Jerry Gregoire's blog

Should Innovation Stay In-House?

Jerry Gregoire — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:18:39 -0400

After arguing for years that IT development is best kept in-house, our columnist decides that creativity has moved on and moved out.

Bad News for CIOs in New Jersey

Jerry Gregoire — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 18:29:55 -0500

Two bits of bad news, actually. First is, you’re not in Texas.

Second, if you happen to be one of those CIOs who, after a long day’s work, likes to pull off to the side of the road and shoot a critter to bring home for dinner, you’re going to have to make it a point to stop shooting at squirrels.

Who Killed Howard Johnson?

Jerry Gregoire — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:39:53 -0500

About half of the people reading this entry are working for a company that is going out of business and doesn’t yet know it. Their employer will be closed or absorbed within the next 8 years and, when I say absorbed, I mean bought out (or liquidated) because they were in distress, not because they were part of some larger strategic plan. Can you tell if you’re working for one of these companies?

The Peoples Interface Awards

Jerry Gregoire — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:39:56 -0500

We’ve all had those projects where you work for months or years to develop and deliver a technical masterpiece, then cap it off with a flawless implementation, only to find that absolutely nobody notices. Not a peep from the users. The very next week you pop in a simple project or enhancement that took you all of 2 hours to develop and the users are patting you on the back and telling you you’re a genius.

Dell Plants a Tree?

Jerry Gregoire — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:53:32 -0500

Here’s a weird story. Dell is worried about the emissions associated with the electricity used to power their computers. And so they should. So, at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, CEO Michael Dell announced that, beginning in February, they would start sending donations to the Conservation Fund and Carbonfund.org, $2 for a notebook and $6 for a desktop, toward planting trees which will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But, here’s the hitch. Instead of making that donation out of their profits, Dell expects consumers to send that $2 or $6 donation to Dell first, in addition to paying the full purchase price for the computer, and then Dell will send that donation along. ........ GOSH, THANKS MICHAEL!

Or maybe I could just send $2 directly to Carbonfund.org and save the cost of a laptop. Or maybe I could plant a tree in my backyard and get out from behind my laptop and get some exercise in the process.

Florida Gators Beat Ohio State Buckeyes

Jerry Gregoire — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:52:30 -0500

I chose this title because I knew that Ohio State fans wouldn’t have the heart to read this entry. Since I’m about to comment on the Buckeyes that attended that game, I figured th

The Myth of Expensive Labor

Jerry Gregoire — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 13:15:26 -0500

Except for the occasional ranch hand or building contractor, I haven’t officially “hired” anyone in quite a while, yet I still get about a half dozen resumes sent to me every year. It’s another one of life’s mile markers that the children of my college buddies, neighbors, work acquaintances, (and a few here-to-fore unknown cousins), are now approaching their May graduations and looking for someone help them find a job. It’s not that I mind helping, but I know for a fact that I have a lot fewer contacts and lot less influence than these people give me credit for. Furthermore, I don’t know most of these kids very well, if at all, but I do know their parents and, in many cases, I wouldn’t recommend them for a job.

The Myth of Cheap Labor

Jerry Gregoire — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 09:36:32 -0500

When I was a kid, growing up in Southern California, I won a Howdy Doody look-alike contest at my school. I don’t look like Howdy Doody anymore, but as you can see by the picture they’re using with this blog, I don’t look like Osama Bin Laden either. There is a special place in airport security hell reserved for old ladies on walkers and people who look like me, (red hair, pale, harmless), who are routinely selected for search in order to convince any hypersensitive on-looker that profiling is not taking place. But, of course, in my case, it is profiling. I finally got fed up (and wealthy) enough to dust off my old pilot’s license and bought an airplane. It’s a pretty big plane (a King Air for those who know what that is) and it burns a lot of fuel.

Getting By

Jerry Gregoire — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 15:34:27 -0500

So, Dell Computer Company has appointed Donald Carty, former chair and CEO of American Airlines’ parent company AMR, as vice chairman and chief financial officer. These days, Don is a professional board member, serving as a Director for perhaps a half dozen well known public companies and organizations, but while he was CEO of AMR from ‘98 to 2003, that company went through a period of significant financial decline and troubled employee relations. Don has been on the board of Dell Computer since 1992, much of that time as Chairman of the audit committee, which, if you do the math, means he probably accumulated more personal wealth as a Director of Dell than he did in his full-time job at AMR. And now, in what is seen by most as an abrupt move, he will replace the current CFO, James Schneider, while the company is buried in an accounting probe, a situation that never reflects well on either an accounting department or the audit committee.

Dell announced, last week, that Don would be making $700,000.00 per year as a base salary, is eligible for another $700,000.00 in bonus, and will be awarded 240,000 (more) shares of Dell stock in the form of options and grants.

QUIET ANGELS

Jerry Gregoire — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:26:07 -0500

The kind and gentle folks that run this site had to remind me that I wrote my introduction column for this blog a couple of weeks ago and since then, …. nothing. Dumb. Time must be the most elastic material in the universe. Sit in a conference room listening to some farkakta consultant explain why his company should be allowed to “Partner” with yours and the clock seems to move counter-clockwise. Or, have a December like I’ve had and two weeks can go by while you hold your breath.