tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72636417672884887342024-03-14T01:18:30.454+05:30CXO InsightsMG's tips on business performance measurement and improvement.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-63536974362065036122010-06-29T10:32:00.002+05:302010-06-29T10:35:36.525+05:30Family Doctor and You<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheINl9ukcYnzR4N8SBkLxrFBFydw4R8Vd5pCGvycdGtdBD5DSnFnJ2pm1UGuwNOFI-h1Pa7Ze6LTvKTA_3r96N6gQTI_QSXkRLLlmc3odKa5MZrI4wN8Wye8Zi85hRsKYH0d-VdLGZsnIK/s1600/FamilyDoctor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ru="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheINl9ukcYnzR4N8SBkLxrFBFydw4R8Vd5pCGvycdGtdBD5DSnFnJ2pm1UGuwNOFI-h1Pa7Ze6LTvKTA_3r96N6gQTI_QSXkRLLlmc3odKa5MZrI4wN8Wye8Zi85hRsKYH0d-VdLGZsnIK/s320/FamilyDoctor.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently I was filling the bio-data of my school going kid; the form had columns for filling the details of the family doctor. As you know, it is a good idea to have a family doctor, instead of visiting different doctors at different times. Since the doctor knows you closely, he can give better diagnosis. He is in your locality, you have better trust in him, procedures are simple and sometimes you take liberty to consult him over phone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Occasionally you may have to go to speciality hospitals. Once I had to spend some time in Apollo Hospitals to attend a family member. Occasionally there I bumped into doctors who also ran clinics in my locality; these doctors spent part of their time as consultant-doctors with Apollo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I liked the Apollo model very much; doctors running their own clinics could also work as consultants on their specialities in Apollo. The benefits for the doctors are many – they have a set of clients in their locality and are well respected. Their association to speciality hospitals adds to their reputation. They are able to network and collaborate with their peer experts and keep their knowledge up to date.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This model of working is beneficial to the clients too. Apollo doesn’t have to have all the specialist doctors on its rolls, thus keeping the cost/billing low. Once I got help from my family doctor, who was also a consultant there, to choose the best doctor in Apollo for a special treatment for my relative. Diagnosis and treatment of complex problems require expertise from multiple experts and in such cases a panel of doctors join together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we started <a href="http://www.c-starconsortium.com/cxo_services" target="_blank">C-Star Consortium</a> in 2009, we modelled it like Apollo – many consultants having their own practices, joined together to form a consortium to offer several speciality business services. C-Star can address business problems related to revenue growth, profitability, employee retention, customer retention, product quality, information security, and accounting. In C-Star, you will find several <a href="http://www.c-starconsortium.com/members" target="_blank">consultants</a> who spent decades enabling business transformation using methodologies & tools such as CMMI, People CMM, ERP, process-automation-tools, Six Sigma, Knowledge Management and Balanced Scorecard. You will also find great trainers and experts who can help you to achieve business critical, prestigious certifications.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In C-Star, we have several practitioner-turned consultants with diverse backgrounds and rich experience from reputed organizations (such as TCS, Wipro, CTS, CSC, Infosys, IBM, Oracle, KPMG). They can diagnose your business problems, put in place right solutions and help you through the implementation – and the pricing is made sweet for the Indian SMBs, through our innovative approaches in solution delivery and low overhead of operations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More than ever, people want to do business with people, not with complex organizations. Trust and integrity are valued more than anything. The beauty of C-Star is that it is simple, small, flexible, responsive, and offers greater customer intimacy, yet it has the strength and reliability coming from the power-network.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C-Star is more than a collaborative consulting services organization – it is a community of experts and CXOs. As a business owner or a CXO, a membership will benefit you to get access to the experts – includes some free services too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatever may be your pain-point now, you can approach a C-Star consultant and be assured that you will get holistic solutions. You can tap into an expertise of 500+ person-years of experience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if you choose to have a family doctor for your kids, why not have a consultant from C-Star for your business? This consultant will be your local expert/mastermind and can act as a channel to the large pool of expertise that you can access whenever you want.</span>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-67403642860418654662010-05-19T17:49:00.000+05:302010-05-19T17:49:07.100+05:30Entering into Consulting?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I started my consulting business, some youngsters asked me how they can also become a consultant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Considering the initial hiccups I went through, I didn’t encourage them to leave their secure and well paying job and start something of their own. I told them that they need to identify an area that they are very passionate about. Should have absolute clarity on why they want to do what they want to do. Enough savings to pull through several months or even years; ideally enough passive income to cover all their monthly expenses of the family. ..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What surprised me was, there are so many youngsters, who want to do something of their own and make a difference in this world; that’s good for our country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once in a discussion forum, I answered the question <a target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/answers/professional-development/career-management/PRO_CMA/624643-5827372?goback=%2Evpf_11469091_1_M6nY_name_*1_Thomas_MG_*2_*2_*2_*2">When does a Consultant starts flourishing in his/her business...!?</a> as below:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>With respect to an independent consultant, I feel the consultant will flourish, when the consultant is able to</em></span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Build trust with the client</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Provide value for the fees charged</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Build a brand for him.</em></span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The consultant needs to be in a ‘niche area’ for which there is a great demand. If this is not possible always, have some differentiation in a cluttered market. A consultant needs to have a lot of passion for the chosen field and an edge in it.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Several competencies are required for a consultant in addition to the domain knowledge. A good guideline is IMC USA's Management Consulting <a target="_blank" href="http://www.imcusa.org/?page=CONSULTINGCOMPETENCY">Competency Framework</a>.</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the problems I experienced in my (independent) consulting practice in India:</span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are no support systems that typically comes with a corporate job (admin etc)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In corporate, work comes to you; in consulting you have to hunt for work</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selling your services could be a tough job and it can consume a lot of time</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until you establish, the money you receive could be meager</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Being solo, you may feel often lonely</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not much true consulting happening in terms of business problem solving; most consulting is around training and certification.</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My thinking was on how to minimize the effects of being solo and still enjoy my professional freedom. One solution was to form a professional network of independent consultants. It was easy to locate a few people who had worked with me earlier. We formed a consortium under the name C-Star Consortium. Every month we met - shared info & experiences from the field and exchanged referrals; this gave a forum to have discussions that stimulated our mind. More independent consultants joined, each one making this group richer in collective intelligence and expertise. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the membership grew, people identified innovative ways of leveraging this network. It made sense to offer shared services to its members at low cost; some solution providers entered into partnership with the consortium. Offering sales services to the members in partnership with another marketing firm is another step being taken.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have observed that several classes of problems that independent consultants facing today can be solved by connecting with the peers and collaborating.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are an independent consultant having a marketable service, expertise or information product that appeals to CXOs and Entrepreneurs, you could benefit by joining the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.c-starconsortium.com/">C-Star</a> community.</span>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-23126025303763244802010-04-22T10:41:00.000+05:302010-04-22T10:41:52.417+05:30Dashboards as a Marketing Strategy<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know there are several organizations that build dashboards for their process improvement initiatives. Any change initiative such as ISO 9001, CMMI, or Balanced Scorecard requires support from the entire organization. Hence marketing the concepts, process and the benefits of the change initiative is essential to reduce resistance to change. Using dashboards to convey the progress can create tremendous interest and involvement from the entire organization.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can use a dashboard not just for process improvements, but for any service you provide, to create a powerful impact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are the characteristics of a good dashboard?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/07/dashboards.html" target="_blank">Seth Godin</a>, a marketing genius and author of several best sellers, has made the following observations on dashboards.</span><br />
<ol><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>If you can add a digital dashboard to your service, do it.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>If you can make the dashboard public, it gets more powerful.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Highlight data that changes behavior.</em></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Allow the user to highlight the information that matters to them.</em></span></li>
</ol>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-89186993118164393992010-04-13T17:09:00.000+05:302010-04-13T17:09:11.161+05:30Develop Your Personal Scorecard<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One positive outcome of the recession was several organizations gained inner strength by learning to be better at what they are. Growth without inner strength is dangerous. In my case, two things happened last year that made a huge impact. One was attending an NLP based program ‘Born-to-Win’ that helped me to blast off some of my mind-blocks. Another one was developing a Personal Scorecard for me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until last year, I had only new-year resolutions. That had some limited success. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2009 beginning, I set the goals in a particular format. The format has been evolving for several months. Now it is a one page tabular format and I am calling it as my personal scorecard. It has the following headings:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vision: What I want to be in the long-term? What I want to be known for?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mission: What is my core purpose?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Objectives: What are my key objectives in the next few years?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goals: What are my goals for this year?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strategies (Key Activities): How am I going to achieve my goals?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Measures: Some simple measures of progress towards my goals that can be tracked monthly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both strategies and measures are classified under six categories:</span><br />
<ol><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Business</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Health</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Family</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Self-development</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spiritual/Social</span></li>
</ol><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I have a list of key activities for the month and also a weekly plan for day-to-day tracking (outside the scorecard).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have found immense value from this personal scorecard. Even though I am not able to complete all the tasks planned, I can see the definite progress that I am making against each of the goals. What matters is almost always getting done. Also I am not neglecting any area of my life and so it is balanced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can see a lot of similarities between the Personal Scorecard and the <a href="http://blog.cxodashboards.com/2010/03/building-blocks-of-balanced-scorecard.html" target="_blank">Balanced Scorecard</a>. Instead of the four perspectives in Balanced Scorecard, I am using six perspectives. This approach of ‘six perspectives’ is pretty standard in personal goal setting, if you refer any self-development book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Initially my personal scorecard was running to a few pages, now it is just one page, and it is really helping me to focus. My personal scorecard used to be an input to my daily affirmations/ meditation. Now-a-days it is an input once in a week. After a few months of its usage, I could find every activity I pick up is influenced by the scorecard. Every month-end I spend about half-an hour reviewing my scorecard which includes updating the monthly metrics and planning for the coming month. It is pretty exciting to watch the progress. Sometimes it creates pain when I don’t achieve the monthly targets, but it serves as an excellent energy booster. The scorecard has become a rich database of monthly info such as active & passive income, number of blog-articles published, books I read, new skills developed, and so on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You could try developing your personal scorecard if you want to achieve your goals with certainty. There is so much material available in the internet on how to set ‘<a href="http://www.smart-goal-setting-tips.com/smart-goals.html" target="_blank">SMART</a>’ goals. Please <a href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/contact_us" target="_blank">let me know</a> if you find any difficulty in developing your personal scorecard.</span><br />
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<div></div>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-60920605036703225092010-04-07T22:36:00.000+05:302010-04-07T22:36:42.863+05:30The ‘secret’ behind the power of the Balanced Scorecard<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometimes we wonder how large organizations with several lakhs/thousands of employees, manage their business and hold its employees together, when small organizations find it difficult to keep even a hundred employees together. After being associated with large organizations such as TCS and Flextronics for several years, and working closely with several mid-size organizations, I find the secret lies in ‘alignment’. There could be chaos at local level, but there is alignment at the overall level; alignment to the values, vision, key objectives, strategy, goals and so on. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do they bring this alignment? They have established processes for their core business functions and there is a mechanism to measure business performance using proven framework such as Balanced Scorecard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So many management concepts and fads came and gone in the last few decades, but Balanced Scorecard remains very relevant today and organizations are finding new ways of leveraging it and extending its capability. What makes Balanced Scorecard powerful and relevant even today? (Some aspects of this we have seen in the previous <a href="http://blog.cxodashboards.com/2010/03/how-to-leverage-scorecard-in-business.html" target="_Blank">article</a>.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Paul Niven (Management Consultant and author), the tool’s longevity can be traced to its ability to solve several fundamental business issues facing all organizations today. In his <a href="http://www.humanresourcesiq.com/article.cfm?externalid=135" target="_Blank">article</a>, he highlights the following issues organizations face today while measuring performance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Limitations of Financial Measures</strong>: Traditional focus on financial measures alone is not suitable for today’s environment. The chief criticism levied at financial measures is that they’re tantamount to driving a car by using only the rear-view mirror. You get a great view of where you’ve been, but little guidance towards where you’re headed. Balanced Scorecard gives a system that balances the historical accuracy and integrity of financial measures with the drivers of future financial success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Rise of Intangible Assets</strong>: In vast majority of modern organizations, what’s driving your success is not tangible assets, but intangible assets such as employee knowledge, databases full of rich information and culture of innovation that really drive value. Some recent estimates peg the value of intangibles as high as 75 percent of an organization’s true worth. Balanced Scorecard is a performance measurement system that sheds light on the value of intangibles and allows us to predict and drive future economic success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Challenge of Executing Strategy</strong>: Competition in any industry had significantly increased in the last few years. Hence it is vital to execute your strategy quickly. From an often quoted Fortune magazine study from 1999 found that 70 percent of CEO failures came not as a result of poor strategy, but the inability to execute. In this context, Balanced Scorecard has emerged as powerful strategy execution tool.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Balanced scorecard is centred on organization’s vision and strategy. Unlike traditional performance measurement systems that have financial controls at their core, the Balanced Scorecard begins with an organization’s vision and strategy. Then the vision and strategy are translated into performance measures that can be tracked and used to gauge the success in the successful implementation of vision and strategy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the same article, Paul Niven gives an example on how companies use Balanced Scorecard for resource allocation and for controlling expenditure in alignment with the business strategy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To appreciate the beauty of the Balanced Scorecard, one should look at ‘<a href="http://blog.cxodashboards.com/2010/03/building-blocks-of-balanced-scorecard.html" target="_Blank">The Building Blocks of the Balanced Scorecard</a>’ and understand how it supports the core elements of business management - strategy, planning, measurement and reporting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One notable feature of the Balanced Scorecard is ‘<strong>Cascading</strong>’, which is very effective in bringing in organizational alignment. Cascading refers to a process of developing Balanced Scorecards at lower levels of your business. It is about translating the corporate-wide scorecard down to first business units, support units or departments and then teams or individuals. These scorecards must align with the organization’s highest level Scorecard. This eliminates issues such as 1) employee actually running counter to the organization’s goals because they have a different understanding of what you are trying to accomplish 2) various departments in your organization focus on activities within their own silo more than on how they support the organization’s mission and vision.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thus the differentiating features such as focus on strategy and employee alignment around a few key goals make the Balanced Scorecard a very effective performance management tool for modern organizations to achieve breakthrough financial results.</span>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-61716065587426347442010-03-31T22:18:00.001+05:302010-03-31T22:24:47.341+05:30How to leverage scorecard in business?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj76FHP6VLMjRPaUK4zJ9ntgZTHN70P5r5thLUqCndC-GJ52Tqz5PpIRVk-uQ5eOAUEmzqSV5vFa8IVPws8mU_mHNYHDWIwBimz4uQQRhK0990Hisswjuz-Zea8ndrs-BzCNVwXnnZuGExu/s1600/LeverageScorecard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj76FHP6VLMjRPaUK4zJ9ntgZTHN70P5r5thLUqCndC-GJ52Tqz5PpIRVk-uQ5eOAUEmzqSV5vFa8IVPws8mU_mHNYHDWIwBimz4uQQRhK0990Hisswjuz-Zea8ndrs-BzCNVwXnnZuGExu/s200/LeverageScorecard.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To effectively use scorecards in our business, we could look at how it works in other areas of our life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you know, scorecard is a simple tool for measuring performance and giving feedback. For example, a school progress report shows performance against maximum marks; it also shows trends. It provides student, teacher and parent an overall idea about the performance and it prompts them to take any corrective action.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take the case of scorecard for a game. It excites and energizes the players as well as the audience.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us explore some of the attributes of a scorecard that can bring certain powers to you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of Focus</strong>: As you know, focus gives intensity. A 40W bulb is just sufficient to illuminate a small room, but when the beam is focused, it can illuminate objects several hundred meters away. If you have taken a ride in ECR road from Chennai in night, you would have experienced this: you can see the road illuminated kilometers in front of you, reflecting the beam of your car headlamp.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Something similar happens with scorecard when we measure performance against the goal that is important to us. We may do hundreds of activities, but scorecard brings focus to a few critical measures and keeps our mind focused on the targets and the critical things to do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are aware of the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle. By this rule you will find that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. By having key action items (or strategic initiatives) against your goals, the scorecard can help you to get focused on those ‘vital few’ activities that will account for most of your results.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of Leverage</strong>: When you leverage, you give a small input and generate a large force or output; for example with the fulcrum of a lever, you can magnify the force. Or with a small signal input at the base of a transistor, you can control a large power flow. You would have found that when you give feedback to your team with a measure or scorecard as a basis, your influence is far more than otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of Alignment</strong>: Several interesting phenomenon we can observe, when things are aligned. When ions are aligned, we get superconductivity and it can produce extraordinarily strong magnetic field. When light waves are ‘aligned’, we get Laser. Think of the magnificent opera, where several artists play their role in alignment; or a symphony orchestra, where thousands of musicians play their instruments in harmony. Another example is the Olympic opening/closing ceremonies where the participants perform in unison. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27xSI7B2gDU" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" nt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA21JKVcOJIV-F5gimbhQYHE7R422bk3209UtapN7h4z0EKecmOWmgjl4eo_D5ywjwLrJS5xEUideOyb7r0y7QHoQlWc8SkOo4EVYCXLIHAamiJNWc7l8qs4tVIuKnoiMeeWTF5d1plcEx/s320/BoatRace.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A popular event in Kerala is ‘Snake Boat Race’. It is amazing to watch the rhythm, the coordinated hand movements of about hundred oarsmen and the synchronized chanting of singers. Great excitement is generated when people align to a common goal (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27xSI7B2gDU" target="_blank">video</a> of a boat race).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“<em>He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious</em>.” – Sun Tzu, ancient military strategist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scorecard when reviewed by all stakeholders has a huge influence on team/business alignment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of a Written Goal</strong>: There is something magical about writing things down. It has been found that people commit themselves to their goals when it is recorded. Scorecard is a place where you have your goals in writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of Feedback</strong>: Our perceptions can sometimes be biased by recent events and decisions based on perceptions can go wrong. Scorecard showing trends eliminates this bias and can give new insights that can lead to better decisions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of Dashboards</strong>: We know what a dashboard means to a car or a cockpit to a plane. I am sure you will not embark on a long journey in a car that is not having a dashboard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you automate your business scorecard and incorporate the features of dashboards such as status, alerts, drill downs, you get a powerful environment to manage your business. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Power of Filtering</strong>: One problem that happened with business process automation or ERP implementation is that there are hundreds of reports available to track. We are bombarded with mountains of information every day, thanks to the advancement in technology and communication. However, our natural capacity to process info remains more or less the same. So we need effective filtering mechanisms for the information deluge. Scorecard/dashboard can act as a great tool that can filter info and alert you for taking action.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By understanding the attributes of a scorecard we will be able to leverage it better in our business. Scorecard is a simple and powerful tool that you can use to provide feedback, to focus, to align, to leverage, to communicate, to motivate, to inspire, to manage, to improve, to engage and to ensure certainty of success in business.</span>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-7478038788997215422010-03-16T10:59:00.004+05:302010-03-16T13:15:26.889+05:30Building Blocks of the Balanced Scorecard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi35P4tNdebpZ7EF8TWm18ds8Gd1mErEPLf_XtrQm19aroc7iLO8o7i7vyzkK27iDYxjmWGtHrYXVsuyDUSOjhPU_pAt9P6xvMlcDpb8xX1BzN3grsWxUGP_xRunxHKVMq5y7pR0vYhCzZt/s1600-h/balancedscorecard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi35P4tNdebpZ7EF8TWm18ds8Gd1mErEPLf_XtrQm19aroc7iLO8o7i7vyzkK27iDYxjmWGtHrYXVsuyDUSOjhPU_pAt9P6xvMlcDpb8xX1BzN3grsWxUGP_xRunxHKVMq5y7pR0vYhCzZt/s200/balancedscorecard.jpg" vt="true" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept was created by Doctors Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1992, and has been implemented by thousands of corporations, non-profit organizations, and government agencies worldwide. The Balanced Scorecard is a <em>framework</em> that describes and measures the strategy of an organization across four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes and learning and growth. It has grown from a <em>measurement system</em> (that reports on past operating performance and the drivers of future performance) to powerful <em>communication tool</em> and to transformative <em>strategic management system</em>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Building Blocks of the Balanced Scorecard are: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Vision</strong>: A concise statement that defines the mid- to long-term (three to ten year) goals of the organization. The vision should be external and market-oriented and should express how the organization wants to be perceived by the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Mission</strong>: A concise internally focussed statement of the reason for the organization’s existence, the basic purpose toward which its activities are directed, and the values that guide employee’s activities. The mission should also describe how the organization expects to compete and deliver value to the customers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Strategy</strong>: Strategy is about selecting the set of activities in which organization will excel to create a sustainable difference in the market place. The sustainable difference can be to deliver greater value to the customers than competitors, or to provide comparable value but at lower cost than competitors.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Perspectives</strong>: The basic premise behind the Balanced Scorecard is that Financial measures are important, but they must be supplemented with other indicators that predict future financial success. The Balanced Scorecard suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives, and develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives. The four perspectives are: financial, customer, internal processes and learning and growth. The key questions asked in each of these perspectives are:</span><br />
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<ul><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Financial: To succeed financially, how should we appear to our shareholders?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Customer: To achieve our vision, how should we appear to our customers?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Internal Business Process: To satisfy our shareholders and customers, what business processes must we excel at?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning and Growth: To achieve our vision, how will we sustain our ability to change and improve?</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Key Objectives</strong>: At the center of the Balanced Scorecard framework is “vision” and “strategy.” The articulated vision and strategy are translated in to performance objectives and measures that can be tracked and used for the successful implementation of vision and strategy. We will arrive at strategic objectives under each of the perspectives by asking several questions and brain-storming. For example, under Customer perspective, we may ask questions such as “Who are our target customers?”, “What is our value proposition in serving them?”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Measures</strong>: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are identified for each strategic objective. KPI is a measure of performance and measures progress toward organizational long-term goals. A Balanced Scorecard will contain a mix of KPIs and its associated lead indicators (also called performance drivers). These measures are not isolated; every measure selected should be an element in a chain of cause-and-effect relationships that communicates the strategy to the organization.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Targets</strong>: Targets for the measures identified. These are normally stretch targets that will allow breakthrough performance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Initiatives</strong>: These are strategic initiatives identified to close the gap between the targets set and the current performance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Strategy Map</strong>: A one-page graphical representation of what you must do well to execute your strategy. It is done in a plain and simple manner that is easily understood by every employee from top to bottom. It is a powerful communication tool to convey to all stakeholders what the organization is attempting to accomplish in a simple, coherent package (<a href="http://www.bscol.com/pdf/samplemap.pdf" target="_blank">sample</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Scorecard/Dashboard</strong>: Scorecard gives performance measurement against targets and the measures are developed using a methodology such as Balanced Scorecard. Dashboard is normally an IT application that displays process measures and is rich in visual displays. A general dashboard need not display measures always against a target. It can have drill downs to analytical reports. There are several applications such as the one from Corporater that can be used to implement Balanced Scorecard System (a <a href="http://cxodashboards.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/SampleCorporaterDashboard.jpg" target="_blank">sample dashboard</a> screen-shot from Corporater).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What makes the Balanced Scorecard so powerful? Let us explore this next week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more info on the Balanced Scorecard, refer <a href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/resources" target="_blank">Resources</a> in CXO Dashboards. For regular updates on business performance measurement, please <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=CxoInsights&loc=en_US%22%3eSubscribe%20to%20CXO%20Insights%20by%20Email" target="_blank">subscribe</a> CXO Insights.</span>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-79402911742697275012010-03-09T09:37:00.002+05:302010-03-09T09:38:09.916+05:30Tools for transformation change with times<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0u1E89Fsun9c9B6y1kPq50f-s0WrREkYBVcZbXRbIwuL0yqPd3-N2QTEYhb4Og4xfm6rvvYfWMSYC5EZxDQLHZyV-60yjFoZDNaIGLKJaSVuqxxdSQF94QqMrlI-dlWsO4KQqoG6ygKx/s1600-h/gandhi-charkha1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ0u1E89Fsun9c9B6y1kPq50f-s0WrREkYBVcZbXRbIwuL0yqPd3-N2QTEYhb4Og4xfm6rvvYfWMSYC5EZxDQLHZyV-60yjFoZDNaIGLKJaSVuqxxdSQF94QqMrlI-dlWsO4KQqoG6ygKx/s200/gandhi-charkha1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Gandhi used the ‘Charkha’ to achieve self-sufficiency for millions of Indians and to align/focus them on the key goals during the Freedom Struggle.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0YFkXB4HljTm-qgGM1dZmdVWi2n7613RvPaEZRy9R9Fm_VjRAEBGODJHlkA4Jd_TQqvvKzF4e_xuhMt8dIOPlJjAx9qCL2xoog_R1_KIAx6uuMkbo-Biv21BXrE2jSz-gXEkK6BfOScyh/s1600-h/ObamaUsingITdasboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0YFkXB4HljTm-qgGM1dZmdVWi2n7613RvPaEZRy9R9Fm_VjRAEBGODJHlkA4Jd_TQqvvKzF4e_xuhMt8dIOPlJjAx9qCL2xoog_R1_KIAx6uuMkbo-Biv21BXrE2jSz-gXEkK6BfOScyh/s200/ObamaUsingITdasboard.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Obama and his Federal CIO Vivek Kundra are transforming the way the US Govt works, starting with ‘<a href="http://it.usaspending.gov/" target="_blank">Federal IT Dashboards</a>’.<br />
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What tools do you use for transforming your business?<br />
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Today, several top organizations use performance measurement based tools such as Balanced Scorecard and Business Dashboards for transforming their business.<br />
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Translate your vision into reality by tracking your strategy in measurable terms. Provide <a href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/home" target="_blank">dashboards</a> for your key people to start with, and see the productivity revolution unfolding.<br />
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You might be interested in <strong>10 Questions to a Balanced Scorecard Expert</strong>: Answers by MG Thomas in <em><a href="http://www.bscdesigner.com/10-questions-about-balanced-scorecard-to-thomas-mg.htm" target="_blank">Balanced Scorecard Designer</a></em>.<br />
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For getting weekly tips/insights on performance measurements and improvements, by email, <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=CxoInsights&loc=en_US%22%3eSubscribe%20to%20CXO%20Insights%20by%20Email" target="_blank">subscribe</a> to CXO Insights.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-17911819694592794142010-03-03T09:05:00.000+05:302010-03-03T09:05:06.958+05:30Do you need a dashboard?Some business owners say they have been running the organization without any dashboard and yet successful. Some think they have to spend additional time to update the scorecard. Some others perceive dashboard as a costly tool. Some organizations tried, but still struggling to meaningfully measure what is important. <br />
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In early 90’s, when the ISO 9000 wave started hitting the Indian IT industry, the same issues were there and Project Managers were managing their projects without a proper project plan. Project Planning and Tracking process was very ad-hoc and the success of projects often depended on the heroism of the project managers. I was managing a team of 50 at that time, yet couldn’t get an MS Project, because it was not popular and it was costly.<br />
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Today, a typical C-Level Executive (CXO) manages several strategic initiatives that are critical for the organization to create and maintain their competitive edge. They may continue to use tools such as project plans, status reports, budgets to manage their operations. With these tools, they could get swamped in flood of data and operational issues; they may lose focus on their strategic priorities.<br />
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We expect every project manager to have a project plan. Similarly, Scorecard/Dashboard is a tool that every CXO must have. In fact every role in the organization should have an associated dashboard that has some metrics corresponding to their key goals. My belief is that, 5 years from now, if a CXO doesn’t have a dashboard, he will be out of the game! Period. <br />
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Do you know that <a href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/home" target="_blank">CXO Dashboards</a> can help you to arrive at scorecards/dashboards for every critical role in your organization? <br />
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To get weekly tips on Performance Measurement, Balanced Scorecard and Business Dashboards, <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=CxoInsights&loc=en_US%22%3eSubscribe%20to%20CXO%20Insights%20by%20Email" target="_blank">subscribe</a> to CXO Insights.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-19224485614398284642010-02-23T09:42:00.001+05:302010-02-26T06:40:26.405+05:30Antidote for Uncertainty<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dOY7eMRIpFqETbZHv44In6Nw8IoSNHO_aYGbK3FE0D5H0onPBBawaREb5mM4Qfv-oDB8xASfgv8IGAkr1_B7DUoGJ-q3XldQOK7XW1ERt7VUF2bMr8Dbg__koPvZ-SWzX26yYP-EAjaF/s1600-h/Certainty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dOY7eMRIpFqETbZHv44In6Nw8IoSNHO_aYGbK3FE0D5H0onPBBawaREb5mM4Qfv-oDB8xASfgv8IGAkr1_B7DUoGJ-q3XldQOK7XW1ERt7VUF2bMr8Dbg__koPvZ-SWzX26yYP-EAjaF/s320/Certainty.jpg" /></a></div>Our external environment is so dynamic and the feeling of uncertainty can become overwhelming at times. Uncertainty can stop you from moving forward.<br />
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Certainty is a state of mind, like happiness. It is essential for leaders. When you have certainty, people backing you would buy into your vision, feel inspired and move towards the direction you show. You need certainty to create the life/business what you yearn for. How do you embrace uncertainty and convert it into excitement?<br />
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You can tackle uncertainty at multiple levels.<br />
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You need to note that certainty being a state of mind like happiness, need not depend on what is happening outside. When you play say foot-ball, you don’t expect the ball to come favorable to you always, rather you respond to it irrespective of the direction from which it comes. Uncertainty is certain when you take away your eye from the ball/goal. Instead of fearing the unknown future, you can get excitement with uncertainty. A movie is exciting when you don’t know the story/outcome. Similarly playing a game.<br />
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Knowing what is controllable and what is not, are important. One beautiful poem called ‘A Professional’s Prayer’ that I used to read, starts like this:<br />
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<em>O God!</em><br />
<em>Give me the clarity and courage</em><br />
<em>to control what is controllable,</em><br />
<em>to change what I can change</em><br />
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<em>O God!</em><br />
<em>Give me the grace and serenity</em><br />
<em>to accept what I cannot change;</em><br />
<em>but to gently continue influencing</em><br />
<em>what is controllable by others.</em><br />
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Another way to feel certainty is through meditation and visualization. Meditation calms your mind and gives you time to listen to the inner voice. You can feel certainty through self-affirmations and by visualizing the end-outcomes with clarity.<br />
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You can also use an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming" target="_blank">NLP</a> technique ‘Anchoring’ to put you into a state of certainty. In anchoring, you associate a past intense experience to an anchor such as a ‘Thumps up’ gesture and recall the same state of mind with that anchor.<br />
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Another way is to have a spiritual mind-set. Surrender everything to God. Trust that He will take care of everything. Treat everything you do as a means to serve God. Several top executives and business owners, whom I have closely interacted with, are deeply spiritual.<br />
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There are some tools you can use to get certainty. Getting clarity on your life purpose and goals is important for feeling certainty. Tools such Personal Scorecard and Business Scorecard can help you to get clarity on your purpose and goals; they help you to track your goals & lead measures and prompt you to take course correction. So these tools can give you predictability and certainty in your business and life.<br />
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<a href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/home" target="_blank">CXO Dashboards</a> offers you simple but powerful dashboards, with which you can tackle uncertainty. To know more about how dashboards can give you certainty in your business, you can contact me at Thomas.MG@CXOdashboards.com.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-61041654601896365082010-02-16T11:41:00.001+05:302010-02-16T11:44:24.978+05:30The Tower of Babel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAbwCP8-lMtBV9RTpTpmsPK4XAWydMPfp0DZbymsIYvaoG719s4Muq1qUAv-3fRGtg_mIndc3Rlo3xjUrASJK-bD7NtK-4X3BDCyAPcHVhhGFaK3Hz8dS_XudLqj7FYtTnCqyW0zQ19eAL/s1600-h/Tower-of-Babel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: left; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" ct="true" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAbwCP8-lMtBV9RTpTpmsPK4XAWydMPfp0DZbymsIYvaoG719s4Muq1qUAv-3fRGtg_mIndc3Rlo3xjUrASJK-bD7NtK-4X3BDCyAPcHVhhGFaK3Hz8dS_XudLqj7FYtTnCqyW0zQ19eAL/s200/Tower-of-Babel.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>As you build organization bigger and bigger, one thing that is bound to happen is, people start speaking different languages. They use words that mean different things to different people. This is something similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel" target="_blank">Tower of Babel</a> and it can stifle the growth of the organization.<br />
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I have seen some organizations that do not have a common vocabulary about key measures. Otherwise how can HR, Finance, and Delivery functions report ‘Employee Attrition’ to the CEO three different figures using different ways of calculation. Similar is the case with ‘Manpower Utilization’ or ‘Residual Defect Density’ in IT Industry - different ways of computing the same metrics by different groups, functions or locations. For an organization to become aligned people should start speaking the same language, they should understand a few key measurements in the same way; what it means, how it is collected and how it is related to the business and their roles. Then the employees can co-relate the impact of their actions on the organization goals. It will also make the communication from the top management easier to understand.<br />
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Lack of holistic view of the business processes is causing a lot of harm to the organizations. Even today, the processes for managing the most critical resources – people and their competencies - are very ad-hoc, fragmented and ineffective in several organizations.<br />
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One of the best ways to get this alignment and energy to move forward in one direction is to implement a business performance measurement system. Balanced Scorecard is the most effective methodology today for doing that.<br />
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With Balanced Scorecard approach, you start with your vision, mission, objectives, values, strategies, goals, and you arrive at the organization level metrics to be tracked. Then you cascade it to down to various functions and roles. Then every employee understands what they are accountable for and how their activities contribute to the overall business purpose. Balanced Scorecard methodology insists on developing a dictionary of all metrics definitions, and this is the foundation on which the dashboards are built.<br />
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Try to build a dictionary of metrics applicable for each role in your organization; that will be a major step towards business alignment. To know more about how you can get business alignment fast using Balanced Scorecard approach, click on <a href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/home" target="_blank">CXO Dashboards</a>.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-57770242705891894302010-02-09T11:03:00.001+05:302010-02-09T11:10:30.079+05:30Fix root-cause to cure multiple symptoms!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9Y6znWqIrufJYsxmZHO-Q3ifLrem29UwFmTLZeY4JmNMbBvteyEc7Iwo5CLMGfuN_Z4cwEY6hDWGCGwBaTdzPP2MVE5PBZw1tWU3LEzGeA2rdI_wC4chjxkKSAbuHkocyM95DOApdcjY/s1600-h/Fix-root-cause.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" kt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt9Y6znWqIrufJYsxmZHO-Q3ifLrem29UwFmTLZeY4JmNMbBvteyEc7Iwo5CLMGfuN_Z4cwEY6hDWGCGwBaTdzPP2MVE5PBZw1tWU3LEzGeA2rdI_wC4chjxkKSAbuHkocyM95DOApdcjY/s200/Fix-root-cause.gif" width="92" /></a></div>Sometimes we come across doctors who treat for symptoms. After the medication period, these symptoms may reappear. Sometimes you will find the opposite: with one medicine multiple issues will vanish. This is true in business too.<br />
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When I started my career as a programmer in TCS, the prominent programming language used was COBOL. We were using punch cards for keying in the program. We were allowed maximum 3 compilations before any program was compiled error free. Beyond that the issue would go to the Center Manager. Sometimes even one punching error, such as a hyphen missing in the Working-Storage section, could result in hundreds of errors. Fixing that one error used to eliminate those hundred errors.<br />
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When I took charge as Quality Head in one organization, we wanted to pilot ‘Defect Prevention’ or ‘Causal Analysis’ in one project. We choose a project that was just starting the system testing. I was expecting about 8 to 10 errors in system testing and the intention of the causal analysis was to analyze the root cause of each defect, fix the root cause and eliminate a few categories of defects from the system. But the system testing gave me a surprise when the testing team reported about 800 defects. Then I realized even the basic processes were not working. We strongly enforced self-review and peer-review with a documented checklist at every phase, as an immediate solution.<br />
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Once I called all project managers for a meeting and asked them to list all the problems they face to ensure quality. Again to my surprise, there were 47 unique problems listed. I realized that if I started working on those problems sequentially, it could take several years. From my previous experience, I knew that several problems related to project management and quality can be eliminated if we go for process automation. That was the time when we took a decision to go for an enterprise wide project planning and defect tracking tool.<br />
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Even after decades of Quality movement, some organizations are struggling with several operational issues. Think of a situation where everybody in the organization knows their purpose, their responsibilities and goals. Assume they are excited about it and have a mechanism to track it; they are working towards achieving the overall organization goals and objectives. In this scenario, it is not difficult to imagine that several classes of issues will vanish from the organization. That is why, several large organizations that implemented business performance management systems continue to thrive even during recession.<br />
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If you are finding several performance related problems, you could look at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/home">Balanced Scorecard</a> as a solution to several classes of problems your company is facing.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-2300942662743706202010-02-02T19:35:00.000+05:302010-02-02T19:35:41.348+05:30Implementation of a Business Scorecard for an SMBThis is a case study of developing a Business Scorecard for a small organization and is a continuation of the previous blog on <a target="_blank" href="http://cxoinsights.blogspot.com/2010/01/balanced-scorecard-card-for-smbs.html">Balanced Scorecard for SMBs</a>.<br />
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I met the CEO of the organization and his core team and gave an orientation about the Balanced Scorecard. I had circulated a questionnaire a few days before the meeting. We had about two hours of discussion about the vision, mission, challenges, strategy, and the goals etc., about the company. We brainstormed about a few initiatives that would help to achieve his goals and objectives. After the meeting, I spent a day or two reflecting on his requirements and designed a Strategy Map and a Scorecard according to the Balanced Scorecard principles. I had one more discussion with my client to refine the Scorecard. We identified the metrics that need to be tracked monthly; it has metrics related to the four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes, and Learning & Growth (Capabilities). We also identified and prioritized the initiatives. The key challenge in this project was identifying the critical few measures that must be tracked, especially the non-financial measures.<br />
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Now the organization has a one-page document that gives crystal clear clarity on the vision, mission, objectives, goals, strategies, measures and initiatives and also a tracking sheet for tracking the measures monthly. It is true that because of this initiative, the CEO has to spend about half-an-hour weekly tracking his Scorecard (anyway this is a key activity based on the 80/20 rule, where 20% of activities create 80% of the output). Some initiatives have to be completed and a few processes have to be set right before the organization see tangible business benefits from the Scorecard implementation. <br />
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What is interesting to note is that it took only a few hours of the CEO’s time and less than a week to create the Business Scorecard. Now he has a one-page scorecard to track what’s all important for him (not just the financial measures). This gives a tool for intensely focussing on his strategies and executing as per his strategy. This eliminates the need to track various Excel files and filters out some measures that need to be tracked only at the next level. This empowers the next level team to act on operational issues with ownership, because they also know the numbers they are accountable for, in the overall business context.<br />
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Balanced Scorecard has been used by large organizations for transforming their business. They used to spend millions of dollars and several months/years for implementing Balanced Scorecard. In this context, it comes as a relief that even small organizations can benefit from this methodology with an investment of a few hours and can see results coming out in weeks.<br />
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To know how to create a Business Scorecard for your Business or Function, please visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/">http://www.cxodashboards.com/</a>.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-44210577640385391992010-01-26T10:45:00.002+05:302010-01-26T11:37:49.994+05:30Balanced Scorecard for SMBs<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sv_vNW-3IBputivnM1_jhQMdbrMPMSBtlHCThxzlRBYN1tDcBQxNPgMdZ75y-JQdRiNoo9ZWNUUhNK1opz46i-RwVJNTEbi_bwDuQ63-8TX7y5pc_JIMHO4YlNqzCgHo-4iGX0MzTzG4/s1600-h/fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" mt="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sv_vNW-3IBputivnM1_jhQMdbrMPMSBtlHCThxzlRBYN1tDcBQxNPgMdZ75y-JQdRiNoo9ZWNUUhNK1opz46i-RwVJNTEbi_bwDuQ63-8TX7y5pc_JIMHO4YlNqzCgHo-4iGX0MzTzG4/s320/fire.jpg" /></a>My friend couldn’t come for a meeting because he was attending a fire! He is running a small firm; some implementation at a customer site didn’t go well as expected. He and his team had to work round the clock to bring this fire under control. Many small firms occasionally face these fires and customer wrath. Can Balanced Scorecard help them to reduce these fires? <br />
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The Balanced Scorecard has been embraced by thousands of organizations around the globe as an effective way to execute their strategy and for transforming their business. It is not surprising that Balanced Scorecard takes several months to implement in large organizations.<br />
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Is Balanced Scorecard appropriate for only large firms and not for SMBs? First I convinced myself before advising my friend. In some organizations, issues are complex not because the processes are complex, but because of the wrong organization structure and lack of alignment. In a small organization, organization structure and the processes are simple. Business Scorecard originated as a measurement system and I looked at the analogy: a bike has only a few dials, a car has more, a old jumbo jet may have a hundred dials in a dashboard and a modern aircraft may have a dashboard with only a few dials! (Alert will pop up only if there is an issue). So a scorecard for a small firm makes sense and should be easier to develop than for a big firm.<br />
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I remembered the quote by the reputed Management Consultant Paul Niven “<em>Whether you have one, one thousand, or one million employees the roots of success remain the same</em>”. After all, even a small organization will have their vision/mission, a strategy, a need to measure performance other than financial outcomes, and a need to accomplish goals with limited resources. Since Balanced Scorecard aims to bring alignment of employees with the organization strategy and goals, it is very much applicable for small organizations too.<br />
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Can Balanced Scorecard eliminate the business fires? If you have a sound strategy and a tool to execute it, why can’t? I offered to help my friend by developing a business scorecard. How did we go about and what lessons we learnt: that I will share with you in the next blog. <br />
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Read more on Business Scorecards at <a href="http://cxodashboards.com/">CXOdashboards.com</a>.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-39801469968987477682010-01-19T09:50:00.001+05:302010-01-19T10:20:49.908+05:30Federal IT Dashboard - Changing the Way the Govt. Works<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCDIs8oNOQjjoAs1ovRzTtfXc6PRWLnPmeOgoVFt4Fvl56iNBYsecGJVHYX-j6VA5eVg4gcI6GX8lC5N_AH25JCNjjpw43wqvCDYKi4Vs3qjzuodOeKFJAdXAXQQNiNwlIXx5kQR1YcMA/s1600-h/ObamaUsingITdasboard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" ps="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCDIs8oNOQjjoAs1ovRzTtfXc6PRWLnPmeOgoVFt4Fvl56iNBYsecGJVHYX-j6VA5eVg4gcI6GX8lC5N_AH25JCNjjpw43wqvCDYKi4Vs3qjzuodOeKFJAdXAXQQNiNwlIXx5kQR1YcMA/s320/ObamaUsingITdasboard.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>The <a href="http://it.usaspending.gov/" target="_blank">Federal IT Dashboard</a> created a sensation when it got 20 million hits in the first two weeks of its release. “Dashboards can bring transparency and accountability“. saya Vivek Kundra , Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Obama Administration. <br />
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In a recent post ‘<a href="http://it.usaspending.gov/?q=content/blog" target="_blank">Changing the way Washington works</a> ’, Vivek says “<em>From San Francisco to the United Kingdom, there is a global movement to share public sector data to unleash the creativity of citizens, drive transparency and ensure accountability. Data transparency can spur economic, scientific, and educational innovation by making it easier to build applications, conduct analysis, and perform research</em>.”<br />
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Last month, I was talking to the Chief of Staff of a US County, when he visited Chennai. He met members of the <a href="http://www.c-starconsortium.com/" target="_blank">C-Star Consortium</a> and a few others and was exploring opportunities for collaboration. He mentioned that there is a public pressure being built to have dashboards for more Government services in US. People want more transparency and want to know how their tax dollars are spent in ensuring an efficient administration.<br />
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As more Governments plan to transform their administration, here lies an opportunity for the IT industry to participate in it. With each County having a budget running into billions of dollars, this could be just a tip of an iceberg. With a surge in demand from companies and government organizations for dashboards, this could even dwarf the Y2K opportunity that came by about a decade back to the IT industry.<br />
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Being a pioneer in building sophisticated business dashboards (<a href="http://cxodashboards.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/The_Art_of_Managing_with_Scorecards.327123006.pdf" target="_blank">details</a>), CXO Dashboards would certainly leverage some of these opportunities, especially the ones that demand significant innovation in architecting dashboards. I intend to share with you the insights from these projects, as the future unfolds.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-72588331488401550782010-01-12T09:13:00.008+05:302010-01-12T09:26:20.636+05:30Modeling Excellence<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjcB450QpE_I761WmBZC7vlaOtxouqhstH1E_EJuZeRoKOzUWAQF9s7hTDQfoG1ZRFKkF6oARrY2ywn9jXSnQ6QrFipjwSIGo65Q6GrJYyqzQYdYFsqLiSAXzcTASq7y0uhioVFqvB6xE/s1600-h/Makingpottery.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5425694610459354450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjcB450QpE_I761WmBZC7vlaOtxouqhstH1E_EJuZeRoKOzUWAQF9s7hTDQfoG1ZRFKkF6oARrY2ywn9jXSnQ6QrFipjwSIGo65Q6GrJYyqzQYdYFsqLiSAXzcTASq7y0uhioVFqvB6xE/s320/Makingpottery.jpg" /></a><br />One way to attain excellence fast is to model the behaviors and mindsets of people who are already successful in that field. You could model the business architecture of the market leaders too. </p><p>I have been fortunate to work with several top consultants, while leading organization initiatives in organizations such as TCS, FutureSoft and Aricent. In TCS, I worked with Ron Radice, a key architect of CMM, for a CMM Level 5 initiative. For ISO 9001, I worked closely with several consultants from KPMG. For People CMM, Srinivas T of KPMG did the assessment for us; I had interactions with Bill Curtis too. For developing the Sales System, I got inputs from Phaneesh Murthy, the legendary Sales Head of InfoSys and now CEO of iGate. For leading the Knowledge Management initiative, I got inputs from the Chief Knowledge Officers of the top IT companies, especially from Raj Datta of MindTree. For the OD initiative and the Balanced Scorecard, I got inputs from Raghu Ananthanarayanan of TAOKnoware. Rajesh Naik of QAI did the CMMI assessment for us (The best leaders are known for developing new leaders and by-the-way Rajesh Naik is in the Advisory Board of CXO Dashboards). </p><p>I have been trying to figure out what makes a great consultant, by observing these top notch consultants in the IT industry. Some of their attributes are</p><ul><li> Mastery of the subject </li><li>Brings insights of high value</li><li>Coaches well; they raise the bar every time they visit.</li><li>Explains concepts in simple terms with analogy, metaphors and their own experiences which we can relate to easily; talking with them or attending their training sessions often generate ‘Aha!’ or ‘Wow!’ feeling. </li><li>They command high respect and influence industry in several ways. </li></ul><p>Modeling Excellence is a technique followed by several successful people. It is not blind copying, yet it involves some intelligent copying. Even in Innovation, you copy some ideas/practices to your own situations and get improved/break-through results. Modeling is a powerful learning technique for achieving personal mastery. </p><p>You can even model the business architecture of the market leaders to catch up with them fast. Balanced Scorecard gives a framework for modeling your business architecture. The methodology helps you to get crystal clear clarity on your business vision, mission, strategy, objectives, goals, and lead indicators of success. It helps you focus on what is strategically important for you from the four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes (operational efficiency), and Learning & Growth (capabilities). It gives you an approach to track your strategy and achieve business results with certainty. </p><p>Read more on Balanced Scorecard and CXO Dashboards at <a href="http://cxodashboards.com/" target="_blank">http://cxodashboards.com/</a> </p>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-6726005330770059762010-01-05T23:03:00.003+05:302010-01-05T23:16:44.620+05:30Skoda Laura for reducing weight !!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc3w_4Ak-8evbqYyFdFAZ7q7HaFkcmmv3QSCckfChlpnxk3NNOE1iqskgQwDUDvcIw9WyqigqiY6hqMSdsIsqTLXqlHsH0n7SNGUpzRAb9G8dte4ZpHfi6IqyIFrljXAcCEky110KR4EC_/s1600-h/laura.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc3w_4Ak-8evbqYyFdFAZ7q7HaFkcmmv3QSCckfChlpnxk3NNOE1iqskgQwDUDvcIw9WyqigqiY6hqMSdsIsqTLXqlHsH0n7SNGUpzRAb9G8dte4ZpHfi6IqyIFrljXAcCEky110KR4EC_/s320/laura.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423312042965675058" /></a><br />In one workshop last year, I met a business man who gave a Skoda Laura car as a gift to his school going son. We got into a casual chat during a coffee break. He told that he started his business about 10 years back. He invested all his money in the business and imported items from Japan. But the first consignment, on its way, got destroyed completely after a ship wreckage near Colombo and he couldn’t get the insurance. After a few months, he started his business again with a negative net worth. He borrowed from his friends, pledged his wife’s jewels, mortgaged his house and got about Rs.17 Lakhs. In course of time, his business grew to several Crores. He wanted to make the revenue grow to Rs.100 Crores. He owns several cars including a Mercedes Benz. His life story was inspiring and shared it with all the participants of the workshop.<br /><br />One of his concern was the overweight of his son. Normal persuasions didn’t work. Then he offered a Skoda Laura car to his son, if he reduces his weight within 8 months (I don’t remember the exact target set for weight reduction). The carrot worked and his son goes to school now by a new Skoda Laura.<br /><br />This reminded me an experiment I did about 4 years back when my teen-age kids had the same problem of over-weight. I took a diary and started putting the weight of every family member at the end of each month. For a few months nothing happened. Then some started asking what their ideal weight is. Towards the end of the year, I could see a trend, everybody started maintaining a weight around their ideal weight. I discontinued the practice for about 6 months and at the end of this period some had overshoot their ideal weight. Now charting weight of every family member is a ritual that happens first week of every month. And we are happy that we all are within ‘control limits’.<br /><br />Measurements have a powerful effect on human beings, especially if it is used as a feedback. It brings fundamental changes in attitudes without rebuke or criticism. No wonder why metrics are an integral part of any change initiative or process improvement initiative.<br /><br />Do you have a personal experience to share where measurements made an impact in your life?MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-7395496782106189222009-12-27T18:49:00.006+05:302009-12-28T22:22:19.127+05:30Beach Castle on the Marina Beach<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifSFOsi8rEvJK8mhex_DtBuTHBnm5jpi87PqvP9u0ZAuiznen_cE3XIvtic-DIX8xedLXv-uE4UTBSfxU876sHmmrXXfgeLcrJHm6F4ncSUjyDvEYaB02QLIVXW_xVYaiRLyl6HGxQHKsy/s1600-h/BeachOct09.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifSFOsi8rEvJK8mhex_DtBuTHBnm5jpi87PqvP9u0ZAuiznen_cE3XIvtic-DIX8xedLXv-uE4UTBSfxU876sHmmrXXfgeLcrJHm6F4ncSUjyDvEYaB02QLIVXW_xVYaiRLyl6HGxQHKsy/s320/BeachOct09.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5419906589671781842" /></a>I used to go to the Marina beach (Chennai) with my family usually in the evening. Once we decided to go in the early morning. We were all there before the sunrise. This was altogether a different experience. There was no crowd and no parking problems; the beach was calm and serene. Some people were meditating on the beach. On one side I could see a group of people, belonging to a laughter club, laughing in rhythm and exercising.<br /><br />As soon as we reached beach, we started playing some games. I introduced some games to the kids; I learned them in the previous week in one workshop on NLP & Personal Mastery. My daughter showed her photography skills by taking some excellent photos of sun-rise (shown above). Hours have gone by in seconds!. When the kids were tired with games, they started building a beach castle. This time it was bigger than in the past, that probably showed their heightened enthusiasm.<br /><br />It was nice watching how they built the castle; they didn’t start with any plans, but finally it evolved into a beautiful piece of work. Just by putting pressure on the sand, they could build the walls of the castle. My thinking was this. I know several small companies thriving and doing great even without any proper organization structure and processes. It is beautiful like the beach castle and is nimble. But, as the organization grows it requires more than the creativity and juggling of the entrepreneur. You can’t build an organization the way a beach castle is built.<br /><br />When you want to grow your organization, you need active participation of many people in your ecosystem. Balanced Scorecard is a powerful tool for scaling up your organization. The methodology helps you to get crystal clear clarity on your business vision, mission, strategy, objectives, goals, and lead indicators of success. It helps you focus on what is strategically important for you from the four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes (operational efficiency), and Learning & Growth (capabilities). It helps you to build accountability at the next levels. It gives clarity to your employees on what to celebrate. It gives you an approach to track your strategy and achieve business results with certainty.<br /><br />Balanced Scorecard is a great tool to build a sound architecture for your organization. Read more at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cxodashboards.com/">www.cxodashboards.com</a>.MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7263641767288488734.post-19227668718534885472009-12-20T11:14:00.003+05:302009-12-21T12:13:22.461+05:30Aligning Ferret, Aligning Life<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" target="_blank" href="http://www.postscript-impressions.com/af/index.php"> <img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 204px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzwrhyphenhyphensfwJGXEKQmI7fWXQK5P6avUqreKCTggkOQWuNoMzeZLTLLXeX5cuHBL0YZaLsLgNC0AAQms4mhBlAdfnAgL-LLGyMoUFTndfufME0aqitg1QiXsuwAxCuX_f_gIfiAC-PN4tnfO3/s320/AligningFerret.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417191477985549858" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sometimes a thought or small idea is good enough to change the direction of life.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A few months back, I had an opportunity to read a business novel </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.postscript-impressions.com/af/index.php">Aligning Ferret : How an Organization Meets Extraordinary Challenges</a></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> by Swapna Kishore and Rajesh Naik. I enjoyed reading it. I found striking similarities with situations I encountered while leading initiatives in several organizations. It describes an exciting journey of an organization beyond the operational processes and how the organization transformed itself as a real business powerhouse, surmounting several obstacles.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I read this book while I was offering consulting on IT. I was always amazed by the power of IT in transforming business. However, I was also looking for an area to focus on. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Aligning Ferret</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> clearly brings out how clarity of strategy supported by a measurement system can have a significant influence on the organization performance.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It highlights how tools/methodologies such as Balanced Scorecard and People </span></span><st1:stockticker><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">CMM</span></span></st1:stockticker><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> can be used to address issues faced by several organizations today. I must say, reading this book influenced me to choose Business Dashboards as an area of focus for my consulting offering.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Several organizations face a peculiar situation, on achieving certification of operational processes (like CMMI and ISO). Clients’ expectation go up. Organization thinks they can relax for some time before taking up an improvement initiative. Some of the QA resources are pulled out for ‘revenue generating’ projects</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and some QA resources leave the company. Even when the celebration is going on, the core delivery process may be operating at level 5, but the enabling processes such as hiring and performance management may be operating at level 1. Often, the combined forces bring quality level back to square-one in a few months time. So, another improvement initiative is undertaken, typically without linking it to the “big picture”.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.postscript-impressions.com/af/index.php"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Aligning Ferret</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></b><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">is a wonderful business novel that packs not just several interesting events and humorous situations, but also several deep insights for CXOs, Delivery Heads, Quality Professionals and Project Managers, in their journey towards the next level of excellence.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>MG Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01535519704522245727noreply@blogger.com5