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In Fortune 500, there are times when senior managers (those in control of other managers, and who have budget responsibility) and directors (those in control of senior managers, and who have fangs down to their chins) meet in a large room to arrive at consensus decisions.  

They do this because some decisions have cross-organizational impact.  If a change of timeline, from Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 15, 2012, has the potential to embarrass the Applications Integration senior manager when he fails to hit that deadline, then that AI senior manager has the right to sign off on it.  If a particular senior manager has a new initiative, say an added design-build team to increase a system's scalability, then that senior manager needs to trot around the halls and secure "buy-in" well in advance of the Steering Committee at which he proposes it.

The first time that Dr. D was ever invited to sit in a steering committee, as a "subject matter expert" (ha!), was in 1990.  He was asked a question and he responded something like, "Well, the thing we're missing here is that this approach will cause problem X."

The silence in the room, and the looks on peoples' faces, was sickening.  I'd said something horrible, and had no idea at all what it had been.

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Afterward, he asked a friend what went wrong.  The friend was reluctant to even tell Dr. D, for fear of being caught near the explosion when it went off under Dr. D's chair.  "If I were Senior Manager X, I would have been pretty uncomfortable when you said that."

Dr. D had been completely oblivious to the fact that there was a suit attached to that proposal.

Explanations could be multiplied, but we trust that you take the point from here.  Executives live and die by political capital.  You could say, "I don't care about any of that," and you could also not be a $250,000 executive for very long.  Those guys live on 90-day renewable contracts.  Their contracts, and territory, are renewed based on their quarterly reports:  were they on time, under budget, with a good defect rate?  Okay, you're still senior manager.  And you wonder why they don't mind firing people?

When the project is not on time, not under budget, and doesn't have a good defect rate -- let's say you are losing 95 games per season -- then you have a lifeline:  your allies.  Every day you add a chit to your allies account or lose one.

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You wonder why free agent contracts like Chone Figgins' aren't deep-sixed earlier than they are?  Try suggesting that in a steering committee.  There is a suit attached to that contract.  Even suggesting Figgins' playing time be reduced, in a setting like that -- much less that Figgins be DFA'ed -- is likely to make a permanent, mortal enemy of a suit or six.  Permanent. 

And by the way, you wonder why bloggers aren't hired locally?  :- )  How far out of bounds do bloggers get, going by the dimensions of this playing field?

The fact that Jack Zduriencik could DFA Chone Figgins, with a full year left on Figgins' contract, is a testament to the excellent standing that he (STILL) enjoys with the ownership committee.  Their confidence in him is apparently still very high.  This is EXTREMELY unusual, in Fortune 500, given the circumstances.  The Nintendo ownership group has always been very patient about on-field results, provided that the yearly cash flow is pretty.  But the M's have lost a boatload of games, for several years now.  It's a compliment to them that they are willing to stay focused on the bottom of the talent pyramid.

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Chone Figgins was worth +4, +3, and +7 wins in the three years before the M's signed him.  They got him for only $8.5 million per year, which is fully 50% off market value.  At a 50% WAR bid, they were the highest bidder.  That tells you all you need to know about GM's and WAR dogma.

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Dr. D does not believe in paying "soft skills" WAR heroes -- Shane Victorino, Melky Cabrera, etc -- their full theoretical value.  But!  Next time you can pay 2 WAR's worth of money to a 5 WAR player, you gotta do it again.

It was absolutely a no-brainer with Chone Figgins.  There was a 4-5 WAR player, at a position and offensive role that fit us, sitting there for piddling 2 WAR money.  There was no real decision involved; it was like asking whether you swing away with Miguel Cabrera up and a 2-0 count.  He grounds into a double play?  That's life.  Zduriencik's decision to sign Chone Figgins goes into his ledger as a positive to be celebrated, not a negative to be overcome.

You draw aces wired, you bet them hard, and then the other guy draws out his straight ... hey, what can you do.  Play them the same way next time.

Just hope the next no-brainer doesn't blow up due to dumb flippin' luck.

BABVA,

Dr D

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