D69 at clubblazers with some interesting insight on Blazers management structure

I don't think he's the epitome of evil, either, but as far as I'm concerned the GM position of a sports franchise is more equivalent to the CTO of a tech company. He should be the top of the chain of command as far as the company's core competency (aerospace engineering in Boeing's case, basketball in the Blazers' case). Allen and any type of "President of Operations" should be equivalent to the board of directors and CEO...they set a budget and set goals, and then let the CTO (or whoever's the top position within the organization's core competency...like the GM of a sports franchise) decide how to get there.

So, sure...ultimately, the buck stops with Allen. He should veto anything that seems reckless or budget-busting. But he's not a basketball guy and probably shouldn't be making basketball decisions.

 

At the same time, if the last guy working as CTO fucked things up royally, the easiest way to ensure accountability is to force the CTO to show his work on paper before saying yes to his recommendations.

I worked on a project which involved iterative deployments of a software package to a client's server, with updates every week. The dev started deploying hotfixes cowboy style, which worked out great at first, since the client was happy sooner, but soon he got ahead of himself, accidentally reverted a bunch of fixes, and lost about a week's worth of work because of it. After that fiasco, the project manager, who had been a little hands off, clamped down, forcing all deployments through him: you submit a deployment request, he approves it, you deploy. It wasn't a permanent measure, but it was a way to reign in control of a process that had gone out of control. Plus it gave the PM needed context at the dev level.

That's how I see this new hands-on approach.

 

Well, we'll obviously have to agree to disagree on whether the "last guy" fucked things up royally, but even if the last guy screwed up...I don't think the best answer is for the CEO/board of directors to take over technical decisions with a consultant instead of a proper CTO. You attempt to hire a better CTO, one that you believe won't fuck things up. Ultimately, you have to have people you trust to do good work in the key positions if you want to have a hope of success...the answer is not to eliminate key positions (effectively).

 

I ran this thread through Cho's spreadsheets and the computer reached out and kicked my ass for wasting its time.

 

Of course, don't you know? This guy is just so incredibly connected that he knows the actual conversations between Paul Allen and Cho, and that Allen is now demanding more numbers and data. D69 and his pal Pup love to make people think they are so in the loop.

How could anyone know what Paul Allen is asking of Cho, except Allen and Cho?

I call bullshit. No, strike that. I call call complete and utter bullshit.

 

Ok, thanks.