It was afternoon, I was sitting at the beach waiting for my only set of clothes to dry off after my impromptu swimming session along the East Coast.
It felt great to be feeling stinging pain for once from the parts of my skin afflicted recently with this strange bout of rashes instead of the unbearable itch that occurs at night and during some parts of the day. I am still attempting to find out the cause for this rash which started more than 2 weeks ago on my way home from West Coast beach. There are two possible causes I could think of.
- Skin allergy resulting from the recent hot and humid weather condition
- Skin allergy resulting from a high level of accumulated toxin in the system due to past three months of excessive alcohol consumption and late night supper
Nevertheless, the cause should become more apparent as I reduce my social drinking.
While enjoying the pain, my mind happened in the direction of work, or rather the quality of work. It occurred to me there might be a contradiction somewhere in the equation.
Profitability in the short run has a negative correlation to the quality of work produced, while continued survival in the long run has a positive correlation to the quality of work produced.
Examined in terms of the IT field, a solution is proposed to fix a short term problem without much regard to its long term implications on future business growth. Evolution of the solution to cater to the needs of future business growth would thus be more expensive than otherwise.
Such a situation could actually be the effects of an inevitable cost transfer across time. The client has limited budget but attempts to accomplish a lot during the initial phase. The vendor attempts to fulfill the current requirements but bounded by the law of scarcity cannot build a solution that caters well to both current requirements and possible future expansion. The difference between the cost charged and the actual cost of the required system is thereby transfered down the pipeline. The client is charged for the structural modification required to the existing solution to cater to the new requirements the client has in mind.
There is a contrast between profitability and survival. Being profitable is a subset of surviving, but surviving does not equate by default to being profitable. A company that makes enough profit to break even and continue operation within an industry is a survivor, however such a company cannot be said to be a profitable company.
So a professional company might not be in fact a profitable company, while a profitable company might not be a professional company. A company that has been surviving for ample number of years might have been providing professional services during those years. A newly started company that focuses on profitability might not have been providing the most professional of service. However a company that consistently focuses on profitability instead of providing professional service, might have problems surviving in the long run due to the negative sentiments accrued to it.