3 ms·
It seems that “Non technical people don’t belong in management at technical companies” is an impossible lesson to learn for many, no matter how rich or credenti
by gyomu 2y ago
It seems that “Non technical people don’t belong in management at technical companies” is an impossible lesson to learn for many, no matter how rich or credentialed.
- simpaticoder 2y agoThere should be representation in management from every realm in which a company does battle on a complex field. A technical company should have strong representation from engineering, but it cannot and should not neglect lawyers in various specialties (tax, tort, labor) and include those knowledgable in finance, marketing and (when applicable) the supply chain. The members should ALL have "leadership" pixie dust. A companies leaders need to have insight and experience in every domain in which the firm faces either existential threat or growth opportunity.
- thayne 2y agoI don't think that is necessarily true. But if you are non-technical, you need people advising you that are technical and actually listen to their advice.
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoThe problem with non-technical decision makers is that they will mostly listen to the MBAs who think like them and not the technical people. They tend to waste their time on stupid things to prop up their egos, compensating for lack of understanding of their business fundamentals and what direction to go in.
- adamc 2y agoI wonder whether that is a more general problem. E.g., maybe technical decision-makers tend to listen to other engineers and not give enough considerations to financials and market expectations. People tend to hug their ruts.
- szundi 2y agoCheck out X these days. There is this "founder mode" meme that is about company founders are the culprit of growing bigger and fix how the company works. Imho this is bullshit. It is not about being the founder, but most people just cannot change their ways of working. Like hired managers would not be able with the same chance. At the same time, when founders or engineers cannot change to accomodate some business reality, only time will tell wether they can and manage to lead through that - or the McKinsey usual mantra "selling off unprofitable business unit" would have been proved better.
- cedws 2y agoI think the takeaway should be that if we want Western economies to keep growing, we need to cut these useless rich bureaucrats out and give power to the engineers.
- throwaway48476 2y agoElon is an idiot but has a gift for convincing people to spend money building new things, particularly physical. There's a lot of people who could do great things if the funding was available and not just thrown into unicorn wannabe startups.
- AnotherGoodName 2y agoI’m convinced a long term successful business needs a >50% owner dictator who’s focused on more than the next quarters dividend payout. That sole owner dictator doesn’t even need to be particularly smart. They can play Diablo all day for all it matters. They just need to be able to make decisions that are longer term than the next balance sheet which the traditional executive class and shareholder structures are failing to do. Zuck, Elon, Bezos etc.
- throwaway48476 2y agoI think with the diablo thing the 'elon is hands on' has gone out the window.
- newsclues 2y agoYou don’t need to be a technical engineer to be a good leader. But financial engineering is often at odds with real engineering and can harm the product.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y agoWhy? They're a business like any other, albeit with high depreciation in some product lines.