Not been on here for a while, sorry for the tardy reply.
Yep - it's still a major concern, I had an ex-contractor bragging to me in a pub recently how he has taken all our "stuff" and rolled it out in his new contract. This and some other examples have led us to rethink how we present ourselves and we have decided to make our people the differentiator, not the "stuff" they come armed with; that's just a benefit.
As a services company our "stuff" is not code or products so would be very difficult to protect and it's taken a real rethink to stop obsessing over it. We have used a couple of things already to limit the ease of replication such as only supplying PDF front page reports and keeping the data analysis spreadsheet backend in HQ. This wont stop the copying of ideas and execution but make it more onerous to recreate.
In summary our plan to open up whilst limiting risk is this:
- Reduce the use of contractors over time for the delivery of core services
- Build a Chinese Wall to ringfence contractor engagements and limit what they have access to
- Move to a wiki for all internal documentation and collaboration using access controlled areas for client servicing areas
- Remove use of email internally within 18m; encourage use IM and wiki
- Culture of empowerment and sharing to help minimise staff churn
- When hear about our "stuff" being used elsewhere, talk about it with message "that stuff is old now, come look at how we do it now!"
- Keep innovating to stay ahead of the competition and limit exposure of IP theft.
Basically my dream is to have a motivated and loyal team committed to moving the company and themselves forward by having a real say in the strategy and execution and a customer base that knows we are a little different to everyone else.
This is a great read and very timely as we are just taking on our first permanent hires rather than contractors so giving a lot of thought to compensation, bonuses etc.
My real horror stories stem from my time working for investment banks, where the annual bonus cycle meant zero delivery for 9 months of the year, with everyone holding back for Q4 (then a few months of positioning /backstabbing to claim the biggest slice of the pot!)
The use of distribution curves gave me a particularly warm feeling come appraisal time, when I knew I had to pick 2 of my motivated and performing team and reward them with a D grade (no bonus, no payrise and a threat to improve of face firing), simply because 10% had to be in that curve.
I understand now why every other team had a proportion of "dead wood" - simply to be held back for appraisal time rather than my (maybe naive) approach of weeding them out through the year and hiring motivated replacements.
So now I have my own company, I am very keen to avoid the negative aspects of traditional compensation and appraisal schemes and find something better suited to to today's working styles and people.
Some good food for though here - I especially liked the performance / stretch curve being plotted together.
Authored Comments
Not been on here for a while, sorry for the tardy reply.
Yep - it's still a major concern, I had an ex-contractor bragging to me in a pub recently how he has taken all our "stuff" and rolled it out in his new contract. This and some other examples have led us to rethink how we present ourselves and we have decided to make our people the differentiator, not the "stuff" they come armed with; that's just a benefit.
As a services company our "stuff" is not code or products so would be very difficult to protect and it's taken a real rethink to stop obsessing over it. We have used a couple of things already to limit the ease of replication such as only supplying PDF front page reports and keeping the data analysis spreadsheet backend in HQ. This wont stop the copying of ideas and execution but make it more onerous to recreate.
In summary our plan to open up whilst limiting risk is this:
- Reduce the use of contractors over time for the delivery of core services
- Build a Chinese Wall to ringfence contractor engagements and limit what they have access to
- Move to a wiki for all internal documentation and collaboration using access controlled areas for client servicing areas
- Remove use of email internally within 18m; encourage use IM and wiki
- Culture of empowerment and sharing to help minimise staff churn
- When hear about our "stuff" being used elsewhere, talk about it with message "that stuff is old now, come look at how we do it now!"
- Keep innovating to stay ahead of the competition and limit exposure of IP theft.
Basically my dream is to have a motivated and loyal team committed to moving the company and themselves forward by having a real say in the strategy and execution and a customer base that knows we are a little different to everyone else.
This is a great read and very timely as we are just taking on our first permanent hires rather than contractors so giving a lot of thought to compensation, bonuses etc.
My real horror stories stem from my time working for investment banks, where the annual bonus cycle meant zero delivery for 9 months of the year, with everyone holding back for Q4 (then a few months of positioning /backstabbing to claim the biggest slice of the pot!)
The use of distribution curves gave me a particularly warm feeling come appraisal time, when I knew I had to pick 2 of my motivated and performing team and reward them with a D grade (no bonus, no payrise and a threat to improve of face firing), simply because 10% had to be in that curve.
I understand now why every other team had a proportion of "dead wood" - simply to be held back for appraisal time rather than my (maybe naive) approach of weeding them out through the year and hiring motivated replacements.
So now I have my own company, I am very keen to avoid the negative aspects of traditional compensation and appraisal schemes and find something better suited to to today's working styles and people.
Some good food for though here - I especially liked the performance / stretch curve being plotted together.