I overheard a meeting conducted by the C-suite of my husband’s company this morning. The first item on the agenda was telling people how quickly they were going to force everyone back into the office (by the end of May). From there they went on to explain how this pandemic has affected different types of businesses. Most of which was common sense, but then they classified themselves as an accounting firm. That isn’t true. They are a software company that writes programs for accounting firms. That’s a BIG difference.
Now, I understand that there is a lot of pressure running a company, but to run one, you need to at least understand what that company does. This extremely vital misunderstanding of the company’s primary role explains many of the misguided decision that they’ve made. One of the most profound is keeping development and product in two separate departments, then giving product complete control over the development cycle. I know that many companies do similar things, but in this company, the product department has no clue about the product. Not good.
This meeting got even worse. After firing several people during this pandemic recession because the company did not reach their goal growth, the C-suite reported in this meeting that the company is doing very well. The irony made me want to scream, “no, the numbers show you the illusion of doing well because you just fired a bunch of people!”
This company is just an example of how most American companies work. There is no focus on the future. No one cares about true stability. No one wants a quality product that actually fills a need. All these people are concerned about is whether the numbers in the book…right now…show a profit. In this case, it doesn’t even matter if the people leading the company even know what the company really does.
The solution is so simple. If C-level executives took a broader look at their numbers; if they would plan for several years ahead rather than three months (a quarter), it would make a huge difference in the company and the lives of the employees. Investing a few hours to learn about Agile would give C-level executive the insight they need to create proper agile teams. Finally, stepping out of the office once in a while, and actually seeing what the company does would resolve grave misunderstandings–like not knowing what product your company actually makes.
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