Practical Solutions to Business Puzzles

How many managers does it take to…
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

This blog reminded me of what happens in large organizations when a mandate comes down to cut costs/headcount.

When organizations are caught up in the cycle of belt tightening, they often resort to consultants for advice on how many people are needed to perform various functions. The question may be a reflection of the organization’s frustration with an overwhelming and seemingly insurmountable task.

Many resources would be spared and much healthier relationships would exist if consultants started by understanding the context, rather than by rendering answers. While that undoubtedly happens, most of the consulting firms that I dealt with recommended a high price study and end to end process review. When customers weren’t interested in than, the firms told the organization what the industry averages were or interviewed some employees and fed the organization’s own information back to it.

Why not ask questions, understand the customer’s perspective, and help the organization develop a plan? Over the long term, would this leave such a firm better positioned for consideration when a project arises that requires a consulting firm’s input?

Posted in Solving Problems, Sourcing | No Comments »

Build bridges among people to restore corporate integrity
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005

As I wrote yesterday’s blog about Sarbanes-Oxley, it seemed to me that the real issue is a loss of the ability to trust companies and to be loyal to them. Both companies and employees have lost the ability to trust each other. They behave in unexpected ways, ways that others do not understand.

Connectedness

Two sources of connectedness that one may think of immediately are family and religion.

Large employers have replaced families as the source that provides connectedness and worth for many people. The pressure to do more with less has prevented relationships from developing and the emphasis on bottom line results to the exclusion of all else has led to many employees being tossed away like yesterday’s trash. This has resulted in a loss of worth and loyalty for many individuals. (Remember this earlier blog about the “downward spiral of distrust”?)

Regardless of one’s views on religion, one must conclude that religion fills a void that its followers would otherwise feel. Someone once said, “if God doesn’t exist, we’d have created Him,” or words to that effect. In fact, hadn’t this already been done?

Hypothetical

Let’s suppose for a moment that one had no connection to anything except himself or herself. How could that person judge his or her behavior and know what he or she should do? There would be no standard other than the one that the person chose to follow. If the standard was arbitrary, the behavior would be unpredictable. Is this what we are seeing in the corporate world today? And, perhaps, does this account for much of the criminal behavior we see today?

Speculation

Is the root cause of the corporate fraud and malfeasance a loss of connectedness? If so, it seems like providing the connectedness would restore integrity to the corporate world. Beyond that though, providing connectedness could reduce criminal behavior in all its forms.

Io Needle area, Maui, Hawaii 2005

Posted in Corporate Citizenship, Leadership | No Comments »

Feedback from Oregon State Alumni
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

College is so much more than academics. It is a safe environment in which to test your limits and build yourself. I would not be where I am today without the interpersonal skills that I learned in college.

Recently, my alma mater, Oregon State, conducted a survey of over 1000 alumni and had a 33% take rate for an online survey. The alumni graduated from Oregon State over the last 30 years. (I’m not sure how my name made it on the list. Somehow it did.)

Here are a few of the things that the alumni said:

Communicating effectively in groups, working collaboratively in groups, and managing time were the three most important factors in determining career success. These skills were developed in college.
The out-of-class experience exposed people to individuals that were different from who one encountered in classes. They also gave people confidence, real world experience, and forced them to organize their time.
Students excelled when they took on the heaviest workload. (No, that wasn’t my answer. It is consistent with my experience.)
Get involved so that you think outside your comfort zone and become a more well rounded person.
Being involved teaches one to build relationships and to build contacts.

A final comment from someone who was probably an engineer:

Rise to the occasion and you may discover that a higher level is where you’re meant to be. Rule Number One: don’t bullshit yourself and don’t bullshit anyone else. Rule Number Two: there is no Rule Number Two.

A final comment from someone who was probably a liberal arts major:

Do what you love; do what you think you might like; then stretch yourself.

Academics in college are important. After the last class is finished, the last test is finished, and the ink has dried on one’s diploma, the thing that one should remember is the skills that one has learned. Leadership, decision making, problem solving, team building, and the rest. College is the starting point of a lifetime of learning, stretching, and growing.

Posted in Tips for Students | No Comments »

Cool marketing ideas are fresh and interesting
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

When one is looking for marketing/advertising ideas, it is important to think of ideas that are “fresh.”

The first time a supplier gave me a candybar that was wrapped in a customized label that talked about its training, the idea was very clever. The fifth time, the approach was pretty boring.

Sprouts, a new farmers market in the area, just sent me a package of garden seed. The package read “If you want fresh, you can plant these seed and wait, or come to Sprouts today for the freshest grocery experience in town.” And the package has a discount. Pretty clever, huh?

Think about how you can position your offering so it is fresh and interesting. As in the case of Sprouts, the approach can be one that is “hidden in plain sight” and, sometimes, these approaches are best.

Highway to Hana, Maui, Hawaii 2005

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley in response to a host of cases in which investors lost money and employees lost their retirement savings through organizational wrong-doing. Of course Enron and Worldcom are the cases that come to mind immediately. They were just the tip of the iceburg though.

This article from today’s Dallas Morning News talked about one of the consequences of Sarbanes-Oxley. Rather than initial public offerings (IPOs), firms are allowing themselves to be acquired in order to secure funding for growth.

While only time will tell, I’m curious to see what this means for questions like:

If you are hoping to buy stock of the next Cisco, Dell, or Microsoft, how will you do it? (Perhaps, you will have to settle for buying shares of companies that buy the small companies. If so, would this be a bad thing?)

How will the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” be impacted? While it is rare for one to go from a middle income to megarich, stock appreciation can be a strategy for increasing (or reducing) one’s wealth apart from working.

What does the change mean for NASDAQ? A lot of smaller companies are first traded on NASDAQ.

How will other venture capital firms and lenders of all types need to change their approach?

Will the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley ultimately be that companies are reluctant to take risks? It seems to me that this is a possibility. From this article, it sounds like others have had this thought as well.

Posted in Business Acumen, Business Articles, Business Trends | 1 Comment »

Steps to take when students aren’t ready for training
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005

In many instances, students are not prepared for training. What should the instructor do?

Experience suggests that the instructor maximizes the learning opportunity by:

Simplifying the message.

Identifying what the students understand and starting from that point.

Ascertaining the root cause of the issue.

Breaking down any communication barriers.

Starting from the students’ perspective and helped them see the answer.

Repeating the message - over, and over, and over again.

Strategies

Since this issue comes up a lot in training, many instructors are accustomed to dealing with the issue. Here are three typical trategies for preventing the issue.

Information. Experienced instructors and suppliers typically want as much information about student background as possible. Some information can be helpful. Providing too much information can lead to inaccurate assumptions.

Similar Backgrounds for Students. Instructors and suppliers prefer that students in a class have similar backgrounds. Too much difference can lead to chaos because the perspectives are too different. Too little differences in the student backgrounds can reduce the students’ opportunities to learn from each other, which is often a key benefit that organizations realize from their training purchases. One must weigh the costs and benefits of different training strategies.

Verifying minimum competencies before class. Depending on one’s organizational goals, it is sometimes feasible to validate that students have some requisite knowledge as a condition for enrolling in the training sessions. In IT and technical areas where there are general industry standards, this is sometimes accomplished by the pretest and/or prerequisites. Minimum competencies are harder to assess when the skills are “softer” (more subjectivity).

Posted in Solving Problems, Training | No Comments »

Get involved in your community
Monday, November 28th, 2005

With the holiday season upon us, now is the perfect time to start thinking about how we can give back to our communities.

Here is a blog about what we have to be thankful for. With the holidays, you may not have seen the blog so I’m linking it here.

All of us have a lot to be thankful for. Regardless of our socioeconomic status or health, all of us have something that we can contribute to our communities.

Some of the activities may result in monetary compensation for us. Others will result in the reward of knowing that we have helped make our communities better.

Let’s say “thank you” for what we’ve been given by giving back to our communities and giving to the charitable causes we support.

Posted in Corporate Citizenship, Gifts & Recognition | No Comments »