Conference 7.286::digital

    
    Is this:
	let it crash.  I'm convinced, now, that this company will
	not survive in its present state.  It will be bought by
	someone with more business acumen ( NEC ? Fujitsu ? ), or
	the board will be replaced by the stockholders, and 
	there will be a MAJOR upheaval.
    
    really so bad:
    o	I haven't seen many notes in here recently suggesting that the
    company in its present state is worth saving
    o	Being bought by someone with more business acumen isn't something
    we should fear - maybe its what we need
    o	At least the stock will go up during the buying
    o	Is a major upheaval worse than round after round of layoffs with no
    end in sight?
    
    		Andrew.

    re last couple:
    
    1.  "will Digital survive in its current state"
    2.  "is Digital in its current state worth saving"
    
    Before reading about the anonymous noter in the "Doubling Up" topic who
    was put on written warning because he refused to double up his hotel
    room, my answers would have been different, but as long as atrocities
    like that are able to happen, my answer is "no" to both questions.
    
    Jon

    The thing that sickens me the most is tthat I believe Ken Olsen knows
    what is required to save his company. The only problem is that he
    doesn't have a management structure to make his vision come to
    fruition. This was rammed home to me when I watched the training tape
    on NMS.
    
    Ken gave a half hour speech and very clearly enunciated what NMS was,
    why the company needed it and how he saw it taking the company to
    success.
    
    The other 1 hour 30 minutes of the tape was some bozo (and no I won't
    apologize for using that term if whoever you are is reading this)
    explained NMS.
    
    He did an appalling job and worse than that he watered down Ken Olsen's
    messages. It was very clear from Ken's speech that he expected IBUs to
    be profit centers that added significant VALUE to the company. The bozo
    insisted on slipping into calling them marketing groups and stressing
    the supportive collaborative nature of these groups. My guess is that
    this came about because all the vertical marketing groups that are
    being turned into IBUs are scared shitless that they might actually
    have to justify their existence. And casting themselves as supportive
    service marketing groups means that they don't have to stand on their
    own two feet.
    
    The other thing that was a joke was that this was videoed in a room
    with 4 audience members that were meant to be playing the part of the
    management audience. Of course the audience had to include one black,
    two women and two men so as not to offend anyone. It just looked like a
    setup. Unfortunately the camera kept on panning to these audience members
    and they all looked bored solid as if they didn't understand a word of
    what was being said. Not a smile or anything. They were probably
    recruited from the local personnel department to fill the chairs.
    
    This company (and most especially its senior officers) have grown fat
    dumb and happy on past successes. Well I predict that they're in for a
    very rude awakening at the first sign that the recession is ending when
    the company owners start to put the company in order. I reckon if KO
    doesn't sort the company out first a new board will form to sort it out
    for him.
    
    Large portions of the company are at this moment in total budget
    paralysis. Nobody will make any decisions on what to do and what not to
    do. The budgeting process is driving the strategic planning process
    which any business textbook will tell you is totally backwards, there
    is no clear message as to what businesses we're in and what we're not
    in. It seems like the current strategy is to PLAY at everything and not
    succeed in anything. Lower level managers are concentrating solely on
    expense reduction rather than revenue/profit maximization.
    The company spends millions to send people to the field only to lay
    them off. It is spending more millions to lay people off with a years
    pay. It can't even come up with a consistent layoff policy. Some
    managers are so weak kneed that they haven't even got the guts (I'd
    have used another word but won't) to tell their employees straight
    faced why they are laying them off. Instead they get a security guard
    or personnel to do their dirty work for them.
    
    I truly believe that this company has the ability (and it still has the
    people) to turn this sorry situation around. But I don't see ANY sign
    of it happening. Ken Olsen is pushing NMS but I already see it being
    transformed and newtered to support empires that have been built over
    years.
    
    Somebody please tell me:
    
    	What is the strategic planning process for this company?
    	Does the company have an overall vision?
    	What does the company see the business climate looking like in 5
    	years time? 
        What will the product set look like in 5 years time?
    
    I bet you in 1982 most if not all of the above questions had answers.
    
    All I can say is that I hope that the people that own a lot more stock
    than I are as peeved as I am. I only own about 600 shares and I'm not a
    happy owner not to mention not a happy employee either.
    
    Dave

    	I saw a memo floating around from K.O. which seemed to address the
    comments/questions in (.-1). It started out by saying that the
    interpretation of NMS is completely wrong and went along to state the
    real (and simple) goals of NMS. He was blasting high-level managers for
    turning it into a complex, process-ridden scheme. It sounded like he
    was not at all pleased with how this was being handled.

    I've now seen the memo. The degree of congruence between what KO is
    saying and what the troops (us) in this file are saying is amazing.
    It just serves to reinforce my view that there is some level of senior
    management in this company that are no longer working for the
    stockholders but are solely working to keep as big a piece of the pie
    for themselves and complicating NMS so that they can hide behind it.
    Fire the lot of them I say.
    
    I'd love to see the memo posted in this file. It is like a breath of
    fresh air. Unfortunately I feel that if I tried to get permission to
    post it from KO's office something would come back and bite me.
    That's a little bigger wabe than I want to make. I am not proud of
    myself for that.
    
    Dave

    The KO memo has circulated widely in Puerto Rico.  Besides the
    condemnation of the red-tape and bureaucracy generated by middle
    managers (mis)interpreting the NMS, KO also pointed out that he wants a
    real bottoms-up opportunity channel for creating Independent Business
    Units to deal with niche markets.  I'm going to send him one that I've
    been working on.
    
    Dick

    I forecasted two months ago that muddle-management would find a way to
    prostitute the NMS, and sho-nuff, they've done it.
    
    The problem is.....these clowns don't know any other way to manage. 
    That's why they should ALL leave now.  Maybe the rest of us could then
    put the pieces back together
    
    If Ken can't make that happen, and I mean more than dictating
    frustromemos, then maybe it's time.......................sigh

    has anyone verified that this memo did indeed originate from KO's
    office?
    
    I would hate to see hopes dashed.
    
    Just a word of caution.

    I've received four copies so far today...believe me, it's from KO
    hisself.  What's scary is that he is almost incoherent in his
    frustration.

>has anyone verified that this memo did indeed originate from KO's office?

If it says "(DICTATED ON mm/dd/yy, BUT NOT READ)", it must be from KO.
				/AHM

    re: .11
    
>	What's scary is that he is almost incoherent in his
>	frustration.
    
    Indeed.  Note the apparent reference to the "Twelve Commandments" in
    the beginning of the document.
    
    -- Russ

    Could someone forward a copy of this KO's memo to me ? Thanks a lot.
    
    KBOMFG::CAOXUAN
    
    

    
    
    Come on people. See 1519.6
    
    Then do a Send/Author. That way it doesn't waste disk space.
    
    /prc

Or at least be good enough to delete your request here once you've received
a copy, to avoid wasting bandwidth for the next few weeks while people
continue to send you multiple copies based on the standing request.

I wonder, though. I know Ken's tried to adopt a laissez-faire approach in
his own style in the past, and maybe that partially explains it. But if
Ken sees the NMS being perverted by managers below him, then for God's
sake, why doesn't the man take some initiative to have these people removed
before they do any more damage? Does it make sense to keep them there
mismanaging things while the people at the bottom of the food chain continue
to be let go and/or scream about the wrong choices being made?

I know Ken may not feel it's his personal responsibility to eliminate these
wastrels, but it sure would look good from down here to know that he's taking
some action, rather than supporting the notion that those with job codes
above x are immune to severence.

-Jack

    re: .23 "Why doesn't K.O. Throw the B*****ds Out!"
    
    As much as some of us like to believe that K.O. all-powerful, he has
    a boss just like you and me, in fact, he has *lots* of them.  If he
    were to start wiping out entrenched managers right and left, it would
    have an immediate impact on the operation of the company, and the
    Board of Directors might have something to say about it.  No doubt
    that it's tempting, but ...
    
    Corporations are like this country in one respect:  In the broadest
    terms, they follow the true will of the people.  Some of DEC's ills
    (and the industry's, for that matter) have to do with shareholders
    who demand immediate short-term results, with no concern for the 
    long-term repercussions.  Many of the country's ills have to do with
    voters demanding the same thing of our representatives.  It seems
    that there are truly very few people out there who could pass up a
    snack today in return for a feast tomorrow.
    
    It's an old adage that representative government doesn't guarantee
    that the voters get what they want, it guarantees that they get what
    they deserve.  Maybe the same thing is true of corporations ...
    
    Geoff Unland