Organisation

The usual beginning of year announcements are taking place. As organisations gets larger and more complex, I guess the fear of not knowing what is happening on the ground must be high for the executives. However, we need to remember that the people who counts most in the business everyday are those who sees the client day in and day out. Sometimes, decisions are baffling, particularly when we are only concerned with our own unit/dept and do not have an overall view. Please read my previous blog here as well as the NKF report which I blogged here on Jan o1 for context.

Thus, this story that I received last week is a good reminder for us not to lose sight of the main objective of what we want to do.

A company had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Management said, "Someone might steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then management said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people; one person to write the instructions and one person to do time studies.

Then management said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing his tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people. One to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then management said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created the following positions, a timekeeper and a payroll officer; then hired two more people.

Then management said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people; an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then management said, "We've had this command in operation for one year now and we're $18,000 over budget. We have to cutback on overall costs."
So they laid off the night watchman.