4 ms·

Maybe it's a symptom of something endemic to the west at the moment: Fundamentally inept, risk-adverse middle management.

by mhh__ 5y ago

Ekaros 5y ago
I think it generally is what they are incentivised to direct to. Costs and speed. Not quality or long term viability. What can you do if your bosses boss want everything cheap and fast. Or at least appearance of that.
- pikaynu 5y ago
  They have to do it because VCs aren't going to stick around years for your organic growth. It was supposed to be a proof of viability and then proper quality product. With this model of money making, it's just the PoC.. no need for quality.
ajsnigrutin 5y ago
I point my finger at modern financial markets. If you bought some stock, and were forced to keep it for atleast 5 years, the CEOs would have to behave a lot more carefully (=good for the company in the long term), than they currently do. With millisecond stock tradings, noone cares about long term future, because the stocks are sold and rebought and resold again and again many times by many trading houses and their financial products.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  Executive equity compensation is deferred for a few years, usually at least 3 to 4 years. https://www.equilar.com/reports/3-equity-vesting-schedules.html https://www.equilar.com/reports/3-equity-vesting-schedules.h...
- mhh__ 5y ago
  And yet startups / tech companies are adored by at least some influential market players and they waste vast amounts of cash on "scaling". You do have a point to be considered I just don't think it's enough by itself.
- pikaynu 5y ago
  The whole stock market is just a speculation game now. With no real value defined behind it's price. All software and strategy is defined on finding stock at a higher price due to any reason. If you can't find a reason, make one. Like CEO's buying more stocks to limit the supply of their stock and propping up the "value". It's all about the "sugar rush". Doesn't matter if the commodity is worth shit. The GameStop fiasco demonstrated that amply. It had no real viable plan, so it shouldn't have been worth a lot but you could artificially increase it's value.
spaetzleesser 5y ago
I think it’s lack of long term thinking. The IT and HR departments at my company constantly come up with new shiny initiatives for saving cost. They centralize a lot of stuff and save some money that way. Over time it turns out that things don’t work but the initiator has already been promoted away and the next guy starts his own initiative. So there is this constant cycle of short term savings that cause long term cost. And it seems nobody cares about these long term effects because they all are focused on putting up a good short term show.
conductr 5y ago
Cost cutting. Speed to market. Expectations of perpetual continuous improvements. Quarterly mindset. Inability to admit mistakes. Move fast break things. It’s basically the same thing that led to the Volkswagen fiasco. Unfortunately there’s so much code in these products, they start to believe they are SV style startups a fail whale situation has slim consequences when it’s completely opposite.

Maybe it's a symptom of something endemic to the west at the moment: Fundamentally inept, risk-adverse middle management.

by mhh__ 5y ago

Maybe it's a symptom of something endemic to the west at the moment: Fundamentally inept, risk-adverse middle management.

Ekaros 5y ago

I think it generally is what they are incentivised to direct to. Costs and speed. Not quality or long term viability. What can you do if your bosses boss want everything cheap and fast. Or at least appearance of that.

pikaynu 5y ago
They have to do it because VCs aren't going to stick around years for your organic growth. It was supposed to be a proof of viability and then proper quality product. With this model of money making, it's just the PoC.. no need for quality.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago

I point my finger at modern financial markets. If you bought some stock, and were forced to keep it for atleast 5 years, the CEOs would have to behave a lot more carefully (=good for the company in the long term), than they currently do. With millisecond stock tradings, noone cares about long term future, because the stocks are sold and rebought and resold again and again many times by many trading houses and their financial products.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
Executive equity compensation is deferred for a few years, usually at least 3 to 4 years. https://www.equilar.com/reports/3-equity-vesting-schedules.html https://www.equilar.com/reports/3-equity-vesting-schedules.h...
mhh__ 5y ago
And yet startups / tech companies are adored by at least some influential market players and they waste vast amounts of cash on "scaling". You do have a point to be considered I just don't think it's enough by itself.
pikaynu 5y ago
The whole stock market is just a speculation game now. With no real value defined behind it's price. All software and strategy is defined on finding stock at a higher price due to any reason. If you can't find a reason, make one. Like CEO's buying more stocks to limit the supply of their stock and propping up the "value". It's all about the "sugar rush". Doesn't matter if the commodity is worth shit. The GameStop fiasco demonstrated that amply. It had no real viable plan, so it shouldn't have been worth a lot but you could artificially increase it's value.

spaetzleesser 5y ago

I think it’s lack of long term thinking. The IT and HR departments at my company constantly come up with new shiny initiatives for saving cost. They centralize a lot of stuff and save some money that way. Over time it turns out that things don’t work but the initiator has already been promoted away and the next guy starts his own initiative. So there is this constant cycle of short term savings that cause long term cost. And it seems nobody cares about these long term effects because they all are focused on putting up a good short term show.

conductr 5y ago

Cost cutting. Speed to market. Expectations of perpetual continuous improvements. Quarterly mindset. Inability to admit mistakes. Move fast break things. It’s basically the same thing that led to the Volkswagen fiasco. Unfortunately there’s so much code in these products, they start to believe they are SV style startups a fail whale situation has slim consequences when it’s completely opposite.