Datasheet

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■ THE BUSINESS ANGLE: MONEY TALKS!
late at night when it’s quiet and the phone’s not ringing, so you can focus. Few things
are always true, but I’ve come to believe that CAD managers who plan, prioritize, sort,
analyze, and optimize their task lists are the ones who achieve optimal success.
The Business Angle: Money Talks!
You’ve done your analysis of all the tasks and the user and management perspectives,
and you’ve tried to get your CAD management position simplified into the most basic
equation possible, but it still seems complex, doesn’t it? No matter how much you
think about your position, and no matter how you try to simplify the tasks, you need
to accomplish a lot. And no matter how thoroughly you think things through, you
know a case will come up that involves competing priorities, right? It’s reasonable to
ask, “How do I resolve these situations?” In the business world, the uniform answer to
this question is that you have to make the decision that’s best for the company—and this
is why I say, “Money talks.”
A key to framing issues from the “money talks” perspective is to understand
how competing priorities reach the attention of your management. If an issue causes
enough discord, management will hear about it; and when they do, they’re going to
wonder why you haven’t handled the problem. Remember, you’re the CAD manager,
and you’re supposed to be facilitating optimal productivity—so why do you have
unhappy users? At this point, management will ask you, “Why was this problem ele-
vated up to us? Why haven’t you handled it?” And your immediate comeback must be,
“Because I have different people with different perspectives. They have different things
that they want and need or expect, and I can’t make everybody happy.”
Figure 1.4 Management tends to measure things financially rather than technically. So remember that the same
level of technical vigor you apply to CAD programs is exactly the way your management thinks about money!
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