Catch Me If You Can. Birth of the King
Catch Me If You Can. So they say to each other. The directors catch their deputies, those - ordinary employees, each other, but no one can catch anyone. Yes, they do not try. For them, the main thing is the game, the process. For the sake of this game, they go to work. They will never win. I win.
More precisely, I already won. And I continue to win. And I will win further. I created a unique business scheme, the finest mechanism that works like a clock. What is important - not only I win - everybody wins. Yes, I managed it. I'm a king.
Immediately explain the origin of my nickname, so that you do not think that I have delusions of grandeur. My little daughter loves to play such a game - will stand in the doorway, close it with his hands, and does not allow to pass, asks for a password. I pretend that I don’t know the password, and she says: password - the king is sitting on the pot. So, consider that I am the King on the pot, with normal self-irony, understanding of your shortcomings and your superiority over me.
')
All right, drove. I will briefly tell you about myself - the tools that I use in business and the conclusions on the basis of which I have built such a scheme will be clearer.
It so happened that I became a director of a large enterprise very early. More specifically, it was a poultry farm. I was then 25 years old. And before that, for three years I headed a marketing agency.
Both the agency and the poultry farm belonged to the same owner. I came to marketing immediately after the institute, the agency was lying down - a standard, useless set of services, average results, faded advertising, empty market research, worthless articles and a barely visible trickle of money in the owner's pocket. At first he was a marketer, but because was young and hot, he began, as they say, to rock the boat. He openly stated the problems and lack of talent of our activity, the absence of any ambitions for the director and the extremely low quality of work with clients. Naturally, he decided to fire me. We had a very emotional “last conversation”, but, fortunately, the owner was passing by at the time. He is a straight man from the 90s, so he did not hesitate and went.
As I learned later, he was heated against the director a long time ago, and this time he came with his traditional goal - to quarrel and listen to another lie about how the new management methods, the personal initiative of the director and a solid team “will raise the enterprise this time. from his knees. The owner shut up the director and listened to me. Since that day, the marketing agency has a new director.
For the first year, the marketing agency became the leader in growth rates in relative terms in the owner’s investment portfolio. For the second year, we have become leaders in the region, in terms of sales and project portfolio. For the third year, we trapped several neighboring areas.
A critical moment has arrived - it was necessary to relocate the company to Moscow. The owner, like a man from the 90s, lived where his main assets were located, and even in the future did not plan to move. I, in general, did not want to go to Moscow either. We talked to him heart-to-heart, and decided that I should be transferred to the poultry farm, and the marketing agency - to let go.
The poultry farm has become an even more powerful challenge than a marketing agency. First, she, too, was almost lying on her side. Secondly, I did not know anything about the activities of the poultry farms. Thirdly, there was a fundamentally different contingent - not urban office youth, but village guilds, princes and shirt-boys.
I, of course, almost laughed - a dude came from the city, "from our knees to raise us." In the early days, I heard many phrases starting with “yes, you generally know ...”, and then there was some specific information related to chickens, their life and death, the manufacture of feed and sausage, the operation of an incubator, etc. The guys frankly hoped that I would become a “wedding general” - a meaningless director, in which managers who came to the provinces often turn out to be. They sit at meetings, nod their heads, say something like "you need to monitor the cash flow," but in fact they do not manage at all. Just sit and smile beautifully. Or frown, sometimes.
But my situation was different - I was already almost a friend of the owner. I had a complete blank check. But I didn’t want to just wave a sword - what’s the point of dismissing, for example, the heads of the houses, if there’s nowhere to get new ones? Near only one village.
I decided that in my right mind no “newcomer” director is doing - to sort out the business that I am leading. It took me a year.
This practice, as far as I know, is widespread outside of Russia - the manager is literally driven through all the stages, divisions and workshops. I did the same. I worked out such a schedule: the first half of the day I spend the necessary managerial activities, such as RAMs, meetings, discussions, monitoring projects, setting tasks, debriefing. And after lunch, I go to the place where value is created (the Japanese, it seems, call it “gemba”).
I worked in the poultry houses - and those where chickens lay eggs, and those where broilers grow for slaughter. I participated several times in sorting chickens that had recently hatched from eggs. I, reluctantly, worked in the slaughterhouse of poultry. A few days - and there was no disgust, no fear, no disgust. I personally gave chickens injections of antibiotics and vitamins. I traveled with the peasants to the old ZIL at the pantry, to bury the chicken poop. He spent several days in the smoking room where people go knee-deep in fat. He worked in the shop of finished products, which produce sausage, rolls, etc. Together with laboratory assistants, he conducted research of grain, which we are brought from the whole region. He lay down under the old KAMAZ, helped the peasants to board the T-150 wheel, and became convinced of the delusional procedure of filling the waybill while he was participating in the life of the transport department.
Then he worked in all offices of the plant. He studied the reliability of partners with lawyers. He comprehended the basics of the principle of double entry, the plan of accounts of RAS, the main entries (stress on the second syllable, this is not your posting), taxation tricks, cost imitations and the wonders of picking together with the accounting department. I personally traveled to the grain farms, called in South Africa about the reduction in prices for spices and went to solve problems with customs when I worked with suppliers. I found out how the twisted pair STP differs from UTP when, together with the system administrators, I pulled it through the attic of the house. I learned what “veperit” is, how to create macros and what is the reason for the long reporting by economists (“damn bookkeeping, when they have already closed their month”). And finally, I left the programmer.
The programmer at the factory was one, worked for a long time, sat in a separate small kennel. I put it at the end of my study plan not because I thought that the programmer was a dessert. On the contrary, I thought that nothing useful would come out of communication with him. As you understand, I am a hardened humanist. I expected that I would not be enough for one day - I just could not look for a long time at the incomprehensible program code, libraries, databases and a dirty T-shirt.
To say that I was wrong means to say nothing. As you remember, I considered myself a pioneer of the “study business from the inside” approach. But it turned out that I am only the second. The first was a programmer.
It turned out that the programmer also worked in almost all departments of the factory. He, of course, did not try to do the same thing as the workers - the programmer was engaged in his own business, automation. But true, correct automation is impossible without an understanding of the process with which you work. In this profession of a programmer is akin to the path of the leader, I think.
I rode the potent storage just like that, and the programmer calibrated the sensor and the positioning system tracker, and at the same time the fuel consumption control sensor. I took a syringe and stuck medicine in to the hen, and the programmer watched the process from the side, and knew exactly how many of these syringes are spoiled, thrown out and “disappear somewhere”. I dragged meat and semi-finished products between the processing stages in the processing workshop, and the programmer weighed this meat between stages, detecting and stopping the very possibility of theft. I lamented with the drivers about the difficult process of agreeing on and preparing a waybill, and the programmer automated its creation by linking with the tracker, at the same time finding that drivers carry left loads. I knew more about the slaughter shop than he did — an automated Dutch line worked there, and the programmer had absolutely nothing to do.
For office workers - the situation is similar. I checked the reliability of partners with lawyers, and the programmer chose, configured, integrated and implemented a service that checks this reliability and automatically informs about changes in counterparty status. I talked to the accountants about the principle of double entry, and the programmer told me that the day before this conversation, the chief accountant came running to him and asked him to explain this principle, because modern accountants are, for the most part, data entry operators in some well-known program . I did reports in eksele with economists, and the programmer showed how these reports are built in a second in the system, and at the same time he explained why economists continue to work in eksele - they are afraid of being fired. But he does not insist. understands everything - except for the poultry farm and a stall in the village there were no employers.
I spent more time with a programmer than in any other department. I was getting true, and moreover, versatile pleasure from communicating with this guy.
Firstly, I learned a lot about all areas of business that I managed. It was not like what I saw with my own eyes. Naturally, in all divisions they knew that I was the director, and they were preparing for my arrival. I did not make secrets from the sequence of studying the business, and to my appearance everything was ready. Of course, I climbed into dark corners, unprepared for close study — like Elena Flying in Revizorro, but I heard little truth. And who will be ashamed of the programmer? People of his profession in provincial factories have long been considered a kind of application to the system, if not to a computer. With him you can even dance naked - what the difference is that this geezer will think?
Secondly, the programmer turned out to be a very clever and diversified person. Then I thought that only this particular guy was such, but later I became convinced that most of the factory programmers have a broad outlook, and not only in their craft. Among all the specialties represented at the plant, only programmers have professional communities where they communicate, share experiences and discuss issues only indirectly related to automation. The rest read only news, rzhaku and instagramy stars. Well, with rare exceptions, like chief accountant and financial, who follow changes in legislation, the refinancing rate and the revocation of bank licenses.
Thirdly, I was amazed at the capabilities of the information system that worked for us. I was struck by two aspects: data and speed of modification.
When I ran a marketing agency, we often had to work with customer data. But we have never been particularly interested in how this data is obtained. We simply sent a request containing something like “let's all that is, in the form of tables connected by unique identifiers, in any format from the list”, and received in response a large array of information that analysts twisted as they could. Now I saw this data in a structured, primary form.
The programmer honestly said that nobody needs this data. And his work to ensure the quality of this data is even more so. Moreover, the programmer did this not just the way he came to mind, but according to science. I had heard the word "controlling" before, but I thought that it was some kind of control (like Present Continuous from the word "control"). It turned out that this is a whole science, and the programmer has adopted the requirements for the data on the basis of which management should be carried out. To prevent you from getting up twice, these are the requirements (taken from Wikipedia ):
Information Support:
Transmission and / or transformation of information:
The programmer provided the enterprise with quality data that was supposed to be the basis for management, but did not serve. Management was carried out, as everywhere else - manually, on the basis of personal contact and rubbing in points. What is called "catch me if you can."
The second aspect that struck me was the speed of creating and implementing changes to the system. I asked the programmer several times to show me how he does it, and I was surprised every time.
For example, I ask him to calculate and record in the system any indicator, such as “Percentage of deficient supply positions”, by quantity or in rubles, relative to the total volume of needs. Do you know how much time the programmer spent on this work? Ten minutes. He did it with me - I saw the real number on the screen. In the meantime, I went to my office for a notebook to write down a number and get to the chief of supply at the meeting, the figure had changed, and the programmer showed me a two-point graph.
The longer I worked with the programmer, the stronger the strange, contradictory feeling became - a mixture of delight and anger.
Well, the delight is clear, I have already talked a lot about him.
And anger - because of the incredibly low use of the capabilities and data of the system by managers and employees of departments. There was a feeling that automation lives its own, incomprehensible life, and the enterprise lives its own. At first, I had a hope that leaders simply do not know what they are deprived of. But the programmer showed me how blind I am.
One of his own inventions was the so-called. SIFA - Statistics on the Use of Automation Functionality. An elementary (according to the programmer) universal system that keeps track of which person it uses — documents, reports, forms, indicators, etc. Went to see the figures - SIFA remembered. Who, when he launched the tool, how much he stumbled in when he came out. The programmer formed data on managers - and I was horrified.
The chief accountant only looks at the balance sheet, some kind of tax audit report, and several declarations (VAT, profit, something else). But it does not look at metrics of cost of accounting, reports with jambs and the duration of their life, discrepancies of analytics, etc. Findyr looks at two reports - on the movement of money and the enlarged budget. But it does not look at the cash gap forecast and cost structure. The head of supply controls the payment, looks at the remnants, but knows nothing about the deficit statement and the timing of the emergence of needs.
The programmer put forward his theory of why this is happening. What managers use is what he called primary information - analytical reports created on the basis of transactions. The arrival of money, the expenditure of money is the primary information. A report that shows the arrival and expenditure of money - this is also the primary information, simply collected in one form. Primary information is simple and clear, you do not need a lot of mind to use it. But…
But the primary information is not enough to manage. Try to make a management decision on the basis of such information: “Yesterday payments for 1 million rubles came”, “In stock 10 bushings” or “The programmer solved 3 tasks in a week”. Feel what is missing? “How much should it be?”
This is “How much should it be?” All managers prefer to keep in mind. Otherwise, as the programmer said, they can be replaced by a script. Actually, he tried to do so — he developed second and third order management tools (his own classification).
The first order is “what is”. The second is “what is and how it should be.” The third is “what is, how it should be, and what to do.” The same script that replaces the head, at least in part. Moreover, tools of the third order are not just footjackers with numbers, they are tasks created in the system, with automatic control of execution. Together ignored by all employees of the company. The leaders ignored voluntarily, their subordinates - on the orders of the leaders.
No matter how fun it was to sit with a programmer, but I decided to finish my studies. I had a burning desire to urgently raise the rank of this guy in the company - it is impossible that such knowledge, skills and desire for improvements rot in a small kennel. But, having seriously thought it over, and having consulted with the programmer himself, I decided to leave it there. There was a very high risk that, having risen, he himself would turn into an ordinary leader.The programmer himself was afraid of this - he said that he had already had such an experience at the previous work.
Therefore, the programmer remained in the kennel. We have kept our close acquaintance and further close interaction secret. For all colleagues, the programmer continued to be a programmer. And I increased his income four times - from mine, so that no one knew.
Returning to the post of director, as they say, full-time, I began to shake the company like a pear. I rocked everyone, from top to bottom and from left to right. The game "catch me if you can" with me no one could play - I knew everything.
Doubt in my competence was no longer, because I could replace, if not every ordinary employee, then any manager - for sure. No one could hang noodles on my ears when shoals happen. I knew the key details and parameters of all the processes. I evoked very conflicting feelings among my subordinates. On the one hand, I was respected and feared - not because of managerial tantrums or unpredictable nature, but because of competence. On the other hand, they hated me - because I had to work for real. Someone - for the first time in my life.
I introduced the tools of the second and third orders very simply: I began to use them myself. And I talked with the leaders through the prism of these tools.
I call, for example, Findira, and I say - in a week you will have an unsafe cash gap. Does round eyes - where does the information come from? I open the system, I show. It is clear that he sees for the first time. He says - there are not taken into account currency deposits, which we insure against such situations as a last resort. I begin to dig, I find out that a serious part of turnover has been frozen on these deposits - moreover, I have launched a very active investment activity. Findir gets a hat and wants to run away, but I do not stop - I say to return the deposits, especially since they are short-term, but do not cover the cash gaps with them, but send the construction of a new feed processing facility to the budget. Cash gap, then, still remains a problem. Findir dodges - they say, some strange data gives the system.I ask a direct question - do you know about this tool? He says he knows. I open the SIFA - pf, the financial statement has never been there. I remind you that I do not need to let dust in my eyes. Hands to legs - and to the programmer, and in a week no excuses that the system gives out the wrong numbers. After 5 minutes, the programmer writes that the financial has arrived. Two hours later, wrote that everything was done. And so with all.
Within a few months I arranged a downgrade to fifteen managers, including three from among the deputy directors. All of them were from the neighboring village and, oddly enough, agreed to drop to leading specialists. Five fired - those that drove here from the city.
I had a company, as Bill Gates said, at my fingertips. I knew about everything that is happening - success, problems, downtime, efficiency, cost structure and the causes of its distortions, cash flows, development plans.
For two years, I turned the poultry farm into an agricultural holding. We have a modern feed shop, a pig farm, a second deep processing site (they made pork sausage there), our own retail network, a recognizable brand in several regions, a normal logistics service (and not old KAMAZ trucks), our own cultivated areas for grain crops, we received several prestigious federal and regional quality and HR awards.
Do you think the King was born here? Not.I was just a successful agricultural holding director. And the former successful head of a marketing agency.
The king was born when I realized what was my difference from other leaders. I analyzed my path, successes and failures, management approaches, attitudes towards automation and the programmer, the level of business understanding and ways to achieve this level, and managed to compare all this with the experience of my colleagues.
The results of this analysis startled me. So much so that I decided to leave my post. I saw clearly and clearly what I needed to do. Where exactly I will become King.
The conversation with the owner turned out to be not the easiest, but he let me go. A good man, though harsh. I paid a huge severance pay, although I didn’t ask for it. Subsequently, this money helped me a lot in climbing the King.
More precisely, I already won. And I continue to win. And I will win further. I created a unique business scheme, the finest mechanism that works like a clock. What is important - not only I win - everybody wins. Yes, I managed it. I'm a king.
Immediately explain the origin of my nickname, so that you do not think that I have delusions of grandeur. My little daughter loves to play such a game - will stand in the doorway, close it with his hands, and does not allow to pass, asks for a password. I pretend that I don’t know the password, and she says: password - the king is sitting on the pot. So, consider that I am the King on the pot, with normal self-irony, understanding of your shortcomings and your superiority over me.
')
All right, drove. I will briefly tell you about myself - the tools that I use in business and the conclusions on the basis of which I have built such a scheme will be clearer.
It so happened that I became a director of a large enterprise very early. More specifically, it was a poultry farm. I was then 25 years old. And before that, for three years I headed a marketing agency.
Both the agency and the poultry farm belonged to the same owner. I came to marketing immediately after the institute, the agency was lying down - a standard, useless set of services, average results, faded advertising, empty market research, worthless articles and a barely visible trickle of money in the owner's pocket. At first he was a marketer, but because was young and hot, he began, as they say, to rock the boat. He openly stated the problems and lack of talent of our activity, the absence of any ambitions for the director and the extremely low quality of work with clients. Naturally, he decided to fire me. We had a very emotional “last conversation”, but, fortunately, the owner was passing by at the time. He is a straight man from the 90s, so he did not hesitate and went.
As I learned later, he was heated against the director a long time ago, and this time he came with his traditional goal - to quarrel and listen to another lie about how the new management methods, the personal initiative of the director and a solid team “will raise the enterprise this time. from his knees. The owner shut up the director and listened to me. Since that day, the marketing agency has a new director.
For the first year, the marketing agency became the leader in growth rates in relative terms in the owner’s investment portfolio. For the second year, we have become leaders in the region, in terms of sales and project portfolio. For the third year, we trapped several neighboring areas.
A critical moment has arrived - it was necessary to relocate the company to Moscow. The owner, like a man from the 90s, lived where his main assets were located, and even in the future did not plan to move. I, in general, did not want to go to Moscow either. We talked to him heart-to-heart, and decided that I should be transferred to the poultry farm, and the marketing agency - to let go.
The poultry farm has become an even more powerful challenge than a marketing agency. First, she, too, was almost lying on her side. Secondly, I did not know anything about the activities of the poultry farms. Thirdly, there was a fundamentally different contingent - not urban office youth, but village guilds, princes and shirt-boys.
I, of course, almost laughed - a dude came from the city, "from our knees to raise us." In the early days, I heard many phrases starting with “yes, you generally know ...”, and then there was some specific information related to chickens, their life and death, the manufacture of feed and sausage, the operation of an incubator, etc. The guys frankly hoped that I would become a “wedding general” - a meaningless director, in which managers who came to the provinces often turn out to be. They sit at meetings, nod their heads, say something like "you need to monitor the cash flow," but in fact they do not manage at all. Just sit and smile beautifully. Or frown, sometimes.
But my situation was different - I was already almost a friend of the owner. I had a complete blank check. But I didn’t want to just wave a sword - what’s the point of dismissing, for example, the heads of the houses, if there’s nowhere to get new ones? Near only one village.
I decided that in my right mind no “newcomer” director is doing - to sort out the business that I am leading. It took me a year.
This practice, as far as I know, is widespread outside of Russia - the manager is literally driven through all the stages, divisions and workshops. I did the same. I worked out such a schedule: the first half of the day I spend the necessary managerial activities, such as RAMs, meetings, discussions, monitoring projects, setting tasks, debriefing. And after lunch, I go to the place where value is created (the Japanese, it seems, call it “gemba”).
I worked in the poultry houses - and those where chickens lay eggs, and those where broilers grow for slaughter. I participated several times in sorting chickens that had recently hatched from eggs. I, reluctantly, worked in the slaughterhouse of poultry. A few days - and there was no disgust, no fear, no disgust. I personally gave chickens injections of antibiotics and vitamins. I traveled with the peasants to the old ZIL at the pantry, to bury the chicken poop. He spent several days in the smoking room where people go knee-deep in fat. He worked in the shop of finished products, which produce sausage, rolls, etc. Together with laboratory assistants, he conducted research of grain, which we are brought from the whole region. He lay down under the old KAMAZ, helped the peasants to board the T-150 wheel, and became convinced of the delusional procedure of filling the waybill while he was participating in the life of the transport department.
Then he worked in all offices of the plant. He studied the reliability of partners with lawyers. He comprehended the basics of the principle of double entry, the plan of accounts of RAS, the main entries (stress on the second syllable, this is not your posting), taxation tricks, cost imitations and the wonders of picking together with the accounting department. I personally traveled to the grain farms, called in South Africa about the reduction in prices for spices and went to solve problems with customs when I worked with suppliers. I found out how the twisted pair STP differs from UTP when, together with the system administrators, I pulled it through the attic of the house. I learned what “veperit” is, how to create macros and what is the reason for the long reporting by economists (“damn bookkeeping, when they have already closed their month”). And finally, I left the programmer.
The programmer at the factory was one, worked for a long time, sat in a separate small kennel. I put it at the end of my study plan not because I thought that the programmer was a dessert. On the contrary, I thought that nothing useful would come out of communication with him. As you understand, I am a hardened humanist. I expected that I would not be enough for one day - I just could not look for a long time at the incomprehensible program code, libraries, databases and a dirty T-shirt.
To say that I was wrong means to say nothing. As you remember, I considered myself a pioneer of the “study business from the inside” approach. But it turned out that I am only the second. The first was a programmer.
It turned out that the programmer also worked in almost all departments of the factory. He, of course, did not try to do the same thing as the workers - the programmer was engaged in his own business, automation. But true, correct automation is impossible without an understanding of the process with which you work. In this profession of a programmer is akin to the path of the leader, I think.
I rode the potent storage just like that, and the programmer calibrated the sensor and the positioning system tracker, and at the same time the fuel consumption control sensor. I took a syringe and stuck medicine in to the hen, and the programmer watched the process from the side, and knew exactly how many of these syringes are spoiled, thrown out and “disappear somewhere”. I dragged meat and semi-finished products between the processing stages in the processing workshop, and the programmer weighed this meat between stages, detecting and stopping the very possibility of theft. I lamented with the drivers about the difficult process of agreeing on and preparing a waybill, and the programmer automated its creation by linking with the tracker, at the same time finding that drivers carry left loads. I knew more about the slaughter shop than he did — an automated Dutch line worked there, and the programmer had absolutely nothing to do.
For office workers - the situation is similar. I checked the reliability of partners with lawyers, and the programmer chose, configured, integrated and implemented a service that checks this reliability and automatically informs about changes in counterparty status. I talked to the accountants about the principle of double entry, and the programmer told me that the day before this conversation, the chief accountant came running to him and asked him to explain this principle, because modern accountants are, for the most part, data entry operators in some well-known program . I did reports in eksele with economists, and the programmer showed how these reports are built in a second in the system, and at the same time he explained why economists continue to work in eksele - they are afraid of being fired. But he does not insist. understands everything - except for the poultry farm and a stall in the village there were no employers.
I spent more time with a programmer than in any other department. I was getting true, and moreover, versatile pleasure from communicating with this guy.
Firstly, I learned a lot about all areas of business that I managed. It was not like what I saw with my own eyes. Naturally, in all divisions they knew that I was the director, and they were preparing for my arrival. I did not make secrets from the sequence of studying the business, and to my appearance everything was ready. Of course, I climbed into dark corners, unprepared for close study — like Elena Flying in Revizorro, but I heard little truth. And who will be ashamed of the programmer? People of his profession in provincial factories have long been considered a kind of application to the system, if not to a computer. With him you can even dance naked - what the difference is that this geezer will think?
Secondly, the programmer turned out to be a very clever and diversified person. Then I thought that only this particular guy was such, but later I became convinced that most of the factory programmers have a broad outlook, and not only in their craft. Among all the specialties represented at the plant, only programmers have professional communities where they communicate, share experiences and discuss issues only indirectly related to automation. The rest read only news, rzhaku and instagramy stars. Well, with rare exceptions, like chief accountant and financial, who follow changes in legislation, the refinancing rate and the revocation of bank licenses.
Thirdly, I was amazed at the capabilities of the information system that worked for us. I was struck by two aspects: data and speed of modification.
When I ran a marketing agency, we often had to work with customer data. But we have never been particularly interested in how this data is obtained. We simply sent a request containing something like “let's all that is, in the form of tables connected by unique identifiers, in any format from the list”, and received in response a large array of information that analysts twisted as they could. Now I saw this data in a structured, primary form.
The programmer honestly said that nobody needs this data. And his work to ensure the quality of this data is even more so. Moreover, the programmer did this not just the way he came to mind, but according to science. I had heard the word "controlling" before, but I thought that it was some kind of control (like Present Continuous from the word "control"). It turned out that this is a whole science, and the programmer has adopted the requirements for the data on the basis of which management should be carried out. To prevent you from getting up twice, these are the requirements (taken from Wikipedia ):
Information Support:
- correctness in fact (reported as requested)
- correctness in form (reported corresponds to the predefined form of the message)
- authenticity (reported as true)
- accuracy (error in the message is known)
- timeliness (on time)
Transmission and / or transformation of information:
- the authenticity of the fact (the fact is not changed)
- source authenticity (source not changed)
- correctness of information transformations (the report is correct for hierarchical transmission)
- archival safety of originals (analysis of work and failures)
- management of access rights (content of documents)
- registration of changes (manipulations)
The programmer provided the enterprise with quality data that was supposed to be the basis for management, but did not serve. Management was carried out, as everywhere else - manually, on the basis of personal contact and rubbing in points. What is called "catch me if you can."
The second aspect that struck me was the speed of creating and implementing changes to the system. I asked the programmer several times to show me how he does it, and I was surprised every time.
For example, I ask him to calculate and record in the system any indicator, such as “Percentage of deficient supply positions”, by quantity or in rubles, relative to the total volume of needs. Do you know how much time the programmer spent on this work? Ten minutes. He did it with me - I saw the real number on the screen. In the meantime, I went to my office for a notebook to write down a number and get to the chief of supply at the meeting, the figure had changed, and the programmer showed me a two-point graph.
The longer I worked with the programmer, the stronger the strange, contradictory feeling became - a mixture of delight and anger.
Well, the delight is clear, I have already talked a lot about him.
And anger - because of the incredibly low use of the capabilities and data of the system by managers and employees of departments. There was a feeling that automation lives its own, incomprehensible life, and the enterprise lives its own. At first, I had a hope that leaders simply do not know what they are deprived of. But the programmer showed me how blind I am.
One of his own inventions was the so-called. SIFA - Statistics on the Use of Automation Functionality. An elementary (according to the programmer) universal system that keeps track of which person it uses — documents, reports, forms, indicators, etc. Went to see the figures - SIFA remembered. Who, when he launched the tool, how much he stumbled in when he came out. The programmer formed data on managers - and I was horrified.
The chief accountant only looks at the balance sheet, some kind of tax audit report, and several declarations (VAT, profit, something else). But it does not look at metrics of cost of accounting, reports with jambs and the duration of their life, discrepancies of analytics, etc. Findyr looks at two reports - on the movement of money and the enlarged budget. But it does not look at the cash gap forecast and cost structure. The head of supply controls the payment, looks at the remnants, but knows nothing about the deficit statement and the timing of the emergence of needs.
The programmer put forward his theory of why this is happening. What managers use is what he called primary information - analytical reports created on the basis of transactions. The arrival of money, the expenditure of money is the primary information. A report that shows the arrival and expenditure of money - this is also the primary information, simply collected in one form. Primary information is simple and clear, you do not need a lot of mind to use it. But…
But the primary information is not enough to manage. Try to make a management decision on the basis of such information: “Yesterday payments for 1 million rubles came”, “In stock 10 bushings” or “The programmer solved 3 tasks in a week”. Feel what is missing? “How much should it be?”
This is “How much should it be?” All managers prefer to keep in mind. Otherwise, as the programmer said, they can be replaced by a script. Actually, he tried to do so — he developed second and third order management tools (his own classification).
The first order is “what is”. The second is “what is and how it should be.” The third is “what is, how it should be, and what to do.” The same script that replaces the head, at least in part. Moreover, tools of the third order are not just footjackers with numbers, they are tasks created in the system, with automatic control of execution. Together ignored by all employees of the company. The leaders ignored voluntarily, their subordinates - on the orders of the leaders.
No matter how fun it was to sit with a programmer, but I decided to finish my studies. I had a burning desire to urgently raise the rank of this guy in the company - it is impossible that such knowledge, skills and desire for improvements rot in a small kennel. But, having seriously thought it over, and having consulted with the programmer himself, I decided to leave it there. There was a very high risk that, having risen, he himself would turn into an ordinary leader.The programmer himself was afraid of this - he said that he had already had such an experience at the previous work.
Therefore, the programmer remained in the kennel. We have kept our close acquaintance and further close interaction secret. For all colleagues, the programmer continued to be a programmer. And I increased his income four times - from mine, so that no one knew.
Returning to the post of director, as they say, full-time, I began to shake the company like a pear. I rocked everyone, from top to bottom and from left to right. The game "catch me if you can" with me no one could play - I knew everything.
Doubt in my competence was no longer, because I could replace, if not every ordinary employee, then any manager - for sure. No one could hang noodles on my ears when shoals happen. I knew the key details and parameters of all the processes. I evoked very conflicting feelings among my subordinates. On the one hand, I was respected and feared - not because of managerial tantrums or unpredictable nature, but because of competence. On the other hand, they hated me - because I had to work for real. Someone - for the first time in my life.
I introduced the tools of the second and third orders very simply: I began to use them myself. And I talked with the leaders through the prism of these tools.
I call, for example, Findira, and I say - in a week you will have an unsafe cash gap. Does round eyes - where does the information come from? I open the system, I show. It is clear that he sees for the first time. He says - there are not taken into account currency deposits, which we insure against such situations as a last resort. I begin to dig, I find out that a serious part of turnover has been frozen on these deposits - moreover, I have launched a very active investment activity. Findir gets a hat and wants to run away, but I do not stop - I say to return the deposits, especially since they are short-term, but do not cover the cash gaps with them, but send the construction of a new feed processing facility to the budget. Cash gap, then, still remains a problem. Findir dodges - they say, some strange data gives the system.I ask a direct question - do you know about this tool? He says he knows. I open the SIFA - pf, the financial statement has never been there. I remind you that I do not need to let dust in my eyes. Hands to legs - and to the programmer, and in a week no excuses that the system gives out the wrong numbers. After 5 minutes, the programmer writes that the financial has arrived. Two hours later, wrote that everything was done. And so with all.
Within a few months I arranged a downgrade to fifteen managers, including three from among the deputy directors. All of them were from the neighboring village and, oddly enough, agreed to drop to leading specialists. Five fired - those that drove here from the city.
I had a company, as Bill Gates said, at my fingertips. I knew about everything that is happening - success, problems, downtime, efficiency, cost structure and the causes of its distortions, cash flows, development plans.
For two years, I turned the poultry farm into an agricultural holding. We have a modern feed shop, a pig farm, a second deep processing site (they made pork sausage there), our own retail network, a recognizable brand in several regions, a normal logistics service (and not old KAMAZ trucks), our own cultivated areas for grain crops, we received several prestigious federal and regional quality and HR awards.
Do you think the King was born here? Not.I was just a successful agricultural holding director. And the former successful head of a marketing agency.
The king was born when I realized what was my difference from other leaders. I analyzed my path, successes and failures, management approaches, attitudes towards automation and the programmer, the level of business understanding and ways to achieve this level, and managed to compare all this with the experience of my colleagues.
The results of this analysis startled me. So much so that I decided to leave my post. I saw clearly and clearly what I needed to do. Where exactly I will become King.
The conversation with the owner turned out to be not the easiest, but he let me go. A good man, though harsh. I paid a huge severance pay, although I didn’t ask for it. Subsequently, this money helped me a lot in climbing the King.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/456040/
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