Tuesday 23 December 2008

feeling a bit sad

It's almost Christmas and I probably should write about something a bit happier, but I suddenly feel a bit sad about business and work. I'll use my favourite analogy again: the body
the body works amazingly well with so many different parts and organs because there is a high level of division of labour, each organ is only good at doing one thing and nothing else. in fact this is not amazing, sometimes it is even detrimental since if the kidneys fail, or the heart fails, or the brain fails, or the stomach fails, then the whole body collapses since no other organ is able to replace them. big companies are better at this in this sense, people in a department can be replaced - they might not do a good job but the company will still function. however, the amazing thing is how all the organs work together.
there is absolutely no selfish interest for each organ, the kidney wouldn't boast its performance by pretending that it cleans the blood more than it did and thereby gaining more oxygen or whatever currency the body works in; the eyes wouldn't claim to be able to see further and clearer than they can so that the brain interprets signals from the eyes more than it deserves, likewise the ears wouldn't compete with the eyes and try to get a bigger share of sensory input to the brain. what the sensory organs do is that they give the best and accurate information they have to the brain so that the most well-informed decision can be made about what to do in any situation.
big companies are different: there is a single currency which is pure money, departments often compete with each other so that each makes sure that their department has the biggest share of fund possible. this problem occurs most acutely when two or more departments are having similar functions, or have similar goals. of course, the goal, or the justification of each department's existence, is generating money for the company. therefore, each department, to some degree, compete, and sometimes they do what the eyes and ears in our body do not do, namely they have to present information that are not entirely true, or they give part of the full picture, in order that they do not lose out in the competition. this necessarily leads to misjudgement and misinformation when the company as a whole needs to make any decision.
what I feel people do not understand thorughly is that giving out wrong information does not just hurt a company, but what it tends to do is that it makes a department look very good short term, but in the end, there wijll be no substance to support the expansion, and therefore the department suffers more than it deserves at a later date. and this is sad.

Saturday 20 December 2008

an imprisonned man

Hannah stared at the brick wall, as if it was a mirror on which she could find out how she looked before leaving. she turned, there was another wall, she turned again, and yet there was another, and she turned once more, and there was yet another... gradually, she began to realise that there was no mirror in front of her, she could not see the present reflection, but a film was unfolding about her past.
There was James, sat beside him was a beautiful young woman. they looked at each other lovingly, they whispered even though no one else was in the room, he hugged her tightly as if they have not met for centuries, they took off each other's clothes as if the young woman was Hannah. the next thing that Hannah saw, she was standing on the edge of a boat, there was a hand reaching out from the murky water to desperately trying to hold on to anything. she let out a cry and hit it with so much force that the boat shook, and the bucket of miserable fish they caught earlier toppled into the sea. some of the fish sank, the rest danced away with so much joy that made Hannah smile.
the guard came and found her staring at the blank wall, he led her to the gate, and all of a sudden found the quiet and always-thinking prisoner intensely intriguing. he did not know what she had done to land in prison, nor could he have guessed at all given such a quiet, seemingly well-mannered woman.
"Do you ... regret?" he asked hesitantly as if some evil might come out of her to strike on his question. she spotted a rather pretty beatle in front of her foot, almost out of instinct, she held her leg high and hammered the beatle. that, was the biggest negative answer the guard has ever seen.

Wednesday 3 December 2008

sheep and lemonade

In the middle of the desert, in the middle of the day
there was a wealthy shepherd, with his sheep and his lemonade
the lemonade was too hot, but the sheep thought not
the sheep were busy, and the shepherd was dizzy
a gust of wind came, and everything was lost.