Being agile
There is much talk in my organisation about the need to be agile, entrepreneurial and innovative. We are constantly looking over our shoulders at the bustling Chinese, the flamboyant Brazilians, and the cerebral Indians who are good at maths and coding. If we pause for a moment they'll be buying up our businesses, our houses, taking over our networks and computers, and we'll be forced to hew wood and draw water and sleep in the garden shed.
While I try to cope with my anxiety about not keeping up with the game I try to get some contractors paid in the way that I have every three months for the past several years. I submit them in the usual way to my administrator, who submits to the finance administrator, who submits to Finance department. Within a week they are sent straight back from Finance to the contractors with a demand for a new purchase order code. This bewilders them as much as it does me.
I go up the line to try and resolve things, and the invoices are paid.
Three months later, I submit invoices for contractors again and the same thing happens: they are returned directly to the contractors with a peremptory warning that new purchase order codes are required.
Jumping over two links in the administrative chain, I phone the peremptory colleague in Finance. She tells me that I need a new purchase order code but can't advise me how to get one. She follows up with a helpful e-mail containing a URL to the company intranet page displaying the new rules. I send an e-mail to her boss who repeats the new rules to me and sends me a helpful link to the company intranet page displaying the new rules.
I respond pointing out that I now understand the rules, since I have spent a considerable and profitable time studying them on the company intranet page, but would still like to know how I get the contractors paid just as we have done for a good number of years. I appeal to being agile and entrepreneurial. I point out that if the rules are not being followed, then this probably implicates both of us.
My colleague Wayne in Finance tells me that it is his job to prevent the floodgates from opening. He is keen to stamp out 'maverick spend'. We need protocols, documents, accreditation. We need an estimation of the possible commitment for the company; we need robust contracts. He is not trying to be 'overly bureaucratic', but unless he adopted this attitude then the fabric of the company could be rent asunder. He stands at the besieged border post between order and chaos. He is unimpressed that I run my own sub-business in the company and generate my own income which contributes profitably to the company's bottom line.
It will take more meetings, and I wonder about how the Chinese would have resolved this.