Tuesday 26 October 2010

Ferrari is red

 

We are entering into the final steps of the Formula 1 world championship. We’ve got Red Bulls, Ferraris, McLaren-Mercedes topping chances to win, and many others.

All of these teams manage quite a lot of money, don’t they? Well paid managers and pilots, lots of PR and press around… Quite a numbers of sponsors who invest little fortunes that could solve our lives for several generations to come. Lots of glamour, lots of technology as well.

There is no clear dominant team, and the difference between one and the other is measured in milliseconds! Huh, quite detailed and precise measurements have to be in place to differentiate a winner from a loser.

When we see each of these teams performing, whether in qualifying sessions or in the actual Grand Prize race, each parameter is measured, verified, checked, and calculated. We do not know the throughputs in their computers, but must be big… and reliable. And this is just putting into practice hours and hours of background engineering work at the same detail level and requirement.

At the end, the difference between two of these teams can be summarized in a single word: Details. As many as you want, as technical as you like. But details, at the end of the day. Just details.

And these details will mean, at the end of the season, that several of the teams that race this year will not be there in the next season, and their place will be taken by new upstarts who will have to face the challenge of the details to survive.

In the race for dominating the PC industry we can see as well great teams around: The Apples, the HPs, the Dells, the Acers, the Sonys… and trailing Fujitsus, clone brands and others…

Any of these do manage quite a lot of money… And have well paid CEOs and managers; lots of PR around, and quite a number of partners who invest little fortunes that could solve our lives for several generations to come. Lots of glamour as well (fishy CEO events perhaps, or sailing oracles, or HP, Acer, Intel and AMD sponsoring high speed cars).. and, yes, we were forgetting: Lots of technology as well.

There is no clear dominant team, and the difference between one and the other is measured in basic points in share performance at Wall Street! Huh, quite detailed and precise measurements have to be in place to differentiate a winner from a loser.

When we see these guys performing, whether in Consumer market or in big Enterprise business, each parameter is measured, verified, checked and calculated, with as well lots of time, energy, money and resources invested in background tasks, hidden to the external observers.

At the end, the difference between two of these teams can be summarized in a single word: Details. Just details, that make or break success.

From what we have read in the news recently, it seems that Ferrari is the likeliest one to get a pilot winning the championship. If you want details, Ferrari’s leading pilot walks slowly all the length of each racing track a few hours before the actual race to see closely every detail in the circuit and leverage that when driving. Ferrari is red. The best apples in America, are red too.

McIntosh.jpg

Curiously enough, the second likeliest team to place a winning pilot is Red Bull. Well, the only “red” they have is in the name.

Incidentally, Renault, who already quit its chances to win anything after two years of glory some time ago, is sponsored by a certain HP.