Corporate Like Boats, Boat Like Corporations.....

As I've blogged on before, racing yachts tend to be a bit like companies. They have a collective personality, or atmosphere and kind of routines and temperament. Companies then are also in my now wider experience, a lot like racing boats in terms of people and probably performance!

I have been round the houses more than just a bit, with some contracts and some misfired chances, a couple of liquidations and some good solid experiences too. Both in Boats and Jobs!!

Some boats have arrogant owners and that over-bearing-ness filters down to through the crew, and spills out of course on the race course to other crews. Arrogant owners of bigger boats tend to choose quite aggressive and controlling key players, and tend not to be very interested in the grunts on the rail until they start messing up maneuvers or not turning up for race nights. Sometimes the whole boat becomes a honey pot for wood-be rock stars with big, arrogant personalities and there is a kind of pecking order, and bitching goes on out of ear shot both on and off the water. Arrogance is usually a sign of a unsubtle mixture of over-confidence, a need for dominance and plain ignorance. On the latter point they are owners and crews who have come so far that they believe the learning curve no longer applies to them.

Do we find that in companies? Hell YES!  These companies I have experienced as an employee, or if they were customer or supplier for that matter, tend to be run by strong, arrogant personalities in key positions who are of the god given right to do what ever they think is right by virtue of MBA and being a "made man" or woman. The owners are old bulldogs, and they select young rottweilers in the hope of having a high level of control on the unknown quantity down in the hoi palloi, we untouchables.

In my personal experience, such companies end up with a poor culture and a kind of sporadic performance. What tends to happen is that routines and SOPs lie there, but are open to interpretation by middle "rottweiler" management so people do not feel empowered to push any limits what so ever, or feel so frustrated that they exercise a minimal amount of initiative. A sucking-up culture is nurtured, which involves keen workers laying themselves flat and doing enormous working hours just to be sitting in an illusionary 'pole position' for promotion, or to eek a little power out of the otherwise flat system and become team leaders by favour only.

Workers who are highly effective but work normal hours, who take initiative and show good judgement, who are objective with 'challenges' and fun to work with tend to do a tour of duty and get out, or GTFO not long after they come in. Managers who show this type of humanity, are usually those who were left over from acquistions!

Now we come full circle- exactly the same type of anti-culture and turn over happens on boats too. They tend to be boats that do well if they are larger, but they are inconsistent and go around with a kind of divine-right-to-win notion. Often if they have developed themselves in One Design Racing, they soon up size to a handicap IRC boat in order to sail in their own wind and cheque book themselves onto the podium.

Of course there are other types- you have the cash burning innovators who have new boats, new sticky out bits and new sails every season without any real results to show, just some 'low hanging fruit' in light or heavy air races. You have the bumbling old family or company of gentlemen boats, who have had their glory when their world was a smaller place. Good sailors who made it big when the game was small. You have chaotic boats on a course to results "bankruptcy"; Fantastic sailors who cannot maintain or improve the infrastructure;  boats which for no good reason just do not perform and get a high crew turn over; boats which do their own business on the race course mid-fleet and no one ever notices;  boats full of anger who get results but cost blood; and then you have the good boats to sail with.

There with have you also good companies to work for and that is not just a matter of pay, prospects, location and office building. Yes a worn out carpet, a small parking lot, poor transport connections and a 1970s style cube farm are not good fabric as neither would poor sails, poor faired hull, failing gear be on the nicest owner-crew boats be.

Good companies show a little care for their employees, not just in tokenism, but they understand their little needs and what irritates them. Like canteens, parking places, noise levels, etc. More importantly clarity on work responsibility and more over actual authority is important as your career develops and you shift jobs or whole direction. They tend to go out of their way to employ capable people who are really nice to deal with, and often those people-people competencies and 'can do' attitude substitutes for bone hard experience. They actively avoid employing arrogant, domineering people in management and on the shop floor. Their culture becomes positivity, and they are driven by good business processes run by good personalities, not just run by strong personalities.

But avoiding those arrogant or chaotic companies is difficult, and of course some divisions or departments can be either way excepted from the general culture for better or for worse. Avoiding bad boats is to some extent easier if you are out on the same fleet racing against new prospective "employer".  Relocating yourself, changing fleet or having an offer from a "start-up" are all in the unkown sector.

Really it isn't until you sail with them that you get a feeling on how things are. There may be a lot of shouting and blame storming and unease on the boat. You may be made to feel small. You may be a little over qualified and therefore under utilised a good while. Which ever boat you join, you have to feel your way and not come in with any demands or openly expressed big ambitions. You should of course know the job offer, if your skills match it, or if it is a trial of said skills, the demand for commitment in the season, and the level of performance expected of you.

Now shall I cut and paste that over to a job scenario or is it a waste of time?