E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

Actually, something even more exciting happened this week, but  I can’t talk about it yet. So, I will tell you about a post singularity sci fi book that I decided to write. I have a problem with all sci fi that I have ever read in that it does not reach far enough, it lacks imagination as to the impact of the technological change on our society. Thus I decided to rectify it, by working together with my sweetheart to write a sci fi that is part erotic love story, part thriller, but all based on predictive models of the world development that I developed using TRIZ modeling tools.

Unlike other sci fi, in my world,  machines become smaller, more organic, become part of us and there are those who fear it, while others who feel that technology alone is not the answer embrace some of it but not all.  It is when these worlds collide that things get really interesting. In the meanwhile we get to enjoy the story of the future as told by their equivalent of today’s Amish turned techo-girl.

So far I am only 5 pages in to it, but if it will be as fun to read, as it is to write, it is sure to be a best seller. Any suggestions for a catchy title are highly appreciated. As well as ideas for publication parts of the story in the periodicals.

If I had to describe in one concept the key reason for management failure it is the lack of feedback loops. An effective feedback loop reinforces positive dynamics or weakens the negative ones. It allows for the situation where nobody is surprised and if I could describe the state of business awareness that is necessary for success, it would allow a situation where nobody is surprised.

So many legal, HR, production, customer and finance issues would simply not be there if the organizations could insure healthy feedback loops. Bad customer service – bad feedback loop. Low quality of merchandise – bad feedback loop. Lack of trust – bad feedback loop.

How many times have you seen organizations fire some of their most capable employees and promote some of their most incompetent ones? Every time, the problem is a bad feedback loop, inability to tell good management from the bad one and mounds of data hiding the facts.

Yesterday I spent 45 minutes to walk to a restaurant that promised me free WIFI to speak for 2 minutes with a technician from a company that is a contractor to their contractor, who has agreed for pay to arrange an Internet connection for my wedding day that will be provided through a different provider than one he works for, because the one he works for is not free either, but more importantly it does not work.

Today I got a call from the woman that has commited to adjust my bride’s dress, saying that her yesterday’s birthday party is not over and she will not be able to meet with Albina today, rather rescheduling for tomorrow.

So long as USA is competing against these kinds of work environments, USA will continue to be a leading player in the world market even if it pays 2-3 times more than some other countries. The problem in US is not high pay, it is higher in other countries. The problem is that while the rest of the world is waking up to the realisation that this is not acceptable, US continues to relax the standards for its labor force.

Here, in Ukraine there is a strange mix of soviet and western thinking, but it is quickly passing. Yes, it is still shockingly disturbing and occasionally outright crazy, but new businesses are growing up that are not that way. It is only a matter of a couple generations for this to change, and that’s all the time US has to get it’s own workforce figured out and continue improving the productivity there. Otherwise, this may well be the reality in US one day.

Over the last week, I have had an opportunity to go through one-on-one TRIZ training program with Alex Kamin and feel that I have benefited greatly from it. There are many books and other such content that he gave me that I will be working on, the rest of the summer, but most importantly he showed me the most basic algorithm for inventor problem analysis and drilled me on using it continuously, now the tough part is to keep up with that practice.

Anyone interested in learning the content we covered, speak to me in September.

The adventure of getting here is not worth telling, it was actually fairly uneventful. Today was a good day. I am sitting in a nice cafe with high speed Internet in Lugansk and that is reviving my faith in humanity a little bit.

A little bit of management training goes a long way and there are all kinds of signs of it here in Lugansk. The contrast is so stark with Vladikavkaz that I am reveling in it. The things are not perfect here either, but in many ways they approach what I would expect in USA and occasionally exceed it.

Here we still have a mix of the post soviet thinking and modern capitalism and the best part is that capitalism is winning out.