Olympic Badminton Scandal … will people ever learn

I took a course in Boston back in the early 90s called “Controlling Software Projects” by the brilliant team of Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister. Look for their terrific book called “Peopleware” if you want to see how strong teams are built (or not.)

Anyway … today’s badminton scandal is the direct result of not following the advice I got in that course. Eight players are going to lose their chance at Olympic glory – not because they cheated (although they did), but because they were forced to behave badly by the governing body’s choice to create a round robin tournament instead of a knock out tournament.

So what did I learn in Boston? Several things:

• If you are not measuring it, it is not getting better
• Keep your measurements simple and easily interpreted
• People behave how you incent them to behave

That last one is directly applicable here. These people used to be incented to compete fiercely for every match, because to lose was to be bounced from the Olympics. Now, they are incented to strategically place themselves in a favorable position once they have qualified for the knock out stage. That means that the final game is disposable. Very bad idea.

When, exactly, will people learn to keep it simple and direct and to incent people to perform?

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The smart ones among you knew that this next bit was coming

CEOs and boards of directors had their incentives changed since the 70s and the 80s. They are now incented for short term stock performance instead of long term corporate health and their contributions to mankind (lol.)

So what happens when you do that?

Every bad thing that we have seen in the last decade … and a lot more to come …

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Funniest video I’ve seen in a while …

Cornish Rex cat screaming “Im Wet!” while being bathed … hysterical

I stole that from a friend’s timeline on Facebook … videos like this are probably Facebook’s and YouTube’s greatest strength …

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As ye sow … so shall ye reap … Apple wins an early battle very big but do they lose the war

There is this somewhat silly concept called karma, which perfectly describes the concept of behaving as you would want others to behave towards you – the “golden rule” if you will. In other words, if you screw someone to get ahead, you are accruing “bad karma” …

So when Apple won that wet dream award of $1B from some wing nut jury over their patent dispute with Samsung, things were looking pretty rosy. (Note: The award has been reduced already by a judge with a capacity for reason.)

Things must have looked pretty rosy for Apple and I’m sure more than a few corks were popped … but as they say, karma is a bitch.

And now Samsung is tightening the supply chain noose for displays and processors and that has Apple predicting a “divot” in their upcoming profits.

http://www.zdnet.com/is-apple-about-to-feel-samsung-squeeze-on-iphone-costs-7000014654/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539

I laughed out loud when I read this paragraph quoting analyst Peter Misek:

Apple is having to switch from in-cell to on-cell for the iPhone 6 as in-cell is proving unable to ramp to 4.8”. This new technology is unproven and Apple will incur significant costs to ramp production. We also believe that this is a stopgap technology in front of OLED. We believe it will take Apple and partners two years or more to commercialize OLED as the OLED market for smaller displays is effectively controlled by Samsung who will not supply Apple. In the meantime both LG Display and Japan Display will be forced to be on a dual track for screen technologies for Apple.

This transition for Apple will raise screen prices by 10 to 25 percent. Remember that it is Samsung who has completely swung the market towards the larger displays and even “phablets”, a crossover tablet and phone. Think they had something in mind?

But it gets better … I read this next and howled …

Apple is trying to switch processor manufacturing completely to TSMC and away from Samsung. The problem: Apple need Samsung for its older chips and cant cut over production. Misek said Samsung will start raising prices on legacy chips in the summer which will raise Apples bill of materials another 20 percent to 30 percent.

This is a beautiful example of how the opponent’s next move is sometimes subtle. Apple may not yet be defeated, but I think they earned themselves this swift kick in the jewels :-)

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