Efficiency is Automatism, Pt 837
Cingular moves to centralized financial planning and reporting - driven ostensibly by transparency (Sarbanes-Oxley), but really driven by efficiency and the consolidation of control.
Remember all that stuff about decentralization, experimentation, and risk-taking? Well, firms like Cingular, who are about to get utterly disrupted and need it most, have decided to go the other way - because the basic premise of their strategies isn't creating cool new things, but selling more old things more cheaply.
This is ultimately what 'business performace management' is all about. Note to beancounters: You can't measure discontinuity.
"..."You take the concepts and metrics commonly used and understood on the financial side, like revenue per employee, and you extend that to operational data," said Craig Schiff, CEO of BPM Partners, an industry consulting firm. That combination "brings out things that you may not have spotted before."
Heaven help us. Efficiency isn't the answer. We can't be China - as much as we think we'd like to be. The Wal-Mart model will rip your industry apart - don't buy into it on any level.