How decrepit large offices
A small observation on how to grow, develop, grow, decay and die companies. With questions (how to postpone decrepitude?) And advice (to young managers).
A good idea, start-up capital, a solid team - that’s where a startup was born. That of 5% which we name "successful". The product / service is really needed by the market. The team is motivated by success, recognition, and money. Very few internal processes and hierarchies. All know each other and help. Everyone finds something to his liking: someone is engineering, someone is more planning, someone is more in touch with customers, but everyone feels like a big family of equal among themselves.
The size of the office - up to hundreds of people
Product diverges around the world. Customers praise, but at the same time send lists of the desired functionality. The company begins to hire people, but they still join the team well. Formed new internal processes that are not associated with the release of the product, for example, HRM. The document flow begins to develop, processes are developed, because it is no longer possible to just put everyone together in the same room and “synchronize”.
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The size of the office - a few hundred.
The office is growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to a really good product. The office is inspired by past successes and does not notice that the flow of new people has become simply huge. Talented engineers, who were from the very beginning, suddenly see that some new people appear in the hierarchy above them who do not quite know in detail what is important and what is not. But it’s still not very scary and doesn’t bother them, because for now the old techies have more weight than the new low-level managers. This is achieved by the fact that other “old men” who from the very beginning were interested in management are now somewhere above, and they remember their colleagues and even see them.
The size of the office - a thousand or two
The office has become a monster. Corporation Many sectors, lines, layers. Products are still sold and money to the fig, but a huge amount of them is wasted inside. There are many people who have no idea what, strictly speaking, is a product. But they are busy with another matter: they optimize, or rather constantly introduce new processes, engage in shuffling people from place to place, come up with mission and strategy, etc.
And even in the departments that are directly involved in the product - trouble. Old techies are demotivated by the fact that this new monster already has a very high hierarchy of stairs, and they seem to be at the bottom. Their old colleagues in management are already very high or even gone. Many old techies start to leave.
New team / project / group / product leads poorly understand the details and history of the product and are insured by rolling out huge job ratings for any (even the smallest) changes. This causes an even greater hiring of new people and outsourcing (to whom, in general, all do not care, because they pay for the clock, and not the result).
The policy comes to the fore, the quality of work on the second. The construction of a career in such an office is described here .
The size of the office - more than 10K people
The flow of money from the product dries up due to a changed world or competitors who have come. Change management does not help. The office is crushed into pieces, they are sold.
The end
What to read about this? Is there a "vaccination against decrepitude"? Or you just need to accept the inevitable - the office, how the body grows and dies?
Take care of productive old introverts. Do not look down on a person who has not “grown up.” This may be just a person who wants and with pleasure engineers. Seek support from motivation .
Birth
A good idea, start-up capital, a solid team - that’s where a startup was born. That of 5% which we name "successful". The product / service is really needed by the market. The team is motivated by success, recognition, and money. Very few internal processes and hierarchies. All know each other and help. Everyone finds something to his liking: someone is engineering, someone is more planning, someone is more in touch with customers, but everyone feels like a big family of equal among themselves.
The size of the office - up to hundreds of people
Growing up
Product diverges around the world. Customers praise, but at the same time send lists of the desired functionality. The company begins to hire people, but they still join the team well. Formed new internal processes that are not associated with the release of the product, for example, HRM. The document flow begins to develop, processes are developed, because it is no longer possible to just put everyone together in the same room and “synchronize”.
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The size of the office - a few hundred.
Beginning of decrepitude
The office is growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to a really good product. The office is inspired by past successes and does not notice that the flow of new people has become simply huge. Talented engineers, who were from the very beginning, suddenly see that some new people appear in the hierarchy above them who do not quite know in detail what is important and what is not. But it’s still not very scary and doesn’t bother them, because for now the old techies have more weight than the new low-level managers. This is achieved by the fact that other “old men” who from the very beginning were interested in management are now somewhere above, and they remember their colleagues and even see them.
The size of the office - a thousand or two
Decrepitude in full swing
The office has become a monster. Corporation Many sectors, lines, layers. Products are still sold and money to the fig, but a huge amount of them is wasted inside. There are many people who have no idea what, strictly speaking, is a product. But they are busy with another matter: they optimize, or rather constantly introduce new processes, engage in shuffling people from place to place, come up with mission and strategy, etc.
And even in the departments that are directly involved in the product - trouble. Old techies are demotivated by the fact that this new monster already has a very high hierarchy of stairs, and they seem to be at the bottom. Their old colleagues in management are already very high or even gone. Many old techies start to leave.
New team / project / group / product leads poorly understand the details and history of the product and are insured by rolling out huge job ratings for any (even the smallest) changes. This causes an even greater hiring of new people and outsourcing (to whom, in general, all do not care, because they pay for the clock, and not the result).
The policy comes to the fore, the quality of work on the second. The construction of a career in such an office is described here .
The size of the office - more than 10K people
The end of the office
The flow of money from the product dries up due to a changed world or competitors who have come. Change management does not help. The office is crushed into pieces, they are sold.
The end
Questions
What to read about this? Is there a "vaccination against decrepitude"? Or you just need to accept the inevitable - the office, how the body grows and dies?
Tips for young managers
Take care of productive old introverts. Do not look down on a person who has not “grown up.” This may be just a person who wants and with pleasure engineers. Seek support from motivation .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/243631/
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