Sunday, August 25, 2013

Kindling

Well, I was ahead of the curve, but only by a day. BBC DG Lord Hall, on a roll of articles, appearances since a clearly-invigorating trip to San Francisco, has promised a "bonfire of boards", to speed up efficient decision making. He may well have been egged on by Suzanne Heywood of McKinsey. Here's the guts of his piece in The Sunday Telegraph.

"We will start by ensuring that, wherever possible, there is one identified person responsible for key issues and major projects. It sounds obvious, but it doesn’t happen now. To enable people to do this, we need to tackle the BBC meeting culture, which eats time, dilutes accountability and hampers creativity. Over the coming months, I plan to halve the number of pan-BBC boards and steering groups. This “bonfire of the boards” should speed up decision-making and release some of the resources currently wasted on bureaucracy for programmes. A simpler BBC should mean a more creative BBC". 

It's a start, but it lacks positive definition on how big projects, on and off-air, will be controlled. The problem of the warring baronies remains - radio, television, old technology and new media have never trusted each other to make decisions that work across the BBC.  Each barony has its own matching set of specialist teams who know with absolute certainty that their purchasing choice, their preferred solution, their big idea is the right one - and send their director/finance chief into battle for funds from a bewildered corprate centre. When someone else gets control of the dosh - DMI was seen very much as a TV machine - the thwarted teams sit on the sidelines throwing stones, and when it fails, rush off to buy their own "work-rounds" which really only work in their division, but nonetheless guarantee their careers.

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