Let me introduce you to David Walker.
David was instrumental to the setting up the Masters of Design Management here in New Zealand at the turn of this century. His first lecture to us started with David defining the difference between a project manager and a design manager. The difference he stated could be simply be explained as follows. If a project manager were to be totally responsible for the design of a building (which they often think they are), the brass plaque at the entrance would say something along the lines “Built to budget – Built on time – Sorry it looks terrible”.
First impressions stick and David’s first lecture has for me. However it doesn’t do David justice as he has so much more to offer especially in the sustainable innovation field.
Recently he sent me a monograph called ‘CEO In A Boiler Suit’, a letter from the ‘Economy’ to the people who are the back bone to New Zealand which I would like to share: -
THE CEO IN THE BOILER SUIT
Dear friend,
You will not remember me, although we have met many times over the years. I know your family, very well. I know your many brothers and sisters, your cousins, nieces and unnumbered kith and kin. Family is important to you.
I understand that. Maybe family and that extended network of decency, hard work and pride is the most important thing of all.
I feel compelled to write to you in these troubled times, to reassure you, to say that you are still doing well, that your efforts are heroic, but most of all, to say that we need you more than ever.
Every day you are in my thoughts more and more. I have a picture of you, even now, in my mind’s eye. You have dirt under your fingernails and bags under your eyes. You have mud on your boots and your hands are calloused and grained like a dried-up river bed. You dress badly in old familiar clothes.
You walk with a limp, the result of some injury or other, or just the attrition of time. You are quieter than you used to be. Your family calls it ’grumpy’. You call it ‘reflective’.
You do feel a bit worn down, a bit bashed up. You are less optimistic than you used to be.
So are we all. Less optimistic. You feel misunderstood. The government certainly misunderstands you. They think that a small business is a little big business. They think you need a corporate mindset. They think you need rules and regulations. They think you need control.
They think you need unintelligible tax laws. They think you are interested in growth – but of course you are more interested in simplicity, clarity, and stability.
Stability above all else. You would like life to be a little less of an obstacle race.
You are interested in sustaining what you have built, and protecting it, like a mother with cubs.
You carry the responsibility of a dozen families on your shoulders. You have built a great team. They have shared the journey. They rely on you. They’ve grown up with you. You have watched their skills and abilities enlarge. You have nurtured them and they have repaid you with hard work, loyalty, and trust. Responsibility is a two-way stretch. They are good and decent people. You feel fearful for them now. You wonder what might happen to these members of the enlarged family.
You worry about the children and grandchildren.
Sometimes you lie awake thinking about their dreams, and their future.
You have an unfashionable sense of duty.
You do not understand what has gone wrong. You look for answers, but you are not even sure of the right questions.
You look for causes, but they are hard to find. But all in all, you cannot blame yourself. Nor should you not blame yourself.
You have worked hard; you have had great ideas; you have been ingenious and clever. You have established a niche just behind the pioneers.
You have provided for that close web of dependence. You’re not afraid to take the lead, or to take tough decisions. You have drawn upon your deepest resources of courage, resolution, and sheer hard work. On the wall, above the mess of your desk, you have the embroidered slogan
‘Everything comes to he who waiteth -as long as he worketh like hell while he waiteth ’
You have followed your intuitions and your heart. No, your gut feelings have not let you down. But something has. Something big. ‘. Something outside your control. You cannot put the words to it – but you know its shape…it is something like the ‘system’, the context’….the thunder cloud on the horizon.
You may not know exactly what has gone wrong, but you have not lost your sense of smell.
There is the toxic smell of corruption hanging in the air. Greed, irresponsibility, and lies pervade so many transactions. Deceit comes calling in a collar and tie. You have lost your faith in experts. You lost trust in politicians a long time ago.
And now in your pantheon of dunces, you include economists, financial advisers, and bankers
As you know, banks are like tooth fairies, if you stop believing in them, they disappear.
Is there a way forward? Can we go back to the good old days, the days of your father and grandfather? We both have nostalgia for those times, which we see in soft focus. In our rosy imagination, things then were more honest, simpler and straightforward. But we cannot put the clock back.
But we can put pressure on our friends in suits. We can whip them into line. We can tell what they need to do for us. Remember there are more of us than there are of them. Remember we generate wealth, and they generate hogwash. We are the risk takers, the doers, and the makers.
They are undoers and naysayers. We generate constructions. They generate confusion. But don’t let them get away with it. Don’t let them take away what you have so painfully built.
Politicians must be less obvious, less vain, and less important. If they do their jobs well then their jobs will pare down to almost nothing, the slenderest scaffolding. Is that too much to ask for -the invisible politician?
Their job is to remove obstacles, to make life simpler. All they need to do is understand us, support us, and de-clutter our working lives. Then we have a chance that we can get back to the bare bones of a decent society. You and your thousand peers, executives in the mud and rain, you are not the engine of the economy, you are more than that. You are the blood, sinew, and bone of the nation. The small cells which take up the right forms
I know you like hard work. I know you can solve the most intractable problems. I know you work best with your back to the wall. So this is my plea. Do not falter. Please find that reserve of courage, resource, and conviction that will carry us through the hard times.
There is no one easy resolution. It comes down to fundamentals. Yes, it is the same old story. We have to have self belief. We have to rely on ourselves. We have to rely on ourselves once again; through self-help, self-determination, and self organization. This is our history, we have done it before, and we can do it again. The stakes are higher now.
With my best heartfelt, but nervous, wishes for the future.
The Economy
