The Worst Manager

I closely identify the “Worst Manager” with the “Worst Person” because they share this particular trait in common. Every other “bad trait” is forgivable, except this one.

While I try not to judge people, I believe that this old trait dating back to the creation of modern civilization, is sinister and has no place in today’s world. It probably was born out of the necessity of grabbing neighboring lands and ruling the country.

Think about the worst boss you’ve had. While many people have different reasons why a person is a bad boss, the common denominational trait you’ll find in this group is their desire for your back to bend and remain bent. Straightening it out is a threat of sorts.

This is more prevalent in small owner-managed firms. The owner-boss thinks “just do the damn job, will ya?” and expects no creativity or strategic inputs from you, because the time you spent “thinking” could have been spent doing your job. They may say that they foster freedom of thought, but the opposite is true.

Worst Manager = Worst Person = Expects underlings to have a bent back.

Recognize this trait as the bad boss and as the employee that has to deal with this situation. Invaders broke the backs of their victims and thus were able to rule over them – plenty of examples are available in history. You need to recognize this possibility when considering a job with a startup or small family run firm. Your back must be bent if you want to survive and keep your job.

Do you know someone who qualifies?

Disclaimer: All the above is true ONLY in firms run by owner-bosses who want your back bent and is definitely not the case in every small family-owned or owner-managed business.

Paperless World

“Paperless office” if I recall correctly, was the buzzword in the very early 90s. Later Adobe was heralded for Acrobat and paper was declared irrelevant. That was then, this is now. I just saw Mojo HD’s “Start-up Junkies” and their first season is focused on Earth Class Mail Inc.

I realized just how paperless I have gone since 2002/2003. For instance, I no longer receive paper statements for my credit cards or checking account. Checks that are deposited in the ATM now appear as images thanks to Check21. 100% of all faxes that come into my office are all “efax” – and as long as we’re not mandated to send back hard copies of signed contracts, we just fax the printed copy to our eFax number, which comes to us as an email. Invoices for services delivered are also now almost 100% paperless. And of course, greeting cards have been electronic since 1997.

Similarly, while in the MBA program, I wrote all my papers in MS Word and some were even uploaded to Blackboard that is prevalent in US educational institutions, but not exploited to its full potential by all professors (some disliked it even!). For some I had to submit print copies. Many tech-savvy professors reviewed the papers online and submitted grades in the system as well.

In a flat world, being paperless is the only way things can work and have been working since outsourcing began 12+ years ago. The other day I was emailing chatting with my friend Subbu who lives in Bangalore and works for Ernst & Young doing taxes for it’s American clients. How do you think he is exchanging information with the US office? I am pretty sure he gets all his work electronically, he works on his computer and then sends it back electronically. Paper is analog and obviously, email is digital. And it looks like you can take any existing system and re-imagine it digitally and almost automatically you can create a product and start a business.

Subbu also talked about microfinance. In traditionally poor countries, paper receipts are prevalent. So many of these entrepreneurs borrowing micro loans, are quite electronically adept. Many even have hand held computers. So going paperless can solve a small problem of avoiding missed micro loan receipts all the way to processing tax returns globally.

So when I saw and learned about Earth Class Mail, I was blown away in some respects and skeptical in others. Obviously I am not an immediate potential customer because I don’t own a PO Box, but the solution is brilliant. If I review all the mail I get electronically, trash all the direct marketing pieces of crap and have them recycle it (which is a service they offer for free) and electronically store anything else that is of value, then I think it is a brilliant piece of personal management. Owning a PO box now immediately looks like something my grandfather would have liked using, enjoying a leisurely walk down the street to meet his post office friends and have a chat

Of course, the coverage on Mojo HD (which is on cable) is something I absolutely love because it tells a story neatly edited yet with the fervor and excitement in a startup on small victories (I work in one). One of the episodes shows Ron Wiener who has just started blogging, talking to the Post Master General of India Post and was able to get him and PM Generals from many other nations to agree to run pilot programs. So even these bureaucratic government run organizations are looking to go paperless. That too all at once, globally.

So looks like paperless has finally arrived. I would be delighted if Ron Wiener would be interested in a discussion on this interesting topic.

UPDATE: On further research, I ran across this really nice blog about a Chiropractor in San Diego, CA trying to and then running a paperless office. Here are all the paperless posts, and here is an interesting post in particular.

Futility of polls

If you have been living in a bubble or on Mars, you will find the CNN article as a very interesting read. I chanced on it because I was surprised to read the headline “Inflation is top economic worry”. I thought we were in a recession, but apparently it is some form of stagflation (inflation with prices going up while having jobs and economic growth in recession).

This survey of 1000+ American adults reveals some really invaluable quotes:

“86% said they are worried about jobs”

“65% said they are “very concerned” about inflation”

“unemployment concerns loom large, with 59% saying they are “very concerned”"

“76% of Americans are concerned about the recent drop in the stock market”

“77% are worried about the drop in the amount off money homeowners get when they sell their houses”

BW’s Christopher Farrell has this article about how we might be talking ourselves into a recession. Really?

The Big Switch – I am not a fan

The underlying point of this book (which was a very quick read) is that the Internet is just like electricity. I agree and disagree with the author on various points he makes in the book because while he is right, he is also dead wrong. That is all I have to offer at this point.

The average reader like me will love connecting the dots between the Internet and electricity but that is pretty much it – I was pretty surprised that Wired chose to glorify the book.

Oil

Update: CNN.com has a good article on the subject. Note the comments about traders making money only when the prices change. So keeping in mind the comments below, if I were a trader, it only helps me if I bet higher because that is the natural trend in oil prices given the world situation today. Only an uneducated person will bet on it going lower. The only reason I can think of oil futures trading lower in the distant future is if it’s demand is stabilized due to other competing sources of energy.

The Times of India has an article about oil prices and the consternation over the inability to accurately predict the future and to manage the rising price of oil.

The article says “Goldman now sees average selling prices of $95 a barrel for 2008, $105 a barrel for 2009 and $110 a barrel for 2010 and that was before this weeks spike according to Dow Jones wire service”

So the star analysts and brainiacs over at Goldman get it wrong because this is something that is larger than all of us. We may like to think that we can neatly chop world events into number arrays and review them, but that is very far from the truth.

To sum it up, more cars = more expensive crude. Unless you change the left side of the equation (not factoring in oil-based or oil-dependent products), you are not going to see the price of crude drop. From the 70s crisis till now, America was able to keep the price down but at some point price has to catch up with the rest of the world. We may see another drop in prices for political reasons (not for the election this time around) but reality is something else altogether. Mind you, crude has not become more expensive to produce but the futures on a barrel of oil determining what prices a buyer will be expected to pay next year and the years after that, is what is driving up this number. The irrational traders believe that demand will eventually outstrip supply (and even bring it down to 0) and want to make the most of it before that happens. Pure and simple economics.

Any economically sound individual with a long term view will realize that oil-based products are going to get phenomenally expensive, until it’s price drops to zero when there is nothing left to consume. It is going to be inflated so to counter it, you’re going to have to earn more by being productive. At some point, oil will become nationalized – owned and run by governments, who will ration it like chocolate during the world wars of past. That will create a universe of its own problems, but much smaller in magnitude.

Oil is a “key industry” as socialist India would say. We know what business leaders are capable of when such key industries are made private (Enron). In India power generation is still with the government, which has it’s follies. But never will the price of a unit of power exceed what the peoples of that nation can afford to pay. That is when you get politics to finally work for the masses. Similarly, oil is meant to be owned and controlled by the government, which will always have the power to keep prices low.

I believe the privatization of an economy is the best way to let a nation prosper; look at India since 2003. However, there needs to be a meeting point between economic growth and economic stability. That is exactly where the government needs to fit in. While it is staffed with ‘human beings’ who permit inefficiencies to thrive, I’m willing to bet that the price-to-be-paid for those infarctions will be far less than the irrationalities of today’s oil merchants. If we can all mutely agree to let our present rest on the shoulders of nervous futures traders, then why can we not let it lie with government bodies that will be SO slow to move that the price of oil may artificially remain lower than it’s true cost?

Wouldn’t that be refreshing!

SabseBolo.com free teleconferencing

Ever had one of those “oh brother!” moments?

I had one when I read about Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia’s newest and yet to fail venture SabseBolo.com. But that was not when I went “oh brother”.

I slapped my hand on my forehead when I read this quote from the one-hit wonder’s interview with The Financial Express where he says ““If there are 40,000 people using the conference facility a day, then I can make Rs 40,000 in a day too”

Why does this sound SO familiar???