Revealing networks

After a couple of years dealing with networks of mid-sized and large companies, I noticed that networks reveal many aspects of companies culture, organization and history. In the following, I will just give some seen examples from my own experience.

• Often when you find a network with isolated subnetworks, using for example multiple VRF mechanism in MPLS, it reveals a history of successive acquisitions of external companies, who managed to keep their IT independence. That can be also the case of a multinationals who's regional IT gained enough independence.
• Networks also give an idea about the kind of skills available in the IT department, and sometimes its size: Big IT departments with network gurus are more likely to prefer do-it-your-own solutions such IPSEC based networking with focus on non-standard technical needs. Smaller IT departments, or those who are more business aligned, go for managed services with focus on SLAs and end user features.
• Speaking of SLAs, I noticed that some IT buyers prefer to focus only on SLAs without taking into consideration the underlying technical design. That is typically the profile of buyers who is actually not looking for reducing the risk, but only to transfer it to the provider. It can reflect a culture of protectionism.
• More generally many cultural aspects are reflected by the network design. For example the design of external connections to the private network gives an idea of  how much a company trusts its employees, accepts new generations paradigms (BYOD, ATAWAD..), is obsessed with security... We can also know more about how much the IT decision makers are conservatives. That can be detected for example by how they embrace new technologies and solutions: cloud, hybrid networks... Finally, I noted some correlation between how much the company is politicized and what differentiated services are provided to VIPs by the IT department!

The impact of language in culture and business

Language can not be reduced to a simple tool of communication. In fact, language not only shapes communication and its content but also influences the communicating persons.

The impact of language on culture and behavior is a very interesting subject. Here is an article on TED's blog explaining five examples of how our language can affect the way we think. In one of the examples, an expert in linguistic-cultural connections thinks about the English justice that aims to punish criminals rather than compensate victims. The expert argues that this is deeply tied to English language. Indeed, in English, we’ll often say that someone broke a vase even if it was an accident, but in some other languages we tend to say that the vase broke itself.

This subject reminds me strongly of the famous dystopian novel "1984" by George Orwell. The story happens in a country deeply controlled by a tyrant totalitarian political system. In order to better control the population, the ruling party has developed a new language called the "newspeak". Newspeak is a minimalist language meant to ideologically align thought and action to the principles of the party. Newspeak:

• Removed words referring to dangerous concepts such as freedom, diversity...
• Minimized dictionary by removing synonyms and words with ambiguous meaning
• Removed subjectivity from words and gave them strict meaning
• Created new words illustrating new concepts of the party such as "doublethink"
• Shortened words length so that people don't get time to think about what they are saying, and speak rather like robots.

Even in programming, the choice of language has a strong impact on the way the programmer designs software. For example, an object-oriented language will drive you eventually to design object based architectures and use advanced concepts such as design patterns paradigms.

Finally, i think that the same dependence exists between the behavior of employees and their company's internal language. In illustration, I will give some examples:

• The absence of a disparate honorific addressing among employees might help them communicate more easily.
• The intensive use of internal specific words makes it more difficult for the employees to imagine new ideas requiring other terms in order to be described. For example, when listening to a client expressing his needs, a sales representative might only capture the needs that can be matched with internal words of his company.
• Another consequence of intensive use of internal words and acronyms is a more significant barrier for quitting the company, thus affecting the loyalty of employees.

The culture and behavior of a company, and thus its success or failure, can be tied to its internal language. Do companies consciously manage this aspect?