(no subject)

[yesthattom]

"Business is a repeatable process that generates money"

I've never heard it expressed that way. Very interesting.

That's why sysadmins aren't in "business". We don't make repeatable processes. Well, I do. I think that's why people look at my funny... especially when I automate little things that might otherwise stay manual.

I want to be in business.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

One of the difficulties with being in IS lies in justifying your salary, or in quantifying your worth to the company, when you are in fact a cost center and not something like sales which generates revenue. How do you quantify the value of those little processes that you automate? I think in an era when more and more of us (and/or our managers) have to justify our jobs to upper management who may not understand WIITWD, it'd be good to have a way to do that.

Since we're not bean counters we often don't see the final numbers either. Maybe we see some numbers on an invoice for equipment that we ordered but that's about it.

If nothing else, if they finally *do* cut you loose, "Saved $EMPLOYER $75,000 pa by automating repetitive tasks" or whatever would be a good thing to put on your resume as an accomplishment.

[baerana.livejournal.com]

one of my best friends, who is somewhat of a mentor to me, in that she went into a position very few women did at the time, and 15 years ago, when I started in IT/IS, there weren't bus loads of women, is basically a tax accountant. There is actually a lot more to it than that - like, if the company gets their product delivered in company x then drives them over to company y it saves then a zillion dollars in taxes (and is all legal). (doing business in europe is a giant PITA and if you aren't careful and smart, you'll wind up owing more than 100% of the value of your goods and stuff in taxes to all the various countries.)

She saves her company 20 million a year or more, yet still deals with what you are saying. When we talk about how exhausted she is, I always ask why they don't hire more people for her department. And it's always because they want to point at - "look, Joe made us $1 million". Even when she can prove she saved them many millions, it's somehow not as impressive. So, instead, she doesn't have the time to work on projects that would "only" save them 5 million, 'cause they hired a bunch of Joes instead.

[baerana.livejournal.com]

i don't know, i make repeatable processes and automate things (you should have seen me when i worked at a library, the librarians who'd been there 20 years were always shocked how much time i could save by, say, not writing on every card with three different colors. “but that's how we've always done it.” "but there is no reason to do it that way, and look, i finished these 6 boxes while you are still working on the first." This sort of thing happened daily. “but we've always done it like that” should have been engraved over the door)

but i DON'T want to be in business. (i mean, i want the company i'm working for to make money, but my main goal is not to waste my time and it always has been.) that's why i've wanted to be a professional organizer since forever. unfortunately, sysadmin or coding is the only thing i'm good enough at to pay the bills) I kinda hate being “in business” and being a ceo was kinda torturous for me

while entrepreneurship is a hard roe to hoe, if that's what would make you happy, then go for it, and best wishes ::yay::

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

“but we've always done it like that” should have been engraved over the door)

You've heard the "cutting the ends off the roast" story, I presume?

[baerana.livejournal.com]

of course. but i first heard it in church, where, of course, it was presented as a "women are stupid" story, not a story about blindly following tradition. they encouraged blindly following tradition.

however, knowing just about everything my church ever said about anything was wrong is probably what lead to my "question everything" and "look for a better way" attitude

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Hunh. I'd never heard it as a "women are stupid" story, just as a parable about blindly following tradition. Then again, I don't have the religious background you do. (Thankfully!)

[cpj.livejournal.com]

I thought we made sure repeatable processes were automated, and then forget about them. Shouldn't that make us venture capitalists?