Feral Jundi

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: PMC’s and the Streisand Effect

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles,Kaizen,Leadership — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 1:55 AM

    I know, I know, this is ridiculous and far to immature to pay attention to….. Or is it?  We see PMC’s continue to try and hide stuff, along with politicians and celebrities and a multitude of other types of organizations and individuals, and that evil internet just keeps facilitating the discovery of wrong doings.  The Streisand Effect (SE) is a prime example of how trying to hide stuff is sometimes not the best idea.

   I wanted to put this together for the readership, to emphasize how important it is to the true Jundi-ist to ‘have the courage to do what is right’ and ‘be the guy that does it right, when no one is looking’.  Especially for the companies out there who claim to have cleaned up their act or try to sweep under the rug any kind of wrong doing.  Pay heed, you will be found out, and it will get all over the net, and especially if you didn’t want it to.

    Companies have to know, that at one point or another, what comes around, goes around.  If you treat an employee bad, or screw over another company, or damage the reputation of a customer, all because of your lack of Kaizen/leadership/customer service and satisfaction, then of course someone is going to tell the world about your crap.  And the way they do it these days, is through the internet. You may want to censor it, but unfortunately for you, the internet usually finds a way.  That is not a threat from myself or anything, that is just the reality of what we are talking about.

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: A UN Army of Conscience and Practicality

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , — Matt @ 4:41 AM

   Ok, this is a good one, I promise.  What I have done is to present the point of views of four bloggers/journalists, break down the essence of their posts, and try to find some middle ground with their points of view. Then I will end it with my views about what the UN could do to create an ‘army of conscience and practicality’.

   The first article written by Gideon Rachman describes the necessity of creating a more professional and permanent UN Army.

     “Over the longer term, the growing demand for international peacekeeping forces means that it is time finally to bite the bullet and give the UN a permanent, standing military capacity”

   This is Gideon’s solution for making that happen.

     “All of this points to the need to create a proper UN force on permanent stand-by. Such a force need not be a conventional army, with its own barracks and personnel. It would be better to get countries to give the UN first call on a certain number of their troops, for a specific period of time. National sovereignty could still be respected by allowing countries to opt out of missions, if they inflame national sensitivities.”

   Gideon then mentions that conservatives in America would show horror at the idea of a UN standing army.  This is where he brings in the Reagan quote about the UN.

      “They might be surprised and enlightened to learn that the hero of the conservative movement, Ronald Reagan, once spoke approvingly of the idea of “a standing UN force – an army of conscience – that is fully equipped and prepared to carve out human sanctuaries through force”.

   The second article is by Max Boot and he makes the argument that conservatives on the far right might be a little miffed with a UN standing army, but that is only because the UN has a terrible track record of handling armies. Max does agree with Gideon about creating a more professional UN force, but they both disagree on the how.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: Franklin ‘Chuck’ Spinney Talks about Afghanistan

Filed under: Afghanistan,Building Snowmobiles — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 2:40 AM

   This was an interesting article, because Chuck was analyzing the situation much like Boyd would have.  And of course Chuck is a member of Boyd’s Acolytes, so I thought this to be certainly befitting of this category.  Enjoy. –Matt

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Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

The Taliban Rope-a-Dope

By FRANKLIN SPINNEY

July 14, 2009

On July 7, the Times [UK] carried a remarkable report describing the trials and tribulations of the Welsh Guards, who are now engaged in the ongoing offensive against the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. It described in riveting detail how accumulating mental and physical stress are grinding down the bodies and minds of what are clearly highly-motivated, well-trained, and competently-led troops. My aim is to elaborate on the Times report by examining its information from a different perspective. My hope is that this will provide a better appreciation of the Taliban’s game.

With the exception of the last sentence in the penultimate paragraph (i.e., “The Taliban fight not to win but to outlast”), which is silly, the Times provides a graphic description of the pressures on the individual British soldiers, and it is an excellent window into the effects of the Taliban’s military art. The information suggests the Taliban’s strategic aim is to wear down their adversaries by keeping them under continual strain and by working on their psychology, or as the late American strategist John Boyd would say, by getting inside, slowing down, and disorienting their adversary’s Observation – Orientation – Decision – Action (OODA) loops. Moreover, the Taliban’s operational art seems particularly focused on the mental and moral levels of conflict. Outlasting, by running away to fight another day whenever faced with superior forces, is a central part of any winning strategy directed toward achieving this aim. (Interested readers can find a brief introduction to OODA loops in the last section of my remembrance of Boyd in the Proceedings of the Naval Institute, Genghis John.

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: In Search of Innovation

Filed under: Building Snowmobiles — Tags: , , — Matt @ 7:50 AM

   I read this article and instantly thought that this belonged in the building snowmobiles category.  Innovation is such an important aspect of a company’s future and welfare, and that includes our industry.  So for those in the companies looking for some inspiration on how to get there, here you go.  Enjoy. –Matt

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In Search of Innovation

JUNE 22, 2009

When companies try to come up with new ideas, they too often look only where they always look. That won’t get them anywhere.

By JOHN BESSANT, KATHRIN MöSLEIN And BETTINA VON STAMM

If you want to understand why some companies lack innovative ideas, think about the man who can’t find his car keys.

His friend asks him why he’s looking for the keys under the lamppost when he dropped them over on the lawn. “Because there’s more light over here,” the man explains.

For too many companies, that describes their search for new ideas, and it pretty much guarantees they won’t go anywhere fast. While such a company can marginally improve what it’s already good at, it misses out on the breakthroughs—those eureka moments when a new concept pops up, as if from nowhere, and changes a company’s fortunes forever.

Those ideas, however, don’t really come from nowhere. Instead, they are typically at the edge of a company’s radar screen, and sometimes a bit beyond: trends in peripheral industries, unserved needs in foreign markets, activities that aren’t part of the company’s core business. To be truly innovative, companies sometimes have to change their frames of reference, extend their search space. New ways of thinking and organization can be required as well.

In other words, they have to look away from the lamppost.

None of this is easy to do. But companies that succeed may just recognize the next great opportunity, or looming threat, before their competitors do. And that’s important in tumultuous economic times with rapidly changing technologies. Indeed, every once in a while, that blip on the horizon turns out to be a tsunami.

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Building Snowmobiles: Turning The Taliban–The Selous Scout Way

Filed under: Afghanistan,Building Snowmobiles — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 10:23 AM

   “It was simple and direct. He [the terrorist] had the option of being handed over to the police, after which he would be prosecuted for … offenses related to terrorism. If found guilty he would be hanged. He could, however, change sides and work with the security forces against his former comrades. After a short period of intensive contemplation, the capture elected to change sides. He was immediately given back his weapon, but unknown to him, its firing pin had been removed. The fact that he had been given a weapon astonished … him. [I]t was a shrewdly calculated move designed to sow the seeds of trust. A pseudo group always had to make a hard decision … quickly. Could they trust the ex-insurgent or not? The answer to that question…demanded a considerable amount of moral courage on the part of the team. It meant … placing their lives in the hands of a former enemy whom, having turned once, might very well turn again, and kill and betray them.” -Retired Lt. Col. Ron Reid-Daly, a former commander of the Selous Scouts and author of “Pamwe Chete: The Legend of the Selous Scouts,” on capturing and turning the enemy.

   This is totally building snowmobiles, because this activity totally goes against our current mindset in the war.  I found these two stories, because they both complement each other, regardless of the fact that they were written for two different aspects of the war.  The first story is from Strategy Page, and actually talks about turning Taleban who no longer want to fight for the other side.  Except the turning strategy is not going far enough in my opinion.  We could go further, but it would require some guts and some strong leaders to manage the process.  But he who dares, wins… right?

   The second story is about the Selous Scouts method for turning enemy combatants, and using them in the war they were fighting.  The author was trying to apply the ideas to Iraq in the early days, but to me, it has equal application to what we are doing in Afghanistan.  The quote up top is classic.  Let me know what you guys think and Pamwe Chete! –Matt

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Foreigners Fighting Foreigners

June 19, 2009

Strategy Page

While the Taliban have been successful with their human shield tactics, they have done so at great cost to the popularity of the Islamic radical group. The Taliban were never noted for their desire to be popular. These guys are on a mission from God, and earthly trifles do not concern them. While the frequent use of human shields has spared the Taliban some casualties, and sometimes made it easier to escape death or capture (mainly because the propaganda value of dead civilians has caused the rules of engagement for foreign troops to become more restrictive), the practice has increased Afghan hostility to the Taliban. This means that the Taliban increasingly find themselves operating in a hostile environment as they move through Afghanistan. This is made worse by the fact that many Taliban units are often half, or more, composed of foreigners. Many of these are Pakistanis, who at least look like Afghans (and only betray themselves when they speak, and reveal a foreign accent). But a growing number of foreigners are Arabs, who are generally disliked throughout Pakistan. This is because many Arabs look down on Afghans, and often do not try to hide this disdain.

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