Move Forward One Step…
March 16, 2008
As we continue to experience the global economic correction in the US economy, we hear about the perfect storm: inflation, recession, credit markets becoming unbelievably tight, and the general struggle with the value of the dollar. Day after day, this is all we hear, and yet, if you read a lot of financial performance news, you understand that many companies are at or ahead of their forecasts and the economy is more sound. Who’s right?
What you can’t do is bury yourself in the sand. “No action” tends to be the less-than-optimal solution, for sure. “Back to the basics” theory historically says, “one step at a time” and you’ll have a lot of progress in anything you try to accomplish.
It is the same way for the world of Fine Arts. Cincinnati, Ohio, has historically made an economic name for itself as a predominant manufacturing economy. It is more likely that a person outside of this area knows Cincinnati as a sports town with the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals. In fact, Cincinnati is really a “Fine Arts” town. At the center of the Fine Arts is the Cincinnati “Fine Arts Fund.” It is distinguished by having the oldest arts fund in the United States. Founded by the esteemed Charles Taft in 1923, the fund has continued to grow and prosper supporting hundreds of fine arts organizations and programs over the years.
Did you know that a lot of IT professionals are also artists? I know several that are musicians and still play in bands. Others are artists using paint and other medium. We once even had a former ballet dancer as a client-server developer! I’m a brass guy (trumpet) that now is constantly playing jazz on my Gibson Les Paul guitar. On this last week’s business trip to New York, I crashed in on Stanley Jordan at the Iridium Jazz Club, one of my favorite hideouts in New York. Stanley is still young looking and fresh. In fact, he told me afterwards that he’s 48 and playing as well as ever. I purchased a CD from him that I have never heard of before: “Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations.” It’s a 60-minute jazz guitar solo. Perhaps we play it for our economy!!!
LÛCRUM continues to be a great supporter of philanthropic causes in the greater Cincinnati community. This year, LÛCRUM is proud to participate in our first Fine Arts Fund Campaign. As you may or may not know, the Fine Arts Organization is also one of our clients. In addition to being a client of LÛCRUM, the Fine Arts Fund (FAF) does wonderful work within the Cincinnati community and throughout the region supporting more than 95 arts organizations, promoting the arts, and developing outreach programs to thousands of area schoolchildren.
Recently, LÛCRUM and the Fine Arts Fund co-hosted an “IT Entrepreneur Leadership Networking Event” late last month with Chris Hjelm, CIO, of Kroger, as the guest speaker. Chris’ talent outside of being an IT executive, is that he’s a weekend chef. Cherry pies, chili, and other delights can be found at the Hjelm residence.
LÛCRUM put a lot of time and effort into making this year’s campaign as well as making a modest monetary commitment. From a time and effort contribution, I am committed to doing as much as possible to support the FAF in their efforts to reach the $12 million goal set for the 2008 Campaign.
Did you know that if you give a personal gift this year of $75 or more, you get to receive the “Fine Arts Fun Card.” This discount card allows you to enjoy the arts and save money at the same time! There are even more benefits for donors at the $150 and $500 levels in 2008. Please go to
Breathe deep and keep taking “another step!”
Chief Cook or Manager?
February 18, 2008
When I was 16, I worked at The Beach Waterpark. By the end of my first summer, I was promoted to a “Lead Sales” position. This was one step below “Supervisor” and I really wanted to be a Supervisor. In order to move up, I took on any assignment that I was given. I moved around a lot and I learned from my Supervisor all the necessary tasks (like timesheets, money management, scheduling, etc.) and by the end of the second summer, I was promoted. Once I made it to Supervisor, it became my job to start identifying the next person that should become the next Lead Sales.
I worked in the largest food stand in the park. Things that were important in that stand were effeciency, cleanliness and timeliness. Essentially, we needed to serve the customers quickly, get them the right order, and keep the place clean. So, who to promote? Which of those qualities were most important and which would get you promoted quickly. The truth? None! What I learned when I was 17 was that just because you were great at your job, did not mean that you would be great at managing people. By promoting our fastest, cleanest, most efficient cook, we had to teach someone (who wasn’t interested), how to do timesheets, balance a cash drawer and order inventory. Now I had 2 problems:
1. I was 1 cook short and
2. My cook had no interest in cash drawers, inventory and timesheets.
I have found that the IT industry has similar challenges. We want to recognize and reward our best employees with advancement, but the only track available is typically to advance into management. For most technologists, this is not interesting or rewarding and we lose the best architect or developer in the process. Seems to me that we need to recognize that the advancement path for a technical person is not into management (most of the time). So what is the right path? It seems to me that a truly technical person wants to be recognized for their accomplishments and wants to take on bigger technology challenges. How can we make these fit together? Seems to me that there should be a track for that. A track that allows a person to grow into a leadership role that is more creative, challenging and innovative. The trick is to still give them a voice on the senior team, and remove the management responsibility. Is that possible? I’d love to hear your thoughts…