The Practice of Business Technology

Which is the real mother of innovation: Need or persistence?

2012-01-28T10:04:00.002+05:30

The Me-Mover idea was triggered by the need for a new personal 3-wheeler. But what moved the product from the initial idea to the production model? Well, entrepreneur Jonas Eliasson and team went through several progressively better versions ... lots of drawings ... five prototypes ... $700,000 ... and 13-plus years. Or in one word, persistence.

To know more about persistence in innovation, read the original article at Inc.com.

Head first

2012-01-23T08:01:00.001+05:30

Make the mindset changes first. It then gets easier to do the things you need to do. For example, to design software for business outcomes, start by making the mindset changes ... that outcomes matter more than outputs ... that you shouldn't sweat the small stuff before you've achieved the big ones ... that success is more valuable than satisfaction ... A mindset change is a great way to start your BT (business technology) initiative.

5 indicators that the IT-to-BT move will be quicker in 2012

2012-01-02T08:00:00.004+05:30

Happy new year to you! And here are 5 indicators that 2012 will be a great year for the IT-to-BT move as well:

Trend lines: Increasing interest in process centric organizations and Business Process Management point to business technology (BT) as the approach for technology initiatives.
British Airways and other cases available: Companies are already on the path to BT. Check resources by Forrester Research.
Wide interest in BT: In my IT-to-BT seminars, I have seen interest from a wide variety of audience groups: Nasscom.org's IT events, TiE.org's innovation events, engineering colleges, B-schools, and IT companies. CIO and business process communities in the US have attended Forrester's BT conferences and webinars.
BT governance frameworks now available: Forrester, for example, has a framework for BT governance (the new equivalent of IT governance).
BT software method now available: Teams can now "businessify" their software methodology so they can deliver business outcomes rather than just technology ... feel free to ask me how.

What benefits should we expect? Firstly, enterprises can get their BT dollar to produce desired business outcomes. Secondly, for teams, business software development can become creative work. Thirdly, providers can use this opportunity to differentiate themselves and impress their customer organizations with new value.

Let me know your thoughts on how we could together take this forward.

Richard Branson's "planetary ambition" for capitalism

2011-12-31T09:19:00.005+05:30

Richard Branson is calling for a more ethical way of doing business. Ethical capitalism. Or Capitalism 24902 as he has labeled it.

"Every single busines person has the responsibility for taking care of the people and planet that make up our global village, all 24,902 circumferential miles of it," he says in his new book.

The book Screw Business As Usual spotlights a few of the companies that already use his Capitalism 24902 principles:

Salesforce.com
GroFin by Shell
Kimberly-Clark
General Electric
Wal-Mart Stores

... a lot of evidence that "doing good really is good for business."

Why Buffett is among "Americans of the Year"

2011-12-27T13:09:00.002+05:30

Esquire magazine's list of 2011 "Americans of the Year" includes two Warrens. I have already written about Elizabeth Warren's change initiative. In this post, I'm summarizing for you Warren Buffett's "performance" that got him into the list:

His search for value as an investor is an extension of his personal values
Never enriched himself by moving his money around but rather by spending on companies and industries he believes in
Never leveraged his company in order to leverage his lifestyle
Volunteered to pay a higher tax rate
Pledged 99% of his wealth to philanthropy
Stayed optimistic, calm, resolute, and cheerful.

Award-winning journalist Tom Junod summarizes: "(Buffett) continues to be the kind of rich man who cares about being the kind of rich man Americans admire."

Creative blending makes old song like new ... Merry Christmas!

2011-12-22T08:01:00.002+05:30

Meet this family of high-quality musicians that brings classicism to the common man. Watch how they make a 16th-century Christmas song sound fresh.

The family, called Annie Moses Band, not only stuns audiences with albums, concert tours, and PBS airings, they also help others capture "the creative call God has placed on every person."

Merry Christmas!

You can be an architect of progress

2011-12-20T07:41:00.011+05:30

There are lots of stories about failed change initiatives and about the near impossibility of making change happen. How then did we progress from the stone age to where we're today? Didn't we have several successful change initiatives along the way? For example, how did we get to what we call Information Technology or IT? Answer: through change initiatives that took the DP of the 1950s to EDP to MIS to IS to IT.

"(change) is the only thing that has brought progress." Charles Kettering, automotive exec & inventor with 186 patents

Sure, leading change is not as easy as managing the status quo, but it has been possible and should be possible every time you have something with potential positive impact.

So, go ahead, be the architect of progress that you want to be.

This only happens in the US?

2011-12-17T17:41:00.006+05:30

Take Randy Komisar, who created the job category "Virtual CEO." Randy set out to help entrepreneurs grow themselves and their companies, but here's what happened next:

Harvard Business School Press editor flew out to meet and convince him to write a book, which became a national bestseller
The book led to a teaching position at Stanford University
Which led to his current position as a partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Or take Erik Proulx, who did not have a job or money or experience to make a film he wanted to make. Erik merely posted his film-making intention on his blog, but here's what happened only hours later:

Ad Age picked up the story
Sony gave him the cameras
VirginAmerica covered his travel to Los Angeles (to interview people for his film)
Top movie editors and product houses donated time to help turn vast footage into thirty-six minutes of genius
His wife remained his greatest champion throughout.

What do you call this? A culture of innovation ... a culture of talent-spotting ... a culture of recognition & rewards ... a culture of win-all ...

What about countries that do not create world-leading innovations? They probably share a common culture: they ignore, misunderstand, don't-understand, punish, or exploit the few innovators that may emerge. To become world-leading innovators, these countries need to start by understanding that it's not about money, it's about culture.

PS: I picked the above two true stories from the book Uncertainty (see my review below)

Turn uncertainty into opportunity

2011-12-12T12:06:00.004+05:30

No, the book titled Uncertainty is not about economic uncertainty that is on everyone's mind today. Its about the uncertainty that typically accompanies your effort to create a product, movie, book, art – anything new.

Uncertainty, along with risk of loss and exposure to judgment, has the potential to hurt creative endeavors and sometimes the creators themselves. The book suggests that rather than fear or avoid these three factors, innovators should learn to leverage them because they are integral to actually improving your creative process. For example, filmmaker Erik Proulx had his wife as champion so his creative quest became theirs and "altered the uncertainty and judgment dynamic in a way that allowed him to take risks and create on a level that would have been impossible had he been locked in a battle for support."

Based on interviews with several contemporary innovators including Marie Forleo and Peter Wallace, author Jonathan Fields illustrates how they all converted the dreaded three factors into opportunities. He also draws from his own experience as an entrepreneur and creator.

The techniques recommended in the book are practical and productive – some of them have helped me in my own innovation efforts and there are others that I will use in my future efforts. Are there any recommendations that I would not want to try? Yes, and they are techniques listed under Attentional Training. When it comes to "training" my brain, I would instead stick with good old-fashioned physical exercise (book covers this too)!

Other books on innovation and management have covered these factors (risk, for example) for teams and organizations, but this book covers them at the individual level. Knowledge of the creative process at individual level is obviously important to businesses as well – therefore, besides innovators, corporate innovation leaders and training heads tasked with setting up an innovation culture or fostering creativity will also find this book helpful.

PS: This is the third book on innovation that I've been asked to review. The other two are: The Innovator's DNA and Simplifying Innovation. Hope you find these reviews helpful.

Culture is key: Interview with an inventor

2011-12-07T09:18:00.009+05:30

California-based Pelco by Schneider Electric is a world leader in video security systems. Kshama Vijayakumar, who earlier was in my team at Cognizant, is now an inventor at Pelco. Here's what she thinks about invention, inspiration, and impact.

1. What are your inventions?

My patented invention is a "Method and Apparatus for Creating a Zone of Interest in a Video Display." The method includes creating zones on a video. A zone can be a person or an object of interest. The customer can focus and select it to view it separately.

I also have two more inventions filed for patenting.

2.What inspires you to innovate?

I really love what I do. A desire to make the user's life easier drives me to work everyday. So I guess my passion is what inspires me to innovate. The work environment at Pelco and the people here are also a big motivating factor.

3. How does innovating and winning patents change your career? What do they do to your employer and customers?

Patents are definitely a good thing to have on a resume. But its not just about winning patents or adding value to the resume. Innovation is a change in mindset. It is getting into the habit of thinking out of the box. Once this happens, you try to be innovative in everything you do. This I think has had and will continue to have a positive impact on my life and career.

From the employer's perspective, innovation within the company is about building new and better products – and that signals business growth, which is a good thing. For the customer, the benefits include better use of their time and money and a better experience with the product.

4. We had created an innovation culture within our team at Cognizant. Did that culture help you?

The culture within our team at Cognizant definitely sowed the seed for thinking out of the box. The constant insistence back then on thinking different even now makes me challenge my own creations. I also see the importance of certain things I was involved in back then – like doing research projects and running weekly creativity clubs. They help one develop an innovation mindset.

Though I have learned a lot since then and continue to do so, the basics I got from our team have taken me a long way. I have to thank you for creating this opportunity to learn from you and the team.

5. Our team's morale peaked while you were there and we called you CFO (Chief Fun Officer). What are some of the new things you are involved in? And what's coming up next?

I'm happy to hear that our team's morale was at its peak while I was there. I did have a lot of fun, too! Currently, I'm part of R&D, which focuses on innovation and on building a corporate culture of innovation. I'm completely enjoying my role! I haven't given much thought to the "next," but I think I'd like to continue what I do and hopefully be more innovative and inspired.

Forrester's "personal" BT lessons

2011-12-03T10:06:00.000+05:30

Leader of the IT-to-BT move George F. Colony talks about a change he made at Forrester Research and the lessons learned. The change is about turning "CIO" into "CBTO." And the lessons come from four areas: 1. The job search 2. Business focus 3. Regime change 4. A new yardstick. Check it out: http://blogs.forrester.com/george_colony/11-11-23-four_bt_lessons#comments

How to create your impact scorecard

2011-11-30T19:52:00.002+05:30

Most resumes and biographies list the individual's activities, outputs, or possessions like in ... I have a master's degree ... I am a VP in a large company ... I lead a 500-person team ... I've published 5 articles ... These items make the individual and his/her family proud. But how do readers react? Readers likely have one or more of these questions in their minds:

"So what?"
"What's the big deal?"
"What's in it for me?"

Such questions pose a challenge to the traditional resume. The test might fail even when you have measures (team size, for example) and associated numbers. India's Mahatma Gandhi fasted a certain number of times as part of his campaign. Whether the number was 5 or 50 is not as important as the outcome he is credited to have achieved.

So, I'm suggesting that we explore beyond the activity/output/possessions boundary. Try outcomes. Try impact. Outcomes and impact are already used in business through frameworks such as results based management.

Depending on what you've been doing, measures/numbers may be available at the Output (or rarely the Outcome) stage, but Impact, in most cases, will not have any associated measures/numbers at all.

When you make outcomes/impact claims, believability is a factor readers will expect you to address. And here's what you do: Make your claims verifiable in the public domain through sources like media reports, awards, articles, etc.

Develop a compelling way to articulate your outcomes and impact:

Consider the stakeholder-view (how did you impact your team members rather than how many people you had in your team)
Provide a drill-down, showing traditional info such as activities/outputs/possessions
Provide verifiable evidence for each outcome/impact claim
Provide background information that highlights the value and uniqueness of your contribution (did you innovate in an innovation-unfriendly culture?)

If you find this interesting and want to get started, great! Outcomes/impact are a long-term thing that might take 5 to 10 years or more to achieve. But your current focus on outcomes/impact will help you get your priorities right, use up your full potential, and make a positive difference in the lives and careers of others (people and organizations).

Want to see my impact scorecards? In the post below titled "Thanks to...," click the items highlighted in yellow.

And let me know what you think!

Grateful for ... The team I've had

2011-11-24T13:42:00.018+05:30

I was recently trying to identify ways in which I may have impacted people and organizations in the last 25 years. I shortlisted four categories of impact, each benefiting a different stakeholder. As I prepared my impact scorecard, I noticed one important thing ...

My team members are my greatest accomplishment. Without them, my previous employer Cognizant, its (largely American) customers, and the Indian IT industry would not have profited the way they did.

So, this Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for the people I've had in my teams at Cognizant – from the company's mid-90s formative years to the end of 2007 when it was a multi-billion dollar IT giant.

Some of us always knew that we did what the best teams in the world do. We ditched the idea of merely executing traditional job-descriptions and instead did new things by fighting cultures and processes. What we did, therefore, has stories and insights on innovation, change leadership, and corporate entrepreneurship. Here are a few slides that concisely capture it all (go ahead and click):

US enterprises squeeze new levels of business results out of IT dollar

Cognizant starts with an advantage and gets big fast

Team members train differently and thrive

Indian IT industry catches up on key capabilities

Again, if you are an alumnus of my teams at Cognizant ...

Thank you!

Rita McGrath named in Thinkers50

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000+05:30

Happy to see Prof Rita McGrath in the 2011 Thinkers50 list. I attended her Spring 2008 class of Columbia Business School's executive education program, "Leading Strategic Growth and Change.” Her Thinkers50 profile is here: http://www.thinkers50.com/biographies/127

Also happy to see in the list other business thinkers I admire including Kim & Mauborgne, Gary Hamel, Seth Godin, and of course Tom Peters.

The best bosses are not sweethearts

2011-11-15T10:20:00.000+05:30

The best leaders transfer the biggest value to their subordinates. Soon, these subordinates have a resume – while they still may be in their 20s or 30s – that would take them to places they never imagined just a few years earlier.

The best leaders however are also known to be tough bosses. Some of America's high-impact bosses are also the toughest. The list includes Steve Jobs. Just ask Scott Forstall.

It was Steve's insanely high standards that allowed him and his teams to innovate and to change the world.

Talking about his two best bosses, Tom Peters says that they "were my two toughest bosses. Both practiced psychological terrorism – though neither knew he was doing so. Both set mercilessly high standards for themselves. And neither believed in barriers to achievement ... Both sent me home screaming. I recall literally a year of just about non-stop headaches in one case. It doesn't jibe with the perfectly balanced life. But I'll tell you, I learned more, faster, from these two than ever before or since."

Did your resume surge during the time you worked with a certain boss? Time to thank that tough boss!

What's better than a mere peer review?

2011-11-12T11:06:00.006+05:30

Specializing is important. But specializing while being ignorant of the context kills.

Seen a specialist edit a user manual to death? She got bogged down with relatively less important things like grammar. She didn't check the manual's usefulness in the context of the user interface.

Seen a specialist usability-test a user interface (UI) to death? He was sweating the relatively smaller stuff (like which way the Accountant's face was turned when she was selecting the Estimate option). He didn't check the UI's value in the context of the business process.

Or seen a specialist drawing beautiful pictures of processes using powerful new software tools? She didn't check the processes in the context of the enterprise.

Checking your work with an expert within your discipline might get you a pat on the back. But that's no guarantee your work will have a positive overall impact.

Specialization that ignores the context creates wasteful silos. So ... step out. Look around. Take feedback from someone in a higher discipline.

Giving away: they practice what they preach

2011-11-09T10:06:00.001+05:30

Seth Godin is among those who've been encouraging the rest of us to be generous (being generous is a common theme in his book, Tribes). Seth himself gives away a piece of business insight every single day of the week. Tim Grahl is an expert who advices authors on how they could build their own tribes. His clientele includes Wall-Street Journal and New York Times bestselling authors. He too advices authors to provide free content for their tribes. And leads by example by giving away a lot of his own quality information. His recent giveaway is a comprehensive list of book marketing tactics. Tim's website is at http://outthinkgroup.com/.

Insider trading is not wrong here?

2011-11-08T10:45:00.005+05:30

"Many (in India) may not even see insider trading as wrong – we see it as a privilege of being in a position of status or power ... insider trading is rampant among the high and mighty." says IIT alum and best-selling author Chetan Bhagat.

Writing in The Times of India, Chetan goes on to share similar examples of poor values in the areas of life, business, and government – and shows they are in conflict with Western values.

Chetan applauds some recent positive initiatives in India and ends with a suggestion: "We need to define a set of new values and propagate them in our social circles."

Read Chetan's article in The Times of India

Making business software can be creative work, too

2011-10-28T08:29:00.002+05:30

Innovators continue to enjoy advancing the field of software engineering. But what about practitioners? Do they have fun, too? Well, folks in the consumer software area don't seem to be complaining. But those who develop business software believe they're not doing creative work. In fact, provider-side practitioners say, "The inventory management system we're currently developing is not very different from the inventory management system we delivered just 3 months ago to another company. Even the code is largely re-used."

The ongoing move from IT to BT (business technology) has raised hopes to turn business software development into creative work. BT's focus on results pushes the team to look for creative ways to achieve business outcomes. One such opportunity emerges from the enterprise CXO's discomfort with the mere "automation" of existing business processes. Reengineering the Corporation was perhaps the first to highlight this wasteful effort that the authors call "paving the cow path." CXOs today would rather innovate to achieve new business results.

Do you think practitioners will exploit BT's creativity potential?

Here's a related post: With BT, car-maker's software spin-off can be just as innovative as the parent

Connecting science and business

2011-10-22T07:48:00.000+05:30

"Scientists are often very concerned with incremental knowledge, whereas a good business person will have a higher level of comfort with uncertainty and will be able to make complex choices decisively," says Nina Tandon. But Nina knows the importance of connecting science and business so one can actually put breakthroughs to use. Reason why she is a Columbia Business School eMBA student although she has already received a PhD in biomedical engineering. She hopes to join the small group of women who play the dual role of scientist and executive.

Click to watch Nina's TED talk "Caring for Engineered Tissue."

Academia frequently leads

2011-10-21T13:30:00.000+05:30

Some of the most important discoveries and innovations that you and I use today came from labs in academia. At Columbia University, for example, researchers patent more than 300 inventions a year! At the two Columbia Business School exec education programs I attended, about half a dozen of the faculty who taught had published books based on their research.

Hope this is some inspiration for folks in developing countries, where the pride instead is on numbers (lots of institutions, lots of students) and even a basic such as teaching quality is often poor.

IBM's Think ... Apple's Think Different ... IDNA's Act Different

2011-10-07T10:25:00.004+05:30

The reasoning behind IBM's "Think" motto ... "Thought has been the father of every advance since time began. 'I didn't think' has cost the world millions of dollars." The quote is Thomas J. Watson's, who coined the motto.

The idea behind Apple's "Think Different" slogan ... To challenge IBM consumers to consider Apple as an alternative.

The idea behind IDNA's "Act Different" ... To think different you must act different by questioning, observing, experimenting, and networking. These actions can lead you to think of connecting the unexpected in innovative new ways.

Having read a bit deeper into these themes, I think the common message simply is: Challenge the status quo.

Forrester webinar on IT to BT

2011-09-29T07:38:00.002+05:30

George F. Colony (founder, Forrester Research, Inc) has been talking about the move from IT to BT for a while. Happy to let you know that Forrester's first webinar on the future of "IT" is finally here. It is titled "From IT To Business Technology — A View From Business Process And Application Development And Delivery Executives." Go to their website for more info: http://tinyurl.com/6eoygaw

Some of my own IT to BT presentations from the past ...

While Forrester's work covers BT management/governance, my work is focused on BT at software practice level.

Calling young innovators

2011-09-26T08:54:00.003+05:30

A call to "Adopt a young innovator" in the book The Innovator's DNA has inspired me into action. I'd like to mentor one young innovator, drawing from my experience coming up with innovations, institutionalizing innovations, and delivering new value to customers (more).

I will choose and help one young person to "grow up acting different, thinking different, and, in the end, making a difference in a world bursting with complex, challenging problems."

If you are a young innovator who would like to use this opportunity, please write. You may either use the Comment option below or email me at PHenry08@gsb.Columbia.edu.

To innovate, ACT different

2011-09-20T08:26:00.001+05:30

"How did Steve Jobs, Howard Shultz, Michael Dell, and others come up with their world-leading innovative ideas?" "How can I or my team learn from them and innovate?" If you have these questions, you will be happy to pick up and read The Innovator's DNA. The book answers exactly these questions that a lot of people today are asking (yep, that includes my audience at a recent Innovation & Business Technology seminar as well.).

The best news for the curious comes from the authors' 6-year research ... Genetic endowment is not everything ... what matters more is how we act. And the book goes on to describe five specific skills that people can learn and use. So, the book basically underscores the point that: You too can be an innovator.

When I tried to see if I had done anything common across the three practice innovations that I have come up with, I distilled 7 things. Two of them are "Break boundaries" and "Integrate and reconstruct the practice." As an example, take my second innovation called Process-Centric Design (PCD), which differentiated and helped spike the growth of former employer Cognizant Technology Solutions during the firm's formative years. Here's how I came up with PCD ... I connected the two "unrelated" disciplines of software user interface design and business process management. My Columbia Business School exec-edu professor William Duggan's book Strategic Intuition too describes the innovator's act of "selective combination of previous elements into a new whole." So, I'm happy to see The Innovator's DNA having an early chapter on this crucial concept, which it calls "associating." The book shows how associating, which is a cognitive skill, is the cornerstone of innovating and how skills such as questioning can be used to come up with ideas for associating.

What's said in the book is based on a study of actual innovators and innovative companies. And they are all contemporary and therefore easy to relate to! Another thing that adds to the persuasiveness of the book is the fact that all the three co-authors are top university professors and innovation consultants. That includes Clayton Christensen, who has his own stream of quality books.

I was surprised though to see Nano (car) as an example for innovation. Literature on consumer driving experience and safety suggest that it's a car "just like in the old days."

Overall ... If I have to press a book into the hands of people who want to convert curiousity into some action, this would be among the first.

Two become one

2011-09-01T10:09:00.002+05:30

In business technology or BT, "two become one" is about software and business process "merging" to produce defined business outcomes. It is a lesson learned from The Law of Technology Injection.

The business world has been complaining about IT. Much of the complaint is a result of the software road and the process road not coming together for a common cause. Specific complaints by CXOs have been 1. Return Vs Spend disconnect 2. Poor or no alignment with business.

I have seen these business issues in dozens of software initiatives. Software teams are busy getting the software to work and they work harder still to meet the deadline. Besides an ever-shortening project time-frame, another reason given for lack of business orientation is ... Where is the method to make software development business-centric?

BT practice is a set of vital business-centric steps that when "added" to an existing software methodology can enable the "merging" of software and business process. This "merging" is required to make the ongoing IT-to-BT move a reality.

Israel: innovation nation

2011-08-31T08:22:00.000+05:30

Some three million students in India graduate every year with Engineering degrees. Add to it the millions that receive Science degrees. Remarkable numbers! Unfortunately, more than 80% of the engineering graduates are considered unemployable. Further, you may ask "Where are India's world-renowned scientists and world-leading innovators?" Sure, I can find you a few good ones, but watch this short video for a story in contrast – an inspiration. With a total human population of only 7 million, the performance and positive impact of the tiny nation of Israel has been nothing short of a miracle!

American transparency

2011-08-30T08:06:00.004+05:30

Elizabeth Warren, the change-maker who set up a government agency to protect consumers from harmful financial products, is committed to transparency ... For example, Warren's calendar is on the agency's website so that anyone can see who has a claim on her time.

SodaStream, the company which sells a soda-making home applicance, has a counter on the website that shows precisely how the company saves the world from plastic bottles.

Daystar TV channel, running a fundraising campaign, sometimes shows every donation as it comes in – the amount, donor's name, and city/country.

These are simply stuff I happened to watch in the last couple days and therefore not representative. Transparency can be seen in a lot of areas – in politics, in economy/business, in science, even in defense!

The level of transparency will not always satisfy every one. Some might feel there should be more in certain areas, others might ask why "reveal" everything?

But generally, transparency is a good thing. And it should be on the agenda of every country that wants to reduce or eliminate corruption.

Bank of America: What Change-making looks like while in progress

2011-08-26T09:14:00.003+05:30

Courtesy: businessinsider

When Brian Moynihan stepped in as CEO, BofA was one of the most despised companies, reeling from the financial crisis with huge mortgage losses.

The new CEO, as per Fortune July 25, 2011, was seen as a "charisma-challenged" and "rough-around-the-edges" personality with a "just-the-facts demeanor" ... Also, he won't win any awards for public speaking ... or do any PR ...

Does that sound like a "good fit" for the biggest turnaround operation in the history of financial services?

Look at his strengths ... hard-core banking brainiac ... dealmaker ... team builder ... crisis manager ... totally immersed in the data and the details.

Moynihan recently announced a settlement that takes a giant step toward ending the home loan mess. This not only removes doubts about BofA's future, but might even turn out to be a model for the rest of the industry.

Moynihan wants to run the bank the way banks were run before the industry started chasing growth at all costs. He does not want to make lots of money in good times, then hand it all back in a downturn, and repeat the cycle. His 2-step strategy:

1. First retain virtually all earnings to build sufficient capital cushion

2. Then return all earnings to investors

Moynihan believes that his strategy will turn BofA into one of the world's most profitable companies. Experts are betting on his promise. If he can really pull it off, Moynihan's remaking of BofA will be considered one of the greatest turnarounds ever.

Steve, we owe you more than what we paid for your products

2011-08-25T18:11:00.004+05:30

Thank you, Steve, for giving us all something — one thing or another.

Products that are "lick-worthy," to use a Tom Peters phrase, which itself is inspired from your own definition for great design.

Sorry I never owned one of your products (hope I will soon) ... But, I have drawn inspiration from your accomplishments and also shared them ...

In my Change Leadership seminar ...

In my Innovation seminar ...

In my blog ...

We owe you more than the price we paid for your products. We owe you for being an inspiration ... to innovators ... change leaders ... business leaders ... all over the world.

Academia curious about Business Technology (BT)

2011-08-24T10:27:00.003+05:30

Over 100 IT and Computer Science students attended my short seminar The IT-to-BT Move: What Students Should Know. This was held on August 19, 2011 at Saveetha School of Engineering in Chennai, India. Last year, I delivered a similar seminar to some 600 engineering students at another college. It is great to see academia not only willing to embrace the new knowledge, but actually ready to lead the change to business technology (BT) !

With BT, car-maker's software spin-off can be just as innovative as the parent

2011-08-22T18:46:00.005+05:30

The parent car-maker has many world-leading innovations. But, can its software spin-off be just as innovative?

About 30 folks at the software firm including developers, testers, business analysts, and project managers attended my seminar "Innovation & Business Technology" on August 9, 2011.

Through personal cases, I showed them how they too can be innovative. More importantly, I also showed them how they could use the exclusive innovate/integrate step in BT practice to put an end to the terrible common practice of paving the cowpath and instead substantially improve their parent's business.

How Elizabeth Warren made change happen

2011-08-17T09:01:00.007+05:30

Courtesy: Reuters

Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren dreamed of protecting American consumers from what she calls the "tricks and traps" of some financial products. Facing huge challenges, she still went on to make the dream real by setting up a new federal agency called Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Dream-to-Reality journey took four years and here's a summary of the things she did to get there:

Wrote down the problem and drew what the agency should look like
Encouraged a hot debate over government's role in protecting consumers
Spent hundreds of hours visiting with at least 80 members of Congress ... Grilled the Treasury Secretary
Flew across America to talk to the heads of banks
Wrote a book to get her message across to a large audience ... Wrote op-ed pieces
Became a frequent TV guest
Delivered invited speeches ... Sat on panels
Made herself available to share thoughts with senators
Built the agency largely to her specs
Did not wait for permission to do the job; her small team is already working (12- to 14-hour days) on projects.

Warren's staff believe that they now have the opportunity to reshape an industry and protect American consumers.

Right at this moment, people in various countries including India, appear to be looking for change. I hope that they understand what it takes to make change happen — and draw lessons from Warren's story.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Software economics: focus on value, not just cost

2011-08-15T12:20:00.005+05:30

"Software economics" used to be largely focused on the cost of developing software. Good to see Barry W. Boehm and Kevin J. Sullivan (with Carnegie Mellon University SEI affiliations) writing about software economics, but describing a "results chain" that focuses on value delivered.

You'll find the results chain discussion in their article titled "Software Economics: A Roadmap."

Although a bit old, the article is interesting in the context of the ongoing move from IT to BT (business technology), which is fundamentally a move toward architecting for business results.

The Law of Technology Injection

2011-06-20T14:52:00.003+05:30

Whether you're on the enterprise side or the provider side, there is one fundamentally crucial phenomenon to understand before you invest in or develop a business software application. It is based on 20-plus years of IT-spend study at Global 3500 companies. And neatly stated by Forrester Research CEO George F. Colony.

"... if you inject technology and don't actually change the way you do work, you will get very low returns if any, and you may likely in fact disrupt ongoing, very healthy (business) processes."The New York Times

I call it "law" because it is a phenomenon, deduced from observation, that always occurs under the conditions mentioned. Yep, I have seen this phenomenon too – in a majority of some 500 software initiatives.

Solution? You guessed it – BT practice.

BT: Is your envisioned software a "good fit"?

2011-06-11T07:58:00.004+05:30

Is Jake Pavelka a good fit for Dancing with the Stars? Are you a good fit for Microsoft? Is GAP a good fit for your portfolio? Asking the "is it a good fit?" question is so important that, when I searched for "good fit" Google displayed over 2.7 million results.

Unbelievably, if it's a $600,000 investment in software, questions typically asked are "Do we have a budget for this?" and "Competitors are upgrading to the new technology, shouldn't we too?" And when the "good fit" question finally shows up, often it is to explore a technical concern, "Will this application technically work with ...?" All these are important questions that must be answered, but ...

Here's a more fundamental and crucial "good fit" question you would ask in BT practice: "Is the envisioned Loan Request application a good fit for the Loan Processing business process? Evaluating the envisioned software in the context of overall and adjacent business processes is the same as exploring the question, "Am I investing in / developing the right software?"

10 questions you should ask about that "interesting" innovation

2011-06-01T19:48:00.004+05:30

I recently listed all of the publications, invitations, etc that were triggered by my three serial innovations. The list comprises 10 categories. I'm repeating the 10 here hoping it might be of use to innovators and reviewers.

Any evidence that the innovation impacts business?
Are there books or articles about it – published by respected organizations?
Did it trigger invited speeches at premier events?
Any research done around the topic of the innovation?
Is it reviewed by experts in respected publications?
Did it get citations in respected publications or events?
Did it attract interviews by media or industry analysts?
Did it garner media coverage?
Have media or professional associations published the innovator’s biography?
Is the innovation influencing (or changing) the field?

Want to see how I've put this list to use? Click here.

Business Technology & The Power of Innovation

2011-03-15T20:47:00.003+05:30

Co-presented "BT & The Power of Innovation" at IIT Research Park. Prof Muthu Singaram was the other presenter at this TiE event. We covered 3 topics:

Competitive differentiation thru innovation
Innovation payoff
Change leadership for innovation adoption.

We tried something different. Prof Muthu presented a concept and I jumped in to illustrate that concept using one of my own innovations. We repeated this for each of the 3 topics.

Participants got a quick look at my most recent innovation BT practice.

My first movie review!

2011-03-08T10:52:00.001+05:30

I've been asked to review business software, business processes, and business plans. How did TiE (the organization that believes it has the largest pool of intellectual capital anywhere) think I could review a movie?

The movie is about business. The Social Network. Or the story of Mark Zuchergerg and Facebook.

And at last Friday's TiE event in Chennai called "Watch. Discuss. Network." we screened a 30-min summary of the movie. And I led a discussion on entrepreneurship based on the Facebook story. The audience comprising entrepreneurs, wannabes, and networkers enjoyed talking about things like "Who's idea was it?" ... "Entrepreneurial leadership" ... "Ownership split" ...

One participant said the event "was very informative ... The questions you asked and the way you moderated the discussion was excellent."

That sounds like a happy ending to my first movie review. Thanks in part to the Columbia Business School programs I took, where professors used movie clips to demonstrate leadership qualities.

Business technology (BT) practice for software teams

2011-02-04T10:50:00.003+05:30

BT management, the new equivalent of IT management, is focused around things strategic. Let's see how it works. Take the much talked about issue of aligning technology with business.

BT management frameworks suggest what could be done to achieve alignment. For example, a BT management framework might recommend that CIOs "Embed your technology team in the business units" or "Educate your executives about the strategic value of technology" or "Engage in joint problem-solving."

Isn't that a great start? It is.

But, it obviously doesn't go the full distance. Alignment must manifest in the software and in the business process where the software is used. And to realize this, software and business process must be aligned at the architecture stage. In other words, you need to architect for alignment. To architect for alignment, you need a method and a capability.

This is the critical part of BT that I call "The practice of business technology" or simply BT practice.

Without BT practice, the good work done as part of BT management cannot manifest at operational level.

100 years of IBM innovations

2011-01-26T12:31:00.013+05:30

Courtesy: IBM

Milestones are a great time to celebrate — especially if the journey leading up to a milestone had positive impact on others. IBM has reasons to celebrate 100 years. Are IBM's innovations lick-worthy like Apple's? You may not say Yes to that, but we cannot deny the contribution of IBM's innovations to businesses worldwide.

It's not only IBM's innovations that impact businesses. There's a lot to learn from IBM's failures, too. When quality failed, IBM turned around to win a prestigious Quality award. The story is inspiringly told in The Quality Journey: How Winning the Baldridge Sparked the Remaking of IBM. When profits failed, IBM turned around and Lou Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: How I Turned Around IBM is not just a book, but a complete course in change leadership.

I have worked on several projects for IBM — since my first project for IBM Nordic Laboratory in 1989. Here's one of the reasons why I want to join the IBM at 100 celebration: I learned a few important things and I want to say thanks.

Join me on this celebration ... click "IBM’s 100 Icons of Progress."

There's more to BT than "BT management"

2011-01-10T10:03:00.008+05:30

Thankfully, there is a growing literature and events focused around BT strategy, sourcing, governance, alignment of technology and business, and such topics.

That is about BT management, which is the new equivalent of what we've been calling "IT management."

To realize the objectives of IT management we have IT execution. Similarly, to realize the objectives of BT management, we need BT execution.

A critical part of BT execution is what we will call "The practice of business technology" or simply BT practice.

Check back for more ... and participate!

Bugatti: Defying the definition of Value Innovation

2011-01-07T19:42:00.003+05:30

Courtesy: AUTOCAR, UK

Kim and Mauborgne, pioneers of Blue Ocean Strategy, defined Value Innovation in a very practical way. That is, in terms of ERRC:

Eliminate some factors
Reduce the level of some factors below industry standards
Raise the level of some factors
Create totally new factors.

PCD or business process centric user interface design, which I introduced at Cognizant for competitive differentiation, perfectly fits the ERRC formula.

Even "services" of extreme excellence such as by Cirque du Soleil fit the definition.

But not Bugatti.

Writing in AUTOCAR, Steve Sutcliffe says about the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, "What’s perhaps most amazing of all about this most amazing of cars, however, is that despite its heart-wrenching, lung-bursting performance, it is also quite incredibly civilised to drive."

Seems that with Bugatti, it's RC (or Raise and Create).

Or is there another formula this car fits into? I doubt.

IT is good ... until you discover BT

2011-01-03T19:03:00.002+05:30

IT has made undeniable contributions to the business world.

With the passing of time, though, things change. We now have new knowledge, new goals, and new resources. And therefore, new expectations.

Like information systems (IS) made way for information technology (IT), IT is now making way for what Forrester Research calls business technology or BT.

BT is a "profound shift in the way that technology is sourced, implemented, operated, and leveraged for business value," as a Forrester analyst says.

The proof of BT is in the business results. For the enterprise. (And for the software provider, too.)

Why not start your process of discovering BT? This side of 2011 seems like a good time to start.

And I'm willing to help. Check back for brief articles. Or email me your questions.

Best wishes!

What India needs in the new decade: Conduct, not just cash

2011-01-02T00:42:00.005+05:30

Many have been asking why selfishness, poor public hygiene, and corruption are rampant in India (to pick 3 "traits" from V. Raghunathan's Games Indians Play).

Best-selling author Chetan Bhagat is perhaps the first to answer that question: Lack of good values.

Writing in Times of India, Bhagat also suggests a solution: "invest in our MORAL well-being even as India prospers economically."

This is beautiful !

2010-12-24T12:40:00.004+05:30

Merry Christmas to you!

Pradeep

BT: measuring business results important, but ...

2010-11-16T19:25:00.003+05:30

Two people reacted to my previous post "Why Move to BT." One emailed me asking how he could measure business results. I met the other person in the hallway of his office. He asked "How will you measure?" Same question, but perhaps asked with cynicism.

Measuring business results from technology is tricky indeed. But, that should not become an excuse for not doing BT. Measuring is important, but is not the first thing to worry about. If you are on the software development side, your #1 priority is to get the method and the skillset required to architect software for business results. Without these two, measurement techniques are useless, right?

Perhaps you are on the verge of leadership?

2010-11-13T21:00:00.000+05:30

Manager and Leader are often interchangeably used. While managers are unlikely to mind this, leaders may react differently. And, between the two, there is another role.

Do you get people to do MORE? Then you are a manager. Most are in this role. Managers are always required — even in a company where a leader is thriving. They have to kick in once a leader has done his/her thing — to achieve scale, to achieve speed. But, managing is the easiest, as Seth Godin says in "Do more vs. do better."

Do you spend significant time getting people to do BETTER? Then you are doing something more important than what a manager does. You are on the verge of leadership. As Seth says, "Better is trickier than more ... it requires education and coaching and patience to create a team of people who are better."

Do you spend significant time getting people to INNOVATE or CHANGE? I don't know why Seth left this one out, but this is the most difficult role. It demands a completely different mindset, new education, and relatively much more coaching and patience to create people who will innovate, appreciate and support their team's innovation culture, and appreciate and support change. Therefore, true leaders are rare.

Why move to BT: The fundamental reason

2010-10-13T11:56:00.005+05:30

Conventional software engineering methodologies and project teams are pretty strong in one aspect. They use several metrics — some of these metrics focus on software quality, some others focus on software methodology, and yet others focus on project management. Even methods exist to help teams define and use metrics. Naturally, teams today are capable of delivering higher quality software on time.

However, enterprise CEOs don't appear to be very happy. Year after year, there are reports on overall poor returns from IT investments, often expressed in terms of poor business-IT alignment and high integration and BPR costs.

So, organizations such as Forrester Research are calling for a move to Business Technology or BT, where the focus would instead be on business results. Message is clear: CEOs and CIOs want business results, not just quality software delivered on time. Stated differently, "while there is value in software and project metrics, we must value business metrics more."

Additional reading: Read Mark McGregor's thoughts on this issue (Question 3); scroll down or click here

Leadership: are you a "deal doer" or a people-builder?

2010-10-05T20:58:00.007+05:30

In How Will You Measure Your Life?" (HBR July-Aug 2010), innovation guru Clayton Christensen makes a statement that you and I are likely to agree with ... that students take MBA programs thinking that a career in business is about doing deals — buying, selling, and investing in companies. In fact, we might quickly add that most managers are implementors of that thought.

However, says Christensen, "Management is the most noble of professions if it's practiced well." Well, when can you say that management has been practiced well? Christensen's answer: when you help people learn ... and make them grow.

Click here for a post that is sort of related

What is business technology? or BT?

2010-09-29T12:03:00.002+05:30

Business technology (BT) is not just a new name for IT. BT is not simply a more accurate label for "technology meant for business use."

Forrester Research introduced the term and according to them, business technology (BT) is "Pervasive technology use that boosts business results."

BT is about keeping business results at front and center while managing and executing tech projects.

Among the early users of the new label are CIO Magazine and McKinsey & Company. Thanks to BT pioneers Forrester Research and BTM Corp — they have devised frameworks at strategic level (aimed at the CIO).

Many companies have already adopted BT in name, but not yet in practice. This blog is primarily focused on the practice of BT.

M&A perspective: IT staffing Vs IT consulting

2010-09-13T08:14:00.003+05:30

This report is a simple analysis by HT Capital -- a boutique investment banking firm in New York. It basically makes the point that being a staffing company (Vs consulting company) does not provide adequate returns to most investors, especially from an M&A perspective.

Peter Rozsa, co-author of the report, is a Senior Managing Director at HT Capital. He was also my "classmate" at a Columbia Business School executive education program. I have Peter's permission to make the report available here.

Click to download PDF report.

Engineering students get a sneak-peek of the IT-to-BT move

2010-09-03T12:29:00.003+05:30

The title of my talk "IT to BT" must have triggered the curiosity of students already committed into IT and computer science programs. I showed them that the move championed by Forrester Research, Inc does not require a change in the technical part of the curriculum, but requires them to pick up business knowledge in addition.

Attended by several hundred students, this talk was organized by Hindustan Institute of Technology & Science (Chennai) on August 19, 2010. Mostly likely, it is the first in India on the IT-to-BT topic.

Technology or process? IT or BT? Mark answers!

2010-08-23T16:25:00.003+05:30

Mark McGregor is part of the group of pioneers that gave us BPM. He speaks at Gartner conferences and continues to write books. Mark was the featured speaker at India's first business process management conference, which I hosted in 2007. Mark has been a mentor to me and I thank him for this interview, which is also the 100th post on this blog! To see the full interview. click here.

1. Has your view of BPM changed since your first exposure to this important management tool?

My views have changed a lot! And I hope they continue to do so. Perhaps the biggest change that I have taken on over the 15 years is the importance of two particular things in the area of process success. They are "change" and "people." I think that in the early days of BPM we were potentially blinded by technology and now leading organizations are recognizing that technology comes a poor third in terms of what it takes to be truly successful. I would also counsel that time has taught me that we don't know all the answers, but by being open and sharing we can at least learn how to ask smarter questions, which in turn enable us to continue to grow as individuals.

When I first started to push the “People” aspect, I was considered too unconventional, but now we see that just about everyone, including conference organizers, is jumping on the bandwagon.

2. How do business processes drive business results?

This I find a fascinating question. You would have thought that with over 100 years of development since the industrial revolution people would be clear on this. But, as you know yourself, they still do not appear to. In its simplest form, process is merely the way that work gets done. We can shuffle data, information or raw materials around, but in the end it is how we move them around that delivers value and thus results.

No amount or reorganizations, systems or technology will make a true impact on the results of the business, unless we question how work gets done (the processes) and then apply the technology in ways to better support the processes.

As you and I have both seen, too much effort today is still placed on simply automating what we currently do. While this can reduce cost and eliminate jobs, it rarely brings about a sea change in the way we work. It is only by bringing about such change that companies will really see major improvements, and indeed ensure their long term survivability.

If you look around the world at truly successful process centric organizations, people like FedEx, GE, and South West Airlines, you will see that they tend to focus more on people and process, and then apply appropriate technology. Their business results over a long period of time suggest that perhaps this is a smarter way to go.

3. CEOs have been demanding business results from technology investments. How would your process-to-results equation change if you were confronted with an IT-rich process? Could you illustrate with an example?

CEOs have always demanded a business return from any investment and so they should. In this respect an IT investment is no different to buying new machinery or new office accommodation. The challenge is that historically IT has not provided the expected benefits and so perhaps is more in focus today than ever before.

The idea of an IT-rich process exists more in people’s heads than in reality. I think that when used, people very often mean a process that can easily be substituted with technology. For an example I would like to use a process from HR, the recruitment process.

When we send in a resume to a company today, chances are that an IT system will scan it and search for buzzwords. Then, if the resume matches the buzzwords, it will get passed on to the next stage of selection. All very easy and saves a lot of time of someone going through the resume. Business results are easy to see, we saved the time of a person trawling through the resumes.

If we consider though that as applicants we all have varied skills, more than just words on a resume, so we now no longer get responses from hiring firms (seems very rude) and recruiting managers are no longer able to see some great resumes of fantastic people. Business result ... great candidates are no longer considered, with the result that many opportunities are missed.

In my past career, I may have often over-delivered against expected performance. But now, not one of those jobs I succeeded at would I even make it past the automated selection process. Is that progress? Or technology for technology sake?

4. The IT-to-BT movement started in the early part of the previous decade. Why do you think software teams and vendors still struggle to deliver business-aligned results?

Historically at least, software teams and software vendors have been about selling IT solutions to IT people. Today though does a business care about buying a BPMS based on BPEL using BPMN and SOA etc to improve their cash collection process? Or do they simply want a solution to the problem that delivers on time within budget by a trusted partner?

For many, not all, this is challenging when you have to learn a new vocabulary and can no longer rely on technical specs to get you through. Especially when things like expressing your solution in terms of other people’s pain point, connecting emotionally and building business cases is not part of what you were taught.

I suggest that software people and technology vendors spend more time listening to business people expressing their needs in simple language. Learn to communicate with those people in that language and finally take more time to learn more about what business is really about.

5. The call to bring business and IT together does not appear to have worked. Do you think it makes better sense to create the required cross-functional skills in the same person, say, someone on the IT side?

Has it really not worked? Or is it simply that IT people have failed to make business people see the world their way? We have both said for a long time that there is no such thing as an IT project only a business project supported by IT. This of course can be quite a challenge if you are an IT company who sells and delivers IT projects, with staff who learned IT at university and have only worked in IT.

I agree with you that it not only makes more sense to approach things with a cross functional view, but believe it is the only way. At both a personal, departmental, and business level we need to create more rounded people. I suggest that the world of specialization has gone too far, we no longer value general managers, those highly skilled people who have a broad knowledge of many aspects of our business.

My hope is that we get back to recognizing the value of broad skill sets and understand that detailed specialized knowledge is only required at times.

In the area of process we see the same things. How often do you see a bank or insurance company advertising for a process expert with banking experience? Surely they would be better with a process expert with great communication and facilitation skills without industry knowledge – so that they focus on facilitating change not imposing their own ideas.

To receive Mark's white papers, email him at mark@markmcgregor.com

Excellence => Innovation => Change => Business results

2010-07-08T08:54:00.000+05:30

I'm sure lots of folks already know the causal linkages below ...

Excellence => Innovation => Change => Business results

Why am I recording it here? Because: (1) It does not appear to be highlighted in literature and training (2) It is a path through which I have personally journeyed and therefore know that it works.

Excellence is a concept frequently used in academia. But, it is not commonly associated with business. Even when a business launches a "Center of Excellence," a high level of academic intent and content are suggested in the label. Also, not much is expected in terms of business results.

On the other hand, there is so much evidence out there showing the connection between excellence and business results.

Therefore, if you think excellence sounds too "academic" for use in business, borrow an idea from Columbia Business School, which presented me a Certificate in Business Excellence ... try "business excellence" instead.

FROM innovation-driven change TO business results

2010-07-07T19:20:00.000+05:30

Recall cases of innovation driving change. Most examples involve a company introducing a new product, which creates change at the customer end.

How about a company's innovation requiring the company itself to change? Typically this happens when employees come up with process innovations.

How does an innovation-driven change create business results for the company? Do you have some examples to share? For my personal case, please read Article 1 and Article 2.

It's that time of the year to say "Thank you, America!"

2010-07-03T18:42:00.005+05:30

While America has several things to fret about at the time of her 234th birthday, "we still lead the world in pretty much everything," says Tom Peters. Tom didn't list everything. I'm not going to attempt, either. But, I do want to highlight one thing. And that is: The knowledge America (creates and) shares with the World ... through its universities, books, journals, blogs, TV (think Discovery, National Geographic), etc.

The instant competitive differentiation my former employer Cognizant Technology Solutions enjoyed when I set up India's first software usability lab in the late 90s was possible because ... I had earlier taken a usability course at University of California, Berkeley ... and received free and sincere mentoring from course instructor and ACM Lifetime Award winner Richard Anderson for several years since then.

Today, about 95,000 Indians alone are studying in the US. Like me, each one will have a success story regardless of where they choose to live. Wouldn't it be a nice gesture to turn around and say "Thank you!"

Innovators, be ready to lead change!

2010-06-22T11:02:00.000+05:30

Coming up with an innovation is important. But, it is often only the first step toward success. The challenging next step is: making change happen.

Some ten years back, I came up with a business process centric approach to architect user interfaces for business software. Prospects and customers loved it, but I was faced with the daunting task of gettting software teams to change from their traditional technology centric approach.

This switching demanded a fundamental change in how people thought about enterprise needs, business software, and software projects. It required them to fit the new approach and a new-breed practitioner into their existing software process.

Thankfully, change did happen (and I learned such big lessons at the School of Hard Knocks that I've been doing some preaching too on the topic!).

Well, this is just a first-hand experience that shows how innovations drive change. Lots of other great examples exist in literature.

What does this mean to the innovator? Be ready to lead change.

Pursuit of Excellence makes Innovation happen

2010-06-19T20:36:00.000+05:30

That innovation can drive business growth is pretty well-known. People also have ideas about what drives innovation. A need ... an innovation culture ... an innovation process ... creative people ...

The important question is: What really makes these creative people to innovate (assuming culture, process, etc exist)?

To me, the simple answer is: Excellence.

Innovators are pursuers of Excellence.

This connection between Excellence and Innovation is not often shown or preached (of course, Tom Peters has always done that).

The link also shows that where there is no pursuit of Excellence, innovation can hardly happen.

Pursuit of Excellence makes good business sense

2010-06-18T09:27:00.000+05:30

Does Excellence have a place in the business world, which is busy chasing higher everything ... revenues ... profits ... stock price ... market capitalization ... etc?

Tom Peters has not only researched Excellence in dozens of companies, but through 25+ years of preaching, practically introduced the Excellence mindset and practice into the business world.

What does Tom say? He says that Excellence is a profitable aspiration. And he adds that an "unwavering pursuit of Excellence ... provides the basis for an unmatchable competitive advantage."

I hope to share some thoughts in future articles on how Excellence translates to business results.

Tom Peters: who comes close?

2010-06-16T23:31:00.001+05:30

Many of my actions -- and perhaps yours -- have been translations of the voice of Tom Peters. I haven't seen or heard of anyone in history with the Tom kind of passion to push people toward excellence. Isn't excellence the best goal anyone could pursue in life or business?

I've read Tom's books, with The Circle of Innovation being a favorite. And I've been looking up his blog every single business day. With Tom deciding to drastically slow down (to focus on his health), I'm wondering where further inspiration might come from.

Seth Godin comes to mind. Seth is inspiring too. Today I put his blog in my Favorites Bar.

It might not be fair to compare Seth and Tom. Seth is a marketing guru, while Tom is more of a generalist distinctly driven by excellence.

In Re-imagine, Tom has talked about his different personas ... "Maryland Tom" ... "California Tom" ... Right now, he's perhaps changing into another new persona. So, thousands including you and me would be trusting that he'd continue to share and inspire the world.

In the meantime, who do you think comes close to Tom?

Cut to 1996 . . .

2010-06-15T19:27:00.000+05:30

Leading a discussion about whether or not to "hide" one's earlier professions, I "revealed" my earlier professions in the previous post. Here, I add a couple of "unusual" things I did in the past, which were nevertheless important to my employer . . .

Today, Cognizant Technology Solutions is an 80,000-person company. Cut to 1996: you see a "promising venture" as it described itself back then.

During those early days, the company had a rudimentary webpage. Having picked up user interface education at University of California, Berkeley and combining that with my writing experience, I (with a colleague's help) produced the company's first real website.

Drawing on my Journalism & Mass Communication training, which I took in the 80s at Madras Christian College, I also produced Cognizant's first professional employee newsletter. I labeled it AWARE. I particularly like the label because I think it is meaningful, easy to say/spell, memorable, ... and "synonymes" with the word cognizant!

And, yes, my team also helped create the company's first Intranet under then CTO Deb Mukherjee's leadership.

Related article: The early days of a company and the significance of your contribution.

Should you "hide" your earlier professions?

2010-06-14T23:41:00.000+05:30

An HR professional, who had hired for my team, moved on to another company. There, he switched to a different profession. During a casual conversation, when I mentioned his hiring expertise, he said something as if I never knew him before: "No, I'm not an HR expert. Actually, I ..."

This guy perhaps wants me to forget him as a former HR professional. He believes that he should build his personal brand around his current new profession/discipline. I appreciate it because I've had my own similar experiences. In terms of disciplines, I moved ...

From Technical Writing in the 1980s (here, I innovated a software usability driven approach, which I published and presented at conferences) ...

To User Interface Design (here, I innovated a business process centric approach, which differentiated former employer Cognizant Technology Solutions and gave the company competitive edge right from its early days) ...

To Business Process Management (here, I created a business process centric software approach, a brief note about which you'll find at the Columbia Business School website).

Not only was I moving into different disciplines, within each discipline, I was "moving into" a different approach.

At each move, I wanted to eliminate the potential for confusion with my previous profession/approach and wanted to strengthen my current brand.

Excellence guru Tom Peters, who is also master of personal branding, says in Re-Imagine:

"I was very proud, I tell you, of the persona called ... California Tom. And quite willing to bury Maryland Tom back in Maryland."

If you have switched disciplines, how did you deal with the associated challenges?

PS: By talking about my earlier disciplines/approaches, have I confused readers about who I am today?

Meg Whitman: Scale or fail

2010-06-09T18:13:00.000+05:30

Sure, Meg Whitman has just won the Republican party's nomination for California Governor. But, that's not why I'm writing. This event simply reminded me of one aspect of her leadership as eBay's CEO.

Back then, eBay's infrastructure could not keep pace with the exponential growth in the number of users. A huge 22-hour outage sliced $5 billion off the company's market capitalization.

PC-maker Gateway's CIO Maynard Webb was considered just the talent to get eBay out of the mess. And here's what Meg promised while wooing him:

All resources required to set things right
More than double her salary
Plus a bonus of $108,000
An extra $300,000 if all went well
And options to buy half a million shares of eBay stock.

Maynard took the offer and by the end of the year, outage was in mere seconds a month.

PS: Interestingly, another former high-tech business leader Carly Fiorina has also won nomination (for Senate seat). And you knew this too :-)

Does the shareware concept work in India?

2010-06-08T17:56:00.000+05:30

Pierre Omidyar came up with the idea of auction on the Web and founded the hugely successful eBay.com.

Back during the company's early days, Pierre was aware of the shareware concept, in which engineers posted software on the Web and suggested that users send whatever they thought it worth.

Soon after he made his own such suggestion, envelopes stuffed with cash and checks arrived at his California home. And the amount kept getting bigger all the time!

Do you know of such business stories in India?

When opposites make a great team

2010-05-22T09:52:00.001+05:30

Notes: I first wrote this article for a Nasscom blog; Picture courtesy tupperware.com

Our bosses have always wanted us to fit in with them and with our colleagues. So it is common belief that people working together should be similar personalities — to enable teamwork that can deliver results. However, cases exist to prove that the contrary is often true.

Take the Tupperware case, for example. Ninety percent of US homes own at least one piece of Tupperware. Nearly 120 million people in 100 countries will attend a Tupperware demo this year. How did this all come to happen?

Earl Tupper invented an “Open Mouth Container and Nonsnap Type of Closure” and Tupperware was born. Tupper also ensured very high standards of production quality.

But, the person who actually moved the products into kitchens in homes was Brownie Wise. She introduced the innovative “patio parties” where she demonstrated and sold to a bunch of women guests. The Tupperware party was a great viral network and continues to be copied all over the world.

What kinds of personalities were Earl Tupper and Brownie Wise? “Wise was the effervescent face of the company, while the tart-tongued Tupper toiled in relative obscurity.” writes Adam L. Penenberg in Viral Loop. “They were polar opposites, but together they made up far more than the sum of their parts."

There are lots of such examples of opposite personalities coming together and creating legendary companies. What are some learnings? "The boss is not always right," you might say! Sure. What else?

What should you target: Excellence? Or the fast-and-cheap?

2010-04-27T09:04:00.000+05:30

Note: I first wrote this article for a Nasscom blog

Tom Peters and numerous others have been nudging organizations and individuals to pursue excellence. Result? Discoveries. Innovations. Change. Customer value. Better employee satisfaction. Progress. Advancement.

Today, we’re seeing what some might consider a disturbing trend. This is the peddling of the “fast and cheap” (jugaad) as you see in this BusinessWeek article.

Comments on that article suggest that most disagree with the “fast and cheap.” And comments on a Seth Godin post at TomPeters.com clearly and completely support excellence.

Pursuit-of-the-fast-and-cheap clearly delivers some advantages. But businesses should also be aware of the downside by listening to warnings such as those given by Ross B-School professor M. S. Krishnan: “Jugaad means ‘Somehow, get it done,’ even if it involves corruption … Companies have to be careful. They have to pursue jugaad with regulations and ethics in mind.”

Are you concerned that “fast and cheap” might take us back in time — and therefore away from EXCELLENCE?

If not, do you think the current economic times justify it, as claimed by the authors/promoters of the “fast and cheap”?

First public presentation of business process centric software development

2010-03-30T17:20:00.002+05:30

Nasscom* invited me to present Business Process Centric Software Development: Growth thru Practice Innovation. (This approach was soon improved and re-labeled BT practice.) I presented this exclusive session on March 26, 2010 at the Cochin Infopark.

In the past, I have briefly introduced the approach in the context of broader topics like:

Blue Ocean Strategy (lecture at Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, India)
Change Leadership (exclusive Nasscom event in New Delhi, India)

The March 26 Nasscom session is the first presentation, where the primary focus was on the approach itself!

You'd be surprised to know from where I evolved this approach ... read my previous (March 7) post, The Formative Days of a Company and the Significance of Your Contribution.

* Nasscom is india's chamber of commerce of IT

The early days of a company and the significance of your contribution

2010-03-08T11:24:00.000+05:30

Note: A slightly different version of this article first appeared at a NASSCOM blog

More than 7.7 million results will display if you google today for “early days of the company.” Add to it the results for related phrases like “formative days,” “startup days,” and variants. The number is huge and it demonstrates the significance of “those” days. “Those” days are challenging. They are fun. More importantly, they play a shaping role. What you do “back then” determines what your company might become. Here are just three of several factors that can play such a future-impacting role …

Corporate credo

Take Johnson & Johnson’s credo, which is considered the world’s most powerful statement of business purpose. It declares the order of priority: Customers first, shareholders last. It was crafted in 1943, but continues to determine how the company is run. Four decades after it was first written, when seven people died of poisoning due to tampered Tylenol capsules, JnJ’s same-old credo helped CEO James Burke take an exemplary moral stance by recalling Tylenol across the US. While the company’s sales and market share temporarily nose-dived, JnJ later became one of the largest companies in the world.

Competitive differentiation

An example is the competitive differentiation I created at a company that is 80,000-person strong today. Back in the mid-late 90s, when it described itself as a “promising venture,” I introduced a professional user interface practice. Back then, North American customers were looking for this practice in their Indian vendors, but did not find. So, my employer was instantly differentiated versus the India-centric software players.

While a professional user interface practice may not have existed in India back then, it was thriving in the developed World. If so, how would you sustain the differentiation? Well, I did it through innovation — by advancing the practice to a business process centric approach.

Corporate culture

Whatever it is — be it innovation culture, employee-friendly culture, or sales oriented culture — the culture that is instilled during the formative days is likely to stay on. Take the culture that Robert Noyce instilled at Intel. He basically created a “factory of creativity.” Noyce encouraged an environment where people lived for their work and became absorbed in their company. In fact, this pattern of “work as a way of life” soon became the signature image of Silicon Valley.

Ask yourself

If you are an employee, in what ways are you contributing during your employer’s early days?

If you are the founder or CEO, in what ways are you recognizing and rewarding employees who contribute to your company’s critical early days?

J&J case: Innovation as response to business adversity

2010-02-20T20:34:00.000+05:30

Seven people died in 1982 after ingesting Tylenol capsules that had been tampered with. This occured in the Chicago area, but Johnson & Johnson issued a recall of Tylenol across the US. J&J's sales and market share nose-dived.

Roger Martin writing in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review says "J&J's response (the recall) is considered the textbook case of a company's "doing the right thing" regardless of the impact on profits." CEO James Burke was praised for taking an exemplary moral stance and for his implementation of J&J's credo. The credo, which was crafted in 1943 and considered the world's most powerful statement of business purpose, declares the order of priority: Customers first, shareholders last.

Recall was J&J's first response to the adversity. Demonstration of commitment to "customer first" was the follow-up response. J&J introduced the world's first tamper-resistant packaging for over-the-counter health products. Loyalty toward Tylenol rocketed after the introduction of this innovation. By September 2009, J&J was the world's 9th largest company in terms of market cap.

This case shows how shareholders do great when customer is at the top of list. It also shows how innovation could be used at a time of adversity to achieve a turn-around.

Top 3 Change-killers: results from my survey

2010-02-15T15:56:00.000+05:30

I asked Who (in your experience) are the Top Three killers of Change? at 16 LinkedIn groups. (The "who" in the question is meant to be "what," but I used it like in Ken Blanchard's Who Killed Change?) Nearly 150 people responded.

The top 3 change-killers are:

Poor leadership
Contentment with status quo
Fear of the new/unknown.

Some of the other change-killers are:

Communication
No buy-in
Culture
People
Personal interest
Mind-set
Laziness
Ego

I shared this list at the How Leaders Make Change Happen session I recently presented for NASSCOM in New Delhi.

Future from past: Columbia professor shows India the key to innovation

2010-02-05T16:19:00.000+05:30

What makes innovation happen? Columbia Business School professor William Duggan's book Strategic Intuition answers that question.

While reading it, what struck me was how closely the principles he discovered mirrored those that I had used in creating my own innovations. You will frequently see "I agree" on the margins of my copy of the book.

One of the principles Duggan describes is: selective recombination of previous elements (perhaps from different disciplines) into a new whole." See how it applies to one of my innovations — the business process centric approach to software development (aka Process-Centered Design). Let me show you the original version of the approach, which actually was used in user interface (UI) design. Now, UI design belongs to a decades-old discipline called Human-Computer Interaction. I broke through the boundaries of the HCI discipline and borrowed from the business process management discipline to create the process-centric approach.

That's one of the little "secrets" to how innovators innovate!

Duggan is presenting "Strategic Intuition: The Keys to Innovation" at four cities in India starting Feb 8 (I attended his shorter version at Columbia Business School NYC).

If you really want to contribute to advances in your own field, you should study how others did it. As Duggan says, "The future comes from the past."

Innovation leaders are a different breed: my article at NASSCOM blog

2010-02-03T10:52:00.000+05:30

To most companies and managers, while the importance of Innovation might be clear, the answer to "Where do I start?" might not be clear. Creating a senior leadership position in Innovation is the answer.

Leaders who can lead the Innovation agenda in your organization are a breed different than the best corporate and project managers. If so, who might qualify to be an Innovation leader?

In an article that NASSCOM invited me to write, I answer this question with a little help from Jean-Philippe Deschamps, former VP at Arthur D. Little.

Click here to read the article at the NASSCOM website. NASSCOM, by the way, is india's chamber of commerce of IT.

My NASSCOM Emerge session on Change leadership

2010-02-01T10:40:00.000+05:30

My 2-hour presentation titled How Leaders Make Change Happen was held at NASSCOM's headquarters in New Delhi on January 29, 2010. Neeru Goel, Director, Snap-On Business Solutions welcomed the audience. Close to 30 people in management positions in areas ranging from engineering to business development to HR attended the session.

I designed the session around real-world cases, starting with insights from my own Change initiative. I suggested that 3 participants share their change leadership experience. Interestingly, rather than just 3, nearly everyone shared their challenges and ideas. SB Navrang, Manager Business Development, Symmetrical Management Consulting said, "Wonderful interacting with Pradeep Henry and others ... best part was the open discussion."

Innovation being a Change trigger, a lot of discussion was around it. Participants felt that culture has been hindering creative Indians from innovating for the world. The way a child is raised, the education system, the corporate culture — all were pointed out by the audience as reasons for the country's poor performance in terms of producing world-class innovations.

NASSCOM is india's chamber of commerce of IT. And Emerge, which organized my session, is a NASSCOM initiative that helps advance the growth of emerging companies.

Thanks to Avinash Raghava, NASSCOM's Regional Director (North), whose foresight resulted in this Change leadership session.

Mike Dalton's invitation

2010-01-18T23:06:00.000+05:30

I recently received an invitation from innovation expert Mike Dalton. Since the late 90s, I've received invitations ... to write ... to speak ... for media and other interviews. But, this one from Mike was different. Mike had just finished writing his book Simplifying Innovation and he wanted me to review it.

Mike's book is a business novel. If you have read Who killed Change in your organization?, you know I don't seem to enjoy reading fiction anymore. Mike wanted me to focus primarily on Part V that covers the Theory of Constraints, based on which the book describes an innovation approach. Turns out, the chapters in Part V do not have the story! I finished the review and I'm thankful to Mike for the opportunity.

The book has been published and you'll find it here: http://www.simplifyinginnovation.com/.

The skyscraper race: celebrating the original innovators

2010-01-12T09:55:00.000+05:30

Chicago, USA: the original leader/innovator of "skyscraping"

The latest skyscraper just beat the one that until now held the record for the world's tallest. Countries in Asia and the Middle East are constantly in a race for the tallest. And we're not always sure about the motive.

Now cut to the original leaders/innovators of "skyscraping." Back in the 19th century, to build the first "skyscraper" required THREE things. The FIRST was the invention of a safe elevator in 1853 by American inventor Elisha Graves Otis. The SECOND was the invention of a new structural frame by American architect William Le Baron Jenney. The THIRD was the presence of a need to achieve new heights ... In the 1880s, Chicago experienced explosive growth, the available land could not keep up with the demand, and the only alternative was to build up.

I do know of the complexities and challenges of designing today's skyscrapers. And I do admire the ingenuity of the architects who design them ... American Adrian Smith, for example, who architected today's tallest Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

But there's something special about the original pioneers and innovators. Their creativity. Their thought-leadership. Their research and investment. Their courage to remove the first obstacles. Their willingness to take the risk. Their ability to think ahead ... It must have been a LOT TOUGHER to design and plan New York City's 102-story Empire State Building in the 1920s -- nearly a century ago!

How would you define success differently in the New Decade?

2010-01-04T12:07:00.005+05:30

"The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like" is how dictionary.com defines success. The definition demonstrates the area of focus of a lot of people and organizations — self.

Selfish, short-term, money-above-everything-else behaviors are therefore common. All of which typically ignore excellence. All of which might even hurt people other than self.

So, could we instead determine an individual's success based on the Value he or she delivered to people (and organizations) OTHER THAN self or immediate family? Could we ask "What positive, new value have you delivered to OTHERS?"

Sure, this requires a fundamental change in thought, attitudes, and behaviors. Which might make it a long-term initiative. But, could we start now?

Christmas 2003, IBM, and Change!

2009-12-24T12:02:00.000+05:30

That's me in the picture after shopping at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. That was back in December 2003. Picture courtesy: Arun Christian.

Here's what was significant about that San Francisco trip as regards "Change" (which you know is a dominant theme in this blog). Arun and I represented Cognizant, which interestingly -- and challengingly -- had to co-execute with IBM a software project for a large customer.

The IBM representative with whom we closely worked showed us a 30/40 page template we were supposed to use. Generally, nobody questions IBM, right? IBM does such thorough work. I know this because I've been involved in several projects done for IBM in locations such as Sweden, Japan, and the US back in the late 80s and 90s. I have learned a lot from that experience and I'm grateful to the organization. However, rather than the longish template, I suggested a one and half page checklist instead. I also showed how we could discover new insights and value by studying the as-is business processes by visiting the customer's call center.

We did study the call center (a 2-hour drive) and gave a one and half (or so) page recommendation. The IBM expert enjoyed the new way of doing things. And the customer was happy because they could see a different level of value coming out of this project.

Often, authors and thought-leaders suggest how to "control" people and things around you in order to make Change happen. From my 20+ years of experience constantly challenging the status quo, I can tell you that one of the fundamental things you need has to come from you ... COURAGE.

Merry Christmas to you! And wishing you COURAGE to Change things in the New Year!

Business model intimacy

2009-12-19T10:47:00.000+05:30

Courtesy: NobelPrize.org

The Grameen Bank success story continues to be researched and written about. Other companies have tried to repeat the Bank's model. Is there a fundamental difference between the original innovation and the followers? In MIT Sloan Management Review (Summer 2009), Erik Simanis and Stuart Hart compare the original model with that of India-based Hindustan Unilever's model and point out a crucial difference.

Grameen Bank was a result of personal bond and shared vision between Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and Bangladeshi farmers/villagers. Yunus and the villagers spent quality time together as a community before the innovator launched the bank. While Grameen Bank became a profitable and scalable village bank, the authors say that Hindustan Unilever's project is "unlikely to grow into anything more than a new distribution channel." While Grameen Bank generated a "groundswell" of demand," Hindustan Unilver's entrepreneur turnover rate reached 50% within 3 months of project launch and the company's resource-intensive push strategy only "met with consumer skepticism."

The difference, the authors say is: business model intimacy. It is a community-company relationship with a jointly constructed vision. The "better life for the community" vision instills a sense of responsibility in the community for the success of the company.

Companies including those in India -- where business model innovation is often the only form of innovation you find -- should learn from Yunus' original innovation model where intimacy is an essential attribute. For some companies, this might require moving away from profit-maximizing, which is typically achieved by compromising value for other stakeholders in the ecosystem. For all organizations pursuing business model innovation, Yunus' model certainly requires two things: (a) Change in the way they understand "value" and (b) Change in how they understand and practice innovation.

Do you know of other intimacy-embeded business model innovations?

Is someone trivializing your accomplishments?

2009-12-01T15:15:00.000+05:30

When someone gets up laughing after a fall, he or she is trivializing the incident. That is a common tactic and is acceptable. However, when someone, say, calls Holocaust just an event in history, such trivializing is perceived as an attack or a deliberate agenda to make light of something significant.

In the corporate world, trivializing is common. Bosses use it to postpone the promotion you've been asking for. Subordinates use it against their boss/employer -- for example, when a lower performance rating hurts them. Peers use it to gain a "competitive edge" over you.

I'm an innovator and Change leader based in India and I experience this "attack" every day. Now, I recognize them instantly. How can you figure out if someone is trivializing, say, your accomplishment? There are many behaviors that give away the hidden motive.

1. They may say something like ...

"It is not new. Probably there are many other ..." OR "I know that some of the bigger companies already use ..."
"Perhaps there are other aspects that are more important ..."
"I'm sure there are better ways to ..."
"Today, the world actually is moving toward something else ..."

Sure, such responses actually might be genuine and useful feedback. The test therefore starts only when you ask them for data/references. If they had wanted to trivialize, they know they've been trapped and you probably won't hear from them again!

2. Your "attackers" also reveal their true motive when they ignore all the good things you have done and divert attention to that one bad thing.

3. Or they switch to an item of far lesser importance. For example, rather than comment on the content of your presentation, they will talk about your terrific graphic skills as seen in your choice of colors.

4. They most likely start with a praise -- a phrase, a sentence, or even a whole "paragraph" of praise.

Possible reasons for trivializing are: Jealousy ... perception of you as a threat ... arrogance ... genuine ignorance! ... (Feel free to add your own items using the Comments link you'll find at the end of this article).

What can you do about it? Just recognize it and ignore it. Recognizing is important so you don't get misled. Pretty soon -- hopefully -- your "attackers" will realize how immature they have been.

How in the world did he remake, not one, but four industries?

2009-11-27T19:37:00.001+05:30

Henry Ford remade the AUTO industry. Juan Trippe invented the global AIRLINE. Conrad Hilton created the world's first international HOTELS. These entrepreneurs -- and many others like them -- defined or redefined a market. A world-changing accomplishment, certainly.

Steve Jobs, on the other hand, has "radically and lucratively reordered" not one, but four markets -- music, movies, mobile phones, and computing. And he has done so ...

... in industries that were already mature

... in just 10 years

... At a time when the economy has been among the worst in history.

How did he do it? Do you think anyone can repeat this accomplishment? "Only the next Steve Jobs can," you might say!

Source: Nov 23, 2009 issue of FORTUNE, which has named Steve Jobs "CEO of the Decade"

Who killed Change in your organization? Ask a Columbo-style detective

2009-11-05T18:47:00.000+05:30

Perhaps like you, I have read a lot of fiction in my school and college days. But, I don't remember reading fiction ever since I got my first job some 23 years ago. Having read Who Moved My Cheese? cover to cover, I thought business novels were an exception. But I couldn't repeat that success with Ken Blanchard's Who Killed Change? I did read chapter #1, but quickly moved to check the last chapter. Well, that reflects my personal disposition and therefore your experience could be different.

In Who Killed Change?, detective McNally is on a case: the murder of Change. He interviews 15 suspects including Ms Culture, Mr Sponsorship, and Ms Budget. And the detective's final announcement is: "all of you killed Change."

Who killed the last Change initiative in your organization?

PS: You'll find a few of my own successful Change initiatives/tactics in this blog ... just click on "Change leadership" under Categories in the right margin.

And now ... the Bhabha centennial

2009-11-04T11:38:00.000+05:30

Besides Peter Drucker (prev post), another great person who would have been 100 years old around this time is Homi J. Bhabha.

While working toward his doctorate in theoretical physics at Cambridge University, Bhabha did groundbreaking research into the absorption of cosmic rays and electron showers. His series of papers on his theories regarding cosmic ray showers were widely-accepted.

Bhabha later set up Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) near Bombay in India. TIFR, by launching a permanent exhibition, is celebrating Bhabha's life and achievements.

Bhabha points to Cathedral & John Connon School (Bombay) for "fostering the love of science." His thought: "For each man can do best and excel in only that thing, of which he is passionately fond, in which he believes, as I do, that he has the ability to do it, that he is in fact born and destined to do it."

I did not "grow up" reading Drucker

2009-11-03T10:12:00.000+05:30

I "grew up" reading Tom Peters, not Peter Drucker. But NOW is the time to celebrate Drucker, who would have turned 100 this month.

Harvard Business Review, perhaps the planet's most respected business publication, is celebrating The Drucker Centennial. Editor Adi Ignatius says "Drucker had an extraordinary grasp of the big picture ... a point of view that's 100% pragmatic but imbued with a deep sense of moral responsibility."

If you -- like me -- did not "grow up" reading Drucker, the November issue has some help: a "Why Read Peter Drucker?" article! Other Drucker related articles include "What Would Peter Do?" and "How To Think Like Drucker."

Have a look and share your experience here!

Leading Change versus "Leading" Status Quo

2009-10-27T18:51:00.001+05:30

Change and Status quo can be as far apart from each other as a butterfly is from a caterpillar ...

Or ... as an Amazon.com is from a K-Mart ...

Or ... as a BMW is from a Hyundai ...

Or ... as fighting al Qaeda is from fighting the SU ...

Or ... as laying a runway is from paving a cow path ...

Or ... as a solution is from a product ...

Or ... as experience is from service ...

Or ... as customer success is from customer satisfaction ...

Or ... as a distinct brand-you is from a me-too employee ...

Change can be triggered by innovation. Change can happen in corporate culture. And so on. There is a leader "behind" every Change. If you consider the corporate world, people like Lou Gerstner, Michael Dell, and Jack Welch may come to mind. Actually, there are scores of other lesser-known and unknown leaders that make change happen in their organizations.

Here's my question: What are some differences between leaders who lead change and leaders who lead the Status quo? Oh yes, we know about the staggering percentage of Change initiatives that fail. Let's, for the sake of this discussion, stick to successful Change initiatives and what it takes to lead them Versus leading Status quo.

Fiat has a lesson for the business software industry?

2009-10-14T11:24:00.001+05:30

Photo courtesy: huffingtonpost.com

Fiat in 2004. Lost money. Witnessed the failure of its new car. Had a staff strike. Etc. That's downhill in most aspects of business. And then Sergio Marchionne steps in as CEO -- the company's fifth in only 3 years.

In Harvard Business Review (December 2008), Marchionne says "Fiat's culture was traditionally dominated by engineers. That has given us some great advantage in developing cars and engines -- we have long been at the leading edge in diesel, for instance. But it has also made us rather inward-looking, and part of a leader's job is to get the organization focused on markets and the competition. In our case, the engineering focus had taken our eyes off our brands, which had been in a long, slow decline."

Marchionne appears to have fixed this and most other problems. Fiat has reduced time-to-market from 48 months to just 18 months. And its bottom line is in the black.

In the business software world too, technology focus creates problems. In this case, problems are experienced by enterprises that invest millions of dollars every year in applications. The software industry has done a fairly decent job of bringing human factors perspectives into application design. However, poor business process orientation continues to result in two of the worst problems: technology silos and poor business-IT alignment.

If you are in the software industry and would like to see where your software practice stands in terms of business process orientation, you might want to take this free self-assessment. You may also want to read a bit about process-centric software development at Columbia Business School's Exec Ed website.

Is "Venky" India's Nobel laureate?

2009-10-10T11:52:00.000+05:30

Photo courtesy: telegraph.co.uk

SUDDENLY, everyone is claiming "ownership" of (or affiliation to) the 2009 Chemistry Nobel laureate Venkatraman ("Venky") Ramakrishnan. The press in India. The town where he was born. The state where this town is located. The town in another state where he lived. The university, where he completed his undergraduation. The universities, where he made presentations ... the list goes on ...

Venky, however, left India some four decades ago and received significant education and a culture/environment (for such work) in the US and UK.

There are brilliant Indians like Venky. However, are there institutions/companies in India that can encourage/enable the Venky kind of world-impacting work? If not, is it alright to make claims such as we've seen since the announcement of the Chemistry Nobel prize? And, why were the claims made only after an Award was announced? Why did they not celebrate Venky's great work earlier? As Venky himself asks (reported in The Times of India, October 8, 2009), "None of you called me about my work even two days ago, right?"

Only when celebration of the WORK becomes part of the culture, celebration of a subsequent award becomes a natural and accepted thing to do.

How my Columbia connection helped advance the process-centric approach

2009-10-07T17:45:00.001+05:30

Read about it at the Columbia Business School website.

Gordon Bell's "lifelogging"

2009-10-06T12:26:00.000+05:30

Photo courtesy: foxnews.com

In Total Recall, legendary computer scientist Gordon Bell argues that many of us will soon be following his lead. Gordon wears what is called a SenseCam, which takes photos at every twist and turn of his existence. And he stores all this information in vast digital files.

Such electronic memories could provide lifeloggers with an edge. Writing in BusinessWeek (September 14, 2009), Stephen Baker and Arik Hesseldahl say "One goal for the early lifeloggers is to track and optimize performance, from the bottom line to the waistline. Bell, who has undergone two heart bypass operations, has analyzed his own data to draw correlations between his diet, exercise, and symptoms of angina -- and to finetune his regime."

I admire the title of Bell's book (Total Recall) and his passion inspires me. But I'm not sure if I'd follow his passion. Would you? If so, why?

Restrain the financial innovators?

2009-10-02T10:52:00.000+05:30

Mostly, we agree that financial innovations, especially those driven by technology, such as ATM and PayPal are good. However, we are divided when it comes to certain types of financial innovations such as those relating to Securities. The financial/economic turmoil in the last 2 years has pushed many more of us to think that creativity in finance should be restrained. As we know, Governments are now trying to regulate everything "finance."

Should we hit the brakes on financial innovation? Or should we, as Megan McArdle (theAtlantic.om) says, "focus on developing the regulatory capacity to sort out the good innovations from the bad?"

Business software Vs consumer software: what software teams should know

2009-09-26T19:34:00.002+05:30

Try googling for "differences between business software and consumer software" or some such string. How many useful results do you see? You will, of course, find some information about how to SELL to these two "markets." But you will hardly find the kind of differences that can help vendors better meet the NEEDS of the two "audiences."

The software community does not appear to have created quality factors customized for each audience. This partly explains why usability, which is such an important factor for consumer software, is touted as all-important for business software as well -- often at the cost of more important factors such as business process excellence. Result: while there are some excellent consumer software products, neither set of factors is well addressed in business software.

Business apps are indeed different from consumer software in many ways. Performance objectives, usage scenarios, buying criteria, etc of an enterprise are different from those of individual consumers.

Here's one example of a fundamental difference -- though an obvious one: unlike consumer software, business applications involve a business process. Keeping this fact in mind would allow us to see what the primary quality factors are and what capabilities we need to achieve those factors.

What are some of the other differences that software teams developing business software should be aware of?

Leadership: the greatest performing art of all?

2009-09-21T10:19:00.000+05:30

Writing in the absence of Jack and Suzy Welch, The Essential Bennis author Warren Bennis highlights an actor and a President in his BusinessWeek (September 21, 2009) article. The actor is Orson Welles and the President is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The President's unique leadership style inspired the term "imperial presidency" and what he shared with the actor, Warren says, was actorly attributes.

I do not know if you'd agree with Warren that leadership is a great performing art, but have a look at a related topic called Leadership Presence. In Columbia Business School's Essentials of Management program (spring 2008), we had an exciting day on Leadership Presence. Our coach, Greta Cowan (from The Ariel Group), covered the following competencies:

Present: Being completely in the moment and flexible enough to handle the unexpected
Reaching out: Building relationships through empathy, etc
Expressive: Conveying feelings and emotions
Self-knowing: Accepting himself/herself, being authentic, and reflecting personal values in decisions/actions

Greta's own "performance" was worth watching -- and learning from.

What are your views on leadership and "acting"?

Business analyst with extended role (#4): introducing Sunil G

2009-09-18T10:58:00.002+05:30

In article #3 in this series, I said that Business Analysts (BAs) with an extended role/skillset have done real projects -- not 5 or 10, but 175 up to end of 2007. In this article, I'd like to introduce one of those BAs specially trained for the blended role.

Sunil G is a high-potential practitioner. I hired him out of college about 5 years back and trained him in business process centric software development. Sunil has made high-impact contributions in several application development/reengineering projects executed for North American companies. Broadly, his contributions have been in terms of: (a) Substantial user productivity gains and (b) Business process improvements at application and end-to-end process levels.

His activities in those projects have included:

Requirements gathering and definition, providing consulting and coordination at customer sites in the US and Canada
Unified business process improvement
Architecting the improved business process on the user interface, ensuring process-UI alignment (occassionally, Sunil designed the entire UI).

Sunil's skillset? Sunil came with a bachelors degree in engineering. This education helped him understand technical issues. Besides, it helped him be accepted by the technical team as an "insider" although his heart was focused around business process performance.

Sunil received training in the following areas at my process-centric design COE:

Business process centric approach to application development
Conventional business analysis techniques
High-level industry training in most of the industries the company operated in
Business process centric UI architecture.

Sunil has worked in projects spanning industries such as Life Sciences, Retail, Manufacturing & Logistics, Media, and Banking & Financial Services. Take retail, for example. The Account Manager of a Global retail giant emailed me saying how Sunil and team pleasantly shocked the customer with a process-centric application and process improvements.

If you have questions for Sunil, please post them as Comments here and Sunil would be happy to answer them!

Change leadership: Have you ever launched a Hate campaign?

2009-09-17T09:35:00.000+05:30

Vernon Hill, Commerce Bank's founder and former CEO, pioneered a NEW style of retail banking that relies on service rather than interest rates to attract customers and deposits. Talking to new managers, Vernon said "We're asking you to FORGET the way you delivered your skills at other banks."

When introducing something new, how do we make our stakeholder groups forget the old? Typically, we use a "love-the-new" campaign that talks about the NEW's nice things. Many years ago, when my COE moved from a traditional user-centric practice to a business process centric practice, I did not stop with a LOVE campaign. I also used a HATE campaign -- a "hate-the-old" campaign. The campaign comprised many items, but here's one example . . .

I got some of the practitioners to do a literature study on traditional approaches. The researchers could see for themselves how inadequate existing approaches were in meeting enterprise needs. They also presented the findings to the entire team and to other stakeholder groups.

At Columbia Business School's Leading Strategic Growth & Change program, professor Rita McGrath presented an analysis of delay and resistance. I took this program in 2008 -- after I had led a Change initiative at my former employer. I could therefore relate to the internal and external barriers the professor talked about. Leading Change is unlike leading status quo. But it has to be done where there is conviction. And in some situations, we need to look for new ways to push our Change efforts -- including a Hate campaign!

Have you introduced something new in your organization? How did you deal with the challenge of resistance to Change?

Business analyst with extended role (#3): evidence of success

2009-09-15T11:11:00.002+05:30

In the previous article in this series, I said I'd answer the question whether there is any evidence of success of Business Analysts (BAs) with the extended role/skillset.

Are there such blended-role BAs?

Up to end of 2007, I had created more than 50 BAs with [Analysis] + [Design] capabilities at a Nasdaq-listed software services company.

I did it for one driving reason . . .

To bring a business process centric approach to the company's software development practice

This team delivered unprecedented value to the company's Global customers. The value included 100% to 200% user productivity gains (from reengineered applications), streamlined business process at application level, and occassionally, improvements to the end-to-end business process.

The new breed's broader role was essential for actualizing (completing) the good work they did during the Analysis phase. High-level process-centric UI architecture became an integral responsibility.

How are they different from other blended-role BAs?

Of course, they have other skills too. Most of them came with a bachelors degree in computer science. And I trained them in the business process centric approach and in process-centric UI architecture. Besides, I had created a culture of Innovation within the group that enabled them to "boldly" recommend process innovations.

Many software teams ask the BA to do both analysis and design. But their reasons are different. For example, the project manager might think it is smarter to use fewer resources. Or he/she might have other reasons such as non-availability of trained UI experts. It is important not to confuse such practices with the blended role/skillset that I'm recommending. When I recommend that BAs do UI arch, I do so for the 3 different reasons I outlined in article #2. And -- more importantly -- I'm talking about having the BAs specially trained for the new extended role -- not in conventional UI/usability engineering, but in business process centric UI architecture.

I hope to profile one or two of the new-breed BAs in this series.

Have they done real projects?

Up to end of 2007, more than 175 application development/reengineering projects have used the new breed of BAs to implement a business process centric approach. And all the customers were Fortune 500 and Global companies.

Some related articles . . .

Business analyst with extended role (#2): reasons why

2009-09-10T08:11:00.002+05:30

This article assumes you've already read Business analyst with extended role #1: recent arguments.

As we all know, every enterprise is basically engaged in performing "business activities" encompassed in business processes. From enterprise perspective, development of a business application therefore is fundamentally about:

Defining what BUSINESS ACTIVITIES would be performed using technology
Architecting those BUSINESS ACTIVITIES "on" the technology ...(a) some of these activities will be done by people on the user interface while (b) other activities will be done "automatically" by system
Making it all work so that those activities actually can be performed.

Answers to "who does what?" are fairly consistent for most of the items above: the Business Analyst (BA) for item 1 and the technical team for items 3 and 2(b). When it comes to item 2(a) though, we don't see the same level of consistency. User interface (UI) specialists, technical team members, and even BAs have been responsible.

As I said in article #1 in this series, teams that develop business applications must extend the Business Analyst's role to include high-level process-centric UI architecture (usability specialists take off from that point).

Here are my reasons . . .

As explained above, item 2(a) "Architecting the UI" is primarily about designing a business process -- an effective and efficient business process. As it requires business knowledge, industry expertise, and process innovation/improvement expertise, the BA obviously is the professional who is either qualified or trainable.
When a designer or techie takes over from where the BA traditionally left off (that is, after defining requirements), they introduce a different perspective and the business/process focus is often redirected to factors of secondary importance like usability and aesthetics. Architecture is a crucial "deciding" phase when such a loss of perspective/focus should not be allowed to happen.
Business-IT alignment continues to elude AND stays on top of enterprise concerns. It is No. 2 in Gartner's 2009 list. A BA with the extended role and skill-set can take the business strategy and processes to effective and efficient implementation/actualization. That is the way to ensure operational-level business-IT alignment.

Is this a proposed idea or a proven approach? I will answer this question in article #3 in this series!

The McCurry label: lack of CREATIVITY?

2009-09-09T14:03:00.000+05:30

An Indian fast food restaurant in Malaysia has "beaten" McDonald's in a lawsuit. McCurry can now use the "Mc" in its name.

In many parts of the World, copying the West is common. I do not know whether it is deliberate, but some recent Indian examples that come to mind are Tata NANO (Vs Apple's iPod NANO) and Tata Indica VISTA (Vs Microsoft's Windows VISTA).

Is it fair to ride on somebody else's CREATIVITY and HARD WORK? Is such "copying" always an issue of deception? Or might it be a lack of creativity?

Innovation, NOT restoration

2009-09-08T08:28:00.000+05:30

Every day I receive a consulting tip from Institute of Management Consultants, USA. To the question "What new hurdles will consultants have to overcome until the market comes back?" the author responds ...

"Why should our consulting practices be any different than the business of our clients? We face the same accelerative and disruptive forces they do, so it stands to reason that our business would evolve like theirs ... While some aspects of our practice might look the same, there are distinct changes in consulting. Engagement sizes seem to be decreasing, clients are more selective about choosing individual talent than firm pedigree, more are using pricing models, participative compensation or value pricing, and many clients are building internal consulting practices again. We are more likely to restore our consulting practice to health not by doing more of what we used to do but by doing what we advise our clients to do - create a new practice ... Write a business plan for your business that focuses on innovation instead of restoration."

Are you seeing any trend? Toward innovation? Or restoration?

Business analyst with extended role (#1): recent arguments

2009-09-07T13:05:00.002+05:30

Several professionals commented on a question I recently raised at the LinkedIn group of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). The question was . . .

"Is this a call for extinction of business analysts?"

What triggered this question was an Interview at CIO.com, where the author of a new usability/design book said "... we want you to replace business analysts with designers."

Commentors on my discussion generally thought that the author's statement simply reflected a lack of understanding of software engineering. One of them, Doug Goldberg, gave a rebuttal, which you should read at http://www.requirementsnetwork.com/blog/7205.

And what did I think? . . .

JUST THE OPPOSITE of what the author suggested -- Business Analysts should replace usability/design specialists to design high-level process-centric UI architecture for business applications.

My replacement recommendation is only for business applications and only for the architecture part of the UI.

Here's why . . .

No ... I'm sorry, I'm going to postpone my response to article #2 in the series. Having read article #1, it is important that you read the other articles in the series as well to get the correct picture of what I'm trying to share.

Should you celebrate your milestone accomplishment?

2009-09-05T11:33:00.000+05:30

If you received an email announcing my 50th blog article, you may want to skip this and instead read these most recent articles: Vision: every-person-a-business-person, Vision: did it start a series of innovations?, and The Garage-Sale principle and process-centricity. Reason: I'm reproducing here that email announcement (with minor edits) . . .

The article 3 strokes of genius, 30 years of unbroken profitability is my 50th. I'd like you to join me in celebrating the milestone (knowing well that 50 is not a big number by Blogging standards). But here's where I got the inspiration from . . .

I did something similar nearly 10 years back. When my Center of Excellence (COE) completed its 50th project, I sent out an email to all folks in the company celebrating the accomplishment. A few folks congratulated me and my team members, but many thought it was self-promotion and some even gently suggested I stop doing it.

I continued to do it. I sent out an announcement when we completed 100 projects, and another when we completed 150 projects, and so on. In fact, the scale of celebration only increased everytime. We increasingly involved other teams and experts in the celebration. Awareness of my COE's performance improved. Software teams engaged my COE more frequently (and therefore improved the value customers received). And my team members felt like they were getting an indirect "pat on the back" for their outstanding contribution.

What was initially perceived as self-promotion was "copied" by nearly all other groups in the organization. When we planned my COE's 300th project announcement we had some difficulty -- we had to carefully time the release of the email just to avoid being lost in the clutter!

Strikingly, even the company's internal slogan became "Celebrating Work."

Now, should you or should you not celebrate?