Michael Ayers quoted John O'Neill and replied:
>
>>Much of the "redundancy" in headquarters, and organisations in general, is
>>providing the depth of expertise for the organisation to cope with
>>uncertainty and novel situations. Management initiatives that aim to
>>simply increase productivity by reducing headcount are effective if the
>>world doesn't change and all situations can be handled by routine
>>procedures. Unfortunately I don't think this is the case even in the
>>manufacturing industry any more.
>
>Absolutely!
>
>Speaking organizationly, you can cut fat, but at some point you begin to
>cut muscle, and then bone, and maybe even brain.
I once had a boss with whom I had some influence. Responding to yet
another "trim" in our organization's budget and staffing, I told him: "Up
to a point you *can* do more with less. But after that, you can only do
less with less." My influence came to an end immediately, and he not only
avoided my counsel after that, he avoided me.
-- Jack Hirschfeld How long has this been going on? jack@his.com