4 ms·

I am baffled by the cognitive dissonance here. This kind of single individual driving direction is LITERALLY the intended purpose of these high level roles.

by apalmer 11y ago

michaelt 11y ago
Well, if you think of e.g. Marissa Meyer at Yahoo, big multinationals look like ships with so much momentum even the captain has trouble changing their direction. Of course, reforming one arm of a business is a lot easier than an entire company, especially if nobody really depends on that arm.
- taneq 11y ago
  I hear that analogy a lot, but on actual big ships, all the captain has to do is give the word and the ship turns pretty quickly. Maybe slower than a jet ski, but there's only one or two orders of magnitude difference there. Likewise, sure, a big company has a lot of momentum but it shouldn't take more than a year to realign it.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    You actually make a good point. The analogy gets used a lot because big ships do have big turning radiuses. But the better analogy is probably something more along the lines of the captain gives an order and various groups within the ship don't really agree with the order, so they say they're doing their part to make the ship turn but they're really not. Maybe the rudder have been moved a bit but the propellers are acting against the change. Furthermore, some percentage of the crew has decided that the ship should really be a plane and that's what they're working on.
    - twistedpair 11y ago
      Not really. On a ship (i.e. naval vessel), if the subordinates don't obey the commands, they get sent to prison for mutiny. In a big organization, if the CEO says to do something (i.e. new vision... PKI's!), most people can ignore it with little chance of reprisal. It's much more of a political/social hierarchy than a military one.
- nradov 11y ago
  Bill Gates famously "turned the battleship" at Microsoft in 1995 to focus the entire organization on the Internet. They actually did it quickly and succeeded (although more recently have lost their lead). So the right captain can make it happen. https://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/08next.html https://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/arti...

I am baffled by the cognitive dissonance here. This kind of single individual driving direction is LITERALLY the intended purpose of these high level roles.

by apalmer 11y ago

I am baffled by the cognitive dissonance here. This kind of single individual driving direction is LITERALLY the intended purpose of these high level roles.

michaelt 11y ago

Well, if you think of e.g. Marissa Meyer at Yahoo, big multinationals look like ships with so much momentum even the captain has trouble changing their direction. Of course, reforming one arm of a business is a lot easier than an entire company, especially if nobody really depends on that arm.

taneq 11y ago
I hear that analogy a lot, but on actual big ships, all the captain has to do is give the word and the ship turns pretty quickly. Maybe slower than a jet ski, but there's only one or two orders of magnitude difference there. Likewise, sure, a big company has a lot of momentum but it shouldn't take more than a year to realign it.
- ghaff 11y ago
  You actually make a good point. The analogy gets used a lot because big ships do have big turning radiuses. But the better analogy is probably something more along the lines of the captain gives an order and various groups within the ship don't really agree with the order, so they say they're doing their part to make the ship turn but they're really not. Maybe the rudder have been moved a bit but the propellers are acting against the change. Furthermore, some percentage of the crew has decided that the ship should really be a plane and that's what they're working on.
  - twistedpair 11y ago
    Not really. On a ship (i.e. naval vessel), if the subordinates don't obey the commands, they get sent to prison for mutiny. In a big organization, if the CEO says to do something (i.e. new vision... PKI's!), most people can ignore it with little chance of reprisal. It's much more of a political/social hierarchy than a military one.
nradov 11y ago
Bill Gates famously "turned the battleship" at Microsoft in 1995 to focus the entire organization on the Internet. They actually did it quickly and succeeded (although more recently have lost their lead). So the right captain can make it happen. https://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/08next.html https://partners.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/arti...