Keeping Up to Date... Searching For Knowledge...

In this series of two articles, Commericals Projects Controller Ian Skaife blogs about Atlas' constant thirst for knowledge, how we acquire it and the things he's discovered whilst on his hunt...

Here at Atlas, like most companies, we try to keep up to date with current issues and the latest thinking that affects our customers and the services and technology we employ to meet their needs. Like every other company we also have to be sure that we ‘take our own medicine’ to run our people and systems to the best advantage.

Our MD John Butler recently challenged the Executive Board recently to read more trade magazines, the Financial Times etc., on a regular basis in order to know what was happening and what factors will influence the way we and our customers do and think about business.

Taking up this challenge I picked up a free copy of the FT at a recent conference I was at – thereby keeping up to date at no cost....I read each page and extracted the following as examples of the sort of snippets that get me thinking...


‘Yell Moves into the cloud with Microsoft’
This caught my eye – a traditional paper directory company that has taken to the Internet some time ago tying up with an industry giant using a technology ‘The Cloud’ which seems to be one of those ‘buzz-phrases’ at the moment. Key points were...
• Move allows Yell to broaden its offering to small/medium businesses as its traditional print market is eroded by a move on—line...
• Microsoft provides Yell with cloud hosting, website creation and new Office 365 Suite
• Yell search results will be high up Microsoft’s Bing search engine
• A 21% increase in Yell’s share price – so someone thought it was a good idea..

‘Citrix by Cloud.com’
Citrix is one of Atlas’ business offerings and again that word ‘cloud’. The article proved that the .com bubble still exists...Cloud.com employ 70 people in California, have only being going for 3 years, have yet to make a profit and yet the price....$200-$250million...! The group works with some big customers like Apple & Facebook allowing remote groups to manage their remote data centres and provides tools to companies who want to be cloud providers.

Analysts are predicting cloud computing market to be worth $11billion by the end of 2013 as more companies opt to have their computer networks hosted remotely.

So this tied in very well with us at Atlas as we have many customers who are seeing the advantage of both Citrix to connect remote workers to company data, hosted in one of our several data centres including the ‘Secret Nuclear Bunker’ near our head office in Nantwich from which we can provide clients with private clouds.

‘Cisco eyes job cuts to reverse slump’
So not everything in the technology sector is good news...but looking more closely Cisco is planning 10,000 job losses from its 73,000+ workforce due to ‘death by a thousand cuts’ as some other large/small players have chipped away at different parts of its markets. It seems the management have looked at its diverse strategy and refocused on core technology. The comment section put it quite succinctly and is a lesson for all in the IT sector..

'It is part of the periodic pruning that all mature technology companies should undergo. In enterprise technology using your headcount effectively is not easy. Not all struggle.’’.Apple and Intel are ruthlessly efficient in squeezing more and more revenues out of each worker. But in the gritty business of selling and servicing clients’ technological infrastructure, competitors must constantly shift their mix of business to protect margins and retain customers. That means that cuts...are simply part of the game.’

Report warns of ‘cyberjihad’. This puts the topic of security of all systems in the spotlight as al Qaeda adapts to new technologies and offers new threats. Perhaps we don’t see our systems being targeted but the principle is a warning to all as ‘the Internet and virtual space will be strategically important’.

‘Infosys sees growth ahead’
The Indian software and services concern despite pressure from its increased wages sees 15.4% rise in first quarter profits and demand from Western clients in the areas of retail, life sciences and energy.

‘Managers must take the blame for systemic failures’
Finally an article caught my eye about the apparent lack of managers in its English Electric arm in 1968 prepared to take personal responsibility. Arnold Weinstock sent out a missive which abolished all internal committees and encouraged managers to delegate and involve colleagues in decisions, but this would not reduce their personal responsibility. Until this points endless meetings were held, minutes copied into everyone, no personal commitment and everyone felt relieved of the obligation to acquire the knowledge to judge effectively. People needed to be free to make mistakes and learn from them, not just try to attach themselves to good projects

The FT article was written in a week when News International executives were removing themselves from responsibility of not knowing what was going on under their watch and blaming rogue individuals. Good management means appointing good people, delegating to them, and creating an environment in which they can give their best. Failure in this is a failure of management not of subordination. It points out that Apple’s success and failures are closely associated with Steve Jobs, but he can’t do it all himself. His management style is to emphasise the role of the ‘directly responsible individual’ for each project..

So can we learn from reading the FT – I think the answer must be yes, and all those other sources of rich information and comment too...

Keep an eye out for the second of Ian's blogs tomorrow.