Covering more than fifteen years in high technology companies, this twenty minute presentation given to students at California State University, covers four things I’ve learned along the way in my travels through small, medium, large and multi-national companies. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and/or best practices, and maybe you can also contribute some lessons learned not covered here? If so, please add your comments.

1. 20 min Classroom Lecture:
FOUR THINGS I’ve Learned
Along the Way
Paul Barsch
Teradata Corporation
Marketing Director

2. Beware Mental Models of “Common Sense”
• When looking at complex
problems beware mental
models
– Watch for non-linearities
• Mental model example
from Gladwell: Classroom
sizes not whole story
• We need a sense of
limits. Must understand
that more isn’t always
better

3. Common Errors – Not Understanding CINAC
• “Correlation is not a
cause”
• Myriad examples of
managers getting this
wrong
• We live in a “Web of
complexity”--think
probabilities not
certainty

4. Corporate Politics Matters
• Perception of you: 80% is
the work you do, the other
20% is politics.
– Payoff example at
BearingPoint
– Keeping your job while
others lose theirs
• Invest time in
relationships for altruistic
and political reasons

5. Be Your Own Best Brand
• No one is responsible for your job
security
• Invest in yourself – the highest
ROI you can get!
• Manage your reputation very,
very carefully, esp. online
• Toot your own horn (but not too
much), and get others to promote
you

6. Be Your Own Best Brand
• No one is responsible for your job
security
• Invest in yourself – the highest
ROI you can get!
• Manage your reputation very,
very carefully, esp. online
• Toot your own horn (but not too
much), and get others to promote
you