How can you not know your industry?

[Nathan_Bell]

[rant]

Was at a cook out last evening. Started BS ing with some folk and was truly disgusted by their knowledge of their industries.

One of the guys is a VP for a company that does stamping for GM. He could not answer any questions about the process or materiel, nor could he discuss in an informed way what part of the cars the stampings would be for. But he sure knew football and golf!

The other was a manager at an electrical contractor supply house, I think I know as much about quality electrical components as he did. He knew baseball, in addition to the aforementioned football and golf.

How the hell can folk get to managerial or worse yet executive levels without truly knowing the industry that they are in? Drives me up the wall.

I did get a slightly more warm and fuzzy feeling when the ladies who were involved in health care got into a rather indepth (lost me at the second set of acronyms) discussion about their jobs and how the 2 different states they operate in differed.

So I guess when the car you buy, or the breaker box you buy is AFU, because those that supply the components are clueless, and you end up needing several months worth of rehab. You will be ok.

[/rant off]

[Derek_Connor]

[rant]



How the hell can folk get to managerial or worse yet executive levels without truly knowing the industry that they are in? Drives me up the wall.


[/rant off]

I see your point, but at the same time you dont have to know about the product to be able to manage the people who do. Managers are good with people, logistics and making those two mesh.

Getting an MBA is valuable I think for the very reason above, there are no VERY specific MBA degrees, there are some out there specializing now. The companies want to know that you have an advanced understanding of business principles, and how to manage people and make decisions.

I could be way off on this one..just my initial thoughts.

FWIW, not a MBA here. <-- Science geek.

[Nathan_Bell]

I see your point, but at the same time you dont have to know about the product to be able to manage the people who do. Managers are good with people, logistics and making those two mesh.

Getting an MBA is valuable I think for the very reason above, there are no VERY specific MBA degrees, there are some out there specializing now. The companies want to know that you have an advanced understanding of business principles, and how to manage people and make decisions.

I could be way off on this one..just my initial thoughts.

FWIW, not a MBA here. <-- Science geek.

The problem with that approach, is that if you do not know your product and industry, you are at a disadvantage with regards to any type of innovation or gains in real efficiencies. If you do not know the system intimately, and a guy from the line tells you " Changing x will give us y-ish results" how do you evaluate that? You cannot, if your previous job was as a manager at a shipping company, but you were hired into this company because you can manage and plan.

This was not an indictment of the guys, but of the corporate culture that spawned them.

[rob_s]

I'm a project manager for a general contractor. I actually enjoy getting into the construction aspect, but in truth my job is to shuffle papers and make the finances work and keep the money flowing. Every hour I spend on the jobsite is another hour that paperwork isn't getting done, and often means another hour later I have to stay at work that night.

I still do it, as I prefer the company of the guys in the field to that of the guys in the office, but I can easily see how some of my peers wind up knowing virtually nothing about the field. Frankly it really doesn't matter if they do or not, and it would be virtually impossible for us to know everything.

[R Moran]

[
How the hell can folk get to managerial or worse yet executive levels without truly knowing the industry that they are in? Drives me up the wall.
[/rant off]

So many people are promoted beyond their ability, its pathetic.

A job/promotion interview is usually a popularity contest, rather then a skills or knowledge assesment.

I've seen people promoted to get them out of the union, so they can be fired. Haven't seen that work yet.

I've seen them promoted to make them scape goats down the road.

FWIW, most of these guys, will start to truly believe their own BS, and willtake on jobs way beyond their ability, with no one to cover up for them. THats when they get what they deserve.

Bob

[LOKNLOD]

Rob and Derek are right about management skills and practical knowledge not always meshing up and you're right about corporate culture being out of whack.

There is an opposite end of that same problem -- overly involved micromanagers that have their fingers in everything all the way down the ladder. I'm a project engineer in a manufacturing plant and our plant manager is just that - he thinks he knows everything and keeps us crippled half the time because no decision can be made without him (down the minor details like painting a line on the floor). He is very knowledgeable, but he's surrounded himself with area managers who aren't, so that he can lord himself over them more. The whole place is a fustercluck and is being run into the ground.

Once you get to high enough levels of management, you can't be as highly involved in the technical side of things. Your job is to take input from the guys that do know what's going on, and make the big decisions. It is important that you understand the implications and are informed. Kind of like the POTUS can't know and personally manage everything that's going on in nation.

What sucks is that corporate America has replaced leadership with management, and doesn't understand the difference. Guys that can manage inventory like champs don't necessarily lead people as effectively.

And for better or worse, those guys are good at talking sports and golf because a lot of their job is talking sports and golf with other guys at their level....

[R Moran]

What sucks is that corporate America has replaced leadership with management, and doesn't understand the difference.

Bingo!!

Bob

[Harv]

LokNLod

There is an opposite end of that same problem -- overly involved micromanagers that have their fingers in everything all the way down the ladder. I'm a project engineer in a manufacturing plant and our plant manager is just that - he thinks he knows everything and keeps us crippled half the time because no decision can be made without him (down the minor details like painting a line on the floor). He is very knowledgeable, but he's surrounded himself with area managers who aren't, so that he can lord himself over them more. The whole place is a fustercluck and is being run into the ground.

Wholly Crap... when did you start working at the same place I do......

That's an excellent description and is dead nuts on to my plant.

See.. I grew up from the production floor on up.. but our Plant Mgr did not.. he came from a totally different industry (Electronic Assembly) and that is his major...so he know's zip about printing....but yet you would never know it the way he talks...

Thank God I escaped our from under him....now I just have fun proving him wrong all the time....

[-Wes-]

Also sounds just like Naval Aviation.

[Jay Cunningham]

One of the guys is a VP for a company that does stamping for GM. He could not answer any questions about the process or materiel, nor could he discuss in an informed way what part of the cars the stampings would be for. But he sure knew football and golf!

The other was a manager at an electrical contractor supply house, I think I know as much about quality electrical components as he did. He knew baseball, in addition to the aforementioned football and golf.

It seems that nearly all guys I interact with on a daily basis are sports-obsessed. I never understood the obsession with watching sports, as I always felt there was something more interesting to discuss or actually do. I have been in numerous situations where I've been introduced to another guy and he immediately begins quizzing me on sports. Then I get the awkward pause and the guppy-look when I smile and say, "I really don't follow sports."

I would rather spend a good two or three hours at the range practicing than watching other men accomplish athletic activities.