Today I found myself re-reading the latest ebook from Seth Godin (A Weekday Routine Is Always Disrupted By A Weekend… | Coffee Muses) and ended up following the link to Hugh Macleod’s Gapingvoid.com where I stumbled over this gem…A list of 6 ways to execute “Evil Plans” within a large company. Number 5 struck a real chord with me and my 35 year history at Freeman.

5. Create your own luck. Create your own job desc­rip­tion. None of the best jobs in large cor­po­ra­tion are ever crea­ted by your boss. They’re crea­ted by you taking the ini­tia­tive. And there’s a defi­nite art to that. ~ evil plans and big companies | Gapingvoid.

It was the second part that caught my eye…One of the things I always said when I was at Freeman was that the minute they came up with a job description for whatever job title I had at the moment it was time to change my title. For the longest, I was able to gety away with that policy. My General Managers valued my contribution and the way I would work across department boundaries. My experience and my talents and skills allowed me to fit in with every department within our local branch. Sadly for me, managers change and the corporate culture became defined by MBA graduates. Everything must fit within the corporate definition. Anything that doesn’t is culled…

So in the end I was culled…And the company posted it’s worst year ever fiscally. The manager who didn’t value my talents is gone…Also culled. And the company goes forward into the third generation of management.I begin to believe the analysis of my cousin with the double degree…Most companies fail when the scond generation takes over the reins…Almost none make it to the third…It was after we had that conversation that I realized that Freeman, though having a second generation in the top seat, still relied on the first generation of upper management. As I watched those managers retire the feel of the company changed. More credit was placed in academic degrees, less attention was placed on the benefits of long experience. Another change, with the hiring of more and more MBA executives, there was a push to free up Freeman stock in the Freeman ESOP…Making all of us long-term employees a problem in their recruiting…I enjoyed a long, friend filled relationship with the company… I wish them luck.

For the record The list for those that don’t want to follow the links…

1. An EVIL PLAN’S suc­cess is 90% the peo­ple around you.
2. If your EVIL PLAN is not alig­ned with what your com­pany is doing, you have two choi­ces.
3. Patience is a vir­tue.
4. Risk.
5. Create your own luck. Create your own job desc­rip­tion.
6. Prac­tice. Fail.

To see the full list with all of the paragraphs and not just the first sentences…Follow the link: evil plans and big companies | Gapingvoid.