This week I have learned:
- the difference between different types of technology provider. The old model of Systems Integrator was often built on a business model that was essentially the same as the one used by local councils to collect bins. There’s a service provided by people. When a service provider changes, the majority of people are simply TUPEd over to the new one from the old one. A thin layer of senior management is changed, and the game is about seeking out a small amount of margin on a volume of work.
Tacit knowledge in the workforce is retained even as the costs go down. Until it spectacularly crashes as we saw with Carillion, InterServe (and maybe to some extend Fujitsu).
I wonder if we are heading back to that model in some organisations. - creating intentional space to simply day-dream is an underrated art.
- the train network appears to just collapse with the hot weather. I fear other parts of UK infrastructure are similarly fragile, and I think I might be too.
- 50 Degrees of Random is now up and running, and it has a webpage… https://experiments.randomthebook.com/50degrees/index.html
The week in media:
Saw
- Football! And more Football!
Read
- John Niven’s “O Brother”. Wonderfully written and a really quite harrowing family tale.
- Now starting Margaret Heffernan’s “Embracing Uncertainty”
Listened
- Jill Scott’s newish album “To Whom This May Concern”, which I’ve been waiting to get hold of on vinyl for ages.
Next week: Wakefield
The week in photos:
mmitII 