Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

Back around November 2009 read an article by Roger Martin promoting his new book, and posted about it here.

The book arrived and I read it some time ago, but some developments more recently prompted me to pick it up again.  Given the reliance our company has on product innovation, it was worth reading (even a 2nd time).

The Book	What we thought
“The Design of Business – Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage” by Roger Martin	Not a large book, but packs a punch

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Noticed this post from Shirlaws echoed through my Twitter account this evening, and it gave me pause for reflection on how far we’ve come in the 18+ months since Shirlaws first started helping us.

It’s a bit of a case of “half full, and half empty” in that we’ve come a long way – but still have so much further to go.

The Shirlaws post is pretty short, but does list the “7 Asset” framework that they use to describe the value of an enterprise.

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Had almost reached the end of this book and was thinking that (whilst it did contain some worthwhile information), it did not totally do it for me….

The Book	What we thought
“Know-How: the 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t” by Ram Charan	Solid, not stellar – but the letter’s worth reading!

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…and then I reached his “Letter to a Future Leader”, included at the end of the book (p265) …

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This may be the first time you have read an article posted on our “Behind the Scenes” blog – or you might be a regular reader.

Whatever is the case for you, you will have formed some kind of impression about our company, and the type of B2B software services we provide.

As such, we’d like you to tell us what you think of us, as this will help us to continue to develop and enhance the services we provide – now into our 2nd decade of service.

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(Excuse the sad pun)

This week we went out for lunch with one of the guys in the office who was celebrating his birthday.  One of the small things we do in the company to celebrate the uniqueness of every individual (that’s a tick – thanks for suggesting it those years ago, Ricky).

Anyhow, as we were waiting for our meals to arrive in the local steakhouse and conversation drifted to some of the more detailed technical nature of software development, my mind began to wander (yeah, that’s a cross) and I pulled out the latest copy of INC, which had just arrived in the mail and started to browse (yeah, another cross)!

An article in the magazine caught my attention, as it provided a few pointers about the workplace culture that we are working to cultivate internally.

Given that I have been asked a couple of times this week by candidates for our Chief Software Engineer position about our culture (how it is now, and how we want to evolve it, over time), I thought it would be useful posting this (though I know it does not absolve me of the crosses above). read more »

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Had to chuckle one night last week when I saw (in one of the many books I am reading at present) the following passage:

When I was studying [about software] at [uni], it was common to talk to professors and students about new products.  We’d focus on what components these new software products used and how they compared against what could have been.  Value was … how much of the latest technologies they used.

Generally, we thought everything sucked.  Very few products survived our critiques.  We wondered why the marketplace was packed with mediocrity and disappointment.

We’d even invented geek conspiracy theories to explain the evil decisions, which we thought were made against engineering purity and thus made little or no sense to us.

Often, we’d focus blame on the marketing departments of these companies (not that many of us understood what marketers did).

Even in my first few years in the industry, the same kinds of conversations took place again and again.

Actually, it was more of a liberal dose of belly-laughter than just a chuckle, which brought a look of consternation from my wife.

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Here’s another back-dated post, with a date chosen shortly after Joel’s post to which it refers.  I’ve done this to ensure that these comments are read in context.

My apologies to those for whom this practice offends – as noted before, I believe ICT is an enabler, not an ends in itself (or, to put it another way, I am not interested in form without substance).

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1)     Introduction to Joel’s Post

Back on November 1st, Joel Spolsky made a post for Inc magazine entitled “Does Slow Growth Equal Slow Death?”.

One of the guys in the office found this, and it stimulated a bit of discussion internally about where our bus is headed (on a restricted post).  This was good, as we had commenced our Autopsy 2 process. read more »

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One of our central focuses back in our Business Autopsy in July (which we’re now starting to think of as Autopsy 1 - as distinct from the current Autopsy 2), was the fact that our software development processes were not up-to-scratch. read more »