The fat cat syndrome prevents innovation and opens the door for disruption What is the fat cat syndrome? Here are a few definitions: · The state of mind one possesses when one becomes so successful, he/she disregards the inefficiencies and lost opportunities - http://bit.ly/2QQpik6 · Fat cat is a political term originally describing a rich political donor , also called an angel or big money man - http://bit.ly/2Za5hrH · The fat cat syndrome is categorized by an overriding passion for position and power - http://bit.ly/2Zcz2YR I think the most appropriate description comes from Adam Grant: “What's the best time to shake things up? In most workplaces, it happens when you're struggling. When the chips are down, you're desperate, and you have nothing to lose by taking som...
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Is it technically working or does it work for me?
Recently I did switch from a glass fiber provider (for tv, telephone, internet) to another cable provider. I must admit that the reason was a slight dissatisfaction with the original provider as well as a cheaper offer for similar services. The first nuisance is the time that they are planning to visit you. They said that they would arrive between 8.00 am and 1.00 pm. Even when asked a day early they could not give me an exact timing. This is really annoying and inconvenient, as I could not even go to the bathroom in the waiting time. Then the (subcontracted) engineer did install everything. Your house looks like you haven’t cleaned in weeks, when he is finished. He did check for himself, whether everything was working. Apparently it did work (to HIS satisfaction) and that is what he said, “it all works fine”. And then he left as his job was done. He did not give me any advice on how to use the stuff. E.g. I had no clue how to install my new voice mail (which number to ca...
To ‘self-service’ or not to
Recently I was on Schiphol airport, where I did engage with some new self-service facilities. In general I do like technology innovations. However, they should be easy to use and these self-service facilities should work faster and with less faults/mistakes than human beings. That was not the case, so I think that these facilities were not professionally enough to be used. Let me share some examples. For the passport control there was a row of machines installed, which were supposed to read my passport and literally open the gate if I was cleared to proceed. However, I would say that it didn’t work for one in four of the cases, so there were still two officers there to do the manual check. I did ask one of them what their experience was and he said that they (police) were not ready to accept these machines from the airport yet, as they were not working properly. So, clearly the testing of the machines was not done properly and the travellers were used as guinea pigs. ...