4 ms·

It's a good thing for CEOs to not break the law, but I'm not sure telling them that multiple times in a blog post will have much effect......

jacquesm 11y ago
In many cases these are not things that people do consciously, and in some cases they do it because they are pressured to make the wrong decisions without fully realizing the consequences. For instance, shareholders could push a CEO to expand the company when the financial situation does not actually allow it. I agree that if someone willfully breaks the law that no blog post will stop that from happening, but quite frequently when and if it happens (especially in smaller companies where CEOs tend to be younger and less experienced) it is actually not intentional and rooted in incompetence rather than in malice.
- sgift 11y ago
  Somehow this reminds me of estimation in software development and developers who give estimates they are not comfortable with if a manager pressures them hard enough: "So long? Come on, don't be so pessimistic, we need it on xyz, you can do that, can't you?"
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    Yes, there are definitely some parallels. My personal approach to this is to point blank refuse to cave in to any kind of pressure whatsoever. Stuff happens on my time-table and with what I feel is achievable or not at all, no matter whether it is as a hired hand or as the CEO of a company under pressure from shareholders. Of course that's relatively easy for me to say, I'm a pretty hard person to push forward in a way that doesn't sit right with me but I think that in a management role you can't afford to be timid about this. It goes with the territory that you exhibit some degree of independence, otherwise you are just an extension of the board or the shareholders to take the blame if things go wrong.
    - ktRolster 11y ago
      I actually just wrote a post on that topic: http://www.zerobugsandprogramfaster.net/essays/estimates.html http://www.zerobugsandprogramfaster.net/essays/estimates.htm...

jacquesm 11y ago

In many cases these are not things that people do consciously, and in some cases they do it because they are pressured to make the wrong decisions without fully realizing the consequences. For instance, shareholders could push a CEO to expand the company when the financial situation does not actually allow it. I agree that if someone willfully breaks the law that no blog post will stop that from happening, but quite frequently when and if it happens (especially in smaller companies where CEOs tend to be younger and less experienced) it is actually not intentional and rooted in incompetence rather than in malice.

sgift 11y ago
Somehow this reminds me of estimation in software development and developers who give estimates they are not comfortable with if a manager pressures them hard enough: "So long? Come on, don't be so pessimistic, we need it on xyz, you can do that, can't you?"
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Yes, there are definitely some parallels. My personal approach to this is to point blank refuse to cave in to any kind of pressure whatsoever. Stuff happens on my time-table and with what I feel is achievable or not at all, no matter whether it is as a hired hand or as the CEO of a company under pressure from shareholders. Of course that's relatively easy for me to say, I'm a pretty hard person to push forward in a way that doesn't sit right with me but I think that in a management role you can't afford to be timid about this. It goes with the territory that you exhibit some degree of independence, otherwise you are just an extension of the board or the shareholders to take the blame if things go wrong.
  - ktRolster 11y ago
    I actually just wrote a post on that topic: http://www.zerobugsandprogramfaster.net/essays/estimates.html http://www.zerobugsandprogramfaster.net/essays/estimates.htm...