Magic-Sim said:
If you were hired and given the power to fire whoever you want to place someone more able in exchange, who woul'd you fire in first, and replace with ?
I don't think NVIDIA really needs a lot of terminations. That also has the risk of reducing employee moral; just not a good idea IMO.
Although a few "example" terminations could be justifiable. Dan Vivoli's would be the first on my list, although I'm sure there are other people meriting that treatment even more.
My Top 3 list of "has to be done". These are often relatively quick things and ideas, which do NOT include terminations. They only resolve part of the problem; certain other things, which are more more precise and, I'd be tempted to say, "microarchitectural" are necessary. For example, neither of these 3 points will help engineering much, but by making team-to-team communication easier.
1a) Reorganize communication. This would be done through people who got good technical knowledge ( although doesn't need to be great either ) and some managing experience.
These people would have the power to halt ANY public releases or actions related to the departments they deal with. And they should have high influence when it comes to suggesting to change plans and projects. Other misc communication changes are also required of course, as this would in no way be sufficent, but it'd already help a fair bit.
I also believe more quickly written internal guidelines are required; minimizing the time to takes from concept to internal publishing is important, and that means hiring two or three more writers would be a good idea.
1b) Simplify organization for engineers. It's just a tad too complex right now. Without very detailed information about how it currently works though, it's hard to think about any quick fixes, though.
2) Have databases (MySQL?) of released public statements. Making DR, PR and IR not contradict themselves is crucial IMO. This would also be useful for managers to realize if some incorrect things have been said in the past, possibly on purpose or not.
Have a simple and to the point system for engineers being able to comment on those public statements, anonymously if they wish so - this would prevent crap from being released to the public without anyone in the company realizing it.
Of course, should engineers begin to do nothing but comment on public statements, something would have to be done to minimize how much they can comment and read them
3) Get 2-3 people maximum who's *only* job is to analyze the public ( both forums and "common", Joe Consumer public ). Clearly make the difference between the different market segments and what type of PR/Marketing is positive/negative to get the sales.
NVIDIA doesn't seem to have a clue what the public wants and thinks anymore, and such a move is required to minimize unjustified debacles IMO.
That's just IMO. I don't pretend to know everything I should know, and that's because I don't. I don't pretend any of this could help NVIDIA, as I've got no consulting experience, and I'm not ready to claim I'm really 40 and worked as an industry analyst and consultant for the last 10 years. Because that's simply not true.
Uttar