Ramblings on project management, process re-engineering, business improvement, and anything else that may be pertinent.
The saddest thing about the collapse of a young entrepreneur’s empire isn’t hearing that the receivers have arrived or that the Ferrari has been repossessed – it’s hearing that the poor young thing has been forced to move back in with their parents.
Read the entire article at smartcompany.com
Plenty of other laid-off workers across the country, burned out by a merciless job market, are building business plans instead of sending out résumés. For these people, recession has become the mother of invention.
NY Times article: Weary of Looking for Work, Some Create Their Own
A very interesting YouTube video on work, population, and technology. Very interesting 
Small companies work to prevent layoffs at MSN Money.
When there are only a few dozen employees — or fewer — layoffs can hit harder. So small businesses are using various methods and incentives to try to avoid them.
As the economy retraces, funding for many of those “standard” projects for consultants evaporate. Sales abilities are tantamount for all consulting team members.
Many consulting firms operate on the premise that if an employee can sell one thing, he can sell anything. For example, if he has been successful selling a product, then he will be successful selling consulting services. But research and experience have shown this is not usually the case.
Read this excellent article in the Charlotte Business Journal: Economy exposes consultants’ weakness in sales.
News headlines are bleak, especially for banks….and that creates a ripple effect for small business.
A crisis in the U.S. bank sector has hit small businesses hard, drying up credit and throwing many long-standing banking relationships into doubt.
Read this interesting article from Reuters: Banking crisis threatens small businesses
An organization, be it a business, a school, a government agency, is a collection of processes. These processes are the natural activities you perform that produce value, serve customers and generate income. Managing these processes is the key to the success of your organization.
Unfortunately, most organizations are not set up to manage processes. Instead they manage tasks. Think about it. Isn’t your company organized around functions. . .the accounting department, the engineering department, the sales department, the customer service department?
As a result, people tend to focus on “local” concerns instead of the “global” needs of process customers. Sub-processes evolve within departments without consideration of other functional areas. Layers of communication and management are created to ensure desired outcomes, thereby adding to costs and lengthening cycle and customer response times.
Inefficiency and waste become part of the system. They rob your organization of profits, productivity and its competitive advantage. But, there is a way out.
Process mapping is a simple yet powerful method of looking beyond functional activities and rediscovering your core processes. Process maps enable you to peel away the complexity of your organizational structure (and internal politics) and focus on the processes that are truly the heart of your business. Armed with a thorough understanding of the inputs, outputs and interrelationships of each process, you and your organization can:
Properly used, process maps can change your entire approach to process improvement and business management. . .and greatly reduce the cost of your operations by eliminating as much as 50% of the steps in most processes as well as the root causes of systemic quality problems.
There are those who use change to promote their careers and there are those that use their careers to promote change.
–Sarah Palin
You’re a consultant. Your job is to help build organizational / technical / managerial bridges. You have a client who brings you a proposal that looks like this:
“We have this need for a bridge. We don’t know what materials the bridge needs to be made of. We don’t know how high the bridge needs to be. We don’t know what chasm the bridge will be stretched over. We aren’t sure how long the bridge needs to be, and we definitely don’t know the environmental conditions at the spot where the bridge needs to be built. We’d like you to build the bridge….and we need it done by next month.”
What do you do?
First, attempt to educate the client. If you have a pragmatic client with whom you can communicate based on a shared common goal – a successful project – this may be worth the trouble. You can point them to statistical information on the high percentage of failed projects, the advantage of project management cycles, process diagnostics, etc.
Second, some projects are not made to succeed. That is not your decision. You have to try to make it succeed if at all possible and part of that is documenting problems, offering solutions, and making sure that those involved are aware of both at all times. They can choose to not act on your advice, that is their choice to make. Suck it up and get over it. Sometimes you get paid to do a great job, sometimes they pay you to follow their stupid orders. As long as they are the ones paying you, they choose what they pay you for.
Third, documentation will be king. Develop an iron-clad communication plan and stick to it. Document all changes and problems daily and summarize weekly. Keep reviewing with the client.
Finally, bill by the hour. There is just no way to come up with a value-based price on something like this.
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