Richard Lowe - The Operations Room

Every Call Came to Me Because No Rule Existed

If you are the person who gets called every time something breaks, the problem is not your availability.

Nov 6 • Richard Lowe

Nobody Applied

If you cannot fill a technical role, the problem may not be your pay or your posting.

Nov 3 • Richard Lowe

October 2026

We Built a Disaster Recovery Site Without a Budget

A tested system and a proven system are different things, and most companies say covered when they mean tested.

Oct 30 • Richard Lowe

They Found It in Three Hours and Sent No Invoice

When a vendor has been working on your problem for a week without a theory, that is your signal to bring in somebody else.

Oct 27 • Richard Lowe

We Lifted a Running Computer Off the Floor

A hard constraint will hand you a solution you would never have picked from a list of options, and the solution is often better than what you would have…

Oct 23 • Richard Lowe

My Team Never Got the Skill Back

The first time you outsource a capability is usually the last decision you get to make about it.

Oct 20 • Richard Lowe

We Did Not Fix the System, We Moved It

Before you fund a project to modernize an aging system, find out whether the failures are coming from the software or from the hardware underneath it.

Oct 16 • Richard Lowe

We Bought the Platform and Shipped the Workaround

Every platform purchase has a gap between signing and working, and nobody plans for what happens inside it.

Oct 13 • Richard Lowe

1

Nobody Chooses to Modernize

Modernization gets sold as an opportunity and it almost never arrives as one.

Oct 9 • Richard Lowe

You Will Never Get Everyone to Agree

Every transformation vendor sells alignment, and alignment is not for sale.

Oct 6 • Richard Lowe

A Client I Kept Running Got Me a Twenty-Year Job

The best job I ever had came from doing unglamorous maintenance work well for somebody who was watching without either of us thinking about it.

Oct 2 • Richard Lowe

September 2026

The Most Competent Person I Ever Hired

The best hire I made in thirty-three years produced no story.

Sep 29 • Richard Lowe