Tainted by Lucent
Apr. 12th, 2002 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yesthattomI work at a startup. We're fast-paced, fearless, and fun.
My previous job was at Lucent Technologies. A company doing so badly that, well, their stock price fell 90% a year or two ago. I used to joke that Lucent is full of lazy slobs that don't care about anything but protecting their own asses. "How many people work at Lucent?" "Oh, about half of them."
However, I always felt that I had escaped that culture before it affected me.
This week I got a real shock of reality that made me realize a lot about how working at Lucent for 7 years did affect me.
Our new (relatively new) CEO this week explained that we, as managers, should set high standards, and then expect people to exceed them.
Let me repeat that. We should set HIGH standards, and then expect people to EXCEED them.
This is revolutionary to me. I'm not kidding here. This is really revolutionary to me. It hit me like a rock. I was stunned. It stunned me because I realized that I had *never* heard it before.
THAT'S WHAT WAS WRONG WITH LUCENT.
I had spent 7 years at Lucent. At every turn I was always told to set a low bar and you'll always look good. This has _got_ to be the difference between loser companies like Lucent and high impact, high functioning startups like where I work now.
Now if that isn't scary enough, here'ls what 7 years at Lucent did to me. When the CEO said, "Set high standards" I was pretty shocked but I figured the next part would be "and expect people to meet them." The reason the whole incident was so shocking... shocking enough to post this to LiveJouranl... is that I was surprised when he then said "and expect people to exceed them".
Exceed them? Gosh, that must be what GOOD companies do.
Holy shit. No wonder Lucent is so fucked up.
And no wonder why I'm so happy to be employed where I am today.
P.S. Once I was on a 1 billion dollar project at Lucent. Billion with a "B". The goal was to spend a billion dollars before anyone figured out that we weren't doing anything. Oddly enough, even on that project we were constantly told to set a low bar.
My previous job was at Lucent Technologies. A company doing so badly that, well, their stock price fell 90% a year or two ago. I used to joke that Lucent is full of lazy slobs that don't care about anything but protecting their own asses. "How many people work at Lucent?" "Oh, about half of them."
However, I always felt that I had escaped that culture before it affected me.
This week I got a real shock of reality that made me realize a lot about how working at Lucent for 7 years did affect me.
Our new (relatively new) CEO this week explained that we, as managers, should set high standards, and then expect people to exceed them.
Let me repeat that. We should set HIGH standards, and then expect people to EXCEED them.
This is revolutionary to me. I'm not kidding here. This is really revolutionary to me. It hit me like a rock. I was stunned. It stunned me because I realized that I had *never* heard it before.
THAT'S WHAT WAS WRONG WITH LUCENT.
I had spent 7 years at Lucent. At every turn I was always told to set a low bar and you'll always look good. This has _got_ to be the difference between loser companies like Lucent and high impact, high functioning startups like where I work now.
Now if that isn't scary enough, here'ls what 7 years at Lucent did to me. When the CEO said, "Set high standards" I was pretty shocked but I figured the next part would be "and expect people to meet them." The reason the whole incident was so shocking... shocking enough to post this to LiveJouranl... is that I was surprised when he then said "and expect people to exceed them".
Exceed them? Gosh, that must be what GOOD companies do.
Holy shit. No wonder Lucent is so fucked up.
And no wonder why I'm so happy to be employed where I am today.
P.S. Once I was on a 1 billion dollar project at Lucent. Billion with a "B". The goal was to spend a billion dollars before anyone figured out that we weren't doing anything. Oddly enough, even on that project we were constantly told to set a low bar.
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Date: 2002-04-13 03:00 pm (UTC)But for the most part, you're right. Lucent, like Polaroid, DuPont, IBM, and so on, is a holdover company from the "old economy", one that built itself on the legions of "organization men" who got jobs there after graduating college and expected to work there forty or more years until retirement. That sort of job security was considered a feature by a lot of people, but it was also insidious. It's a demotivator. One the one hand, sometimes the young folks at such a place can be pretty innovative, but by the time they hit their mid 40s to early 50s and they've maxed out their career progressions they no longer have a carrot to prod them along. Without the implied threat of layoff or termination if they screw up or if they're no longer useful to the company there's no stick either.
The "old economy" companies that have been successful have largely been the ones that have realized that they could no longer do business that way. Still, it's tough to stamp out 60+ years of corporate culture.