Excessive Spending - Nothing Is As Simple As It First Seems

... but some things are not as complex as they might first appear.

In a recent note to executives at Ford, I pointed out that certain things stand in the way of most large companies attempting to change quickly:

1. Teamwork means "my team"... not the company. When times are rough and people become insecure, people will do what it takes to "protect" themselves rather than take risks for the company. Risk and failure are much less desirable than inaction and deflection.
2. Economies of scale may work for production, but they have the opposite effect on management. Size forces management to use processes and procedures rather than active communication. "Nimble" is not a word usually associated with large corporations.
3. The best and the brightest become discourage because instead of letting them "create, fix, and adapt" the company and its products in response to the competitive environment, they are forced into positions or processes where they "consider and review and discuss".

I suggested that if they did not know the history of the A-12/SR-71, they might consider that as a model for a large company that wants to achieve successes quickly: take the best of what is available and give it to the best people available and let them do what is necessary to make something much better in the shortest possible time with the fewest resources needed. You might find the history of this project interesting as well because of the way a small team of the very best people in their fields were able to design and produce a plane that should have been impossible in the time they had (5 years from contract to completion) which was less than it took to develop a new car model back then.

I don't believe one could argue that an airplane that was the fastest, highest flying, longest range craft for nearly 3 decades was less complex than a 1967 Ford. Well, you could, but then you might also be one of those people who believes that "team" means "my team." For them, everything is more complex than anyone can imagine.