June 18, 2002 | 03 00050 61 02061803 |
Mr. Garold L. Johnson
dynalt@dynalt.com
Dynamic Alternatives
http://www.dynalt.com/
City, St Zip
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Subject: | SDS and market research |
Secretary, Admin Assist Com Manager Adds |
Dear Gary,
Just a clarification on your point about Com Manager being an executive
assistant who opens mail, organizes folders, etc.
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This is an important point and so deserves further comment.
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An executive assistant could be a Com Manager of sorts. We have to appreciate
that since this role does not exist, it can pop out in a variety of ways and
levels, and can evolve as people gain experience using SDS.
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Typically, a Com Manager does not have any assigned duties, except to get the
record created, distributed and reviewed in time to take effective action. Like
an accountant that just aligns the finances, the Com Manager just aligns
communication. Of course this requires interacting with a lot of people in a
lot of ways.
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An Executive Assistant that has other duties might encounter a conflict in
terms of time.
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Once people begin getting the record, they expect and demand that it arrive
regularly. For one thing everyone is wondering how good they are going to
sound in the record, so it becomes like sugar. The thirst for this requires
that the Com Manager not have other prescribed duties, but necessarily will
perform tasks explained earlier.
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The
Chief of Operations (COO) role
has gained some currency in recent years as a place where SDS
might fit existing culture, explained on 990625....
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I am commenting further, because the idea that a secretary could be a Com
Manager is attractive, and I suspect this could work at some level in some
settings, and indeed provides an opportunity for strengthening this role. In
that case, this would be more local, personal support, rather than organization
wide. I think this can eventually work, where every secretary is a personal
Com Manager. I think there will remain a need for a broader intelligence role.
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So far my use of SDS has been as mentioned previously. We need more experience
to work out modalities for all of the ways SDS can be deployed.
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The
FSR role
is another good fit because it is a sort of inside-consultant to
the contracting officer and Assistant CO, that does some Com Metrics stuff
already. Adding intelligence support capability seems like a sensible next
step.
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So, just a little clarification. You can see this is an interesting subject
that requires considerable thought and likely a lot of experience before we
have a good grasp of issues and approaches.
Sincerely,
THE WELCH COMPANY
Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net