When the week began, all of us were groaning; Monday morning and Delspe (my boss, the “delegation specialist”) was back at work. He was away at training for an entire week. All of us were praying that the training should extend, but it did not and he came back. Do you ever wonder at the fact that your productivity increases when your boss’s away? And how it decreases when he returns? How this freedom exists to do your work when he’s away and how that freedom is lost when he returns? How can you breathe easy when he’s away? With the boss being a desk away, there’s this feeling that you are constantly being judged and that kills productivity. Not sure if many people realize this!

I had a brainwave during that period when he was not around and sent him my thoughts in an email.

“Really?” – Delspe pinged me. I know that my email was maximized on his screen and he was looking into it.

I pinged back and replied “Yes”. I walked over to his cubicle and told him that we can achieve 50% of improvement in productivity if we are able to install this software that would voice-record our bug reports and then, create a defect from it.
He said that he’d think about it. I came back to my desk and forgot all about this episode for the next few months.

After a few days, Delspe met his boss “BigDelspe”. Delspe proposed his idea to his boss; Bigdelspe told him that it’s an interesting idea; and that it had a lot of potential. He also said that it had a lot of potential to become a bigger idea and that there might be a huge market for this idea.

Some days later, his boss, our VP, was visiting our location. Delspe’s boss pitched this idea to him over a conversation in the elevator. The VP gave him a very sarcastic look and blasted the idea; He said that he does not have time for stupid meaningless conversations and that if he had something better, it would be good use of his time.

The VP left and found himself in a sales meeting; the client was a company that had become a 10 million USD company in quick time; the owners of that company wanted to work with brilliant young minds; the client wanted to know what kind of product idea these guys came with.  Unable to think of anything, the VP pitched this idea to the clients; the young CEO, got up, and left.
The VP was flushed when he realized that he screwed up the account; he was more worried about how to face his boss, than the fact that an account was lost.

The CEO went back to his company and started thinking about it; overnight, he wrote a full  paper and application on this. He rushed next morning to the legal department and sent this idea to be patented; within a few weeks, the patent was his.

I happened to read in a magazine, the cover story of CEO who had a patent about a talking bug database system.
What I learnt from this episode;

1) No idea is original, every idea is stolen

2) Don’t bother about feedback from your boss; when you get a good idea, file a patent

3) And every time you read in a magazine that a CEO has filed a patent, you know where it originated from

Well, that’s how the world is.

 

Fake Software TesterA Fake Tester's DiaryFake Tester,Fake Tester's DiaryWhen the week began, all of us were groaning; Monday morning and Delspe (my boss, the “delegation specialist”) was back at work. He was away at training for an entire week. All of us were praying that the training should extend, but it did not and he came back....