Jumping the Gun.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Ryan Z wrote:

> I am currently reading a great book called "Organizational
> Communication IMperatives, Lessons of the Space Program" by
> Phillip K. Tompkins

> p.s. Tango, if you haven't read that book already, I
> highly recommend it. Its a quick read (less than 200
> pages) and gives good insight to one of the greatest
> of the space visionaries, Werner Van Braun.

Ryan, thanks for the heads-up on the book. I don't think I'll buy it
but I will check to see if my local university library has a copy.

As to Nucor, it is a very well known management case study and they
became the model for the standard mini-mill. At root is
decentralized decisionmaking and enpowering the front line workers
with knowledge. This is a facet of the trend that Drucker wrote
about and since him, scores of management theorists. If you want an
extreme example of such decentralization look for articles on W.L.
Gore, the makers of gore-tex. They'd hire you and expect you to
develop your own position in the company rather than settle into a
predefined position.

As an interesting aside, right now the mini-mills are under severe
cost pressure because their feedstock (scrap steel) is highly sought
after with the surge of Chinese demand. The integrated steel mills
that work with ores, coke, etc don't face the scarcity of scrap
steel feedstock. Doesn't really have much of a point other than to
demonstrate that competitive advantge is a relative proposition.
Same thing with the overbuilding of natural gas fired genertion
plants. Each decision is made independently and there is little
incentive to bet on coal or nuclear in the midst of such a building
boom when it would have been prescient to do so and avoid locking
into an escalating fuel price cycle that results from increased
scarcity and demand.

TangoMan