hedgehog lab blog → People are your intellectual property

People are your intellectual property

Software is overrated! You might think that is a bit rich coming from someone who runs a software company. The problem is that to most people, software is synonymous with the code underlying a system. Sure, writing good code is a tough task but let me assure you that writing code itself isn't all that difficult (software companies create value in more than just code, but that topic is for another day).

Ideas are overrated! I cannot begin to describe the number of times I saw a new product or service (software or otherwise) and thought, "Blimey! They stole my idea."

So if both code and ideas are overrated and hardly ever original (note I say hardly, some ideas and code are original), then why is it that technology companies classify these as "intellectual property"? Why is there so much bickering over who owns what when a clever programmer in his basement can create the next big thing and almost any software system can be cloned without much effort?

When will managers and leaders in technology focused companies realise that their real intellectual property are their people?

The answer lies in the this gem from Peopleware,

“The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature.”

Simply put, software companies like to blame technology, law, environment, government and everything else for their problems rather than deal with the real problems of people (employees), customers and management.

What better way to make your failure to run effective projects and deliver on time appear more valid, than blaming "intellectual property" issues and crying foul against competitors?

Here is an idea! Why not invest in a great team, listen to your people, bring in better managers, treat your customers with honesty and transparency, and focus on running effective projects. Then see how much the rest matters!

posted by Sarat Pediredla on March 14, 2008 at 1:23 p.m.

Comments

Mar 15

Intellectual property might not be necessary, or even desirable, but it _is_ the law, and it _does_ get in your way. So sometimes blaming law/government for blocking your path with IP legislation might be quite valid.

Greg M

Mar 15

Greg, I agree with you. My angle was more about companies who use IP as a weapon to stop others from progressing with innovation.

Sarat Pediredla

Mar 17

From a purely people-orientated point of view employees are the most important part of any company and it should be realised that a company does not own it's staff, it hires their knowledge and expertise - too many companies fail to realise this and fail to treat employees with the respect and faith they deserve. True success comes from investing in people and their ideas and treating them fairly, if you try to rule them you will have a rebellion, you will breed discontent and frustration and ultimately exacerbate any "disloyalty". At the end of the day you don't buy ideas, you buy time and IP law is ill-equipped to really cope with the task of protecting who owns what - it would appear the winner in an IP lawsuit is not the person who created the IP, but the person who has the most money or weight to refute it.

Steven Sams

Mar 19

I have a tendancy to agree with the fact that people are your best "intellectual property". However, most businesses don't.

As part of my income, I trade stocks and options. That means I follow discussions of the Business Analysts in trade journals like the Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily and CNBC. In one discussion on CNBC, they were talking about Electronic Arts and the fact that a EA was holding out on a buyout/merger for a better deal for its Programmers (some companies do get it). But the Business Analyst called that stupid, because in HIS words: "You can always go out and fire the staff and HIRE dime a dozen programmers." I usually disagree with that ID.10.T, but this unfortunately is a view held by many Banks, Mid-level Businesses and Financial Institutions.

In accounting, employees are accounted in the "liabilities" column. They require salary, benefits, and infrastructure to maintain the employee... they are a "drain" on the profits.

Until we get away from this mentality, "SOFTWARE" and products will be the things people argue over... not how to maintain people. Not what potential people in your organization have for creating profits....

There are some enlightened companies out there, but notice that most of them are "Privately" owned. The myopic, short range view Wall Street investor prevents most true innovation.

Stephen McConnell

Mar 19

@Stephen

I agree with your views there. I think change will only come if people adopt it and if someone starts it. I do not profess to know the answers to where we will be when we become big and consider a possible "public" option, but like everything else in corporate history, I am confident things will change progressively!

Sarat Pediredla

hedgehog lab Bug Tracking, Defect Tracking, and Issue Tracking software for the enterprise.

People are your intellectual property

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