Author: Curt Doolittle

CURIOUS: CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS

As a CEO my style is very American: meaning libertarian in management: I try to create as much of a bottom-up organization as possible with as little management as possible, and to attract the best talent possible, because the best talent wants to demonstrate creative expression – in a country where creative expression is a competitive value.

The general thinking in the states is that employees know customers the best and so we need to empower them to serve customers. We get profits from helping them serve customers. The more we help them the more profits we make. The increase in credit capacity and the petro dollar has not been good for us in this respect, because it has given consumers a lot of free money to inflate the economy while reducing our discipline. In Europe consumers are much ‘poorer’ by every possible measure and so companies must fight for their attention. Conversely, people are much more patient with companies and regulations and rules than americans would be. So the culture tolerates the business climate and visa versa.

But where this shows up is lack of rotation in Europe, and less radical innovation, while we get better engineering out of germans (again, who I think ‘do it right’) in education at least – if not in an oppressiveness that is beyond my comfort. And without the humor that my anglo peers survive on. 🙂

I wonder how Oversing will play in european countries? Will europeans be able to handle(tolerate) that much transparency? That much honesty? That much measurement? That much social rather than hierarchical feedback? That much customer service? Or will just young competitors make use of such a product? Or will more hierarchical companies turn off the transparency and use it as command and control? Young people get it. Technology people worldwide seem to get it. Ukrainian’s get it. Russians get it. South American’s get it.

Hmmm…. What else….

In the states we try to push independent thinking farther down the chain than is possible. And we don’t train the bottom to be capable. We pretend everyone can become a member of the middle (or upper middle) class and fail the majority by doing so. (we have the world’s most absurd education system in that regard. for the upper half it’s awesome. but for the lower half its a tragedy.)

Germany does it about right. They focus on making the lower half excellent and so the upper half has better assets to work with that way. And it shows. Maybe Finland does it better. But they have a more homogenous society to work with so they can create a better universal educational system. But Finn’s are too timid in business. Germans are the most honest after americans. I notice that it’s actually easier to deal with germans than other americans and I have to stop myself from couching everything inoffensively when talking.

I don’t really understand the UK system. And I have had very bad experiences there. So maybe I’m biased. People turn out more literate. The middle turns out pretty well and the top excellent. But the bottom is… not as bad as the states in incompetence, but worse than the states in rent seeking behavior. Our bottom end can’t find work but they don’t try to avoid it. I don’t understand the class in the UK that seeks to avoid labor at all costs, and do the minimum whenever possible. It could be that class exists all over Europe but I only have access to it in the UK and Canada. And it’s really visible to me in both the UK and Canada.