Posts Tagged ‘Consulting’

In Seth’s latest book, Linchpin,  he spends a lot of time talking about maps and artists.  That being an artist means you create your own map, your own path.  And, that society is changing.  Rather than spending your life following a map someone else created, to be successful you’ll need to create your own map moving forward.

While I’ve not been an assembly line worker in a literal sense, it took me awhile (couple dozen reiterations) for what Seth was talking about to truly sink in…appreciating how much of it related to my own life.

Life was relatively easy, for a long time.  With a clear goal in front of me, I could move mountains to achieve it.  I would feel a sense of accomplishment, and life was grand.  So, for the first 3/4 of my life, this is how it worked.  Goal, after goal, after goal.  Going into the service, I bought a map out of the carousel, having chosen to go into aviation.  Once there, the Navy gave me a nice [flight] bag of additional maps to follow (exams, flight certifications, instructor certs, regular performance reviews, etc.).

Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent presentation I felt it important to emphasize that market = customers. Sophisticated analysis firms (e.g. Daratech, Gartner, Forester, etc.) like to release studies in which ‘markets’ are described as under-served in certain areas; where a market is going;, or, how a market is segmented. The firms might have spoken to a thousand individuals (company or person) in order to produce statistically valid aggregated results. In the end, people become abstracted, reduced to something a smidgeon less generic than ‘they.’

In contrast, I have seen very smart business people read a market study and then meet with a number of customers. Later, back at the office, they debate, ‘…the ‘market’ is doing X. But I met with three customers this week that are doing Y. It’s as though market does not equal customer. The Market and Customer are one in the same. However the customers you may have just met with (you know, the ones that just spent time with you) are the ones that might write a check someday.

It is important as you nurture an idea into a viable product that you assign a proper perspective your input sources. Neither should necessarily trump one or the other though how you weight them may vary occasionally.

Sometimes we hide from it. Sometimes we do ‘other’ activities, instead. Sometimes we can put it off…for years. But eventually there comes a time where it’s necessary to face the cold, hard, brutal reality of a situation.

Normally it comes after reaching some kind of tipping point. For instance, the past couple months I’ve been dealing with a nagging problem on my laptop. When using some particular combination of applications, it ends up getting incredibly bogged down. Normally a reboot, or two, will alleviate the problem. Along the way, I’ve spent fifteen minutes here, thirty there, and so on, as I’ve tried to diagnose the problem.

And this is what so many do either personally, professionally, or both. Nursing things along, applying yet another band-aid to the current issue so it can live to get yet another band-aid tomorrow. The challenge is in being able to raise one’s head up, looking beyond the issues of the moment, and see a bigger picture. Read the rest of this entry »

When was the last time you asked, “Why?” Has it been awhile? Reflecting back on some of the more confrontational issues I’ve been involved in, it occurred to me that the one question often not asked is simply, Why?

If you have studied Six Sigma, you’ve heard about asking the 5 Whys. Taiichi Ohno, father of the Toyota Production System, is said to have liked using the 5 Whys. The intent is to repetitively ask questions until you understand the simple, core reason, underlying an otherwise seeming complex problem.

Consider this example Read the rest of this entry »

Would you rather have one thing done today? Or two, tomorrow?

In today’s age, we feel pressured, both by ourselves and our superiors, to ‘multi-task.’ Of course, no one truly can multi-task, countless studies and derivative articles have shown that (just do a search). What we really do, is focus on one item at a time, switching between tasks very quickly. The more items on our plate, the more complex, and the harder it is for our minds to push aside the current task and change to the next…or the next, or…

In the world of information technology it is increasingly common to expect we ‘do more with less.’ I’m sure you’ve heard it. This naturally translates to more multitasking, more complex tasks, and an expectation of quicker response times. As a manager, it is important to guard against your staff becoming over burdened as a result of your own actions or by their being self-imposed. Read the rest of this entry »

So, would you? Would you seriously consider buying life insurance for key member(s) of your organization?

Twice in the past, I have made the recommendation to senior management, to seriously consider purchasing life insurance for a particular individual. The recommendation was to insure the individual’s life according to the amount of impacted revenue they represent.

In one case, we had a network licensing guru through whom almost every major Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent post, Seth Godin talks about what to do with special requests. It’s worth a moment to read, especially for leaders and mentors. Boiling it down, if someone has a special request, don’t send them away because you’re busy. They probably will go (and stay) away.

So, what to do with them? This line of thinking triggered a not too distant memory. I had received complaints from other departments that this person’s most likely response to a request was, No!  The person in question was a high-value team member, responsible for coordinating team resources.  We were constantly stretched beyond reason, so hearing ‘No’ to requests might not seem unreasonable.

In line with Seth’s, ‘…cost you $90…,’ I gave some advice.  Don’t say, No.  No, in translation, was this person’s way of saying, ‘No (it cannot be done in the requested time frame).’  The recipient would bristle as a result.We probably all tend to bristle when simply being told, No.  Instead, tell them we’d love to do it, but it might be 5 days/weeks/months.  Anything but ‘No.’  Let the requester decide whether to pursue the issue, or not. After a couple of weeks, the complaints died down, and the internal friction from hearing ‘no’ faded away.

I’d also suggest a third reason for turning down special requests: They are not in line with your (organization’s) chosen path.  Just because you can, just because you’d like to, doesn’t mean it’s wise.

Along the path I have followed, there are a few things I’ve discovered when selecting a vendor (or business partner). A few of the ‘popular’ ones I’ve discussed below. To help lend credence to my comments, you may appreciate my roles have included being a P&L head, product manager for a SaaS/BPO unit, global technical account manager, and doing joint-venture assessments involving some multi-$B concerns.

References
Requests for references create love/hate feelings, depending on whether you’re the one receiving the request. If you are making a major decision, such as outsourcing a key business process, you will be keenly interested in talking to others about their experiences with the given vendor. Any experienced vendor Read the rest of this entry »

Who Goes First?

A lot has been said already regarding BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), SaaS (Software as a Service), and ‘Cloud’ computing.  The ‘cloud‘ remains somewhat dubious for folks because it is a term whose definition continues to evolve.  Most of what is written seems to talk to those ‘in the know’ or from a perspective of ‘everyone’ already doing it.  But what about those of you who have yet to take the plunge? Who have yet to outsource their first application and/or business process?

The odds are, Read the rest of this entry »

For years, when I thought of the ‘wave’ in a marketing context, I thought of Coca-Cola. Well, the old wave is about to be trumped by a New Wave. And it isn’t from Coke.

May 28, Google provided developers with an introduction to a new product due yet this year, called Google Wave. You can learn more at wave.google.com.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to watch the first ~40 minutes of the presentation, here:

My roles have typically involved multi-party coordination, including a broad mix of data type exchanges during collaboration. Wave has the potential of
Read the rest of this entry »