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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>As a former Controller (head of
accounting) for a multi-million dollar business I can tell you you’re dead
wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>While my job certainly included
controlling costs my main job was help insure the business succeeded and I knew
it. More than once I made decision that weren’t correct “accounting”
decisions but were correct “business” decisions. It isn’t the “financial”
folks that typically prevent business important purchases due to short sighted
cost issues but rather operational management. Operational management often
tends to think only of “making their numbers” for the current period to the
exclusion of impact to the business for longer periods (e.g. the month vs the
quarter, the quarter vs the year) and worse yet long term impact on the
business. It usually seemed to me that most managers acted as if they didn’t
expect to be around when their bad decisions would finally catch up with the
business. I vividly remember one year discussing something that would occur
at the end of December in a management staff meeting in September and being
laughed at even though my point was that every year they’d wait until early
December to start purchasing for the end of the month and pay a premium because
the items being bought were seasonal and more expensive the closer one got to
the end of the season.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>When doing budgets or forecasts we’d do in
depth analysis of expected business as compared to past business to come up
with fairly accurate budget/forecast. It truly annoyed me when senior operational
management in a meeting would say something like “increase the revenues in the
forecast by 5% and decrease the costs by 10%”. They were always later
surprised when they didn’t hit their numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
ale-bounces@ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org] <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Jim Kinney<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, May 17, 2011 8:02
AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Atlanta
Linux Enthusiasts</st1:PersonName><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [ale] Cost of freedom</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 7:46 AM, Geoffrey Myers <<a
href="mailto:lists@serioustechnology.com">lists@serioustechnology.com</a>>
wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Jeff Hubbs wrote:<br>
> On 5/16/11 11:30 AM, David Hillman wrote:<br>
>> Why did we go with the Netgear box in the first place? Someone with<br>
>> control over the purse strings thought it would be easier and faster.<br>
> Someone was dead wrong and had a misconceived idea of what's really<br>
> important.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Time and again, I see financial people making decisions regarding<br>
technology. It is so wrong.<br>
<br>
Would you have your plumber do your taxes?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
When I did plumbing, yes :-)<br>
<br>
Financial people make decisions based on a single viewpoint just as the tech
people do. Both views are valid but the combination is the correct action. It's
the collaboration that is always missing. Competition within the organization
is not a process I've seen to be long-term productive. A prior employment
location had very little understanding of "we all work on the same
team" and so planning meetings were always mired in backstabbing and power
grabs and just plain old fights. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;
margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color="#888888" face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#888888'><br>
--<br>
Until later, Geoffrey<br>
<br>
"I predict future happiness for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> if they can prevent<br>
the government from wasting the labors of the people under<br>
the pretense of taking care of them."<br>
- Thomas Jefferson</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>_______________________________________________<br>
Ale mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Ale@ale.org">Ale@ale.org</a><br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale</a><br>
See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at<br>
<a href="http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_blank">http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
<br clear=all>
<br>
-- <br>
-- <br>
James P. Kinney III<br>
<br>
As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.<br>
- <i><span style='font-style:italic'>2011 Noam Chomsky</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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