The Leader's Ship

 Organizational Leadership
July 1, 2013

I have seen so many articles describing the enumerated habits of effective leaders, from what they eat, to how they phrase an email, and while intriguing and a good idea to study, this subject has been written to the point there is very few surprises. Most seem to paint a picture of a leader as the captain of a ship ordering his crew so that one boat reaches a safe port. While I imagine leaders who are admirals of a fleet of ships, or maybe a flotilla.

This also leads to other interesting questions such as why some groups of people are more effective at providing leadership throughout the world, throughout their nation or throughout their industry.  Not just one individual motivating people, but an organization motivating their entire ecosystem to follow.

Since July 4th almost here, I am reminded as always of The Declaration of Independence which I think is one of the best examples of a group of people coming together and declaring not just that the citizens of one country were free, but that “all men are created equal”. While one man slaved and wrote the document, the adoption was by a group, and the US was birthed. The United States revolution inspired the French revolution, Haiti’s revolution and independence in other Latin American countries.

Mercedes Benz’s innovations starting with the automobile itself, continued with the modern car design by lowering the chassis, four wheel brakes, crumple zones, airbags and an exterior body line that most car companies still strive to copy. Their automobiles continue to vary the exterior design, and remain one of the top luxury brands. Mercedes Benz has lead the automobile industry from the very beginning and they still produce innovations that are coveted and copied by other car manufacturers.

The sixties produced large anti-war demonstrations, which while having many leadership figures they were mainly composed of smaller groups of college aged men and women who challenged the past US actions and were able to dictate US foreign policy, along with other social changes.

Many people in the precursor to the Internet had shareware and provided free and donation software, but Netscape is the first company I know of that released fully functional free products alongside a similar premium software product, for which they charged money. This now seems to be the industry standard for most small to medium software companies.

In the same time frame other revolutions have failed, car company innovations such as push button transmissions and front wheel drive have either disappeared completely tor failed to gain traction for decades. Demonstrations such as the 99%, while having some victories have not dictated the US financial policies.

Here is why I think the above examples succeed, not only in accomplishing their goal, but inspiring a generation, or generations to follow.

The United States’s Declaration of Independence while stating lofty almost unattainable goals, had a direct purpose, a single villain not overly broad, not impossible. This piece of parchment stated what every American knew in their heart of hearts. From this example I believe the lessons are clear.  And they signed their names, providing not only lip service to their objective, but putting a target on their back which they wore proudly.

Mercedes Benz’s innovations are many, but most involve safety. These are almost unnoticeable improvements. Perhaps Mercedes Benz was the first automobile manufacturer to realize that if your customers don’t die, they will come back and buy again. Also, with many of the safety innovations Mercedes Benz choose not to defend their patents, which helped spread adoption.

The sixties protests had primarily one goal, to stop the war on Vietnam. With this as the primary objective eventually they succeeded.

While Netscape may not be around anymore their influence is still felt on every desktop, laptop and mobile device.

These nations, companies, students made their trail easy to follow, not just for the members of their own group but for everyone in their ecosystem. They lowered the bar for entry, such as Mercedes Benz not defending some of their safety patents and The United States with the Monroe Doctrine. Finally they had a laser focus on the end goal a single definable destination.

Apple and Google follow these practices religiously, Apple never has too many versions of the iPhone products supported and Google regularly takes an axe to products such as wave and google reader to make room for their next innovation.

While leaders do deserve a large amount of credit, its is the group mindset, mythology and doctrine which will determine whether they are successful in leading others in the industry to follow their path.

wdnii

  © 2013 Norris Proprietaries Inc. 

Interviewing the Company

Interviewing: A First Person Perspective
June 24, 2013

Before I begin this unapologetic look at one of my most recent interviewing experiences, I would like to say that this experience has not been typical. I have worked with very knowledgeable recruiters and human resource departments in the past and present, who have offered much needed advice, guidance and worked diligently to identify positions and companies where we both have thrived.

I have left the recruiting company and interviewing company names redacted, because I am not trying to embarrass anyone, but hope that this negative experience provides better service.

My phone rang, and the recruiter on the other end detailed a job which sounded tailored almost exactly to my qualifications. I recognized the agency immediately, very well known and respected throughout the Information Technology industry. Eagerly I accepted  and scheduled the invitation for a phone screening.

After passing the recruiter’s phone screen, which consisted of just answering in the affirmative that I knew certain buzzwords; the recruiter passed along which company name at which I was going to be interviewing. I immediately remembered interviewing for almost the same position two years ago. I distinctly remember that their culture was not a good fit at the time. Same recruiting company, same end company. I was hoping they were much better than before and had progressed with their business outlook and internal information security issues.

The phone interview with the IT manager was almost exactly as before, his monotone questions and monologue showed a disinterest in his job, responsibilities and especially interviewing. He was unprepared, and as the conversation progressed the job requirements seemed to evolve. As he read more about what I have done in other companies his “Yeah, we need that too”, was repeated.

I accepted the onsite interview and decided to interview the company, and find out what they were really like. I have looked online to see company employee reviews, but honest internal company workings are almost never discussed, and rarely do I see reviews of recruiting companies. This particular recruiting company did not provide any additional information about the position, aside from what they had said on the phone. The better firms I have worked with in the past have been like AAA, they provide detailed maps, company history, places nearby to eat, even if the location is only a couple miles away. I always appreciate recruiters that take an interest in their job and build relationships with their clients and know their customers. This recruiter as not interested in either. But at this point I was not going to move forward with the position based on the phone interview, unless their office atmosphere was dynamically different than that  soulless manager’s voice projected over the wire.

I arrived, as usual, twenty minutes ahead of time, had their documentation printed, but their secretary had no idea there were any interviews scheduled or that anyone was expected. After a brief wait their Information Technology manager showed, and we went into his office. He asked what position I was interviewing for, and I related the title from the email correspondence and he said, “No, you are here about a different position”. I held back a small laugh, yes at that point I knew this was going to be a fun day.

In his office he sat behind his desk and fidgeted, then asked or a copy of my resume, and we sat in silence while he read.  Finally, he broke the silence and the interview process began in earnest, he began to mention the various projects that he needed complete, the list was very similar to their needs two years earlier. Same company, same security holes, just two years later. At this point I knew I was not moving forward with this company. I guess I could have walked out, but then I may not have had the funniest moments to relate here.

After just finishing reading my resume, he then began to recite my experience back to me, and incorrectly, I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I did correct him, “No, I am sorry, that is not a project I worked on”. Disinterested he glanced back at my resume and then he proceeded to look at the ceiling and relate his three years of experience with this company which from my take is really just the first three months of a typical startup. I listened intently and nodded appropriately and just noted to myself how clueless he was. He then proceeded to tell me that these were all project he could do himself, but I had a certification that he did not and that was the reason I was being considered.

He then brought in another employee to interview me in an old abandoned office that would have fit perfectly as a scene from The Walking Dead which I think is a distinct metaphor for the company I was interviewing. Yes, I was interviewing them.

The second interviewer kept putting his glasses on and taking them off, and sitting silently in a chair. He appeared to know nothing about the position, responsibilities and he asked very few questions. He looked as though he had never seen my resume before, and had no interest in doing the interview and in no rush to get back to work, even though I was recalling the long list of security projects that his manager had just told me he urgently needed completed. His words.

As I was leaving, they had violated so many security procedures I did cut them a break and return the badge they gave me at sign in. And with that, I mustered a hearty “Good Luck!” and was glad I had dodged that bullet two years ago.

wdnii

© 2013 Norris Proprietaries Incorporated

Finding, not Searching. The Theory of Answers.

Answer Theory
June 17, 2013

The question throughout human history has been how to find relevant information in the shortest amount of time; basically, to find the answer. I have always argued that people want to find the answer, not search.

The simplest solution has been to collect the information in some type of storage, memory, cave paintings, books, video, hard drives. And to pass that information from one person to another, via language, airwaves and networks, both social and digital. Currently "The Cloud" and "The Internet" seem to be the storage and information transit solutions.

Finding the answer from older storage solutions, like memory, books and even older computer mainframes required hours of manual labor, usually via an expert in the field, even after computers made information correlation faster and easier, still experts were required to find and provide answers. And these methods to supply answers were very expensive.

Ways to use the internet to generate answers evolved from the basic search functions, providing lists of links that anyone could view and determine which pieces were relevant, one distinction was that the question had to be asked, the other was that the links used very little information about who was asking the question. Probably the most used way to answer questions still in use, almost unchanged since Yahoo!

Some search engines use people to determine what the most likely searches people are making and tailor the results, like ask.com.

Social Information systems usually generate answers before requested based on a users biases and those of their friends. For example sending information on a concert before you even knew they were on tour. You no longer have to wait for an MTV news update. While being predictive social media sites generate noise, not every update is valuable information.

Hybrid answers are generated by combining the search methodology with social networking, having a user's search results influenced by their social media contacts, past searches and even current location. Google has various solutions which provide argumentatively better results using these methods.

A future successful version of the answer system would have less noise than social media systems, but provide relevant answers before a user asks. Google Now appears to do this by taking the most asked questions and dynamically providing the answer at the correct time, such as, "What will my commute home be like?"

And other solutions will use the phonemes from our searches to search youtube videos, music, tv shows and movies to provide better answers and better answer format. Of course this may bring an end to the #hashtag.

wdnii
© 2013 Norris Proprietaries Incorporated

Taught by Dad

Confidentiality

June 16, 2013

Growing up I lived in small towns all my life, and my father was one of the respected ministers in the community. These places were so small that everyone knew everyone else’s business and even my elementary school teachers were eager to discuss town gossip in front of the class.

One day Mrs. C walked into class after our recess and had a solemn expression on her face. We had all taken our places at our desks, and I was ready to engage her in our nap time game of chess as we usually dueled while the rest of the class slept.

Instead she came to my desk, and took me outside. She explained that another student in the class, I’ll just call him N, his parents were getting a divorce and she wanted me to talk with him about how things weren’t that bad. At this time I had no idea what a divorce even was, but she picked me because of my father’s position. So a few minutes later N came out, and we talked.

Late that night, when my father came home I talked with him about what happened, and he told me that I had been entrusted with a very important piece of someone’s life, and I shouldn’t relate that information to anyone, and so I never discussed what was said even to my teacher.

Later in High School, our house was egged, eggs thrown at the doors, windows and cars. The clean up was messy. I was furious, wanting to know who did this, and of course to find justice. My father sensing my anger took me aside and told me not to mention this incident, but always remember and one day someone would lapse and mention something that they shouldn’t know, and then I could find out who. But if I let them know that they had any effect, then they wouldn’t need to pry to see my reaction, and i would probably not discover who was behind the prank.

My father never speaks bad of anybody, but is opinionated about policies. He never rakes mud over someone discussing their infidelities or faults. He has never broken confidence about anything discussed with him. He is a role model for information security.

These incidents helped to teach me how to control and take care of confidential information. How to keep private incidents private and how bringing someone else down does not make you a better person, and to be wary of people who do.

Each of these life lessons can be applied to information security, determine which pieces of the company to keep private, even from other employees. Keeping failed attacks undisclosed can bring out who actually caused the attack, because they may not be able to determine if their attack succeeded. And pointing fingers without evidence only burns bridges.

Happy Father’s Day

wdnii

© 2013 Norris Proprietaries Incorporated

Information Aggregation

Information Visualization and Aggregation

June 10, 2013

The way I think of Information aggregation are processes which organize the incoming flow into various streams or channels, yes, channels like  television. These channels could be, for example, like sections of a newspaper, “Sports”, “Current”, “Politics”, and can be grouped further by how well you trust the source such as: qualified information, unqualified information and advertising Information, or by the information being pushed up or down by other site users, such as on reddit.

There are way too many applications to individually name, but I am particularly interested in mobile apps, and the best appear to be: Flipboard, Google Now, Google Currents and Taptu.

Taptu has a nice interface, but ignores social media sites and only has access to news.

Google Currents does not aggregate between information providers, so you cannot see just a general category of ‘Sports’. But you can view the articles in the LA Times, for example. The information display feels to be displayed more by a program than by human design.

Google Now places applications on the google search page to customize information selection and the display dynamic, such as providing current conditions effecting the daily commute.

Flipboard is one of the more interesting applications. They provide access to social networking posts from your friends, magazines, newspapers and current trending social networking and news feeds. Some of the magazine articles are the initial teaser and then you are prompted to subscribe if you want to read the entire article. Flipboard uses a pictorial interface, like an advanced Tumblr., and Flipboard does display Tumblr. blogs better than Tumblr. The interface feels designed, less robotic.

Finally Android OS and the various widgets can fit into this category allowing aggregation updates, but each widget has a slightly different look and feel, not providing a uniform experience.

Next I expect we will see News TV aggregation would pull out snippets of the news programs for you to view only on the topics you were interested. You could build your own 30 minute news TV show from the various programs. Probably a few copyright issues to clear first.

Another along the same thought would aggregate articles on a single topic eliminating redundancy creating one article with all of the information. Be kind of interesting to run editorials from opposing points of view.

And an aggregation stream that will include radio and social tv channels, along with social picture, blogs, and the pay for media sites.

Finally, the big changes will come when some company can provide a subscription service which includes most all of the various premium content for one monthly fee. This will encourage a pay stream for internet content which is currently underperforming compared to other content/information delivery systems.

wdnii

© 2013 Norris Proprietaries Incorporated