Lynn Comp
Three hard lessons learned put me on the path to doing strategy work and not just inventing “neat technical stuff,”
- Lesson #1: The most elegant product or technology does not always win the lions’ share of market success. So much for the Electrical Engineering degree guaranteeing perpetual employment idea…
- Lesson #2: Understanding corporate balance sheets, annual reports and how to run pivot tables on scenarios is almost as mystical as technology itself. Unfortunately, unraveling mystery and working miracles are not one and the same… so much for the MBA
- Lesson #3: If I don’t like a fact – or what the data clearly shows to be a fact, I am still unable to deny it. I have yet to figure out the right Jedi mind trick to move it out of my way.
You will find me working on the projects that are confusing, confounding, technically complex, and involve controversy beginning to brew into resentments. This more or less involves two or more who have been gathered together doing little more than arguing over what approach is “best”, and the current referees would really like to go back to their day jobs of managing the business…. when you don’t find me working, you’ll find me outside – or reading – or both.
I’ve worked mostly in larger companies, but always end up in smaller groups that still have room to grow or need to be fixed. I gravitate to areas where the challenges aren’t just making sure that the sailing stays smooth on the big important business someone else created 5-10 years ago.
I save my “religion” for matters that have a shelf life longer than technology. Technology is not transcendent, it’s a tool.
The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Intel’s positions, strategies or opinions. You can view a full “close to CV” here at LinkedIn.
Finding Ponies... 
I am distressed by your characterization that the MBA is about “Understanding corporate balance sheets, annual reports and how to run pivot tables on scenarios.” The most useful thing I learned in b-school is business judgment: what factors impact the success of a BUSINESS (not only a product line or technology). Of the 80/20 rule of pareto optimization, which actions fall into the 80% and which ones into the 20%? Yeah, b-school teaches a lot of tools like reading balance sheets and calculating ROI, but it’s the mindset that I have found to be most valuable.
Maria
For me it was understanding things I was never taught in my undergrad that I purposefully ignored or dismissed at the time. I was the snob of all electrical engineers and thought at the time that only the best technology mattered. For me, MBA school was learning humility about the real reach of technology that is the most sophisticated and elegant and having an appreciation for other ways to look at the world. -Lynn
Hi, so you are Lynn Comp, was wondering why you had my web site name. No biggy, you are entitled to use your name.