Corporate Immunity

Corporations have a "corporate immune system". Just as a biological immune system serves to protect its host from potentially damaging pathogens, the corporate immune system serves to protect the corporation from potentially damaging ideas. As the immune system is generally adaptive over time it becomes stronger, so the older the corporation the stronger its immune response becomes. This is why most old corporations are considered to be conservative in their approach to new ideas.

Unfortunately most large corporations have developed a hypersensitive immune system where the immune system actually serves to damage its host by attacking and failing to embrace new ideas which would be of benefit to the corporation.

Hypersensitive biological immune systems systems can be treated with medication but what is the appropriate treatment for a hypersensitive corporate immune system?

Walled Gardens 2

Fancy getting stuck in the lift overnight?


This reminds me of the BOFH, specifically this episode.

Institutionalisation

Terry is institutionalised. The structure and routine that Terry has followed for many years has lead to a narrowing and reduction in his ability to perform critical judgement and reasoning.

Just like a long term prisoner, Terry is surrounded by barriers that prevent his escape, only the barriers are often not imposed upon him but are of Terry's own making.

Unlike a prisoner, Terry does have the option of escape by seeking a new employer but, like many prisoners, escape is often not an option considered by Terry as his institutionalisation means he is unable to integrate himself back into the wider telecommunications society.

Terry has therefore condemned himself to a life sentence, where life means until retirement.

Is there anything we can do to help Terry reintegrate back into society?

Technology as a service

Terry doesn't sell services, he sells technology. This leads to a proliferation of service specific platforms, a migration nightmare for Terry's customers and additional costs for Terry as it makes platform closure more difficult than it should be.

What customers want is service, they don't (generally) care what the underlying technology is as long as their service requirements and SLAs are met.

Services should be decoupled from the technology used to deliver them. This has a number of advantages including:

- The ability to deliver the same service over a range of delivery technologies/networks (including ones that Terry does not own).
- The ability to change the delivery technology/network without having to change the service definition.
- The ability to offer converged services even if the underlying technology/network platforms aren't converged.
- Etc.

Terry is trying to decouple his services from the delivery technology but it requires a holistic approach and this is a new concept for Terry and one he is struggling with. By the time he gets there will it be too late?

Walled Gardens

Terry loves walled gardens. He appears to have extended the concept to his building security. As I was leaving tonight I saw a number of visitors trying to leave the building but their visitors badges did not work on the automatic security gates so they couldn't get out. What did Terry's security guard do? Open the gate for the visitors as you'd expect, oh no, he refused to let them out.

It would appear that Terry is no longer just a mindset, it's a disease and it's spreading. Time for mandatory vaccinations.

I was only following the project plan

Terry doesn't think for himself. Terry doesn't question his 'orders'. Terry doesn't or can't consider the big picture. All Terry cares about is ticking off the tasks in his project plan and delivering his project on time (which he frequently fails to do).

The result for Terry: An inability to offer truly converged services as each service is defined and delivered in isolation (on separate, often incompatible, platforms) without any consideration for the other services that Terry offers.

The result for Terry's customers: Frustration and confusion!

The solution: Terry should be held to account for his telecommunications crimes.

Terry Telco

Working in telecommunications means I regularly have to interact with people I will nickname 'Terry Telco' or 'Terry' for short. Terry often has a blinkered view of the world which I suspect is the result of the world of telecommunications evolving around him at a pace which is faster than he can adapt to. Terry is the telecommunications equivalent of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

I intend to use this blog to vent the frustration that Terry causes me on a daily basis as well as to publish the random thoughts and opinions that I am too polite to inflict on people in person.