Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
That just irks me. It just looks like companies always select the best talkers to do the management instead of people actually having a brain and a track record of being able to complete something that requires a decent amount of effort and intelligence. (I just assume/hope completing does prove that...)
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The underlying issue is that the essence of management is communication. Management and engineering are different problem domains requiring different skill sets. I've rather lost track of the number of good engineers I've seen promoted to poor managers.
There was extensive discussion elsewhere about the travails of high tech conglomerate HP, which has fallen into difficult times these days. The participants in the discussion were largely engineers, and some old timers rhapsodized about the days when Hewlett and Packard started HP in a garage, building test instruments they sold to other engineers. The assumption was that if the engineers were still running the shop, HP wouldn't be in its current troubles.
All I could say was "No. It would already be belly up and out of business. The engineers lack the skills needed to successfully run a big, multi-national conglomerate like HP."
An example of an earlier business that arguably was run by engineers and no longer exists is Digital Equipment Corporation, once the second largest computer manufacturer in the world. It missed the implications of PCs, and its core market was rapidly eroded as customers discovered they could do the same things cheaper with other kit. Why spend $250,000 US on a VAX minicomputer, when you could do it almost as well on a $25,000 super micro running a flavor of Unix? DEC belatedly got into the super micro game, but couldn't stem the bleeding as the VAX market dried up well enough weather the switch. (Ironically, what was left of DEC at the end is now part of HP.) DEC had superb engineers that designed highly advanced products, but the assumption seemed to be "If we build it, they will come", and the great idea wasn't accompanied by a clear idea of who might buy it and what they would do with it when they did.
When you get up into that range, the required skills for top management all revolve around
money. You are probably a publicly held business with shareholders whose interest is in the value of their holding. You are a custodian of Other People's Money, and your job is to preserve and increase the value of their investment. You may have a degree in engineering. You
better have one in finance, because that's where your efforts will be concentrated.
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Dennis