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Think it comes down to incentive structures and what kind of behavior is rewarded. In a well functioning company people creating value bottom up see an upward t
by dman 7y ago
Think it comes down to incentive structures and what kind of behavior is rewarded. In a well functioning company people creating value bottom up see an upward trajectory in their careers. Companies that lose their way end up in a limbo state where power brokers, star communicators, coordinators end up capturing all the value and the act of creating bottom up value becomes an irrational act. An employee will do exceptional work if they have some kind of belief that they will be able to monetize it by capturing some of the value created. Once this belief evaporates doing great work becomes a fools errand. We (humans) appear to be hard wired to reverse engineer the incentive structures both explicit and implicit in any given situation.
- ChuckMcM 7y agoI think there is a lot of truth in this. It was certainly the case at Sun when my friends started leaving that they had lost hope of being able to "make a difference." I expect that is an expression of the condition you describe.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- MichaelMoser123 7y agoIs it possible to get some sort of measure for that? Is it possible for an outsider to understand if creation of value is a priority at a given company?
- mtgx 7y agoAnd at a company-wide/divison level, look at cost structures. A company like Intel may be incentivized to make chips with $50+ margins, but will run away from making chips with 50 cent margins.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoThe older I get the more I believe this. Everything about a company's behavior can be explained by their incentive structures. Mission statements and grand visions mean nothing. Incentive structures are everything.
- snarfy 7y agoI've basically seen this happen at my former employer. They started an industry, made hundreds of millions, but instead of investing in development, the executives all receive massive bonuses. Competition is now creeping in and they have no way to compete. What was once new and innovative tech is now legacy enterprise. Instead of a cooperative relationship with customers it has become adversarial. Instead of hiring engineers and building better technology that sells itself as it once did, they hire salesmen to negotiate multiyear reoccurring contracts.
- mcv 7y agoI have often thought it would be a good idea if employees had a voice in the salaries of their bosses. That would prevent mediocre executives from looting a company like that. If an executive is really good and benefits the company as a whole, sure give them a high salary to keep them on board. But if they're mostly profiting from the hard work of the rest of the company, and don't want to reinvest the profits back into the company or share it with the employees, then why should they be getting these massive salaries?
- rahulnair23 7y agoThis is absolutely spot on. A good deal of resources in some large organizations are wasted on vanity projects initiated by mid-management specifically for such value-capture.