On Any Sunday
JT Maloney
Hi –
Last Fall, I took a lot of heat here for suggesting Chapter 11 for US automakers and that GM kill Pontiac. People said it was a rant or over-the-top and castigated me. Both happened this week as predicted with confidence. Thanks for nothing. J
Quite simply, the value networks catechism allows you to see and think different. It confounds conventional wisdom and attenuates inertia. Value network leadership creates a shared imagination. Outcome focused, VNA logic furnishes clarity and authenticity. At last the unit of analysis is value. The semiotics are role, link, exchange. The milieu is living systems. VNA is long overdue.
Anyway, here are some basic clues that gave away the demise of GM’s Pontiac brand and Chrysler years ago.
Pontiac
1. Using 17th Century American Indians like Chief Pontiac for brands is obsolete and can be inappropriate.
2. Teen boy envy for GTOs, FireBirds, TransAms and KITT from “Knight Rider” do not make a viable market.
3. The redneck vanity plate “IEATZ28” belongs in some car museum along with all of NASCAR.
US Automakers
1. Entry-level salary $7.50 per hour; top salary $75,000.00 (sic) per hour.
2. World largest purchaser of the little-blue-pill and other ED treatments.
3. Three letters: UAW.
The buffoon Michael Moore’s satire of Roger Smith in “Roger and Me” greatly facilitated the demise of the US automakers. It made the logical, living system cycle of renewal and regeneration by closing of obsolete plants and company towns like Flint appear egregious and “un-American.”
On the contrary, if the cowardly Roger Smith, universally reviled as one of the worst CEOs of the 20 Century, had the courage and acumen to retire a half-dozen other plants and towns in the 1980s, in addition to Flint, GM and US automakers could have emerged strong and viable from the great industrial transformation of the 1980s. (The process revolution.) Moore got his $100M payday from the wallets of gullible saps and continues to exploit the same chumps he claims to look after.
(There is another great industrial, business and economic revolution underway, of course, The Network Revolution. Expect similar catastrophes like the US automakers from individuals, companies and economies that ignore it too. A good recent example of this network indifference is the foolish and expensive call-center/support outsourcing and offshoring craze. Good grief!)
A simple VNA would elaborate one grave defect of the US auto manufacturing business model: labor unions. Look, there are no more Triangle Shirtwaist companies where workers were genuinely exploited and needed protection. A simple VNA shows unions are loyal to their members; there is no mention, concern, time or interest for distant, foreign concepts like customers, products, innovation or markets. Unions exist to serve their members only -- not end customers. End of story. It is a failed, obsolete model and kills whole industries and economies.
Instead of practicing antagonistic collective bargaining like the UAW, the 21st Century workforce needs collective intelligence. That was the enormous value network shift in 1980s when most all non-US automakers adopted Lean and TPS. The UAW flatly and vociferously rejected it.
What the US automakers missed is how deeply Toyota, Honda and KIA, for example, value distributed knowledge and individuated and collective intelligence, aka, network phronesis. They missed the invisible and complex roles, links, exchanges, the sanguine human networks, needed for mutual support, productivity, innovation and favorable outcomes. These are the properties of prosperous value networks, authentic collaboration and thriving, competitive manufacturing ecosystems.
(Full disclosure: I worked at California’s only car plant, NUMMI (GM & Toyota), directing 60 software engineers. My favorite cars by far are a dead even tie between two “Unsafe at Any Speed” models both from the same year: the 1961 Dodge Dart and the Plymouth Valiant. With legacy like these models, it is very surprising Chrysler lasted this long… Good luck Fiat.)
-j
phronesis :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phronesis
Dart: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Dart
Valiant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Valiant
Matt Moore
John
Given the number of rants you make, some of them will come true simply by the law of averages.
If you want to make 20 predictions with measurable outcomes for the next 12 months then we can check in down the track and you may get your "prophet" badge. Or not.
Cheers,
Matt
David Meggitt
You took a lot the first time when you first established this group,
amidst the cries of those who wished your downfall, but, I for one am
happy to assert that I'd be very happy to have you as a companion in
the jungle!
Regards, D
On May 3, 6:52 pm, "JT Maloney" <jheuris...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi -
JT Maloney
Hi Matt --
"If you want to make 20 predictions with
measurable outcomes for the next 12 months
then we can check in down the track and you may get your "prophet"
badge. Or not."
Already doing that... Thanks a lot for asking. You are highly apropos as usual. (Promise: I swear did NOT ask Matt for the setup…)
You (all) may want to try it. Here is a good place to start.
http://iehm.uiowa.edu/iehm/trnmt/trnmt.html?symbol=swine_flu
For enterprise (knowledge markets are exploding), try these hot innovators and entrepreneurs --
NewsFutures http://us.newsfutures.com/home/home.html
Crowdcast http://www.crowdcast.com/
ConsensusPoint http://www.consensuspoint.com/
Tell 'em who sent ya for special dispensation.
Also, note this...
"By very popular demand, we are pleased to announce on behalf of the PM Clusters the Midwest Collective Intelligence Action/Research Cluster on Thursday 18 June 2009 sponsored by the Carlson School of Management and the Management Information Services Research Center (MISRC) at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN USA." Register here...
http://www.regonline.com/Checkin.asp?EventId=731171
Network structure and exchanges are interpedently and inexorably intertwined with market dynamics and v/v.
In the meantime, would you like to be 'rant patrol' for the discussion group? Not sure we have that role.
Here’s our mantra: networks and markets ó markets and networks, networks and markets ó markets and networks, networks and markets ó markets and networks!... Ohmmmmm. J J J
Thanks again Matt.
Cheers,
John
JT Maloney
Hi -- Yeah, thanks. The occasional motive is using rhetorical devices to generate heat that creates light. The genius of VNA is that it allow speaking truth to power in visual ways that can be even more powerful than rhetoric. VNA is comprehensive, leaving nothing out… and leaving nothing in that superfluous to mission. This allows dramatically limiting heat, and optimizing light. Really, VNA is the first time I've seen this done in a way that is so effective and efficient in the enterprise and rigid institutional settings. Still, it is important to be prudent, since the profound knowledge of VNA, empirical network analysis and intense light of network comprehension has the potential to blind bureaucrats, hierarchies and entrenched empires. It can create rejection and disbelief when the natural order, the informal networks and living system are revealed for the first time. All network analysis practitioners have their favorite story of the network structure and analysis being buried because it was way too much to handle organizationally. Best to proceed gradually, recognizing the great power and utility of VNA, and tackle small, but critical, highly visible opportunities first. –j
P.S. BTW, very good growth in your group over the years. After all housekeeping there are ~800 members now. Even faster growth in your LinkedIn group, up 64% in members since 1 Jan 2009. All need to join to see each other, see:
-----Original Message-----
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com]
On Behalf Of David Meggitt
Sent: Sunday, May 03, 2009 2:35 PM
To: Value Networks
Subject: Re: On Any Sunday
John, you often take a lot of heat; maybe some justified!
Brad Hoyt
in my spam bucket while other Value Network items did not...
You rant and rave John, but most of the time I must agree with you. I
certainly agreed with you about GM. The WSJ had a good opinion piece
yesterday on how Ford got it right and my be penalized for being a good
corporate steward.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124199912671905001.html#mod=article-outset-box
brad
JT Maloney wrote:
>
> Hi –
>
>
>
> Last Fall, I took a lot of heat here for suggesting *Chapter 11* for
> US automakers and that *GM *kill *Pontiac*. People said it was a rant
> predicted with confidence. Thanks for nothing. J
>
>
>
> Quite simply, the value networks catechism allows you to see and think
> different. It confounds conventional wisdom and attenuates inertia.
> Value network leadership creates a shared imagination. Outcome
> focused, VNA logic furnishes clarity and authenticity. At last the
> The milieu is /living systems/. VNA is long overdue.
>
>
> Anyway, here are some basic clues that gave away the demise of GM’s
>
>
>
> *Pontiac*
>
>
>
> 1. Using* 17^th Century American Indians *like *Chief Pontiac *for*
> *brands is obsolete and can be inappropriate.
>
> 2. Teen boy envy for *GTO*s, *FireBird*s, *TransAm*s and *KITT*
> from “*Knight Rider*” do not make a viable market.
>
> 3. The redneck vanity plate “*IEATZ28*” belongs in some car museum
> along with all of* NASCAR*.
>
>
>
> *US Automakers*
>
>
>
> 1. Entry-level salary *$7.50 per hour*; top salary *$75,000.00
> *(sic) *per hour*.
> 2. World largest purchaser of the little-blue-pill and other ED
> treatments.
>
>
>
>
> The buffoon *Michael Moore’s* satire of *Roger Smith* in “/Roger and
> Me/” greatly facilitated the demise of the US automakers. It made the
> “/un-American./”
>
>
>
> On the contrary, if the cowardly *Roger Smith*, universally reviled as
> addition_ /to Flint, GM and US automakers could have emerged strong
> process revolution.) Moore got his $100M payday from the wallets of
> gullible saps and continues to exploit the same chumps he claims to
> look after.
>
>
>
> (There is another great industrial, business and economic revolution
> economies that ignore it too. A good recent example of this network
> indifference is the foolish and expensive call-center/support
> outsourcing and offshoring craze. Good grief!)
>
>
>
> A simple VNA would elaborate one grave defect of the US auto
> *Triangle Shirtwaist *companies where workers were genuinely exploited
> members; there is no mention, concern, time or interest for distant,
> Unions exist to serve their members only -- /not end customers/. End
> and economies.
>
>
>
> UAW, the *21^st Century* workforce needs /collective intelligence/.
> That was the enormous /value network shift/ in 1980s when most all
> non-US automakers adopted *Lean* and *TPS*. The UAW flatly and
> vociferously rejected it.
>
>
>
> What the US automakers missed is how deeply *Toyota, Honda* and *KIA*,
> for example, /value distributed knowledge and individuated and
> collective intelligence, aka, network phronesis./ They missed the
> invisible and complex roles, links, exchanges, /the sanguine human
> networks/, needed for mutual support, productivity, innovation and
> networks, authentic collaboration and thriving, competitive
> manufacturing ecosystems.
>
>
>
> & Toyota)*, directing 60 software engineers. My favorite cars by far
> are a dead even tie between two “/Unsafe at Any Speed/” models both
> from the same year: the 1961 *Dodge* *Dart* and the *Plymouth
> Valiant*. With legacy like these models, it is very surprising
>
>
>
> -j
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Dart:* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Dart
>
> *Valiant*: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Valiant
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
--
Brad Hoyt
Hoyt Consulting - Helping Organizations Leverage Their Know-how
www.hoytconsulting.com
Office: +1 515.949.3133
Mobile: +1 515.306.1544
fax: +1 515.322.0672
http://xri.net/=Brad.Hoyt
"In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H Club -- the "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history." -- Spiro T. Agnew, 9/11/70
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John Maloney
"... most of the time I must agree with you."
Yeah, thanks. When I set out to found ValueNetworks.com with Verna and Oliver in early 2006, I knew it would take an enormous effort to remediate the enterprise zeitgeist. The siren song of process, reengineering and hierarchy was landing the enterprise ship on the rocks over and over.
Valuenetworks.com introduces the intentional networks, method and software technology necessary to achieve broad syndication of network, role, value and intangible archetypes in the enterprise. ValueNetworks.com technology, technique and incisive conversations have proven to be highly instrumental to business, economies, the environment and civil society as they accelerates their headlong flight to our shared value network future.
Along the way, on the road to organizational innovation and technology diffusion, I occasionally need to grill some hamburgers from the sacred cows. For example, in the 1980s revolution from function to process, my common 'rant' was creating 'cross-functional teams' and driving SWQA techniques. At the same period, early 80s, My 'rave' was evangelizing and implementing decisive internetworking of hundreds and hundreds of millions of computers with TCP/IP. It made some people very uncomfortable. It goes with the territory. The current rhetoric pales in comparison. I have the arrows in my back.
The rest, of course, is history.
What works particularly well for industrial transformation and innovation is specific triangulation of enterprise, entrepreneurs, investors and scholars. That's what we pursue here and practice across the network milieu. It is very effective.
Please note other recent comments here (rant?) about the very poor and harmful advice from the Bermuda-based tax-dodge company known as Accenture and its acolytes. Again, they were absolutely spot-on! The gratuitous outsourcers and their tax-dodging ilk have aggrieved the wrong people this time. Finally, they are getting their well-deserved comeuppance from the Obama Administration. Headline: "Obama to deny tax breaks to companies that send American jobs overseas." Finally!
Same goes for banking. I lived in Switzerland for a long time. I am very familiar with the "& Cie." banking community. I have an account. While a 'tax holiday' for repatriation of wealth would have been preferred, it is about time to close these misused shelters.
Overall, this commentary informs the value networks transformation. If you ever don't like these so-called rants, you may write Obama: http://whitehouse.gov/, not me.
Meanwhile, 4-years after launching ValueNetworks.com, there are very encouraging signs. One is the rise of whole system thinking and adoption of the network visualization tools rqr'd for mastery of complex business and organizations. Today, for example, it is fashionable to talk about heterarchy - a system of organization with overlap, multiplicity, mixed ascendancy, and/or divergent-but-coexistent patterns of complex relationships and networks.
It is nice, a step in the right direction, but not enough. In successful business, economies, the environment and civil societies, the patterns and configurations are more akin to network holoarchy. To paraphrase and adapt D. Spangler, in hierarchy and heterarchy, participants and value is often compared and evaluated on the basis of position, rank, relative power and seniority. However, in a holoarchy each person’s value originates from his or her individuality, uniqueness and network capacity. The network holoarchy engages and interacts with others in the marketplace. The holoarchy makes individuated and collective value available, propels innovation and achieves prosperous value network outcomes for all.
Cheers,
-j
-----Original Message-----
From: Value-N...@googlegroups.com [mailto:Value-N...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Brad Hoyt
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:24 AM
To: Value-N...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: On Any Sunday
