More Solutions Spew

Had to chuckle when I came across the article on CNN's website about China banning certain US meat imports for having unacceptably higher levels of contaminants than allowable. I wasn't laughing at the obvious retaliation for the US having denied certain Chinese seafoods entry into our marketplace until such time those foods pass our rigorous testing.

No, what made me laugh was the name of one of the American companies which had made it onto the Chinese ban lists: Cargill Meat Solutions.

Meat Solutions! If this were Larry Ellison's Oracle software company touting yet another 'Solution' to cure all that ails American business, so be it. We are used to that. But, Meat Solutions? When will this solutions madness stop? I can just imagine a conference room in Minnesota filled with junior level IE's, all wanting desperately to have jobs which are glamorous and draped with a backdrop of 7 series BMW's. We don't just sell meat, we deliver solutions! We solve problems, ergo, we are....solutions providers.

Face it: the software industry is notorious for rarely providing solutions which deliver on their promises due mostly to the irrational exuberance of sales types to meet quotas and earn a bonus coupled with the corporate level myopia which sees all industry as having a problem requiring a software application to solve. Pure fallacy.

So, why a capable and innovative American corporation would align itself with such a gang of losers as software solutions providers is not exactly clear to me. But, I'll bet there is an app somewhere, or a solution that could help me figure it out. For three hundred dollars an hour.

Cargill. Get over yourself. Junior IE's: get back to work.

If you have a 'solutions spew' example, please share it with me, Hank Rearden.