A few months after I took the helm of "my" application, The Powers That Be decided that it would be a good idea to send me halfway across the country to meet my power-users face-to-face. Truth be told, I know I didn't absorb nearly enough of the end-user experience in those three days, but relationships solidified at a pace that phone and email can't match.
Fat times, those. Sometimes, just trying to get my work done on time while spec'ing out future work was the challenge.
A few years on, and the housing bubble popping and derivatives investment house of cards tumbling brought an end to that. We managed to hang onto the client (and thus I managed to hang on to my job), but the fallout on their end involved a lot of staff turnover. To date, only one of my original "power users" is still with the group. That would have been the most appropriate time for another face-time junket. But, of course, the budget couldn't support it just then.
With the benefit of hindsight, that was a lost opportunity, and I think we're paying for it now. And when I think of the extravagances--well, "extravagances" to my frugal Upper Midwestern sensibilities--of the era before, I can think of a few I would have happily "banked" for leaner times. That's not a mistake we'll make twice--not if I have anything to say about it. Not even if I have to put up with Delta and the FAA's sad-sack excuses for "service" in the name of a belated meet-and-greet sometime during the next few weeks.
So, mixed in with the fat vs. lean metaphors--because, hey, if corporations are officially "people," we might as well go all reductio ad absurdum while we're at it--is my wondering why business reactions to the economy-at-large seem to so closely resemble modern dietary habits. You know, the deep-dish Carnivore's Special pizza (with cheesy breadsticks, 2 liter bottle of soda plus cinnamon breadsticks for dessert) when the money's rolling in, and ramen noodles when it's not?
We all know that crash dieting--particularly after living on bacon ranch double cheeseburgers--isn't healthy in real life. During the last few business cycles, I've seen what its equivalent does to the underlying fabric of organizations. Yes, I understand: If our species had even 25% less capacity for self-delusion (as in "This time it'll be different,") the entertainment, fashion and investment industries would cease to exist. I get it. No, really.
But for everyone else...seriously, now. How can the same speculative investment in an emerging (and thus largely unknown) market be too trivial to bother with during the boom and too farm-bettingly dangerous during the bust? Not quite a strawman argument there--too many examples from business history (particularly while I'm under the influence of The Innovator's Dilemma at the moment) for that.
I guess I just don't understand why an initiative you're not willing to risk your budget and reputation on during the bad times can be a good idea during the good times. But I have seen first-hand how self-defeating the binge-and-diet cycle is, and I think that anyone who works for a paycheck has every right to expect considerably less...errrrr..."fiscal myopia" from their annointed leaders.
