 years.
• The minority (42%) felt it would be two years or more before we would exit this period of troubled economic conditions.
• Sixty seven percent of those aged 35 to 54 indicated they felt it would be within the next 2 years that we would all feel better about the conditions (over half of the respondents fell in this age group).

While it feels a bit to early to draw and firm conclusions based on the data gathered it seems interesting to see the results to this point. While it is likely that none of the respondents have seen economic conditions like these before, those who are in the middle age group have the most optimistic outlook on the current conditions.

I will leave the poll up for another week or so and report back on the final results when they come in. Until then.........

Employee Retention

Recently I have been reliving a problem that some managers never really understand, Employee Retention. I worked for a group manager once who was losing his employees at a rate of 30% a year at one point. When I approached HR about it with specific examples of why the situation was created (hostile and discriminatory manager) they ignored the problem. He was eventually asked to resign some years later.

Now I find myself back in the same boat. This got me thinking about some common reasons behind all of this:

• Hostile work environment- discrimination against certain classes of employees creates such resentment that it is bound to have an effect on morale.
• Poor company conditions- slow to no growth, poor cash flow status, and salary and bonus treatment tend to make people want to leave.
• Economic Recovery- an improving job market after enduring poor economic conditions makes people ready to jump at the first real opportunity that comes along that is not staying where they are.
• Lack of advancement- people like to think they are moving forward in their careers. They are of limited length so at least some forward motion is a good thing. When this is not the case they look for mobility elsewhere.

This is not an exhaustive list but it is a start. The "what to do about it " list will follow shortly.

Aviation Security and the Times Square Bomber

There has been a lot of speculation on the motivations of the most recent Times Square bomber. Along with all that there have been additional calls for more aviation security measures. Some of these measures make sense, like constantly checking passenger name records against the no fly list. It has also been pointed out that the no fly list is not exactly perfect. This is true.

What is of concern right now are those who wish to turn this event into a aviation security issue. It is clearly not.

What we have experienced is a shortsighted person who suddenly wished to do harm to others in a big way, this time not involving an aircraft. As a result we need not panic over aviation security but instead should concentrate on identification of those who wish to do harm and get that word out to all who would benefit from knowing about it.

We have done enough to kill off airlines. They are not to blame this time.

Innovation Suffers Again

Many of us have worked for organizations that have suffered through a period of low levels of inoovation. At times it takes a management shakeup to drive product or service innovation to their previously high levels. In other cases it may be greed on the part of new management that drives innovation into the dumps.

A recent article by Bob Evans outlines some of the details behind the rise and fall of innovation at Microsoft. The article reminds us of the time where it seemed that Microsoft had everything going for it. Now they are loosing their most talented people and market share with them. It turns out that Microsoft is eating itself from the inside out, promoting or tolerating an environment of backbiting and bickering. I find it ironic that Apple was mentioned in the article, and organization that was also down for the count until Steve Jobs showed up back at the shop to kick innovation into high gear again. The result was the iPod, iPhone, Macbook and other innovations that are on fire.

No company can go very long releasing new products in an attempt to fix issues with the previous version of an existing product. The market is too smart for that in the long run.

What will it take to get Microsoft back on track? How about a return of Bill Gates?

Pitfalls of Social Networking

It has been a year or so since I last posted one of my infamous blog entries so please be gentle. Life has had me making lots of lemonade lately but recent events have gotten me thinking again about some top of mind subjects and one in particular, social networking.

In general I am a fan of social networking tools and sites. I think that they each serve a purpose to a point but do not totally eliminate other traditional methods of "networking". I recently renewed my account on Twitter and LinkedIn but have yet to join Facebook. Having watched other family members on Facebook I am not sure how much value I would get out of an account there.

Which brings me to some thoughts on the pitfalls of social networking and in particular in the work environment:

• Social networking activities can be habit forming. I know that I am a internet "news" junkie but I find staying informed helps in my job. Staying up to date on others activities is nice but not essential during work hours, unless it is work related. The trouble is separating the two. I am not sure the types of things I see on Facebook are all that critical.
• Security becomes an issue through social networking sites and tools. Adding applications to work computers and devices can be a problem. I recommend keeping those activities totally separate.
• There are also times where you might not want to share everything with everyone. Take the case of future customers or employees where they look on your Facebook page and see something you would rather not have shared with them. We can all assume that anything posted will be accessible some way some how. I have assumed that this is true and thus the lack of a Facebook page.

I am sure that there are some that can convince me I am missing out on something but for now I will experiment with twitter and keep my LinkedIn page up to speed and see what happens.