Jun 6 2011

The “MORE” consulting

If you have not been “made in china”, then you can’t get cheaper.

You have just one chance: getting better. The race on price has finished mate.
If your consulting strategy is based on that, you’re done.

Now think about how your consulting could be more…

- fast?
- clear?
- open?
- reusable?
- modern?
- portable?
- easy to change?
- easy to use?
- precise?
- original?
- documented?

There are too many things you can be MORE, so stop focusing of what you can be less…

Stop talking about price. Anything involving price should not be interesting for you.
If you have been invited on a request for quotation, leave it.
Seek the “request for originality” instead.
It’s much more fun.
And it pays you back.

P.S.

Spending MORE time in the office than others doesn’t count if you won’t bill that time, so please go home reading something interesting to implement tomorrow.

 

May 27 2011

Don’t have yourself fooled

I have recently read for the second time the book “Linchpin” from Seth Godin.
I do sometimes read a book twice; it is when I would like to check how much of its insights I have really absorbed and produced a change in my behavior and in the way I perceive the world around me.

This book thought me a Tibetan word, “Prajna“, which stands for “clear seeing”.
It refers to the ability to “see things as they truly are, to use Godin’s words “the ability to untangle the objective truth of a situation”.

“The ability to see the world as it is begins with an understanding that perhaps it’s not your job to change what can’t be changed. Particularly if the act of working on that change harms you and your goals in the process.”

“Successful people are able to see the threads of the past and the threads of the future and untangle them into something manageable.”

I have experienced on my skin how decades of habit have not just got me falling into old routines, but drastically altered the way I perceive the world.
The more I tended to conformity, the more pain I received from the ever changing world, because of my resistance.

Sometimes we lose the ability to analyze situations because of the fact we got used to see life (work, people) trough the lens of our conformity.
Loosing the ability to discern real situations and problems, means losing the possibility to see opportunities.
And we volountarily get used to a comfortable repeatable path because it make us feel more safe.

Even if market, business, competitors are clearly telling you the opposite, you stick with your vision. And you lose.

You tend to search for reassurances, so it’s a relief when you see your budget numbers staying stable. You can tell yourself “then I can refuse seeing the fact that my competitors are working hard to adapt to a changing world, I can stick with the good old path”.
I am allowed to do it as so far I see business from the lens of revenues numbers, and revenues numbers haven’t kicked my ass yet.

But for how long?

When I interview people for recruiting, several times I find candidates searching for a change which is not a change at all. Their company has changed, and changed their relationships with management. They did not make any effort to understand the reasons behind, and they started searching for a company with processes they can regognize again as familiar, consoildated, safe.
Because consolidated, means no change, no change means no effort, and no effort means no pain.

This is true at any level, from the last of employees up to management.
If a new kind of cross-business is coming up, or barriers between industry branches are melting down, it’s hard to reorganize business division.
It requires taking risks. So, no matter what business is yelling at you, we tend to watch other parameters. Are people leaving our company? Are we still receiving resumes? Are we still on budget plans?
The more “yes” we find, the less we worry about the rest.
It’s a pain to look carefully at competitors, having the courage to ask questions to players you consider smaller, or “right behind you”.

This is why it’s sometimes good to feel as “strangers”, even where you expect to feel comfortably familiar, even in the company you work for.
Accept that maybe something as changed around you.  Just wonder why. And find opportunities.
If your group has changed from 5 people to 50, and your manager has not been calling you in the past 3 months, then you have several options.

You can get angry, rush, and pretending things get back as they were, back as “they should be”.
Or maybe you can decide to make your move. Maybe these absences are creating a “scarcity”, a “need”, and maybe you can fill it.

But the only way not to miss changes is keeping your eyes open, and this practically means talking with others, asking questions, meeting new people. Manage your energy according to your needs, to your projects, your dreams.  Don’t use them to resist.

Forcing reality to “Roll-back” to a previous version you preferred can be extremely hard and tiring.

Look for the awesome in the people around you. It will inspire you. Look at people who are still feeling good in the new “environment”.

Are there any? If not, why can’t it be you?

May 26 2011

On “Vision of Innovation”, again

First of all, relax, find a quiet place, and watch over here:

After that, stop spending too much time over web sites like this http://www.oninnovation.com/.

Those who already succeeded have already crossed the dip you are already into right now.

Listening to then may be motivating you but hardly inspiring. They had their vision and it cannot be yours.

They’re just proofs that it’s possible, that you can make it. They can share their stories. But they cannot even poke you towards YOUR target.

I’d rather recommend you to carefully read this instead:

http://innovateonpurpose.blogspot.com/2011/03/no-vision-no-innovation.html

“If you don’t have that vision, what disrupter does?”

Organizations are seeking leaders. Leaders are those who have a clear VISION and may succeed in “orientating” company’s dipoles towards that direction.

Why cannot be you to show the path?

What is your VISION? What is the strategy you firmly believe in?

May 25 2011

In·no·va·tion-[in-uh-vey-shuhn] (noun): A pair of glasses to see the future

A colleague (and a good friend of mine) has presented yesterday to the management an astonishing, sensational, spectacular presentation on Digital Market trends.

I really hope I could share soon with you his interesting insights worth meditating.

People like him are real assets for organizations aiming to walk the hard, long and perilous way of innovation.

First of all, I noticed that more people involved leads often to less innovation achieved.

Procedures and organization structures are not really synonymous of independence and creative state of mind.

In large organizations there is always a fight for having the nominal ownership of most interesting business activities.

As a result, those who should really lead are facing big difficulties. Moreover, tasks tend to be spread over too many people, often not really aware of the real goals to achieve.

The effective consciousness of where exactly you should go is fundamental. Effective communication is the answer.

Too many layers, people to ask to, permissions to wait for proceeding etc… are not ingredients of the innovation recipe.

Another common misbelief is the fact that people should search for ideas. Any ideas? Bring me some good ideas is what you are often been asked. Hours and hours of useless brainstorming spent over the whole encyclopedic knowledge. The outcome is, in the best cases, a slightly better knowledge or the business context.

Instead, what you should feel after these meetings should be pain. Pain for realizing that you haven’t walked a single step, pain because the world around you has changed since a long time and you just noticed the iceberg’s peak.

People shouldn’t be asked to bring ideas. People should be asked to achieve their dreams. Why did you stop dreaming? Please keep working hard on your dreams and use the company as a platform.

Everyone will benefit from this. Use your organization then. Use it.

Maybe your company or your management is far from being perfect,  it’s not working properly, problems are much more that positives.

I understand that is common. Then, take your organization as you would do with a lousy car for rental to reach your destination. Would you start from repairing it before the journey or would you just use it, reaching your destination as soon as you can?

Once you’ll get there, both you and the car will benefit from the arrival, you both got there! You could maybe start fixing some parts to drive other new dirt roads. Or maybe not. Maybe it could work this way for your next journey.

Getting back to my colleague presentation, I really hope he has been able to transfer that sort of “emotion” to attendants hearts and at the same time showing them the way to achieve results. Now I really hope those believing  him will accept to be led, regardless of their hierarchical role.

If in your team you realize there’s a rare person with the gift of knowing the road to walk for realizing a beautiful dream, don’t try to take advantage of him asking him to give you his idea. Not even ask to share. Just tell him “Thank you, how can I help?”.

That’s the only first step that matters in order to get anywhere.

Good luck.

May 9 2011

New blog: Mobile B2B

Dear followers,

I have decided to split this blog into two different spaces.

Lost in consulting will remain in english, covering my experience as a contractor/consultant.

As for mobile technology, smartphones business and emerging B2B solutions,  I am inviting you to my brand new blog at www.mobileb2b.it.

This new blog will be mainly in italian, aiming to stir interest of italian companies. (some interviews will remain in english but I will manage to translate).

Thanks for reading me and please, keep providing even more feedback.

Andrea

May 8 2011

Yet another bubble?

“

One question I get asked alot both inside and outside our industry is - Are we in a bubble?  Or the less subtle – We are in a bubble aren’t we?  I lived through a few bubbles last decade.  The DotCom bubble, where I was the naysayer – “This trajectory isn’t sustainable”.  To the Asian Crisis, when I was selling industrial park space in China, and clearly saw the over building, over spending, and money transferring happening across many Asian countries, and then lost my job because of it.  And I now find myself quite happily in the middle of Mobile Madness where I see similarities and differences to the past.  On one hand it feels like we are moving very fast now with insatiable growth, demand for apps, extreme competition and everyone wanting to get into the game.  On the other hand after being in the industry since ’95 – I’m so glad the rest of the world is finally catching up!

I chuckled recently watching a US morning show where the two women were going gaga over these ‘new’ QR codes, and I recalled how exciting they were for me 5 or so years back helping me get a free pass to a hot CTIA party.

I worked on ‘convergence projects back in ’95, and we are now seeing ‘transmedia’ truly happening.

In another aspect, the hunt for good web developers during the Dotcom days, had young high school kids demanding 100k salaries for html skills; and we are seeing similarities now with the so called ‘dirth’ of mobile developers , where iphone developers with 2 years or less experience are demanding and getting a higher price than seasoned engineers.

I think we will witness this instability for while as we play with business models, watch technologies and ideas form new mashups, and new skills become old hat.

As ever the ones who stay agile, flexible and creative will do well, from the small development company to the big operators and OEMs.  Besides – who needs sleep!

“

Source:

News from WIP May 2011: Innovation trumps sleep.  Always.

Caroline Lewko, CEO, WIP - www.wipconnector.com
May 1 2011

The soloist

I have had a gift: I am a great soloist.
That’s not the gift; the gift is that when playing with others, I am good too and sometimes I am able to create great “improvisations” that, when followed by others, lead to great performances.
That has been a really good trait when I joined consulting; in fact I started with a small company and I was the first of few others in a brand new client environment.
Sort of a start up opportunity. Great times guys.
The consulting firm rapidly grew and a few years later joined a big consulting corporate; I became part of a big international orchestra.
Between me and the Director, several lines of chairs had been added.
I have been given a score (a “partitura”), that should be absolutely and mandatory followed. They called it Company Processes.
Of course, playing for a big International and well established orchestra is much much safer.
Are you sick or not at your best one day? Never mind. And you can be invited to play in theatres you’d never venture to imagine before.
But.
What about your nature of soloist player? That could become a potential issue for you now.
Think for a moment about that: when your mind spawns a quite lovely and powerful business idea, you have two choices: go with it, or ask your boss before.
Several people I met in my life always cried about that: “Damn, if only I hadn’t to ask my boss”.
I often discovered that they were using the “ask the boss” as an “excuse” because they got stuck in the responsibility crossroad. Should I go or should I ask?
Big firms don’t like players who don’t ask. They create processes so that you must ask for almost everything. And when you have to ask, options spread and things got stuck.
Consider this example. I wrote my boss to open a purchase order procedure so that one of my perimeter consultants could have his jurassic notebook replaced.
Well, instead of writing “please go buying a new notebook” he unfortunately added an option: “..or check if a RAM upgrade is sufficient”. Giving an option to the IT department led the procedure to stuck.
The IT guy have been forced to take responsibility for a decision.
Sometimes you are lucky and the IT guy is a soloist able to autonomously decide, but as part of a big orchstra with processes, he probaly chose the “ask the boss” path, and the procedure got paralized.
Now let’s go back to corporates and soloists: can these players resist in structured environment? And how should they behave?
Well, I believe there are two options. If you decide for the “ask the boss” safe approach, then you should stuck with it. Do always ask. Always. Never forget to do it.
But if you choose to be a free rider, then never alternate the approach, go always straight on your path, without hesitation.
If you fail, you’ll be kindly invited to leave the company. That’s the risk.
But believe me, showing you are able to decide and make choices is the only way to move forward, closer to where the Director is.
Make your choice then. Good luck.