Teaching for Business Leaders – Life, Knowledge, Computer Science and Ethics

I will give a presentation with this title on July, 15th, at Munich Technical University. It is the last of a series of lectures on

“Innovative Entrepreneurs“ / Summer Term 2010
The sub-titled is:
Leading Growth-Oriented Enterprises.

During the lecture, I will try to relate the main insights I gained in my life as a human being, an entrepreneur and a computer scientist. I will explain and substantiate my understanding of an enterprise. And I will try to make it be understood how important it is in our society, culture and, of course, in business to make decisions based on values and in a morally responsible way. Among other things, this is necessary in order to preserve a healthy and sustainable growth in a morally responsible enterprise.

At the bottom you will find the announcement.

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I was lucky: first, there was the opportunity of seeing the Oberammergau “Passion of Christ” and then of going to see “Carmen” in the Arena of Verona. And it all happened inside two weeks. I used to be sceptical, never doing this kind of thing. Now I gladly tried it – and I am fascinated.

Here is my report:

Tickets for Oberammergau literally fell into my hands. One of my friends (and IF blog author) was in a position to offer tickets. I felt I could not miss this opportunity.

My remaining scepticism was wiped away when my friend reminded me that the event only takes place once in 10 years. After all, I turned sixty this June.

Consequently, I was on my way to the meeting point at Fürstenried on June, 29th, at 11 a.m. In an ecologically correct manner .

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In our technical IF forum (fachliches IF-Forum) of June, 24th, at Unterhaching, Thomas Vallon made quite a huge impression on our guests when he asked “Is Computer Science a Craft”?

During his presentation, he described parallels between modern software development and building a cathedral that are quite obvious when you take a closer look. In medieval times, building cathedrals was an exceptional craft. Each cathedral was a true mammoth project with its respective challenges.

Indeed, we discover that there are quite a few things they have in common. Besides, we also discover surprising “philosophical” parallels between our self-perception as software developers and those courageous medieval builders and craftsmen.

For instance, it took a very long time to build a cathedral. Sometimes, this led to different architectural epochs being prevalent while a single building was constructed (for example Gothic and Romanesque). In practice, this meant that a cathedral that was still under construction suddenly looked old-fashioned and badly needed renovation.

Since people believed in agility, they changed plans while they were in the process of building. They also modified, demolished and/or re-built entire sections of a building. There is hardly any cathedral where this was not done.

And through the entire process of “development” (while the cathedral was built), the “operation” (that is the basic function of a Lord’s house) had to continue undisturbed.

Apart from that, many cathedrals also prove in an impressive way what the craftsmen concerned with the edifice considered their “professional honour”. For example, many figures on the facade of Notre Dame have been worked with the same degree of accuracy at the back of the building and high up, although the artist certainly must have known that there was hardly going to be another human who would see it in the near future.
Well, this was only for wetting your appetite. If you want to read something really exciting, here is the manuscript.

Thomas Vallon – Ist die Informatik ein Handwerk?

Do read it!

The background images used during the presentation (designed by Johannes Naumann) are also highly recommendable:

Hintergrundbilder zum Vortrag (6)

I was particularly moved when Thomas dedicated the presentation to me as a present for my sixtieth birthday.

Thank you, Thomas!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
What a pity that we do not have a video or audio tape of the presentation. But maybe we will manage next time!

I am sitting in the train from Verona to Munich, now sitting in Trento. It is Sunday noon, 12.05 hours. It was a short night, because yesterday’s performance of “Carmen” in the Arena was long (and nice) and the train should have left this morning at 9.05 a.m.

However, the train was (and still is) two hours late.

Consequently, I enjoy that there is time for reading the paper and for twittering and blogging.

I am reading an article about the tobacco industry in the business sector of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. Reemtsma is mentioned as a prime example. Incidentally, Reemtsma is now a sub-company of “Imperial Tobacco”, which is one of the great global players in the tobacco industry, similar to A.-E. Inbev with beer. Personally, I associate Reemtsma with “Ernte” – which I used to smoke for some time when I was 14, before switching to Rothändle and Gauloise (of course, without filter).

So I read that Reemtsma had a turnover of 470 million Euros last year, with a profit of 234 million Euros. That equals a profit rate of 50 %. Even Inbev, at 30 %, has a smaller margin than that … One way or another, I know why I do not particularly like global players who think they have to dominate entire sectors with all the consumers world-wide.

In the same article, I found a citation by Warren Buffet:

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A short time ago, I read that the great German harbours suffer from the fact that the Germans buy less Japanese cars.

Basically, I think it is a good thing that the Germans buy less cars, particularly less Japanese cars…

Then I hear that the German car industry is on the upward spin. Asians and Americans, in particular, are literally snatching away the huge luxurious limousines. On the other hand, the German car industry is worried about internal sales still being on the lowest level ever.

Basically, I think it is a good thing that we Germans buy and drive less cars…

Yesterday, I read that the airlines are quite worried. The “ecological fine” planned by the Federal Government for air traffic is expected to be higher than expected and will thus cause enormous economic damage.

Basically, I think it would be a good thing if we all were to fly less…

Yes, everybody is busy lamenting. And everything that is basically a good thing is also detrimental in some way.

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Once again, “our” government confirms every one of my preconceptions.

The soccer championship distracts the people, so they fail to see what happens in real life. For the government, this is an excellent time to quickly raise the health care insurance premiums we have to pay – regardless of everything they promised us over the last few years.

This happens, although

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Today (July, 4th), the Bavarians have their plebiscite (Volksentscheid) on a smoke-free environment for the protection of non-smokers.

Yesterday, I spent the day at the “Kirchsee” lake near Holzkirchen. It looks like a small emerald, directly beneath the Reutberg monastery. Near the pedestrian bridges, a slight layer of sun-oil covered the surface of the water. In this layer, I saw many cigarette butts.

For me, that was an additional motivation to go and vote for the plebiscite today. I went to the elections early in the morning. At first sight, it looked like an election like all others.
But then I discovered some specialties.

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Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

The public interest in the oil catastrophe has been pushed to the background by the media. The reason for this is not that the problem was solved. Apparently, nobody is interested any more in what BP and its accomplices did while working for all of us. Consequently, I will now write an extra cynical article, because I think we all need to be jolted a little.

I am trying to imagine how other cultures would have evaluated what happened at the Gulf of Mexico.
The Red Indians would have been horror-stricken. How can anybody commit such a sin against Mother Earth?

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Experiences made in China

Western enterprises have lots of problems with production in China. The following report was related to me:
Deliveries from Chinese factories often have substandard quality. Up to 30 % of the incoming products cannot directly be used in the (automated) assembly lines. You have to return the deficient parts and then you have to deal with all sorts of trouble by the deliverymen. That is the western method.

The Chinese have a different solution to the problem. Parallel with the fully automated assembly line, they operate a second line, the “manual-industrial” line. This is where those parts in from delivery end up that do not precisely fit. Doing it manually, they manage to do readjustments where necessary.

Of course, this is only possible because in China, labour – relative to the other expenses – costs practically nothing.

RMD
(Translated by EG)

P.S.
The China experiences have been related to me personally, so for me they are second-hand. For more information, just enter „China“ in the IF blog search engine.