ie8 fix
madison

IT Project Failures

Michael Krigsman
Home / News & Blogs / IT Project Failures

From the greed files: 'Mediocrity Pays'

By | June 11, 2010, 9:10am PDT

Summary: Although not focused on IT failure, a slide presentation over at Slate points out that great financial reward sometimes comes to those who screw up. Big time.

Although not focused on IT failure, a slide presentation over at Slate points out that great financial reward sometimes comes to those who screw up. Big time.

Financial journalist, Heidi N. Moore, says this:

Mediocrity Pays

Why aim for greatness when mediocrity pays just as well? The financial crisis has changed a lot about our economy, but one thing remains a constant: Poor performance is no hindrance to a fat payout.

Since financial waste underpins all of IT failure, let’s learn from the best (or worst as the case may be).

Photo showing CEO greed, combined with incompetence, from iStockphoto.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “IT Project Failures”

Topics

Journalist, Financial Accounting, Strategy, Finance, Management, Michael Krigsman

Michael Krigsman is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures.

Disclosure

Michael Krigsman

Michael Krigsman writes and speaks about technology in a manner that most observers consider to be fair and balanced. Michael believes that writing about IT failures, which often have complex causes, creates a unique obligation to be reasonable and accurate in both reporting and analysis.

Michael maintains active personal and professional relationships with enterprise technology buyers, vendors, analyst firms (or individual analysts), consultants, and system integrators. As CEO of Asuret, Michael sells and delivers paid services to members of these same groups.

Vendors regularly reimburse Michael's out-of-pocket travel expenses to attend industry conferences and events. Conference organizers frequently waive entry fees when Michael attends industry events. Michael often speaks at industry conferences and events.

He is a member of the Enterprise Irregulars, a loose association of consultants, investors, industry representatives, analysts, and users of enterprise software.

For daily updates on Michael's activities, follow him on Twitter.

Biography

Michael Krigsman

Michael Krigsman is CEO of Asuret, Inc., a consulting company dedicated to reducing technology implementation failures. Asuret's suite of software tools improve the success rate of enterprise software deployments by quantifying and measuring governance issues that cause most project failures. Michael led the research effort underlying Asuret's model of collective intelligence and its practical application to reducing IT failures in consulting environments. He is a recognized authority on the causes and prevention of IT failures and is frequently quoted in the press on IT project and related CIO issues. He is considered an enterprise software industry "influencer" and provides advice to technology buyers, vendors, and services firms.

Previously, Michael served as CEO of Cambridge Publications, which develops tools and processes for software implementations and related business practice automation projects. Michael has been involved with hundreds of software development projects, for companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 organizations. Michael graduated with an M.B.A. from Boston University and a B.A. from Bard College. He is a Board member of the America's Cup Hall of Fame and the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, RI.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
Ask a Question Start a Discussion
3
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

Follow the $ and you'll know why it's persisted for decades
elizab 19th Jun 2010
There have been plenty of reports done over the past 20 years, including The Wall Street Journal, that shows no relationship between performance that's good for the company or customer and compensation payouts.

There have been plenty of C-level execs, and "top" individual performers (like the guys who created those crazy financial instruments guaranteed to fail) who have raked in big compensation payouts. That's because insituttional and professional investors and traders are focused on completely different things.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
RE: From the greed files: 'Mediocrity Pays'
bushidov@... 12th Jun 2010
"Poor performance is no hindrance to a fat payout." This is why I like capitalism. Because you only get a fat payout because someone else thinks it was worth paying in. Now the question to ask is who was stupid enough to buy and why did they believe it was worth it to do so? And furthermore, will that person be dumb enough to buy again? As a responcibile person, I'd hope not, and that company just lost business. Keep doing that and the company collapses due to no business (Unless they are too big to fail). If the person IS stupid enough to keep buying, then why should a company be responcible for anothers' stupidity? Is that company "his brothers' keeper?"
0 Votes
+ -
Just another name for legal banditry
klumper 12th Jun 2010
Bankers and corporate capitalists ... pfffft.
0 Votes
+ -
Follow the $ and you'll know why it's persisted for decades
elizab 19th Jun 2010
There have been plenty of reports done over the past 20 years, including The Wall Street Journal, that shows no relationship between performance that's good for the company or customer and compensation payouts.

There have been plenty of C-level execs, and "top" individual performers (like the guys who created those crazy financial instruments guaranteed to fail) who have raked in big compensation payouts. That's because insituttional and professional investors and traders are focused on completely different things.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix
Click Here
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix
ie8 fix