Thanks to Dare on Threads for this gem. Via the comments, a link through to the CIA’s blog post on simple sabotage, which in turn links to the PDF of the OSS 1944 Field Manual. And this screenshot from page 28: As Dare and others quip – this could be the agenda for most corporate meetings these days. There’s specific advice for managers and supervisors as well: The whole PDF is...
Most of the big costs have been cut out of businesses by now: Job cuts Budget cuts Perk cuts (no more free lunches, massages, group activities) Now we’re into the home stretch of little cuts (paper cuts if you will). Next time you visit a company’s office look for: Broken chairs Frayed cords and power adaptors Fruit (and good quality food) replaced with junk food and sugar (cheap)...
A very useful post from Karl about using ‘clients typically…’ in conversations with clients.
Whilst written for agencies, the post is actually useful for all services companies.
I had to shake my head when I read this Accenture survey on the demands of the Millennial Generation. The usual ‘demands’ of wanting to choose their technology, insisting on state-of-the-art technology, not wanting to seek corporate approval, requiring new communication channels, etc all came up. It seemed odd that a survey like this would appear after all the economic changes of late. Turns...
Amazon’s CTO – Werner Vogels – has been awarded the Information Week Chief of the Year title. He’s quickly given the credit to his team of course, legend that he is. Now, it’s easy to be cynical of awards – it seems that sometimes companies/twitter abusers/magazines/etc just create them as a marketing device – but regardless, it’d be hard to disagree with the decision in this case...
I thought I’d try to simplify my previous post on how to survive in tough economic times. Here’s how I see it: During the good times (eg when every second IT company is planning an IPO) you can focus on features. Features are really all about comfort and convenience, and in good times people lap them up. They are the equivalent of luxury extras on cars (eg heated seats). During the normal...
You may recall my post ‘The Death of Gen Y’ back in May when I talked about the coming IT crash. In that post I also suggested attributes of companies that would survive during the tough times. And I think those points still stand. But let’s consider an additional area… First, let’s find an opportunity and analyse it. Take the following Gartner report for example. Last week Gartner...
A great little post by Grant on how to deal with ‘Blockers’.
I loved the anecdote about a company policy for running virus scan on everyone’s machine at 11am daily.
Technorati Tags: Corporate life
Further to my post about career plans for developers at Elcom, I wanted to mention the approach of encouraging staff to build their personal profiles. It can be summed up in this attitude: Your job (as a developer and employee) is to be so good that you are being chased by head-hunters all the time. My job (as Technical Director) is to make the work environment so good that you don't want to...
Part of my brief at Elcom is to look after all the developers (ie people management). This is something I enjoy, especially when seeing developers grow and improve themselves. During November and December I sat down with each of my staff and started preparing their career plans. It is their responsibility to work out their goals and aspirations, it is my job to facilitate that happening (within...