Asides

Zero Core and Re-IPL

“The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”

― Harry S. Truman

Isn’t it funny how as you get older, you remember things from many years ago?  I am sure my extended time in the hospital, the time to recover, and the (wonderful!) pain medications all had something to do with it.  Lots of time to think as the nurses make their rounds every two hours to wake you up to poke and prod.
In the mid-to-late 80’s I was working for what was then the worlds second-largest computer company.  I had an awesome opportunity to work with a team of professionals to build a global computer services business. Back then we called it computer timesharing.  That industry started back when computers were HUGE, very expensive, and had about 1/100th (1000th?) of the power of the Smartphone you have today.  NASA, governments, and very large corporations used these behemoths to run their operations.  I know, because to pay for college, I was a third shift computer operator for a major university on an IBM 360/50.  Quite an experience watching blinking lights, punching 80 column cards for computer programs, and knowing my work made the university run.
Zero core (reset the computer memory) and re-IPL (reinstall the Initial Program Load) is what you would do to the mainframe computer to turn it off and restart it.  Today we might say “Is it plugged in? Is it turned on?” or even “turn it off, and turn it on, again…”
But I digress.  For giant companies like McDonnell Douglas, General Electric, and United Telecom (now Sprint) they started computer timesharing businesses to allow people who could not afford these computers to share compute time on them – hence, computer time-sharing.  Other computer timesharing companies like Tymshare were formed as well to provide access on a pay-as-you-go basis and were very successful.   These computers were accessed through computer networks. Some had dial-in network access to the computers and some had dedicated network access. Special software was installed for the user to use.  The users were charged only for the time they used the computer, networks, and software.
My role was to work with my team and build-out seven data centers and develop a profitable go to market business and operating plan. Complete with raised floors for cooling, uninterruptable power supplies with multiple power grids, multiple telecom networks, operating and disaster recovery procedures…  Well, you get the idea.  Building an entirely new business with seven new data centers to allow people to use computing power and pay only for what they use.  In the end, I led the creation of this computer services (timesharing) business for my company. The key never was just to build and operate seven data centers. It was how to build a profitable business that would deliver value to our customers. In the end, it was very successful and part of the skills and experience I have brought with me throughout the years.  Amazing what you remember…
It occurred to me that over 30 years later, we call that same business concept:  cloud computing.
Who remembers artificial intelligence: the concept of having a computer learn?  By pumping massive amounts of data into a computer, writing very sophisticated software algorithms, and discovering new opportunities in the massive complex data was a truly exciting time.
After a lot of time to think, it occurred to me that today, almost 30 years later, we call that same business concept:  business analytics.  Today we have the Internet of Things ( or the Internet of Everything or even Digitization) that is driving business analytics.
Sure, I get it. Economics and technologies are very different today.  Computing power and network access are widely available, small in size, and comparably very easy to use. But in the end it winds up being the same, but different.  It seems to me we must learn from experience and combine it with a vision of the future to make the value of these approaches real for today.
In the technology industry, as with many industries, the company that is agile and masters disruption, finds the “next wave”, introduces the next new product, capture a new market, etc. is the one that will be rewarded by the market.  Executives that have respect for those who have experience with past business models similar to new trends will have a competitive advantage leveraging disruption to their own competitive advantage.

Practice, practice, practice…

Ever wonder why doctors say they “practice” medicine?  Making Majic

Or they all have “medical practices”?  The same is true with consultants.  I know, because I have built and led some pretty awesome global consulting practices in my career.  I never quite understood in one of my prior executive roles, a combination of practices was called a “competency”.  It just did not make sense to me.  But, never did the true meaning of the concept of practices become clearer to me than when I was diagnosed with my first cancer in January of 2013.

You see, for the prior 2 1/2 years I had very visible symptoms. I had been seeing a practice of world-class doctors at one of Chicago’s top teaching hospitals.  There was a diagnosis that seemed to be reasonable to me as a non-medical person.  Over the years I had three doctors and several medical students check and re-check my body over the years – all had the same conclusion: gross hematuria.  It wasn’t until we moved from Chicago to Austin, Texas that I went to a new doctor who had different ideas.  (I am sure there will be a post on synchronicity in the near future.)

You see, it was a simple “pee in the cup” test that changed my life.  32 out of 200 cells were 100% cancerous.  Now we had to find it.

The lesson here is that doctors “practice” medicine.  Consultants “practice” consulting. Nobody has all of the answers.   They have experience. They have insight.  They have tests, processes, and tools.  But nobody can always get it right.

Not knowing anything about cancer, I started researching and reading.  My best resources were people I met that had cancer.  I learned to trust online resources from only trusted organizations.  You know them:  Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Johns Hopkins, etc.  I learned that there is not a single persons journey that is the same.  You can have the same cancer, but yours is different.  It is never the same. You can look perfectly healthy, but inside you are not.  The same is true about running your business.  It may look the same.  It may operate the same.  But it is not.

The more the doctors “practice” the better they become.  The same is true for your business.  The key skill in successful doctors and business executives is to find a professional that has vision, experience, a passion for solving undefined problems, a relentless drive to attack something truly unique and achieve the best results for that specific person (or business) at that time.

In the end, my learning for both personal health and in business is:  Be Your Own Advocate.  Do your research.  Talk to people.  Trust your experience and insight.  Never stop learning.  Never stop practicing.