Kudos to Qantas

WOW!

When was the last time you had a great experience on an airline?

For those of us not traveling in business class Wow experiences can be few and far between.

Well yesterday I was WOW'd. Traveling on QF442 from Melbourne to Sydney I started to eat my snack. A chocolate cranberry bar. I tried to bite in and thought I was breaking a tooth. Being hungry I persisted using my molars and worked through it.

When the steward, Hayden, came around with coffee I realized by jaw was aching, and asked if the bars were supposed to be so hard. He said politely that he'd check. A few minutes later he did return, and assured me they were not and offered a bottle of wine from business class with apologies. I accepted.

A few minutes later the head steward, Marty Claasen, came over with the wine and apologies. He also said that he would report the incident so that they could keep an eye out for it.

I was very impressed at how they taken a simple issue and turned it around into a positive customer experience.

Well done Qantas, and thank you Hayden and Marty!

Is there such a thing as The New Product Economy

Interesting slide presentation : www.slideshare.net/bt4u/bethtemple4u-new-producteconomy

Reinforces the view from the highly recommended Winning by Jack Welch that you need to always need to be looking over your shoulder "You can't be paranoid enough"

And that, as Seth Godin points out, in our attention economy you need to truly differentiate - like a Purple Cow.

Driving Change when your staff don't want to

Surprising fact #1: We want Change

We often say we want Change when it suits our needs. But when actually forced to change, many of us actually resist changing.

Well that is unless you happen to be a wet baby - but they're probably not reading this blog.

Surprising fact #2: But none of us want to

So if we all want Change, why do we resist so much?


FEAR!
Losing our security blanket. 

UNCERTAINTY
Moving us out of our comfort zone.

DOUBT
Choosing not to see the big picture.

So what should we do?

Communicate! To overcome the FUD that is undoubtedly impairing your Change effort you need to over communicate with your team and customers what the big deal is. 

Communicate this in terms that they understand. 

You need to communicate openly about why this Change is so important. Get into the details of the What (potentially bad thing) happens if we don't change?

It's also essential that you actively listen. First to ensure that you earn their trust. And second to ensure that you haven't missed any critical details in the planned Change.

Led by communicators they trust.

Hint: in the case of Change that may not be you.

Search amongst your team for those that others look to for advice and improvement. They can be your best advocates of Change.

Watch out for those that actively resist - make sure they're not in a critical role for your planned Change.

Be a role model for your planned Change. 

Your team is watching you so YOU need to change as much as they do.

Your team doesn't know how to implement the change being asked of them. Develop maps highlighting descriptions of the new patterns of behavior. <Link to post on gamification>

Reinforce with realistic goals and objectives. <Link to post on measurement>

You need to Drive

Change is inevitable. Pace of change is increasing.

To maximize our impact we need to support the business in developing services that customers value.

This requires us to to increase our team's ability to Change, and make sure we're serving and supporting the right customers.

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Losing your suitcase.

The risk of travel

My wife tells me I travel a lot.

757,337 lifetime with United.
105,896 miles last year.
Oh, and 1 lightning strike on Monday in Houston.

Don't lose your suitcase

The last major trip I went on was to Europe. My boss last saw his suitcase in NY en route to Denmark through Spain (don't ask!).

We had a customer meeting first thing Monday morning.

In Denmark on Sunday night he was lucky to find a tailor in the hotel - hopefully he got paid back by the airline because it wasn't what I would call cheap.

How to manage the risk

Here's an interesting travel tip: when traveling as a group share essentials between different suitcases.

That way if one suitcase is lost - it's not all or nothing for the lucky traveler.

There is a lesson here for mitigating risk in Change

1. Ensure that you have a backout plan. If you don't you are sure to need it. If you do need it, it will waste time and resource to develop, unless you can quickly backup and recover.
2. Architecturally share risk - manage how data / workloads are shared between storage and servers. That way a minor modification to a tier 4 app doesn't risk a tier 1 business service.
3. Manage the payload of Changes. If you group a lot of changes together, you're more likely to want to proceed for a major win - but one small error for a "minor" change could risk success. 

The power of (a shared) Purpose

Two similar companies separated by their mission

Adidas: The Adidas Group strives to be the global leader in the sporting goods industry with brands built on a passion for sports and a sporting lifestyle.

Nike: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *"If you have a body, you are an athlete."

So what's the difference?

Nike offers to do something WITH it's customers.

Adidas merely offers to do something for ... it's shareholders?

"How can you create shared purpose? It's simple, but not easy"

Source: Purpose is Good. Shared Purpose is Better (Harvard Business Review)

Innovation lost in time?

Lack of freedom can stifle innovation

3M is ranked the third most innovative company on the planet after Google and Apple.

But the leader of the Post-It note initiative, Geoff Nicholson, says they are seeing problems in innovation.

The 3M ambassador suggests some key points to watch out for:

• Don't ask for multi-year plan
• Don't use the process heavy plans to test a new idea
• Do praise new ideas and ask what else a solution could do
• Nurture creativity and new ideas

"... provide the leadership and then people know that they can practise innovation"

He thinks that processes such as six sigma can have unintended consequences. Actually inhibiting innovation. One thing that 3M is doing to try and raise the level of creativity is allowing employees to spend up to 15 percent of work time to conduct research beyond their normal focus areas.

"failure is a learning experience"

He also worries that organizations are worried about failure. In his mind, failure is a way of learning. Learning what works, what doesn't work, and potentially get some ideas on how to improve it.

For more, listen to the interview conducted by ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/six-sigma-killed-innovation-in-3m-7000012593/

Keep up with change by aligning your IT Agenda

A New IT Agenda

In it's recent research, The New IT Agenda, Booz and company advocates that IT teams focus on capabilities the business needs the most, aligned with the core of how the business creates value. 

Their recommended approach has 3 steps

1. Analyze current value that IT provides to the business
2. Better understand the business' strategic direction
3. Develop agenda to maintain strengths AND enhance new areas

Do you really know Your business?

Does your company have a clear purpose and mission? As an example, Tom's Shoes does. After visiting Argentina the founder, Blake Mycoskie, realized that availability of shoes was a real problem. For kids, having shoes affected their ability to get  to school, getting foot infections and being able to work.

Their mission is simple. One for One. To provide one item for free, for every item purchased. This started out with shoes, and is now expanding into glasses.

Has your IT got an agenda?

After understanding your core capabilities in IT, that the business relies on, develop an approach that retains he core and enhances areas that would enable the business to implement it's vision faster and better.

To keep it simple, Booz has identified 5 types of agenda

1. Value driver - simple, basic, cost effective services
2. Operator - high quality, scalable, and risk free
3. Technology leader - leading edge support for innovation and differentiation
4. Service broker - consistent integrated services at scale
5. Capability builder - strategic partner to CEO and business team

What are you playing at - Get Aligned!

Based on Tom's strategy, an aligned IT function could well be a "Value Player".

• Service standardization at lower cost and minimize risk.
• Basic enabling services for efficient business function.

Can ONE coin Make or Break the Bank? YES

“If ten coins are not enough to make a man rich, what if you add one coin? 

What if you add another? 

Finally, you will have to say that no one can be rich unless one coin can make him so.”

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-happiness-project/201303/do-you-make-excuses-yourself

And Yes - ONE more Application or Change can affect IT budget!!!

Innovation @Facebook

Signed up for the new timeline - can't wait to see it

The hints at design work look tantalizing

Want to know their keys to innovation ... try this for size

1. Involve everyone
2. Core and Context
3. Yes - your work environment matters

Read more at blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/03/inside_facebooks_internal_inno.html

Big data. Huge results. 70yrs ago

Patrick Blackett used Operations Research to analyze raw data resulting in

- Reduced shots required to down a bomber - from 20000 to 4000

- Estimated time for aircraft to mount an attack after U-boat detected them - 15 seconds

- Optimized setting for depth charges - 25 feet

- Fewer serviceable airplanes and keep them airborne

- Increased convoy size from 24 to 45 - reduced sink rate 50% to 1.1%

- Moved armor to untouched areas of bombers which DID return

Not to be outdone - BestBuy changes Work@Home

http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/05/technology/best-buy-work-from-home/index.html

What's most interesting is that this is a cancellation of their pioneering Results Only Work Environment.

Under this model employees were paid for results (output) rather than specific work hours.

Unlike Yahoo's complete cancellation of work from home, some Best Buy employees may still be able to telecommute - but now they have to do it with manager approval.

It's all hands on deck at Best Buy to drive collaboration on how to improve the business.

Quantified team??? Marissa Mayer outsmarts the Yahoos!

Love it or hate it - Marissa Mayer used hard data to decide it was time to bring remote workers back to the farm.

It's hard to argue with data

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-marissa-mayer-figured-out-work-at-home-yahoos-were-slacking-off-2013-3

Good advice from (former) P&G CEO

Mistakes leaders make --
they "...don’t think they need a strategy, or their strategies are flawed. They think they have a hot product or hot service, and these don’t last forever."

As a manager --
"your colleagues and your team watch what you do; they don’t just listen to what you say."

Source Wall Street Journal:
http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2013/03/04/former-pg-ceo-what-companies-get-wrong

Big Bang theory - not just for astronomors

Big Bang

Kodak is having a rough ride. Founded in 1888 by George Eastman it's "Kodak moment" came in 1976 with a 90% monopoly. By the 1990s a slow response to digital cameras saw it's finances deteriorate.

TomTom is down over 66% in the 3yr since the first smartphone with a built-in GPS.

Business wants rapid change, but IT introduces change .. slowly... with disruptive upgrades. And creates incremental "value" with integrations and reporting.

Cloud solutions are changing that - NOW. Changes are deployed weekly even daily. Platforms used by millions. Faster innovation at dramatically lower costs.

Alternatives

Carry on: Slow upgrades. Committee evaluation of new solutions.High cost operations.

Outsource: Move non-core solutions out. Short term financial gain - long term benefits elusive.

Centralize and Standardize: Evaluate long term TCO. Run out of the box. Value accrued by maximizing utilization with good enough fit methodology.

SaaS: Select a specialist, evaluate based on experience and scale. Value in faster innovation.

Implications

Doing nothing is not an option. Competitors are evaluating lower cost solutions and startups are testing  disruptive business models.

Review options and form realistic alternatives that avoid an unexpected Big Bang.

Platforms. Start - but don't expect to finish soon

By Simon King

Platforms are BIG

Platforms are garnering a lot of attention these days.

New services in the cloud such as SocialGraph from Facebook, and Amazon's EC2 service platform are showing the potential value of such platforms. 

But it's not just as simple as steaming down the track to the platform, as other platform suitors have found to their cost.

Being first may land you last!

In an industry study by the Wall Street Journal, 14 of the 15 platform leaders they reviewed were NOT the first too market. Only SAP, in the integrated business software market has achieved that dominance from start to finish.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574211232106776.html

Entering the market later seemed to allow the followers to identify what really mattered at the First Mover's expense. The innovator spent all the money educating the market, but the Followers came in with faster, better solutions and took over control.

For a number of iterations, we have watched Apple time their product launches with more powerful devices, larger screens and new features - allowing them to take over the market initially owned by the BlackBerry.

Incremental and Continuous Innovation

Another key trend that the Journal observed, was that leaders  continued to develop their platforms - creating extensions which added value for their customers.

One of the most comprehensive demonstrations of such an approach was the way that DELL started with an initial concept of custom PCs. They innovated on cell manufacturing, creating a scalable way to for custom manufacturing. They expanded their channel through the web. Which generated more revenue.

The profit was re-invested in further refinements in vendor management and automation. They tried new models such as a stores, but backed away from them if the step wasn't a positive improvement.

For many years this step by step improvement in channel and then manufacturing allowed them to take control of the PC industry.

Do you have a platform strategy? How will you make sure that you're the ultimate winner?

Quantified self: Get ready for the future - NOW!

By Simon King

Remember the 'growth marks' you drew on the wall as a child?

Now you can do the same - but not just for height.


"You can't manage what you can't measure" - 
- Peter Drucker

Quantified Self is a movement in which people are tracking and quantify their lives.

They track data points such as

• Heart rate
• Steps taken today
• Amount of sleep
• Minutes spent web browsing

The idea is gaining traction.And there are many devices to track such aspects of your life, and applications to analyze the information.


"If you can measure it, someone will, and that somebody should be you."
- Chris Dancy

According to Chris Dancy we should be thinking about how our workplace is changing - and how we as employees remain relevant.

In this fascinating interview with Wired magazine, Dancy shares some of his techniques and insights.