[Sigia-l] RE: Sigia-l Digest, Vol 16, Issue 29

[Christopher Fahey]

John wrote:
> I'm not sure how to put this nicely, but that is 
> ludicrous.  There is nothing in the realm of 
> information architecture that would adequately 
> qualify someone in areas like finance and strategic 
> planning to lead a public software or media company.  

1) There are plenty of big CEOs who began their careers as engineers,
marketers, salespeople, and even as manual laborers. 

2) There are plenty of big CEOs with little to no early career experience in
finance.

> Perhaps over the years some former IAs will have 
> acquired enough of such corporate leadership 
> abilities-

That's exactly my point. A young IA who over their career works on bigger
and bigger projects, and who is promoted to head bigger and bigger teams,
may be valued for his or her deep understanding of the user experience and
the challenges involved in designing compelling user interfaces. 

In 5-10 years, I think that most big media and software companies will value
user experience design as an essential corporate value. These companies are
rapidly turning into user experience design companies, as everything is
becoming interactive. Even Microsoft has announced that they are now an
interface-design-driven company (Office 12 will noticably reflect that
change of focus). 


> but then that would make their IA 
> background incidental.

And that's the opposite of my point. That's like saying that Bill Hewlett
and Dave Packard's engineering experience was incidental to the success of
HP, or that Larry Page and Sergey Brin's programming skills were incidental
to their leadership of Google.

Yes, it's true that many CEOs and Presidents are hired by corporate boards
strictly for their management and financial abilities, often times even
without any experience whatsoever in the company's industry or even the
whole sector (I'm reminded of when John Sculley was hired from Pepsi to
replace Steve Jobs at Apple). 

But it's also true that Michael Eisner worked his way up the media corporate
ladder from a foundation in broadcast television producing and programming,
mirroring his mentor Barry Diller. David Geffen wrote lyrics and managed
artists. Chris Albrecht, CEO of HBO, ran a comedy nightclub and managed
artists. These foundation skills were absolutely logical (not ludicrous)
steps in their professional growth towards their visionary leadership
positions.

As these industries continue to evolve into intractive, on-demand, mobile,
and other buzzy/convergent inevitabilities, a leader who understands the
user experience and the challenges involved in innovating them may be a
little more valuable than a leader with a background in artist management,
broadcast programming, and film production. 

-Cf
[christopher eli fahey]
art: http://www.graphpaper.com
biz: http://www.behaviordesign.com