THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700



July 27, 1999

03 00050 61 99072701




Ms. Deidra-Ann Parrish
Contributing Editor
Micro Times
1300 Clay Street #820
Oakland, CA 94612

Subject: Project Management: It Ain't Just the Software
Micro Times July 21, 1999, Page 41
Communication Main Factor of Success

Dear Ms. Parrish:

Thanks for an excellent article on the need for balance between tools and skills to manage projects. One quibble is that more emphasis might be given to communication support in the face of limited time and span of attention. An article in Fortune on June 21 reports that CEOs at GM, IBM, AT&T..., everywhere, fail because they don't grab a pen and write up understandings and assigments at the conclusion of meetings.

Andy Grove, says in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, that he writes copious notes to discover and fix ambiguity in conversation, email and voicemail. Few people realize that discovering critical secrets, what might be called business intelligence, begins with your craft: writing to analyse the record. Fortune says most CEOs expect subordinates to write things up; but, nobody has time, and not everyone has the skill to prepare a useful record.

Solving information overload might make a good article that explores the blend of skills and tools to tackle this new challenge?

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch


Post Script

Please let me know of any groupware or internet vendors who tout web pages for daily communication support. Even the people who sell these systems do not use them in their own work practice. They are too busy in meetings, sending email and voicemail.