Saint Michael's Blog http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog This is a portfolio site with thoughts and views on the world of technology. Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:41:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Book Review Good To Great Companies – Chapter 3 Summary http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/2626/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/2626/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:40:29 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2626

good2greatIn chapter three, Collins would begin by saying when it comes to producing good to great companies it was the matter of putting the right people on the “bus” and getting the wrong people off the “bus”. However, had talk briefly about that in chapter one, chapter three would seem to get to the important aspect of defining the right people and wrong people. Collins talks about three truths when it comes to using the right people and the wrong people, the first one he talks about who can easily adapt to a changing world.

The second truth Collins would talk about is that with the right people any problems the company will have, most of them go away and can produce a bit better and work more cohesive. He would continue by saying that the right people would be able to self-motivate without the need to fire them up. The final truth Collins would mention is if you have the wrong people, no matter what you do, “you still won’t have a great company.” Therefore, it would seem that not even two pages in Collins really wants to strike home with what management has to do in order to make a great company.

He really sets this in stone when he talks about how Wells Fargo set itself up for success from one CEO to another. They hired the best people they could find and it didn’t matter what position they were hired in but pick them out from performance. When Carl Reichardt took over in 1983 the team that was there building the company up all become CEO’s of various banking firms. One of those CEO talks about getting the best people and then builds them up to be great managers. The only risk to this pattern was the fact those who are built up would move on to bigger and better things. Overall, the important factor that Collins has been driving at in the first few pages that it did not matter the what, but it was “the who” that made these companies great. So, if you have the right management team then you will have the great success, but if you don’t then it will backfire and you be going through managers like candy.

Another model that Collins talks about that some of the companies have done is called the “genius with a thousand helpers” and its premise is based on that one great person and then those who with that smart person. Of course, the downside to this is that if the genius leaves you might have some problems. Some of those examples were mentioned in chapter two such as Stanley Gault “genius” and how he build up Rubbermaid, but when he left, everyone felt completely loss while trying to mimic his leadership style. Another example they provide was Henry Single, who built a company from the ground up and the company was in great success until he left the company and afterwards it floundered until Allegheny bought them out. While this method seems good at first it has the problem of not being able to maintain it after the “genius” leaves and thus create a major problem for those who do follow that model.

However, what really stood out was the assumption that was made for executives, the assumption was the more benefits they receive the better they do. Well Collins pretty much sum up the results of that part of the research by saying, “We were dead wrong in our expectations.” It is funny though that you hear in the news about all those big time executives getting all these perks when the company is struggling to make a profit or being bailed from the government. However, Collins would mention, though very arguable, that with the right people they will do the right things regardless of what incentives are giving to them.

After talking the benefits and incentives, Collins would continue by making a difference between companies who are rigorous or ruthless. He would clearly define ruthless by the means of “hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times, or wantonly firing people without any thoughtful consideration.” However, to be considered rigorous, a good to great company has to be “consistently applying exacting standards at all times and at all levels, especially in upper management. To be rigorous, not ruthless, means that the best people need not worry about their positions and can concentrate fully on their work.” However, it would seem those two distinctions are very grey as it seems to be a constant pattern of companies being ruthless during the down time and barely being rigorous after coming back from that slump. However, Collins does maintain that a good to great company doesn’t go swinging the preverbal ax and that “Endless restructuring and mindless hacking were never part of the good-to-great model.”

In the last section of chapter three, Collins breaks down being rigorous and he starts by talking three practical disciplines. The first practical discipline is “when in doubt, don’t hire-keep look”, it also went by another name as well, Packard’s Law. The premise that Collin’s is trying to make is that without the having the right growth of the right people. Then you have the problem of not growing your revenue consistently. Of course, he would solidify this discipline by saying if the revenue growth outpaced people growth, then your company cannot achieve that status of being great.
The next discipline Collin’s talks about is, “When you know you need to make a people change, act.” With this discipline it was a matter not hiring the right people but putting people in the right positions and the reason for that is not everyone is good at one particular task, however, if you were to move them somewhere else you have good odds that something might click and then become a better performer. However, you sometimes have to move people around more than once and so your risk would be moderately high that each new move would be even less effective and make the person very unmotivated.

The final discipline Collins would talk about, is “Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.” It would seem that Collins is driving to the fact if a good to great company had the potential to do something even greater, they would select the best of the best of that group of right people and let them to go to work. To give an idea about this Collins talks abut how Joe Cullman of Phillip Morris, took his best executive, George Weissman, and put him in the front seat to help develop the international market. At first, people were trying to figure why this move was made, even George Weissman thought that as well when he said, “Here I was running 99% of the company and the next day I’d be running 1 % or less.” However, in just 20 years, the international market grew and grew big. IT grew so big that its Marlboro cigarettes were number one in the market three full years before they were in the US. So, by following this discipline when a company sees that opportunity, they have the chance to become a good to great company.

I think what really brought home this chapter was the last section simply titled “First Who, Great Companies, And A Great Life.” in this Collins talks about how a good to great leader is life or rather how they find the right balance to his or her work life and home life. He would end by talking to an executive and his wife about Colman Mockler and that thanks to the right people in the right spots, Mockler had the time to enjoy life and be able to spend time at home, at Harvard, working with charities and such. Then the executive’s wife would mention that on the day of Mockler’s funeral she “looked around and realized how much love was in the room.” I would say that two things happen here; the first is if your person who can balance your work life and home life and manage the company greatly, you would reach that level five status and in turn would help produce a good to great company.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/2626/feed/ 1 Book Review Good To Great Companies – Chapter 2 Summary http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/book-review-good-to-great-companies-chapter-2-summary/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/book-review-good-to-great-companies-chapter-2-summary/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:35:06 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2623

good2greatI find chapter two to be of interest for those in the management area, the reason I say that because it would seem that Jim Collins is saying this is what you shouldn’t do when you are at a high level position. He talks about how some of the good-to-great leaders were humble and thought of the company and not themselves. Jim Collins talks about Level 5 Management, in short is a position that blends both personal humility with strong an professional will. Or another way to put it, those good-to-great leaders were able to put their ego aside and build their companies to success.

Collins provides great examples such as Darwin Smith who took a Kimberly-Clark from death’s doorsteps to one of the most successful paper companies in just twenty years and this was with the odds against he would recall that one of the board of directors told him he was not qualified. One of most interesting things that Collins covers in this book is a simple phrase of “the meek shall inherent the Earth” because he used such descriptions as awkward shyness, reserved, quiet and pointed out that if people where foolish enough to believe such qualities they would surely lose the battle. A prime example of this was Colman Mockler who fought to keep Gillette going, while others wanted to sell. Even though he would make some serious money he choose to fight for this company and in the end he won outright and made the company even more successful after introducing two new brands of razors.

To make his point Jim Collins gave a few examples of great leaders who build up companies and after leaving completely failed outright. One of the examples he gave was Rubbermaid who was lead by Stanley Gault had made this great during the 1980s. However, because of his style of leadership and management, the company would collapse on itself because of management problems and strategic problems as well. Although I was bit surprise by one of the companies mention in this chapter because of what would happen to it in 2008, but Collins would mention Alan Wurtzel A CEO of the now defunct Circuit City. I have to say I am a bit surprise because of the fact that Circuit City would file for bankruptcy and close all the stores and even though there were many other factors of the demise of this company, it would seem that Level 5 was never achieved and thus a great company would become a bad company.

Though Collins speculated that there are very specific traits and circumstances to become a Level 5 Manager, the inconsistency of the data suggest any concrete to achieve such a status, but merely suggest that you build you way and practice various other disciples that are used for good-to-great companies and leaders.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/book-review-good-to-great-companies-chapter-2-summary/feed/ 0 Book Review Good To Great Companies – Chapter 1 Summary http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/book-review-good-to-great-companies-chapter-1-summary/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/book-review-good-to-great-companies-chapter-1-summary/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:29:47 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2619

good2greatFor one of my projects in a management course, I had to pick out a book and read and then provide an overall summary to at the end of the course and so I thought I would share with every my thoughts about this book. It is called Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t. Now each summary are based on notes I have taken in a essay like writing format to make the transition for the final paper a lot easier and so here is my chapter 1 summary.

My initial impression of this book has made me somewhat interested in management. Especially when you start your book out with something interesting and though provoking, in which Jim Collins says, “Good is the enemy of great”. Which I found interesting and throughout this chapter I would came back to that statement several times, as I read this first chapter.

As for the premise of this chapter, it is a introductory chapter about what this book is about in which good companies become great. Some of the questions that Jim Collins will answer or attempt to answer is Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how? On the other hand, is the disease of “just being good” incurable? Of course, looking at that question and reading the chapter it would seem that is the primary question that will try to be answered in later chapters. He gives great examples right away of good companies who become great companies such as Walgreens, in which it started outperforming such companies as Coca-Cola and General Electric. Therefore, the general idea of this book or rather the project is to see what examples though could find that match a specific good-to-great pattern with very specific details and trends. This is done in a 30-year time span in which 15 years of mediocre business and profitability a transition point and then 15 years of explosive profitability and productivity.

To imagine the scope of this project, Jim Collins would mention the size of data collect as such, “We read and systematically coded nearly 6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts, and created 384 million bytes of computer data. Of course, Collins would go on to say that putting together the data with 21-member team was a challenge as it was process of going back and forth, developing and testing, revising, building, something going wrong and having to be rebuilt again. However, they did happen to find a lot of interesting things while going through that data, such as find out that good-to-great leaders got the right people instead of trying out new strategies, and getting the wrong people out in order to succeed. Another interesting fact that good-to-great leader had a bit of faith in their business as well of which I find interesting because it would seem that faith in your business, your product and those who work for you would very strong in the business world.

To end my summary I think this little snippet of insight might give a good idea what to expect as you read further in this book.”That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem.”In a way, it would seem that management has two sides to it but which side to pick is what makes this a book a interesting to read.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/10/book-review-good-to-great-companies-chapter-1-summary/feed/ 2 Week 2 & 3 @ MCGC http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/2613/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/2613/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:11:47 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2613

Marlboro College Graduate School_1253607017999Week 2

Though I should have posted sometime last week about week 2, that is how busy I am.  All the reading, makes me want to get the audio versions of the books and then get voice to text software to get my notes done.  Although, it is funny that I mention that as it would cut down a few minutes of study time if I could read my notes to Microsoft Word.

Sadly though they decided to get rid of it in Office 2007, which I did happen to find out last week.  Of course, I spent a few minutes trying to find a free or open source version as I do not want to plunk down on Dragon to take my notes for me.  So it back to square one on that little venture, but instead of taking full blown notes as I realize then I don’t think I be taking any notes, I just pick out key words and then slap a page number on them for later reference.

So far though, my schedule of one class per day seems to be working out so far that way I don’t burn out my mind to quickly as that is a lot of reading each week.  Once I get done with the reading and whatever the assignments I have.  I can spend the rest of the week posting which has been fairly good, I try to post a few times a day and get as many replies as I can in for my classes.

Speaking of which I don’t think I mention which ones I am taking this semester, they are Human-Computer Interaction, Project Management I, Intro to Database Design, and Management.

Week 3

Talk about time flying, can’t believe I am into week three already and still going strong, no burn out session yet, although my brain has turn to mush after finishing classwork for HCI.  Odds are that is happening because my sister is getting married this weekend and so lots of things are going to be happening and so I am in an actual rush to get school work done.

Of course, after seeing what I have left, I might be comatose at the wedding and look like I am drooling, but it is all about pace and organization.  As long as spend the time reading and doing the work I be fine and I think I am glad I have two weeks to complete the work for some of these classes that way I don’t do late night sessions like I did Sunday morning to get this week started.

Though my misses is supportive, she does get a bit upset that I don’t fit in some time with her, call it timing I guess when I do see her and talk with her.  Still she knows I have to get this done and she accepts the fact that the time we do spend can be short at times depending on the workload.  I will say this though, we have been doing the school work then spending quality time together since my CCV days.  So I am glad she is here to support me as I always support her and stuff.

Oh Yeah did I mention my brain melting after completing 90% of the work for HCI?  Luckily I was able to fit in one good post before I close the books, although I was a bit surprise that I spent nearly 9 hours on this class on and off.  Some of that time was conducting a survey though for my project, luckily I got a nice large list of contacts to pick their brains though.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/2613/feed/ 0 Week 1 at MCGC http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/2605/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/2605/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:12:47 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2605

Marlboro College Graduate School_1253607017999Although, it hasn’t been a week yet, this Friday, I look at my classes and realize that I have two weeks to do the work which gives me plenty of time. I push myself to get good portion of it done in the first week. That way, it gives me time to relax and think about things as I get ready to read others posts and comment on them.

It will especially be convenient when it comes time to get those projects put together as I have no business experience whatsoever. Although I had my idea for both HCI and Project Management it should be interesting where I go with them since putting a business proposal together seems a great challenge to overcome. Granted I have the resources of experience and knowledge to help me out and with me being a Microsoft Office junkie, I plan to put use in as much as can.

Even though I could get all high tech and spend time making the presenations look all cool and stuff. Odds are though I will keep things simple for now and see where I go with such a task. Of course, another challange is not to burn myself out early but still keep enough focus to completing the tasks and set myself up for success.

Of course, one of my greatest hindrances has been my writing, though I have greatly improved my writing thanks to CCV. My feeling is that is going to be my nemesis as I go through the classes and get deeper into the writing aspects of those classes. Granted I haven’t come to using such services yet at Marlboro, but hopefully when the time comes I can get the writing support I might need. Since odds are I will have to change writing styles, but who knows.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/2605/feed/ 0 First Day at Marlboro College Graduate Center http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/first-day-at-marlboro-college-graduate-center/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/first-day-at-marlboro-college-graduate-center/#comments Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:00:31 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2602

Marlboro College Graduate School_1253607017999**Remembers Billy Madison waiting for the school bus and singing back to school**

Although not as glamorous or the fact the bus will fly by me, but same idea. For me though it is all about the focus, and although I finish this weeks readings from 3 out of 4 classes. It would seem that I am going to have to make sure I stay on track during this whole thing. Especially in a couple of weeks when my sister will be getting married and having all these relatives and kids over. Especially since I be in the wedding itself and so that will be a interesting week.
To be quite honest though the real challenge for me is the finances, after spending many hours and calculations it will be interesting when I start the dreaded process of the student loan. Luckily I didn’t have to worry about that at CCV but who knows once I see how VSAC treats me then I will know. I did drop my interest for a tech job at WSCU yesterday and I expect a phone call to set up a interview. Although my problem is I am short on the recommendation letter aspect of that application, but I did send out various e-mails and hope for at least one to get me through.

Of course, I am looking for various computer gigs such as cleaning up or troubleshooting computers, little web projects that don’t require too much work. I have fingers cross on that gig though which could help out especially since it is only 16 hours a week, but I see a lot of traveling in my future lol.

So, today is the big day, five and a half hours of school fun woot woot.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/first-day-at-marlboro-college-graduate-center/feed/ 0 Apology For Lack Of Posts http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/apology-for-lack-of-posts/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/09/apology-for-lack-of-posts/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:07:33 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2600

Well I thought I send a post to those who actually visit my blog, but with personal things going on and of course school starting soon.  I just haven’t had the time or the interest to blog.  Obviously Google was nice enough to drop my PR 3 like that, even though I have a lot of stuff on here, but go figure.  Anyway, I try to post something, but right now this site isn’t on my priorities though.

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district-9-posterThe Lord of the Rings has return as Peter Jackson has created another cult classic with the help of Neill Blomkamp, known as District 9.  Although there is one overall story in this movie, but it is possible that there are several stories that can be found in this movie.  The general story is that aliens have landed in Africa and then twenty years later it is time for them to be move and well that is where the fun begins.

As much as I want to spoil the heck out of this movie, lets just say doing so would be a crime, however, I will talk about the stories with in a story that I had mention earlier.  The first story I will talk about is the hero story, and how this is a hero story is simple, they take an ordinary man who is practically nothing and turn him into a savior for the aliens.  This can also coincide with the transformation story as well which takes a weak person and slowly transforms himself into a stronger person.

The next story that is being told in this movie is one that I believe would actually be reality if an alien species were to show up on our door steps and that being total hatred, destruction and assimilation by those seeking to control that alien species and even reverse engineer their technology.  To me that is one of the most important stories that can be told because as humans we do not accept anything and even given time we are still not acceptable of such.  Of course, when it comes to aliens, it is blow up now and then ask questions later and that story is told as well.

Another story that is being told is how a alien life form adapts to life on Earth and I would have to say that the following words would be use, gullibility, confused, criminalistic, (dis)advantage, barrier, and animalistic.  Granted there could be more words to choose but I think these ones stick out the most as how the aliens were written for this movie.  The reason I say that is the aliens were the more superior species in every way and yet somehow with a little human influence were completely treated like the lower species on the planet.

So yeah, this is definitely a powerful movie that is open up to many different interpretations and that is why this movie is a must see for everyone, well except for the kids because of the excessive use of the F-word, gore, violence and what not but still worth seeing.  So it is time for a little box office guess for this movie and so I will say that will definitely dethrone G.I. Joe and so I put it at a nice $70-100 million weekend with a total of about $150-200 million for its run through.  Hopefully I am wrong though as I would like to this movie make some greate money as I could see a sequel to this movie because to me the whole story isn’t finished yet.

]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/08/movie-review-district-9/feed/ 0 Movie Review: G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/08/movie-review-g-i-joe/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/08/movie-review-g-i-joe/#comments Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:11:25 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2585

hr_GI_Joe_Exclusive_Poster“He never gives up.  He’ll stay til the fight’s won.  GI Joe will dare.  GI Joe- A real American hero GI Joe. “

Guess what movie I saw?  Yep the American heroes I grew up with as a kid every Saturday morning in their first live action movie that will most likely be a trilog by 2013.  Lets get to the gist of it, first off wow on the two hour mark or rather 1 hour 58 minutes.  The reason I say this is because I had peg this movie at 1.5 hours tops because of the kind of movie this is, an action movie.  Before I will begin, this review will be semi-spoiler

Like any other movie or rather a trilogy, this was a introduction movie, obviously and so the back stories were rampant, or rather two and half back stories were the focus.  As expected the origin stories have changed a bit for some of characters or rather Duke, Baroness, Cobra Commander, Snake eyes and so without going through all the comics, cartoons odds are it is a different one then the ones out there.  Although, if memory serves me corrected Duke and Baroness still had a connection in the cartoon and the comics.  With Snake Eyes, it stayed with most of the origins, especially with Storm Shadow but they alternated why he is quiet, usually it was he got his voice box cut or the vow of silence and in the movie it is the latter.

As for the movie itself, I swear I saw Star Wars in here such as the battle at the North Pole and of course the changing of names, but that is just me who saw that.  Lets not forget this was also a Mummy 1 reunion as well as Brendon Fraser, Kevin J. O’Connor, Arnold Vosloo and Director Stephen Summers so yeah there were no mummies in this movie and so I disappoint you with that fact.

With the exception of Ray Park who had no lines, the acting as ok at best and even then the three people who stood out the most was Marlon Wayans, Dennis Quaid and Sienna Miller.  Although Tatum played the lead role, could have done a bit more, didn’t see much of the leadership style that Duke is known for in the G.I Joe series.  The other thing was the lack of Joes in this movie, as there were only eight in all, while the rest were grunts/extras and so I was a bit disappointed with the lack of Joes.  Granted you could cameo the crap out of that movie with them and  not given them any lines, but odds are in movies two and three we might see more of them and the same goes with the Cobra side, but again odds are we will see more of them in the other movies.

In terms of movie flow, it was good and well balanced in terms of action and story telling, especially when it come to working the flashbacks into the movie as well.  So overall I would give this movie a solid B+ as there were some good parts and some bad parts but I think its a good solid introduction movie to this trilogy and so comes box office prediction.  With the swarm of bad reviews and the fact that Paramount “ruined” Transformers, I say it won’t make more then $150 million overall and so I put it at a measly $30-40 million opening weekend.

Stephen Sommers
]]> http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/08/movie-review-g-i-joe/feed/ 0 The Loss of Honajivi http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/07/the-loss-of-honajivi/ http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/2009/07/the-loss-of-honajivi/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:05:40 +0000 Mike http://saint-michael.trap17.com/blog/?p=2581

HonaharajiviToday, I found out from my misses, that Honahara Uttarajivi had passed away after a valient and brave fight.  When I woke up around 3 pm and then turn my computer on, my misses informed me that Jibi was gone.  Luckily in those 3 days I got to see her, watch her move around, watch her feed, heard her meow.  Though I will never get to hold her, getting to see her do all those things is just as good and although I had finish this little sig for her, sadly I added the date just a few minutes ago.

It hurts me the most because of the fact I pick her name out and wanted her so desperately to live.  Will always remember her because of the fact I got to see her and hear her.

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