I am always reminded of Steve Jobs’ “The Lost Interview”. In it he details how John Sculley took Apple’s visionary tech innovation driven product culture and made “sales & marketing” the primary driver behind Apple. Almost leading to its total collapse. (Steve Jobs got re-hired to Apple shortly after that interview and turned it around.)
Any “manager” that believes they can effectively drive a technology driven company/department/team, without being an (active) engineer in heart and mind, will drive it into the ground.
And none of that, “I used to be a COBOL programmer for 2 years at the start of my career 40 years ago” malarkey. You lose the skills, you lose the mindset, you lose the ability to innovate in technology and will inevitably kill what you’re selling with your “KPI’s”.
This is not just an issue in the Games industry.
I am always reminded of Steve Jobs’ “The Lost Interview”. In it he details how John Sculley took Apple’s visionary tech innovation driven product culture and made “sales & marketing” the primary driver behind Apple. Almost leading to its total collapse. (Steve Jobs got re-hired to Apple shortly after that interview and turned it around.)
Any “manager” that believes they can effectively drive a technology driven company/department/team, without being an (active) engineer in heart and mind, will drive it into the ground.
And none of that, “I used to be a COBOL programmer for 2 years at the start of my career 40 years ago” malarkey. You lose the skills, you lose the mindset, you lose the ability to innovate in technology and will inevitably kill what you’re selling with your “KPI’s”.
Ah yes, Steve Jobs well known for being a developer and not sales and marketing guy.