As a leader/manager/head you always have to solve this odd equation, how much work is enough? How much profit is desired? More profits certainly means more work. More work may not mean more profits though.
I was reading some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon two interesting pages, one is a post at Harvard business publication. It is a very different post than what you read, it supports working less by taking an example of 37signals. Not an easy thing to achieve, I must say they did not follow this practice but have achieved this result through organization. Read on and building your own opinion about the equation.
“When you’re competing against companies that have so much more, the only answer is to do less … do less than your competitors to beat them. Instead of one-upping other companies, one-down them. Instead of out-doing other products, under-do them.”
It recently switched to a four-day work week to keep employees fresh and focused.
read on “Work Less, Give Your Customers Less… and Succeed Like 37Signals” ….
The other page is a wikipedia page.
Robert Scoble joined Microsoft in May 2003. Scoble was part of the Channel 9 MSDN Video team, where he produced videos that showcased Microsoft employees and products.
Although Scoble often promoted Microsoft products like Tablet PCs and Windows Vista, he also frequently criticized his own employer and praised its competitors (such as Apple Computer and Google). He was unusual in the level of access he offered to his users, which included publishing his cell phone number on his blog and urging people to contact him directly with issues, as well as accepting comments on his blog. His support for Microsoft in his blog, however, drew controversy and in February 2005, he became the first person to earn the newly coined moniker of “spokesblogger.”
The Economist described Robert Scoble’s influence in its February 15, 2005 edition:[10]
“ He has become a minor celebrity among geeks worldwide, who read his blog religiously. Impressively, he has also succeeded where small armies of more conventional public-relations types have been failing abjectly for years: he has made Microsoft, with its history of monopolistic bullying, appear marginally but noticeably less evil to the outside world, and especially to the independent software developers that are his core audience
I just wanted to introduce Robert Scoble, read on …. You may also want to visit his blog at http://scobleizer.com/
Happy weekend!