I haven't seen it mentioned yet in the Trans Newswire, so I'll mention it here. On Tuesday eveing (2/13), the senate confirmed Ron Batory's nomination as FRA Administrator. Mr. Batory's is the former president of Con Rail and the Belt RR of Chicago, and held various positions on other railroads, and is probably one of the most qualified persons to hold the FRA administrator's postion in many years. His confirmation had been held up for months as leverage to get additioinal Federal funding for the NY-NJ Gateway Tunnel project.
I don't understand the importance of this matter. A company or administration should work efficiently without a CEO for some time.
On the other hand Mr. Batory would be deemed too close to the railroad industry in Germany to get boss of the regulating authority.Regard, Volker
VOLKER LANDWEHRI don't understand the importance of this matter. A company or administration should work efficiently without a CEO for some time. On the other hand Mr. Batory would be deemed too close to the railroad industry in Germany to get boss of the regulating authority.Regard, Volker
How does one gain sufficient real knowledge about a industry without having a history in the industry?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD VOLKER LANDWEHR I don't understand the importance of this matter. A company or administration should work efficiently without a CEO for some time. On the other hand Mr. Batory would be deemed too close to the railroad industry in Germany to get boss of the regulating authority.Regard, Volker How does one gain sufficient real knowledge about a industry without having a history in the industry?
VOLKER LANDWEHR I don't understand the importance of this matter. A company or administration should work efficiently without a CEO for some time. On the other hand Mr. Batory would be deemed too close to the railroad industry in Germany to get boss of the regulating authority.Regard, Volker
Right here, of course!!!
BaltACDHow does one gain sufficient real knowledge about a industry without having a history in the industry?
Why, you do it the way Sarah Feinberg did it! Which was ... ahh ... can someone remind me exactly how she did it? I find I don't remember ...
I didn't say that there aren't employees with railroad experience in the orginisation.
The CEO is mostly a specialist in administrative law. Here the directive comes from the CEO the work is done in the lower ranks. If the work has to be done by the CEO something goes wrong.
There is or was an American kind of management teached that you didn't have to know what a company does to lead it, you just must be able to read the numbers.Regards, Volker
VOLKER LANDWEHRThere is or was an American kind of management [taught] that you didn't have to know what a company does to lead it, you just must be able to read the numbers.
Yes, and even when I went to business school that was recognized as being obsolescent. The fad for conglomerates in the '60s was driven by the idea, and while it worked in places like Thermo Electron it also failed dismally as with that buffoon Geneen's paper-mill idea. You have to be able to understand the numbers, and the trends behind them -- but it is still leadership and system-building that makes for proper organizational 'success'; the numbers are just handmaidens and constraints.
Now, I think the point you're making is a good one, with Jesse Ventura in Minnesota being a reasonably good example: the 'head' of an organization really needs to do only one thing well to run it: delegate authority well. Then even much of the need for a CEO to 'issue directives' to run a company becomes relatively unimportant, certainly in the short run.
The problem comes in when you have an overtly political figure put in as a figurehead, who has experience in, say, the law and perhaps in political infighting techniques, but no great insight into the realities and potential of the company, or how to make its core competencies better, or passion for the actual or stated mission. (Yes, I put Saunders in that category, perhaps more than a little unfairly). Numbers are fun, just as normal science compliance can be comforting ... but paradigms change and you will be wise to be ready and watchful.
With specific reference to the FRA: much of the problem comes in precisely if the head of it is an 'expert in administrative law'. The FRA's mandate is safety, not implementing a bunch of mandates and seeing that they get enforced, and perhaps having fun with strict-scrutiny and all those other fun things that governments do 'because they can'. While I would tend to agree that someone overly prioritized on 'railroad's point of view' toward safety concerns may not be optimal, having the equivalent of judicial activists woefully ignorant of either actual railroad operations or the capability of actual technologies to improve them is NOT a good answer either.
The importance was purely political - a hostage situation, you might say. And these positions are often purely political. The actual work gets done at the lower levels, sometimes in spite of whoever occupies the top seat.
I once read that a good manager doesn't need to know the details of running a specific business. As noted, they do need to know how to delegate.
Of course, if the underlings don't have a clue, either, you're in trouble.
The government is so big that there are untold layers of management between the top dog and the worker in the trenches. As you say, life will go on.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68I once read that a good manager doesn't need to know the details of running a specific business.
There is a significant difference between 'administration' (which is handling the day-to-day operations of a business) and leadership (which involves strategic decisions and oversight). One of the reasons for the rise of technical bureaucracy a la Max Weber is the development of techniques of 'scientific management' that apply to administrative techniques just as they do to motion-study or other analysis of work. On the other hand, one of the chief issues for Weberian bureaucracy has been recognized to be precisely that they lack effective top-level direction for the efficient operations they conduct, and can be exquisitely sensitive to mistakes or interference there.
One very informative thing you can look at is the structure of Richard Branson's companies (the logical link to this forum being Virgin's rail operations). Branson has built a very effective business empire on being able to find and coordinate experts in some very demanding businesses ... but he knows more or less explicitly when to find good generalists, and when to keep specialists. Studying how he has done this, deducing the reasons why, and looking at areas where things 'might have been done better in hindsight' can be very instructive.
What is very bad is when the line and staff agencies lose respect for the person supposedly 'leading' them. This happened to Carter and it ruined most of his administration; it happened in a different sense to George Herbert Walker Bush and it ruined most of his legacy. I am not certain it isn't worse when continued tolerance of flackery and expedience 'at the top' of an agency begins to cause many of the 'underlings' to start tolerating ignorance, stupidity, confusion and delay as SOP for what the agency 'does'.
When you are a brand new Hammer - everything you see looks like a nail!
In reality, not everything you see is a nail.
VOLKER LANDWEHRThere is or was an American kind of management teached that you didn't have to know what a company does to lead it, you just must be able to read the numbers.
Wow! A broad history of large companies made small by that philosophy over here. The theory of the "professional manager" has been debunked by so many failures, as the usual strategy was to stray from what made a company in the first place as the original entrepeneurs were succeeded by the MBAs and lawyers who knew little about what really made the company thrive. Stepping down, now.
All these management theories swash across the Atlantic ocean within a relatively short time. When a theory fails it takes much longer to realize it here in Europe and managers hold on.Regards, Volker
Well, since I've had lots of dealings with FRA and other railroad regulatory agencies, let me try to answer these questions.
With respect to the question of "working without a CEO", a government administrative agency like FRA isn't like a private business. The head of the agency sets the agenda and the priorities (presumably consistent with the adminstration that appointed him or her). Now, regardless of what you may think of Mr. Trump (and I don't want to get into a discussion of that), his election and his views about administrative agency regulation clearly signalled a change in the way that many government agencies (including FRA) have been doing business - it's definitely not a matter of "carrying on" the way the agencies have operated before. As such, the agency staffs, recognizing that their worlds have changed, are not going to simply go on with "business as usual" (like a business temporarily without a CEO might do). They are going to put major policy decisions on hold and await direction from the new political appointees that will be running the agencies going forward. I know that's what's been happening at FRA while they have been without a new administrator. The same thing is also happening at the Surface Transportation Board (the railroads' economic regulatory agency), where the failure of the administration to appoint any new Board members (the agency only has 2 Board members - it's supposed to have 5), has caused the agency to defer making substantive decisions in controversial cases.
With respect to the comment about being "too close" to the rail industry, I have the same reaction as one of the other posters. How does one get the knowledge to be an effective head of a safety regulatory agency like FRA without having expertise in the industry that's being regulated? And how do you get that expertise without experience in the industry? Do you really want someone who's spent their entire working career in politics and who has no knowledge of railroad technology or operations making decisions on stuff like PTC technology and implementation?
The Administrator has deputies some with long railroad experience. Is there is a new political agenda to follow they can implement it.
You sound as if the FRA stops working without a new Administrator. Sorry but then something has gone wrong in my opinion.
When I look at the FRA's organization chart, there must be a lot of people in the branches with enough railroad experience. I don't see the need for a railroader as Administrator.
Too close to railroad industry means he is to much networked within the industry, has too many friends in the industry he has to control. He might be too friendly when he would really have to step the industry on its feets.
I think the railroaders within forums and blogs hoped for a railroader as head of the FRA for just this reason.Regards, Volker
VOLKER LANDWEHRThe Administrator has deputies some with long railroad experience. Is there is a new political agenda to follow they can implement it. You sound as if the FRA stops working without a new Administrator. Sorry but then something has gone wrong in my opinion. When I look at the FRA's organization chart, there must be a lot of people in the branches with enough railroad experience. I don't see the need for a railroader as Administrator. Too close to railroad industry means he is to much networked within the industry, has too many friends in the industry he has to control. He might be too friendly when he would really have to step the industry on its feets. I think the railroaders within forums and blogs hoped for a railroader as head of the FRA for just this reason.Regards, Volker
There are enough unknowledgable idiots outside the FRA that think they can tell the FRA what to do, and you are beginning to sound like one of them, because they have 'power'. Secondary officials within the FRA cannot stand up to such 'power' only the top man can. If the top man isn't well rounded in the realities of railraods as they currently exist he becomes just another political puppet! We are rapidly having a enitre government that is nothing more then brain dead political puppets.
Volker--- No wonder the Brits voted for Brexit. They will have a ramped up and closer trade and economic ties with the USA and Canada in the next few years. Just when I was starting to like you, you continue down the road to serfdom. Cradle to grave reverence for big government and their cronies is a mental illness.
Ron Batory is a great selection/choice.
MiningmanRon Batory is a great selection/choice.
I wouldn't dismiss Volker's concerns outright.
I also won't say he's a great selection until we see him in action. Nor will I say he's a bad choice. I'll defer to the "wait and see" approach.
Running a railroad is a different beast than regulating the industry. His experience may be extremely helpful, but there is always that concern of the fox guarding the henhouse. Balt doesn't want a political puppet, but we also don't want a puppet of the railroad companies, either. I'll keep my eyes open and hope for the best. All we can do.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
There are people I have to deal with inside the FMCSA and DOT especially at the State level for the DOT that think my drivers can stop on a dime one of them I am forced to deal with thinks OTR drivers all of them are drug addicts well there is caffenie they do consume that in mass amounts. Yet they have zero clue how stuff gets from the factory or fields to the store where they buy it. One guy thought Amazon used drones to deliver his groceries to Whole Foods. Another thought that why my drivers carried full face mask air packs in their trucks was they liked to scuba dive in their free time. No some of the stuff we carry requires an emergency air supply if there is a leak and we have to deal with it. Yet these same and I will call them what they are MORONS are the ones that right the regulations my drivers and my boss and I have to attempt to comply with.
MiningmanNo wonder the Brits voted for Brexit. They will have a ramped up and closer trade and economic ties with the USA and Canada in the next few years.
I don't understand what the Brexit has to do with this discussion. If they want to get out, OK. I fear the British will be in for very bad surprise. The UK Government thought they could exit but keep all the advantages the EU provides like common market. That won't happen I think.
Remember Brirish export to the USA was about $72 billion and to the EU $216 billion in 2015. Import from USA was $63 billion and from the EU $363.
Miningman Just when I was starting to like you, you continue down the road to serfdom. Cradle to grave reverence for big government and their cronies is a mental illness.
I'm not in the social media. I'm not looking for likes. If you think I'm living in serfdom you are insulting our and your ancestors who really suffered serfdom.
We have a political system with all its strengths and shortcomings. We can vote and have more choices than most other countries often preventing absoute majorities and forcing compromises. We have learned to live with the shortcomings, as we know without government and administration we would have anarchy.
If you think that is mental illness, you are entitled to your opinion. On the other hand your perception of government etc. borders on paranoia, if you ask me.Regards, Volker
Shadow---Exactly..same kind of crap goes on in the education system...we start all over again every year with a new Director, some appointee who thinks they are a genius ..And of course as a qualifying prerequisite, less than zero knowledge of the Mining Industry.
Volker--Well that got your dander up. I swore off posting to Trains Forum for exactly this reason. My error and slip up coming back.
I can be found on Classic Trains Forum, discussing historical trains, lamenting about things lost, posting factual picture essays and sharing my stories and love of railroading.
I'm outa here.
Y'all have a nice day.
MiningmanY'all have a nice day.
Thanks. You too.
For the most part, this is the generally held view of the two parties who live and deal with the FRA; Labor and management.
Labor feels the FRA is a managment lap dog. FRA = Friends of Railroad Administrations.
Management feels FRA is too friendly to labor's concerns. I don't know if they have a "revised" meaning for the initials FRA.
If anything, I might say FRA field personnel hold both workers and managment to the account. Higher up the chain? Well, I may not call them a lap dog, but I'm not sure I'd view them as a guard dog either.
Jeff
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