Our Bottom Up Economy
As you may know, I find writing this blog helps me think "out loud" about how I feel about my "career" choice. Most of my material comes from reading and or conversations that I have with all of you. Today's post is inspired by a co-worker from a recent lunch conversation. Subject's included off-shoring, executive compensation, history of the populist movement in the 1800's, etc. As it was time to head back to work the topic moved to retirement (it's a long way off for both of us), when he said, "I'm going to work for "THE MAN" until I'm 80, then hope I can live long enough to travel for a couple of years." What could I say beyond, "On that note, I'm excited about heading back to the desk for the afternoon!" Geez, what a downer!

Well, the next morning I read, "Why 'Bottom Up' Is On Its Way Up " and I felt significantly better. Since I have pretty much been a "bottom-feeder" all my life (at least organizationally) I took heart in the following:

This new style of business, birthed by the Internet, is ignored at any company's peril.

Is there something that I could be doing that is putting "THE MAN" at risk...Apparently so. The notion of "co-creation" of value between producer & consumer seems quite appealing. I might know very little about helping a widget consumer co-create the next generation widget, but I think I'm in a pretty good position to help co-create value when it comes to software tools & products...at least certainly better than "THE MAN"

Is THE MAN always the bad guy?
Lest you think I'm the type that thinks every CEO is a crooked, greedy SOB, I offer this link about Starbuck's CEO Howard Schultz. The full text of the article is available only if you subscribe, but the short version is this:

Three Starbuck's employees were murdered in Washington D.C. He received a call about the incident at 5 am. He flew from NYC to DC and was on the scene by 9 am, talking to the police, employees, and families. He stayed long enough to attend all three funerals, and donated all profits from that Starbuck's stores to a support group for victims families. Sounds like more than a decent guy!

Then there is the other side of the coin, also from Fortune, that reminds us that public perception for corporate executives will be hard to change, and probably get worse before it gets better.

Off-Shoring & Software Design
I've made no secret of the fact that my company has announced plans to "OffShore" software development jobs. While we have not actually hired a single off-shore developer, I hear the entire initiative has made us much more "effective" "efficient" etc. etc. (This puzzles me but is not germane to my point) Equally puzzling though are the struggles we go through about how we "design" our software. A like minded colleague shared this article on how offshoring affects software design.

http://www.forio.com/outsourcing.htm

Discussions repeatedly turn back to the idea that the source code is the design. If this idea seems completely wrong to you, I would urge you the read the following link titled, "What is Software Design", and it may change your thinking. I note that the author wrote the column 12 years ago -- clearly ahead of his time.

If this is true, then the traditional business mindset that says, "keep the design work here, and offshore the coding & testing" will be the fast-track to project failure. What do you all think?

--"it"

What's Hot & What's Not
Sometimes I like getting tips that overstate the obvious. Today's link showed up in my inbox with the title "Offshoring Eats Away at IT Pay, Study Shows". Yeah, like I no several folks whose pay was eaten away all the way to Nothing!

Deep, cleansing breath. OK, ready to continue. At least the article provides some interesting stats from some research done by Foote Partners on what might be hot & what might be not. -- Full Story --

Yesterday's post generated a few e-mails. Keep them coming! -"it"

Been Awhile
A faithful reader asked last week if I had quit 'blogging. In truth, I really just took off the month of December. Thank you to those of you that read, and even more, those of you that send me "leads" on topics relevant to this group.

For today's post, I will warn that I may cross the line into politics (although mention no specific elections or candidates), but this being the start (almost) of a new year, I thought I would offer something that gave me some hope -- at least n the long run. It comes from The Atlantic Monthly, in an article titled, "Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation?". Unfortunately, their January issue is not online yet, and may require some $$ to read. So with all credit to them and the author, I offer a snippet here:

...the productivity gains in heavily automated, capital-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, banking, and other routine service have going almost entirely to the investors who own the machines and the software, not to the workers who remain, and certainly not to the workers displaced into other sectors....

This is where economics turns into politics. It is doubtful in any society with universal suffrage the majority is going to sit on the sidelines and watch, generation after generation, while a handful of investors and corporate mangers reap almost all the benefits of technological and economic progress.

Here's to wishing you all a good '04 and beyond. -"it"