http://www.tedstake.com/2009/05/28/great-news-indeed/ Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:26:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.tedstake.com/2009/05/28/great-news-indeed/#comment-16844 Jeff Stone Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:56:24 +0000 http://www.tedstake.com/?p=3944#comment-16844 Armstrong is from Google; Google is a flatly managed company, with most people on an equal level and working across functional boundries. AOL has an old-world corporate structure and frowns upon lower-level workers taking initiative in contacting other departments. For instance, HR has about 60 employees, with something like 1 evp, 8 vps, 10 directors, 10 managers and any initiatives have to be approved up the ladder. If AOL is to survive, management has to be thinned drastically and the rigid hierarchy abolished. But they needed to keep the people who loved their work, took initiative and were, above all, loyal to the company. When they let my wife go in March, probably the best worker I know, it cemented my belief that even Tim won't be able to turn this around; a company's most important asset is it's people, and I don't mean the folks with a vp or director in their job title. You cut the best worker bees and wise moves by focused management can't be executed. Armstrong is from Google; Google is a flatly managed company, with most people on an equal level and working across functional boundries. AOL has an old-world corporate structure and frowns upon lower-level workers taking initiative in contacting other departments. For instance, HR has about 60 employees, with something like 1 evp, 8 vps, 10 directors, 10 managers and any initiatives have to be approved up the ladder. If AOL is to survive, management has to be thinned drastically and the rigid hierarchy abolished. But they needed to keep the people who loved their work, took initiative and were, above all, loyal to the company. When they let my wife go in March, probably the best worker I know, it cemented my belief that even Tim won’t be able to turn this around; a company’s most important asset is it’s people, and I don’t mean the folks with a vp or director in their job title. You cut the best worker bees and wise moves by focused management can’t be executed.

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