Wednesday - November 24, 2004
Time for Another Useless Re-org
In most of my time in the corporate world in the
computer industry, and most especially at Dell Computer, there was a seemingly
insane tendency to reorganize every couple months. It wasn't unheard of for
some people to have 7 bosses in a year. I never understood the reason for
re-orgs. The informal power structure never really changed much at the level
where work is done and the real decisions are made. But the elephants would
stomp around trying to impress others with their status within the
organization.
It makes as much sense to
re-org a company as it does for a floundering company to buy another floundering
company, like Compaq and HP, and try to fool themselves into believing that
they're making a difference in the bottom line. The accountants and the MBA
types will slide numbers around, grease up cost centers and squeeze them into
hidden places and really change
nothing.
So I'm not surprised at the
howls and protests wanting a change in the structure of intelligence gathering.
I'm not even surprised, even though I am disappointed, that people in the media
are saying that 9/11 proves that intelligence is broken, so we need to make this
change for our own safety.
Of course,
one thing has little to do with the other, but that's the same logic that keeps
middle managers that are both incompetent and eager to advance beyond their
intelligence levels in their jobs. It's also great for politicians, because it
meets the needs of politicians perfectly: driving an agenda with little regard
for reality.
And what is the reality? The reality is that
there was an intelligence failure in that no one expected the attack of 9/11.
That much is true. Now the question to ask is, is it possible to forsee all
attacks on us? The answer is no, but we now know of this source of a threat and
we need to re-adjust so that we are better able to anticipate attacks from the
Islamic animals.
But how will a
re-org do this? It won't. The work will still be done the same way regardless
of how it is structured. The solution needs to increase the focus of effort,
and that comes from personal attention, not from bureaucratic details. The
right people with the right attitudes is the solution. The people doing the
work will be the same, the people making the decisions will be the same. It's
just a matter of who gets their name on the various
doors.
So, all this talk about re-orgs
in the intelligence arena is just as useless as it was at Dell. All it did in
Dell was allow individuals to profit at the expense of the company's increased
institutional confusion. All it will do in the government is give politicians a
chance to finger point and try to increase their political power while attacking
their political opponents.
The issue
of intelligence is far too important to be thus politicized. This talk of
re-org is best ended.
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