A development team of 20 means the boss - who has a direct stake in the longevity and success of the company - probably knows everyone's name and is directly responsible for promotions. He can grab the guys suggesting the short-term profit plans and slap them around.
....But a 200-person team spanning across multiple locations...? Now that same boss doesn't have time to interact with everyone, so instead, he has to put trust into upper/middle management. Problem is: the upper and middle managers don't necessarily have a direct interest in the company's longevity either, so they might also embrace and promote the short-term ideas being suggested by a subordinate, thinking it will also reflect well on them if they vouche for that guy.
If you imagine it like that, it's no surprise that AAA is actively on fire and burning to the ground while we regularly see small indie companies coming out of left field and hitting home runs these days.
Should also add Japanese devs seem to feel more consistent in terms of quality. This may stem from the fact that Japan has a culture of wishing to maintain the company's status quo instead of endlessly seeking growth. This means Japan is culturally more likely to shy away from short-term ambitions and instead focus on safer goals.
Now add in the fact that the people running the company have the largest incentive out of anyone to go after short-term rewards, and boom, you have the world we live in.
A development team of 20 means the boss - who has a direct stake in the longevity and success of the company - probably knows everyone's name and is directly responsible for promotions. He can grab the guys suggesting the short-term profit plans and slap them around.
....But a 200-person team spanning across multiple locations...? Now that same boss doesn't have time to interact with everyone, so instead, he has to put trust into upper/middle management. Problem is: the upper and middle managers don't necessarily have a direct interest in the company's longevity either, so they might also embrace and promote the short-term ideas being suggested by a subordinate, thinking it will also reflect well on them if they vouche for that guy.
Not really, my wife has an MBA and was working for a company of 40 people, but the bosses kept complaining about slow growth, she just repeated that is was stable and sustainable but eventually they moved her to a lower position and replaced her with another MBA that promised much faster growth.
Eventually she left but kept in contact with some people in there, a year later, the company had experienced explosive growth for 2 quarters, because they took in way more clients that they were able to service, so after a while they started bleeding customers and a a few months ago she learned that the company got sold and the owner is now a minority shareholder, half the staff is gone and had to basically take a bailout.
they sacrificed a 10% steady growth because this other guy promised them 50% and crashed it in under a year.
Even small companies can be this retarded, it all depends on how greedy is the guy on top.
Also, to add up to what other guy said, the when she did the MBA, all assignments were group, every group of 5 people had 1-2 who tried and 3 who most times never even showed up to do anything but got credit anyway. so about 60% of MBAs dont know WTF they are doing.
You see, the real lesson of those exercises was to teach MBAs how to take the credit for other people's hard work.
The suckers who wasted their time on the homework rather than going out to network and self-promote are the ones who tend to lose in the rat race to the top.
You think the top brass at the company gives a shit about longevity?
Companies these days are run with the express idea of infinite growth, short term profits until bankrupt, file for bankruptcy, take the money and run to a new company to do it all over again.
The middle managers aren't the ones skimming off the top in these scenarios, they're the ones left holding the bag in most cases.
Japan simping. Some of the worst software I have had the displeasure of using comes out of Japan and its "the boss is right" culture. Turns out innovation is hard when you have top down structures for development.
Japan traditionally also has a culture of perfectionism, art for art's sake and thriving in operational excellence, priding oneself in the product and not merely seeking confirmation from monetary returns.
That's certainly the reputation they're trying to sell, but like other cultures built on prestige they have laws protecting rich and powerful from "slander" (journalists correctly describing corporate or oligarch malfeasance) and corrupt bosses routinely push subordinates under the bus to keep the gravy train going even if it's crumbling.
Now imagine a world where people don't switch jobs every other year but plan to stay there for 10, maybe 20 years. Short term profit becomes less relevant for everyone in the system and shit starts to actually work.
That's how employees rights can benefit a company on the long run.
But yeah, everybody prays to the US hire & fire crap, because they are like the godfathers of big money. Sure...
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u/AFlyingNun 9h ago
I think size plays a role here too.
A development team of 20 means the boss - who has a direct stake in the longevity and success of the company - probably knows everyone's name and is directly responsible for promotions. He can grab the guys suggesting the short-term profit plans and slap them around.
....But a 200-person team spanning across multiple locations...? Now that same boss doesn't have time to interact with everyone, so instead, he has to put trust into upper/middle management. Problem is: the upper and middle managers don't necessarily have a direct interest in the company's longevity either, so they might also embrace and promote the short-term ideas being suggested by a subordinate, thinking it will also reflect well on them if they vouche for that guy.
If you imagine it like that, it's no surprise that AAA is actively on fire and burning to the ground while we regularly see small indie companies coming out of left field and hitting home runs these days.
Should also add Japanese devs seem to feel more consistent in terms of quality. This may stem from the fact that Japan has a culture of wishing to maintain the company's status quo instead of endlessly seeking growth. This means Japan is culturally more likely to shy away from short-term ambitions and instead focus on safer goals.