Hire a web designer or DIY? Ask Sun Tzu 孙子.

….the negotiation and persuasion part for getting a task done in a meaningful way….

Despite having my stunning, latest QC online report up, I got strings of viruses messed the software codes and generated false alarms on the production floor. Each time the Online report system is down, the QC operation on the production floor goes haywire. The next thing I did, was called up a webpage designer (IT engineer) for root-cause analysis, but I would have to go through rounds of explanation before she started to work on it.

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Working with a webpage designer, who has no idea of what information a web owner wanted to produce, what type of messages a web owner wanted to deliver and from where the facts are extracting, is intricate and head spinning.  All I can was imagining the whole process like in business, sales, buying, and negotiation.  A rule of thumb ,I must also be able to create and add a value to the company’s intranet.

To convince a webpage designer  to come out something fit my taste, I learnt to utilize Sun Tzu the Art of War strategies-孙子兵法. It is as though an owner (negotiator) goes through an extensive analysis of the situation before she engaged in any challenge and calculations before entering the battleground.

I think that it is essential for an owner to understand the root of problems, of which could be due to the user’s system tools, for prevention.  I would insist on the rationalization, not a blurred clarification. But I probably would get tons of confusing software acronyms cited as the roots of the problem. My IT engineer would employ “Deceive the heavens to cross the ocean”- 瞒天过海, finding a way out.

Instead of getting the technical bits and pieces that I wanted to know about the system straightforwardly, I got matters insinuating my financial status.  Usually the matters that were  “create something from nothing” -無中生有, something that would make me feels twitchy and shuts me up. And, the tactic did make me less pushy and demanding. 

Does it look like the right attitude at that time? Does it look like the right approach to handlie a “customer’s complaint”? Rather than putting intense pressure on herself solving a work related problem and do her best, she was being furious about the whole thing. Assuming it was the irrelevant owner’s financial status that triggered the system to break down. To my surprise, she handled the situation by “Making the host and the guest exchange roles” –反客為主; supposedly the IT department was the victim of the whole episode left the “customer” eyes popping.

In the face of such demoralizing challenge, how to start on problem solving efforts? It was almost no compromise between us? Could this group of difficult to deal with and snobbish IT engineers build a smart, responsive and accessibility Online-Quality-Trigger-System from a powerful and enduring platform? I am better to “Watch the fires burning across the river” –隔岸觀火; pray, wait and hope for the best.

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There was  always a bold step for the web owners to go beyond what they let others to view and learn from the web.  But transparency and openness in the owner’s system are factors that help a web designer comprehend the user’s specifications.  I got foretaste of IT base works in handling enormous and dynamic databases before. I knew “a thing or two” about the software applications and how data crunching work. For that reason, I had been intriguing to “tossing out a brick to get a jade gem” ”- 拋磚引玉. That constantly urged me to utter my “secret recipe” in a spontaneous way during the webpage development stage.

It is common for a web owner to miss some small but significant stuffs, and only realize that after start using it. Things like the positioning of the icons, and colours of the pages when put them in a different way can give a huge difference in surfing experience, or perhaps likely to be misinterpreted.

Here, for that little ‘extras’, the requestor must go through another round of approval. Getting all approvers to mutually agree on the requested work, which usually took weeks for urgent case and months for a low-profile task, to complete. That has not taken into consideration of how much time incurred to fill up the application form with detailed budget study before submitting to the IT department. And, it usually consumes addition cost which to be bear by the requestor’s department? What a “Loot a burning house” 趁火打劫 pitch?  This kind of  brainless and irrational process normally is also the one that dispiriting an innovative and creative work.

An instant reaction to the earlier encounter was me finding a way out. Seemed to me, the IT department was a bit out of control. I would have saved the negotiation and persuasion part for getting an easy task done in a meaningful way if I could design the website all by myself.  It took me quite a while to come out these options.  I can either  “Besiege Wèi to rescue Zhào”- 圍魏救趙; dig up IT’s scandal and strike at their weakness, or “Borrow a corpse to resurrect the soul” –借屍還魂; revive the old handbook?   

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The job function was clear  as what type of responsibilities that have been spelled out in the organization chart.  I must hand over the webpage development task to an IT engineer. Be positive, maybe I should employ “Chain stratagems”-連環計, to prevent the whole scheme fail? I always keep the manual reporting system for rainy days.

One should not infringe on anyone else’s status or cut across boundaries. We must adhere to cohesion within a company, and embrace consensus within a company. Even though, I was tired of their recklessness, I cling to that belief – “Hide a knife behind a smile” -笑裏藏刀, hide the hard feelings from my heavyweight contender at this point in time.

Never have I satisfied with the result, as far as this. Whatever the reason, the IT engineer had delivered an “awesome” task and declared task completion. It was okay as the “Deck the tree with false blossoms” -樹上開花; make something of no value appear valuable.

So, I made a conclusion and finally decided – Of the 36 stratagems, running away is the best. “If all else fails, retreat” 三十六计，走为上计– DIY (Design it yourself)  web site is the best option for a web owner.

“Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?” – Sun Tzu’s Inspirational quote.

Wai Ping Lee/May 2011