Bulldozer00's Blog

The figure below shows the perceived relative importance of groups in a typical corpricracy. The DICs, because they do the nasty stuff called work, are on the bottom. The R&D staff, because they are academically smarter than the DICsters, are next in line. Management, because….. they are managers, are of the utmost importance. Because of language differences and the entrenched graded scale of importance, there are huge communication gaps between the players in the “system“.

Now that the context has been established, let’s look at the dynamic interactions that take place (if they even do take place) between the R&D and product groups. On the left of the latest dorky Bulldozer00 figure below, we have the classic and ubiquitous “over the wall“, one way anti-pattern of excellence. New product and product enhancement gibberish gets tossed over the barrier and taken out to the trash. Meanwhile, like that liquid metal dude in Terminator II, the once vibrant product line freezes in place and competitors race ahead. Syonara dude.

An alternative way of birthing new products and imbuing aging product lines with promising technology enhancements is to temporarily rotate and embed members of the two groups within each other’s sterile environment. Of course, this alternative way of doin’ b’ness is rarely observed in the wild because it would disrupt the pyramid of importance and force members of one guild to learn the language and customs of the other – which is verboten! Meanwhile, Rome burns.