Daring to question it
It is all about innovation, not optimization
One of the signs of the 20th century is the speed. I guess it differentiates the new economy from the old economy more then anything else. Arguably Internet and mobile communication can be blamed for that more then anything else. But how does it all affect our day-to-day job?
I have always been a proponent of structured project management approach and proven methodologies. I admired the stories from Ed Yourdon’s Death March or The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks: the whole scientific approach to software development described by them seemed to be a silver bullet. I got completely obsessed with TQM and Six Sigma methodologies after I first read about them. They were applying Six Sigma to everything in GE including their TV shows, where they were measuring quality counting how many people in the audience were laughing at their jokes
I wonder whether these proven methods and techniques are as applicable these days as they used to be in 80th… Do we have time to do everything the right way any more?
Wealth in the new regime flows directly from innovation, not optimization; that is, wealth is not gained by perfecting the known, but imperfectly seizing the unknown. (Kevin Kelly, p.29)
The only sustainable competitive advantage comes from out-innovating the competition. (James Morse, p.29)
Looking at Apple, Google or Microsoft I am getting an impression that doing by the book is not a luxury we can afford these days. We should be fast and should be innovative too. Only the fastest will survive.
Jack Welch would put it this way: If we do mistakes, let them be because we are too fast rather than too slow.
Exactly! To be fast we should be having a higher tolerance to mistakes. If we do not try we do not succeed in it. The big-bang product development approach is deader than ever… at least in technology realm…
Effective prototyping may be the most valuable ‘core competence’ an innovative organization can hope to have. (Michael Schrage, p.96)
So, in the world of quickly changing environment and never-ending experimentation, is there still a room for Six Sigma’s black belts and ISO 9000 certifications?
posted by Dmitri @ 11:48 PM
1 Comments:
The discussion about MBA degree today is something that resurfaces in every third BusinessWeek one way or another. In a way this topic has to do with this too as MBA is just another standard.
If in the old days it was perceived as virtually a must-have ticket to the upper management, the new-economy stars like Richard Benson, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs proved that it is not a pre-requisite to corporate and career success.
No one would ever argue MBA is very desirable and extremely useful, but when it comes to making a life-changing decision of whether to get it or not we are dealing with completely different opportunity costs here. If 20 years ago two-year program did not sound like a tremendous sacrifice, these days two years might bring significantly more changes to ones’ life. The trains got much faster now.
MBA gets you basically the same amount of knowledge as before, but you are likely to miss much more while getting it then what it used to be back then. Personal success record is more important than degrees, especially as they got commoditized by comparatively low-cost distance learning schools like Phoenix University in US or Open University in Europe…
The question is still in the air and the answer is not that evident after all…
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