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back to article Behind every great tech boss there’s ... who exactly?

Are you the sort of tech chief that expects to ditch 30 per cent of the staff on your first day at your new firm in favour of a tried and trusted team? Or perhaps you think a key part of the job is getting the incumbents up to speed and making a very small number of strategic appointments. Either way, we want to hear from you …

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  1. swampdog

    His secretary

    It doesn't really matter. I have been pissed about so much in the last 18 months by agencies that I've retired. Not many people have that luxury.

    Behind every tech boss there is?

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  2. asdf

    CIOs lol

    Behind every great tech boss there is at least one and sometimes two or more layers of management to the CIO.

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  3. JassMan
    Unhappy

    Don't know about the great tech bosses

    but behind the not so great ones you'll find an auditing team, who discover that not only has the CTO's "great" outsourcing deal not saved any money, but a year after he has moved to greener pastures, the IT costs increase at least 20% year on year.

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  4. Joe 48

    More important

    Are the wine and cocktails free?

    Runs off to register fake company name......

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  5. Nick Ryan Silver badge
    Joke

    Behind every great tech boss there's... a wife who drains his bank account dry like a vampire in a blood bank?

    :)

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  6. Christian Berger

    I think Seymour Cray kinda summed it up

    This is a talk he held at the introduction of the Cray 1.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtOA1vuoDgQ

    Essentially his trick was to reduce the complexity of the problem, and then solve that, now much easier problem, better. This also allows you to work with as few people as possible, each one an expert on their field. This way you can solve the communication problem as you waste less time on needless communication.

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    1. asdf
      Reply Icon

      Re: I think Seymour Cray kinda summed it up

      > This also allows you to work with as few people as possible, each one an expert on their field.

      Guess that is ok for a startup maybe but good luck getting HR to approve the salaries in any decent size corporation. Skunkworks perhaps.

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      1. Christian Berger
        Reply Icon

        Re: I think Seymour Cray kinda summed it up

        "Guess that is ok for a startup maybe but good luck getting HR to approve the salaries in any decent size corporation. Skunkworks perhaps."

        I don't think there is a strong correlation between salaries and actual qualifications, particularly since there are lots of idiots earning lots of money. You can't buy the people you should be looking for with money. You can buy them with decent working conditions, by keeping them in a "herd of smart people". In a way that's what companies used to do till the 1970s and 1980s, back when you had people with an engineering background, or who at least listened to engineers, on top of your company.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hmmm

    No-one that he/she ever listens to after they've been on a jolly with some salesman who's told them everything they need to know about what to deploy and how to run their critical IT systems (without ever having seen it).

    Its getting kinda tiring having to implement some new fad just because the boss says so without any clue about the impact and suitability.....

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  8. J__M__M

    I know this one

    Behind every great tech boss there’s an MBA.

    HAHAHAHAHAHA, just kidding of course not... that's just crazy talk. Oh, man, that was a good one though. I really crack myself up sometimes.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Change of focus

    I guess there's no advertising money in us real techies, what with ad-block etc, best you target the idiot bosses eh?

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Behind every boss there are waves of PHUB's

    Pointy Headed Under Bosses who exist to tell the main PHB that everything is wonderful

    (like the King and the Invisible clothes)

    Elsewhere there are people who actually get stuff done despite the interference of the PHUB's.

    If they didn't then the company would go down the swannee.

    One of the reasons that Companies fail (from personal experience) is that the ranks of the PHUB and PHUUB's get so large that even 'getting stuff done' becomes a micromanaged task.

    My current PHUUB wants to know where I am and what I'm doing every moment of the day. He gets fed with what he wants to hear, i.e. complete bollocks.

    I've also started putting 'communication' down on my timesheet to account for his constant interruptions. Last week it was 12 hours out of 37.

    Now he complains about this figure.

    Thankfully my contract is up at the end of next month.

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  11. Bill 21

    Why is this still showing on the front page? - it's three weeks old and no-one cares.

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