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Non-Technical Managers in a Technical Company?

Posted by Cliff on from the oil-and-water? dept.

Futurepower(R) asks: "Before he was hired, Steve Jobs of Apple told John Sculley he was a sugar-water salesman, and perhaps should have listened to his own words. Under Chairman and CEO Louis V. Gerstner, Jr, IBM did well, but was that only because the world needs a global computer service company? Was IBM technically advanced during his tenure? In your experience, can managers with little technical knowledge successfully run a technically-oriented company?" What qualities would such a manager need to keep a tech company healthy?

11 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. Atleast these two.. by cOdEgUru · · Score: 4, Funny

    Probably know the field he is getting in to as well as an efficient crap_detector.

    An ex-colleague of mine had the gall to ask his PM in a team meeting for an extra couple of days to write a SELECT query just because the query was returning not just a handful of records, but millions!

    The PM, to the apparent delight of all, agreed with out a second thought.

    --
    Rapid Nirvana
  2. And let's not forget.... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Darryl McBride, who with his 19 years of executive management and leadership experience, singlehandedly led the formerly faltering SCO to develop a state of the art product like Linux.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  3. Best quality in a manager? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Best quality these days?

    Ability to speak Hindi or Mandarin.

  4. Re:What is being managed? by chris_mahan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since management is able to speak out of both sides of their mouths, it works out :)

    --

    "Piter, too, is dead."

  5. Re:It depends on the salesman. by PhilipMatarese · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your slashdot ID is "Willie", your email is "Fred Garvin", and you signed the post "Todd".

    Who are you? Really?

  6. Re:It depends on the salesman. by Willie_the_Wimp · · Score: 3, Funny

    George.

  7. Re:It depends on the salesman. by Ruie · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ok, now sign out and post your real opinion as "Anonymous Coward" below.

  8. OT: Your .Sig by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 2, Funny

    "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi

    I haven't yet seen your sig turned into a slashdot cliche, so allow me the honor.

    1. They ignore you
    2. They laugh at you
    3. They attack you
    4. ??????
    5. Profit!!!

    --
    It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  9. Re:If only my manager had technical sense... by bladesjester · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm hoping that by POS system, you mean "Point of Sale" and not "Piece of Sh**", but it sounds like it might be both =]

    --
    Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
  10. A quote says it all. by RabidLobster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Meeting with the client. Client asks question about confirmation when the user finishes some part of the application.

    PM: "Yeah, sure, we've done this millions of times before, no problem. We'll just send a mail right to the database, right?" (Looks at me)

  11. WARNING - NOT SAFE FOR WORK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    There is a vivid picture of an asshole on that page.