OnPoint: Election 2011: GO!
848 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 13 14 15 16 17 … 34 Newer→ Last
-
. Being on the Evil Commie end of the spectrum, I don’t really believe in all this wishy-washy co-opted-hippy HR-speak about everyone being enabled and empowered in employment relations, because most businesses are fundamentally hierarchical and motivated by profit.
Here I am suggesting that management in NZ isn’t very good at making money. This is a problem in that most businesses are fundamental hierarchical and motivated by profit etc etc.
(In fact of course there’s management beyond admin: do we hire two new engineers this year, or spend the money on marketing? Do we hire a tech writer, or keep making Jim who did half a degree in Eng. Lit. handle it when he has the time? How many product lines should we have? And so on.)
-
Yeah, I’m sure management’s hard to do well. That’s why the pay is good. I’d suck at it- have when I’ve had the role, and will if it finds me again. I find managing a paper filing system close to impossible, and paper doesn’t talk back, mock, burst into tears or sabotage your every initiative. Not to mention the politics.
But when-Planning
-Organizing
-Leading
-Controllinglose connection, respect and common purpose with the everyday ground-floor daily activity of an organisation, it is painful to behold and seldom works well for the bottom line of a business.
Been there. Got the Hair-shirt :)
ETA: and yes, it often ends up in a failure to run a profitable, humming enterprise. -
recordari, in reply to
Curiously, I was quite apt to the task – philosophy finally paid off as a subject, since most of what managers do is abstract, high level, and involves a lot of talking, explaining stuff up and down the chain.
This. I’m pleased that you said it though. Philosophy has been one of the best tools in my armory while managing.
There is no pleasing me when it comes to this shit, Jack. ;)
That’s Ok. As long as you don’t hold it against me ;-)
-
Danielle, in reply to
Here I am suggesting that management in NZ isn’t very good at making money.
*That* actually makes sense to me, thanks Keir. When I think about it, I always get stuck on the 'managing people' part of management (and, perhaps, so do they?).
-
This. I’m pleased that you said it though. Philosophy has been one of the best tools in my armory while managing.
TBH, I think most Arts subjects would be quite useful, since they tend to focus on understanding and articulating stuff that's rather vague. Not sure how many people I'll shit off with that suggestion, but I stand by it.
-
Matthew Poole, in reply to
Here I am suggesting that management in NZ isn’t very good at making money
This could even be qualified with "good at making money sustainably." We've got lots of small businesses that do fairly well for the owners but don't really grow to contribute significantly to the national income. And we've got a few big businesses that, by and large, end up burning out through poor management.
Case in point, the slash-and-burn merchants who strip-mined the assets we gave away in the 80s and 90s. Or Telecom, which was spectacularly profitable but not sustainably because it relied on a) network under-investment, which is a variation on the strip-mining philosophy of the slash-and-burn merchants and is eventually unsustainable, and b) the Government not blinking at the continued rape and pillage of the consumer and calling Telecom's bluff. Once the Government did blink, Telecom's monopoly rents were curtailed and its share price and revenue both did a passable imitation of a dropped rock.
Very few of our big companies last, historically. This is gradually changing, as we get directors who have a long-term view and managers who've watched the various implosions, probably from overseas while on their OE's, and imparted those lessons into their management and directorial styles.
-
Part of the problem, in fact a very large part of the problem, is the number of students studying Business degrees and the sad lack of those studying what you could use that business for. Having a commerce degree is useless if we have nothing to sell.
ETA (apparently they make potato chips and other useless snack foods)
The emphasis on "Business" from the likes of the Round table (boogie Knights?) and the lack of real ideas that go with that short sighted vision has twisted the argument about productivity, I would suggest that this fact alone is enough to place the blame on the "dole bludgers" rather than where it really lays, with those that value money over those that want to work and produce something. When you buy a company and strip it of its value you are destroying the fabric of real production, I'm looking at you Graham Hart and your ilk, the National Party financiers... -
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Part of the problem, in fact a very large part of the problem, is the number of students studying Business degrees and the sad lack of those studying what you could use that business for. Having a commerce degree is useless if we have nothing to sell.
Or they have a delusional eye to the speculation industry on Wall St or The City. Or should that be what's left of it?
-
Having a commerce degree is useless full stop, unless one fancies being some sort of business consultant :-)
The BCom is mainly designed to relieve doting Chinese parents of their yuan, right?
Sales and management can't be taught, and if you need the practicalities of running a business, do Accountancy and/or Law.
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
And even Bob Jones made his disdain clear of the BCom:
"I might employ a commerce graduate as a gardener but definitely not for anything that requires thinking."
The speaker is multimillionaire property tycoon and author Bob Jones, famous for, among other things, saying he is interested in employing only someone with a generalised degree.
It's a question that occupies the mind of many senior school students deciding on the best course of study - should they opt for what will guarantee them a job, or for something that fascinates them no matter how impractical?
"I want someone with a general knowledge, general interests, someone who can think," says Jones.
A commerce degree is a "ghastly thing to do", he says. And an MBA is "a confidence trick".
"Universities are dealing with people at a critical stage of life and denying them education. How about human nature, curiosity? Poor kids."
-
Yuan ring to rule them all?
-
Steve Barnes, in reply to
The speaker is multimillionaire property tycoon and author Bob Jones,
Bob the Bludger?
-
Sacha, in reply to
If the two sides would come together and solve problems, I'm sure this crap wouldn't happen. I'm fairly confident this also goes on in other industries as well.
It does. And we need more *leaders* all round, not more managers. On the whole, our current crop lack ability to bring together plans and the people, partners and other resources they already have available to them. So many wasted opportunities for greatness.
Oh, and they need to know how to unleash the extra 'discretionary' effort from motivated workers that hugely improves any organisation's productivity. Just look what happens when people don't feel appreciated, empowered or confident their role will continue long enough to make an impact. That's why constant restructuring buggers most organisations while it distracts from the incompetence of managers who aren't fit to lead. Been talking to several dispirited colleagues lately caught up in large and poorly-run change processes that have sapped their will to go the extra mile
I realise that's pretty generic and I sure don't have anywhere near the answers abouthow it's done, but it does seem to apply to the public sector, non-profits and community groups as well as private businesses. Investing broadly in improved leadership (not just MBAs) wouldn't be a quick payoff but the ROI would be good for everyone in so many ways.
-
Steve Barnes, in reply to
Or they have a delusional eye to the speculation industry on Wall St or The City. Or should that be what’s left of it?
John Key BCON Hons...?
-
Matthew Poole, in reply to
“I want someone with a general knowledge, general interests, someone who can think,” says Jones.
He'll be sorely disappointed by the majority of current students, then. One entirely predictable consequence of student loans is that students study to get a job, not to get an education. They want to learn things that'll get them hired.
This was amply demonstrated in one of the two general education papers I had to take while studying for my BCom (I actually am a business consultant now), when the lecturer asked whether the students thought the general education scheme - majority (I think there are two degrees where GenEd is not required, and a further two where only one paper is required) of students at UoA doing their first under-grad have to take two papers from faculties outside and unrelated to their degree, from a schedule of papers - was worthwhile. Most of my classmates said they thought it was a complete waste of their time, having to study things unrelated to their degree. This included BArch, BSc and BA students, plus me as BCom. I think I was the only one, largely because I was an adult student and a particularly curious one at that, who considered any education to be of use because it gives you other tools to use when pondering a situation.
BCom might historically have a bad rep, because it's the one most mediocre managers have studied, but these days curiosity and intellectual interest are a long, long way down the list of reasons to study any given topic.
-
BenWilson, in reply to
the lack of real ideas that go with that short sighted vision has twisted the argument about productivity, I would suggest that this fact alone is enough to place the blame on the "dole bludgers" rather than where it really lays, with those that value money over those that want to work and produce something.
Well put, Steve.
-
BenWilson, in reply to
Yes, varsity sounds like a horribly swotty place now. But maybe I'm just being nostalgic.
-
Steve Barnes, in reply to
Well put, Steve.
Why thank you Ben, I think I actually impressed myself there... :-)
Did you check out the Blog I think I impressed me there too ;-)
Shameless boasting I know but I linked to this blog too.....
And yes, University seems to have become an expensive way of narrowing your mind rather than expanding it. -
Did you check out the Blog I think I impressed me there too ;-)
You've not been idle this summer!
-
I'm almost looking forward to coming back to Auckland for a rest, we shall catch up then. So many tales...
-
Most of my classmates said they thought it was a complete waste of their time, having to study things unrelated to their degree.
I have to agree here. In a sane world they'd get a Diploma (or whatever) in Management (or whatever) from the Auckland Polytechnic and have done with it. Instead, we insist they pretend they care about stuff they quite evidently don't, and then they get a degree from a university in return, and that worrying smell of trade is kept at a distance.
-
For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?
Jesus, talking about Auckland University? Or Paul nagging those bloody Corinthians again?
Or Mrs Key talking to John Boy...
G'night John Boy.............
It has all been said before.
;-] -
Most of my classmates said they thought it was a complete waste of their time, having to study things unrelated to their degree.
Mind you, this was a growing feeling even when I was there, especially amongst the career oriented degrees. It was funny to hear them ragging even on papers within their own chosen subject that they felt were not going to maximize their trajectory into that dream first job. Like any of them had any clue what they'd be doing in 5 years.
I had a related problem, finding great umbrage in subjects that I found boring. But mostly that was down to refusing to let them get past the initial hard yards of learning the terminology. One such paper that I failed and had to do again, just managing to scrape in the second time, turned out to be the most directly useful thing I ever learned at university. It was about designing compilers, something I could never see myself doing. But along the way to that, learning to write parsers was an incredibly valuable skill (to me).
-
Matthew Poole, in reply to
Most of my classmates said they thought it was a complete waste of their time, having to study things unrelated to their degree.
I have to agree here. In a sane world they’d get a Diploma (or whatever) in Management (or whatever) from the Auckland Polytechnic and have done with it
Pretty much proving my point. Once upon a time, one went to university to get educated, not to get trained (except in very narrow professional fields). Now it's just a job mill, and that's a consequence of the "education is a private good. Pay up, bitches" model that's been foisted upon us. When you have to pay to attend, you expect the outcome to be something that'll get you a job with which to pay off the attendant loan. Studying for the sake of intellectual extension is a luxury most people can't afford.
I think the GenEd model at Auckland is brilliant, and is an attempt to get students back to receiving an education not just a degree. Given the breadth of scheduled GenEd papers, you can pick stuff that, hopefully, interests you, and get taught about it at an achievable level. It might even encourage you to extend your study.
-
Anyway, back to Election 2011, what the hell is going on? Is this some kind of party trick or something? The ‘your candidate is so ineffectual that I can make a complete ass of myself and still win a healthy majority’ attitude is wearing really thin. We’ll see.
I was very grateful when someone provided a ‘you can’t unsee this’ warning for the video of Don Key doing his little ‘I’m too sexy for my shirt’ thing, but then they showed it on TV3 before I could look away, and it really won’t go away.
I’ve made no secret of my political leanings here, and also how this has been sorely tested by the likes of Bennett, Collins and co. I’m wondering on what basis I should vote now. Fashion sense? Bennet’s newly appointed opposition spokesperson would win, hands down. Just sayin’.
The Labour cabinet reshuffle is interesting in every sense other than the bit about the leader still not having a realistic chance of winning an election, IMhO. I’m starting to wonder if the behind the scenes strategy is that of the sacrificial lamb for this election, for an untainted MP, say some guy from Mt Albert, to follow his predecessor both into the electorate and then the PM position.
Pure speculation. Can I have a pass on the heavy internal fiskiness that has been going on here lately? No? Oh well. Live by the word, die by the drop.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.