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