Take Advice From A Failure
from the would-you-believe-this-man? dept
Maybe this article reads a little funnier knowing some people who have worked with Mark Breier, but the quotes are hilarious. Most Beyond insiders I've spoken to credit Mark Breier's management style for driving the company into the ground. If you read about his management philosophy (summarized as "don't plan ahead") it's pretty clear why Beyond struggled. Are people actually taking this guy seriously as a management guru for the internet age?
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Ridiculous
The average life of a computer, he says, has dropped from 22 months in 1988 to a mere four months in 1998. ``This means people have had to accelerate their decision-making processes,'' Mendelson says. ``If you have to act five times as fast, you have to shave time somewhere. Working quickly is not a recent fad. It's a well-documented phenomenon, and it's continuing.''
What does the life time of a computer have to do with how fast company decisions are made? I can kind of understand what he's saying, but to me, that's like saying since the average human life span is increasing, we don't have to walk as fast as we used to. Maybe it's a bad analogy, but I think his is worse.
...don't wait to gather all the facts before acting. Spend days (not weeks or months) developing a business plan.
The first sentence made me laugh out loud. I think the evidence of what happens when the second sentence is followed is quite apparent today.
If you fail, reform into something else.
Is he giving the advice that if you fail, just give up? What ever happened to perseverance and trying to find a better way? I hope this doesn't breed a whole culture of "If at first you don't succeed, give up and find something easier to do." Nothing will ever happen!
All in all, the guy does sound very convinced of his own theories, but in my opinion, they make as much sense as a mud house in a rainstorm - sure, it's cover, but how long will it serve your desired purposes?
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