Category Archives: Management

While this post does not address a math problem, it does address an important aspect of mathematics -- the presentation of data. I occasionally have to prepare information on various items for our Customer Service group. For a number of years, I have maintained a graphic that shows the average cost of a kW-hr of energy by state. Our customers use this data to estimate the yearly operating cost of our equipment in their deployments. I get the statistics from the Department of Energy (DoE) Website. It is a hassle to manually update all 50 states and DC, so I use a spreadsheet to link the data I download from the DoE to Visio. It gives me the graphic you see below. I got the original map of North America from the Visguy website. Continue reading →

Introduction One of the roles that an engineering manager has to occasionally play is advocate for a product that you believe in. Every successful product that I can think of began with some individual who was an internal advocate, a … Continue reading →

I read a management forum on LinkedIn that I like. The following exchange was on the forum yesterday that made me smile. Two people were discussing how to evaluate an interviewee. Justin Hoffman • I use four simple guidelines (KSQB) … Continue reading →

My youngest son has a long drive to and from work everyday. During his drive home, he frequently calls me to help him pass the time. During a recent drive, we talked about how I interview engineers, which I have done hundreds of times. I have a fairly standard interview methodology. The key part of any interview is how you go about grading the applicants. Continue reading →

During a hallway discussion, the topic of bad business decisions came up. Everyone knows that a business can make a bad decision if they don't consider the facts and look at the statistics for every decision. It's no surprise that … Continue reading →

It amazes me how often my management experiences remind me of Star Trek episodes. A good example came up today. At extremely regular intervals, I must prepare budget reports that document the spending of my department. If I am late, … Continue reading →

I haven't been able to blog the past week because I have been in Los Angeles at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC). I always enjoy going to this conference. After thinking about it, I enjoy it because … Continue reading →