tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23055193246340217062024-03-13T23:44:19.872-07:00Mark's World...My personal insights, learning and contribution into the world of running a business and what I have seen and learned along the way, providing the reader insight into the way my mind works and how I try and overcome the challenges I am constantly presented with.
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-2104312054889804372021-01-14T16:17:00.000-08:002021-01-14T16:17:28.937-08:00"Were Putting the Band Back Together" - Finding the Way Back<p><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DWGmF4ArM1M/X_zaQeu5SLI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/TidSQcIOg0kaboZ8evtDg3Mws6-Dlp7pQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/de%2BNovo%2B-%2BIt%2BBegins%2B%252820201006%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DWGmF4ArM1M/X_zaQeu5SLI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/TidSQcIOg0kaboZ8evtDg3Mws6-Dlp7pQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/de%2BNovo%2B-%2BIt%2BBegins%2B%252820201006%2529.jpg" style="max-height: 80%; max-width: 80%; height: auto; width: auto;"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">The <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">30th October </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">will always be a special date for me. It was on this day in 2006 that I was privileged to oversee the go-live of the HM Prison Service Shared Services operation in Newport, South Wales (known today as Shared Services Connected Ltd – SSCL) providing HR & Payroll services for 45,000 employees over then 120 geographic locations and ultimately being part of a truly wonderful team that created 500+ jobs.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">By serendipity, ten years later in 2016, it was also the same date that saw Certus deliver the very first Oracle ERP & HCM Cloud implementation at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), ironically the ONS campus being just around the corner from the SSCL. So, I find it quite apt to publish this blog today 30th October 2020 regarding the next venture –</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">de Novo Solutions</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Just because you have been successful previously does not give you the automatic right or a free pass straight back to the top of the mountain. Running any kind of business is full of inherent risk and it still surprises me as to how so many people do not grasp this, let alone understand it. However, those in the entrepreneurial community live with this day-in and day-out, as any financial risk materialising is often immediately inherently real. For those who are prepared to embark on such a journey, to give themselves and others a better quality of life and just make the world a better place by creating a progressive economy they will always have my undying respect. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Coming back from a standing start was never going to be straight forward, and “<span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">getting the band back together</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">” is not as easy as it may seem or perceived to be, but that is what we are doing. So, let me give you some insight into how we have gone about this. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;">It just starts with a conversation…</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">It always starts with a conversation. Back in October 2011 Tim Warner and myself were in a Client’s office late at night in London, ironically just 200 yards from Accenture’s HQ. Who would have guessed that in May 2018 that they would be our eventual acquirers? we certainty didn’t. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Roll forward October 2020 and this time it was a phone call to Switzerland, with the opening line “</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">You done with retirement now?<span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">”. The discussion that followed talked about what we had achieved, the opportunities missed, what we had learned and what we definitely would not do again.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">For those who follow my blogs, it should not be too difficult to work out that I have been researching the <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 600; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">experience economy </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">for some time so I had a firm idea of what we were going to do but not necessarily as to how we were going to do it and if anyone would really be interested. However, I enjoyed myself for an hour, the first time in many months and my wife commented I was smiling when I came off the phone and that I appeared to have my mojo back. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">It was fun exploring with absolutely no constraints the art of the possible. I was also excited in that we could not only build something again, but to do something nobody had done before to my knowledge in <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">positively disrupting the same market twice.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;">Getting the Band Back Together</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">One of the many rules of creating a successful business, is to surround yourself with people who are better than you. Our famous “black book” of the Oracle ecosystem is full of talented people and naturally this is always our first point of call. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">I often joke with my peers in Oracle and across the wider community, reminding everyone that we created the football pitch for Oracle Cloud professional and managed services in the UK&I that everyone today is now playing on and now we are coming to take our players and ball back, as we need it for the new pitch. (by the way were also going to need the goal posts as well for those that are reading!) </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Seriously though, the trick is to <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">create a collective that is exponentially greater than the sum of its individual parts.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;"> The basic characteristic that underpins everything is trust. Hence, why I always stress that we never ever promise anything we cannot deliver, and we clearly outline the risks to everyone involved we talk to so they can make an informed decision regarding if they want to play?</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Coming on an adventure with us is anything but risk free, there are no guarantees, but we do promise working with a group of liked minded individuals that are building a great British company, will push the envelope from a technical perspective once again and will have a good laugh along the way.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">We don’t have the monopoly on talent, but we do have an eye for spotting potential and bringing people together and developing individuals and teams.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;">Just a Game of Chess</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">I have used the analogy so many times, business is just a game of chess. To be successful you need to <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">see the whole board</span></span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">…There is a lot to do in getting started, so here is just a starter for ten. In doing so you begin to see some, not all, of the pieces on the chess board.</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><p></p><div class="ember-view" id="ember36851" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="reader-article-content" dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 600; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: italic; display: inline !important;">No Idea is a Bad Idea </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">– </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">“Be Poets, and let your imagination run riot!” - </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Nothing is off the table, The beauty about being an entrepreneur and working with a small team is total unconstrained thinking! Nobody can constrain your ideas except oneself, nobody to shout you down, and most importantly no b•••sh•• corporate bureaucracy to navigate.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Stealth Mode </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">– Despite our enthusiasm we have taken our time. We are not in the business of just re-entering a market, albeit one we created, that is now both competitive and is commoditised where the race to the bottom of the rate card has become the only game in town. We have absolutely no interest in this.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The market is constantly watching what we are doing so we are in stealth mode where we can keep the market waiting and guessing until we are ready, but this also gives ourselves time to research and develop the proposition and to test it with all our stakeholders. We need time to <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">see the whole board. <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">The cheapest and most effective form of marketing sometimes is just being quiet.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Business Strategy </span>– No war and peace required here, but by getting the business idea down onto paper allows <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">clarity of thought and understanding </span>for everyone involved.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Included is the hypothesis is the <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">exit strategy</span><br> and timeline. By undertaking this activity up front, we achieve consensus and agreement as to what the end game looks like, and how we are to get there. Albeit the route we decide upon we know from experience will have many-twists and turns.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Our approach is simple, we are repeating the same strategy we did a decade earlier because we know it works. We focus upon creating not only a new service proposition but a new niche market and in doing so we become the number one service provider by default. This underpins all of our thinking from the outset. <br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No idea is ever entirely unique, so you need to know and understand who your competitors are, and also have an idea as to how they will react. The beauty about the Management Consultancy and Systems Integrator landscape is the large players are extremely predictable. They won’t see this themselves, they never do, but you can use this kind of market intelligence and insight to shape the market. The SME market is far less predictable so you have to do your research. Somebody will always come at you from left field.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Differentiation is the name of the game and resonates with a saying we use internally ‘<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be <span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Different, Be You</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">!’</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Test, Test and Re-Test the Business Proposition with the Market </span>- Any hypothesis of what the business proposition is has to be tested with as many people as possible including but not limited to former employees, business partners, industry experts, former customers and even previous prospects who didn’t buy from us. This allows any business proposition to naturally evolve, but also allows the 30 second elevator pitch to develop naturally.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span><span style="font-family: arial;">5. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Know the Numbers </span>– This was something in the early Certus days I will be honest we never had a proper grip of. This time it is very different as we have a sophisticated financial model (Yes - it is an Excel Spreadsheet, but in the right hands!), so we can determine our cash runway, our commercial proposition, and understand how we are going to fund the venture. <br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cash is always King.<span style="font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;"> Don’t get distracted by future valuations based upon EBITDA multiples – this is absolute nonsense. No cash, you have no business, and you have no value. It really is that simple.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I can’t stress this enough you have to know the numbers from the outset. Make it an obsession.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Bootstrap Financing </span>– If you raise equity money (which is not a bad thing) you are always going to be giving something away. Our approach is always to self-fund and use debt financing through Directors Loans to get going. Depending then on how the business plan develops we can decide funding options to support expansion at the appropriate point in time. Admittedly were not scratching around in the dirt this time.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Legal Structure </span>– Important; get the share structure agreed upfront. The reason is simple – All the Founders understand the agreement, know the rules of the game and have the agreement on legal paper. Consequently, everyone then feels their interest is protected, and we can all focus on building a great Company. The right expectations are set from the outset and consequently there are no arguments or fall outs. Failure to do this, creates ambiguity and allows bad feeling to foster. This breaks trust and can contaminate the culture from the outset.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Develop the Employee Value Proposition</span><br> – Again undertaken upfront. We know a lot of people, and because of what we do, our success, and most importantly how we go about it, we are quite lucky a lot of people want to work with us. <br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I am always reminded by the words of a Senior Partner of one of the Big 4 when he said about what was then Certus ‘<span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">It’s like an exclusive private members club, many want to join, but only a few are let in</span>’. And before anyone starts over thinking this in terms of diversity or inclusion, we recruit purely on talent, attitude and mindset of the individual regardless of their background. We always like to say to someone ‘<span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">you are really good, but we are going to make you even better</span>’.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Financial remuneration is always going to be a key factor. There has to be limits to what the business can afford, and timing is always an issue. You can’t go writing blank cheques.<br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">9. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Team </span>– Identify the designated executive team, knowing what you need and why you need them. Subsequently you can determine the onboarding strategy and onboarding waves. <br></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Think of it like fantasy football, in that you cannot afford all the best players, as you don’t have unlimited funds. So, you need to buy carefully. Remember in starting out you have to have people that buy into the vision. <br></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">10. <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Start Selling! </span>– Conversations through testing elements of the new business proposition creates opportunities. So, start selling from day one. Always good to get a run on the board however small as early as possible.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The famous Peter Drucker quote <span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">Culture eats strategy for breakfast</span> is right, but you still need a strategy. You can’t wildly go wandering off using ‘hope’ as your strategy, burning money left, right and centre. Equally you don’t have an action item that just says ‘Create Culture’. We don’t make businesses overly complicated and the values of the business are our values from which we create our culture: </span></div><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Do great work every day, be easy to work with, and have fun!</li><li>Only work with people you like working with and that have a "<span style="font-style: italic; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">can do</span>" attitude</li><li>Always make our customers successful creating customer advocacy everywhere we go</li><li>Don’t be a d***h**d</li></ul></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Insight delivered. As President Bartlett, from the West Wing, would say “What’s Next?” – well we need to get on building a great British Company in <span style="font-weight: 600; font-size: 12pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; display: inline !important;">de Novo</span>. See you soon…</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Mark Sweeny, Founder de Novo Solutions</span></div></div></div><div class="reader-flag-content__wrapper mb4 clear-both" data-ember-action-36852="36852" data-ember-action="" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; display: flex; font-size: 1.5rem; justify-content: flex-end; margin-bottom: 16px !important; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div>Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-69223215049627140502020-10-01T14:59:00.006-07:002021-01-11T16:41:03.139-08:00Starting Over & Going Again...Day One<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sf16dC3n_fE/X_zZkfSGUFI/AAAAAAAAAVI/liNVVRQ-w_gct1Gq95OGF34LJPheHDKbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s500/starting-over.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="500" height="299" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sf16dC3n_fE/X_zZkfSGUFI/AAAAAAAAAVI/liNVVRQ-w_gct1Gq95OGF34LJPheHDKbQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h299/starting-over.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">In many ways this is by far the easiest of all blogs to write as I have been here so many times before. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">As Tony Stark from the film 'Avengers Endgame' says "<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Part of the journey is the end</span>", the final part of my own Certus journey has now come to its natural end with Accenture. But as one door closes, another opens (even if you have to kick it in!).</div></span><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So, what’s next?</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">I’m not the kind of person to sit on a yacht in the Mediterranean and watch the world go-by (and before anyone asks, no I don’t own one!), and I am far too young to retire as I miss the cut and thrust of the tech ecosystem and I know I still have much to contribute to rebuilding the UK economy.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the meantime, our once pioneering territory of Oracle Cloud has matured into the most complete back office SaaS integrated solution available, wider technology innovation has progressed, and the market itself is changing with the</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">experience economy</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">coming to the forefront. Whilst all this has been happening the global economy has been devastated and we are in a global recession due to the pandemic. Opportunity a plenty exists but not for the faint hearted, Certus itself was founded just before the last recession of 2008, so in some ways this is history repeating itself. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My sabbatical is over and my desire to go again burns deeply. Regardless of outcome it is time to step up to the plate once again.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Mixed Emotions - The Mindset of the Entrepreneur</span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It's Complex!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Mum, Dad and my, ever understanding, wife Natalie all ask, “Why go again?”, “What else is there to prove?”. Even my former CEO peers in the Oracle Partner ecosystem have said "Why do another start up?"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">The point here is that I have nothing left to prove to anyone, but only ever to myself. I can’t solve the Covid pandemic. I will leave that to those who are vastly more skilled and knowledgeable in the science that will ultimately deliver us, but by going again I can get to play my part and contribute to rebuilding the British economy.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">However, there is a cost. By going again those closest to me also have to go on the journey as well. Being an entrepreneur, you become quite selfish, as your commitment has to be 110% to succeed, which is never ever guaranteed, and to do that personal sacrifices have to be made that affect those you most love around you.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">I can already feel the butterflies in my stomach as the spectre of failure raises its head one more time and my personal anxiety levels are already building. It puts me on the edge again, walking the tightrope of success and failure, for me mentally is the place to be and it makes me feel alive. The corporate landscape by default gives employees a safety net, in the world of an entrepreneur, there is no safety net and you have to embrace failure everyday knowing it has very real consequences. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Building and growing a business, any business, is in my opinion the ultimate challenge an individual can undertake in the work environment. You cannot afford to have a bad day, you cannot afford not to turn up, and you have to bring your “A” game every day to be successful. More importantly you have to set high expectations with those people that surround you ensuring everyone can also be the very best they can be. This takes serious personal investment and expends your most important of all assets – your time.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">The odds from the outset are immediately stacked against you. Pre-Covid, only one in ten businesses made it through the first year, and of that then only 50% of those businesses were still operating five years later. I could not even begin to guess what the odds are now, but they won’t have got any better that’s for sure.</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQFaRNQ2ieAk1w/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600470485994?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=O1faWouRjG_Obol8hriBsk6uXROL9NMOWRdKKfkJcmk" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQFaRNQ2ieAk1w/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600470485994?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=O1faWouRjG_Obol8hriBsk6uXROL9NMOWRdKKfkJcmk" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Business is a game of strategy and tactics (and cash!). You have to anticipate customer needs; define new markets; win new customers over; recruit and retain the very best talent; outthink and out manoeuvre the competition (always fun); deliver on your promises; create customer advocacy and now new dynamics are in play from diversity through too contributing to the wider social good. Most importantly you need to create cash, as without liquidity you can't do any of the above.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No one element can be ignored, to do so can be fatal. And once you have a business running like a well-tuned formula one engine, you have to reinvent yourself constantly to remain relevant to the customer base as technology innovation has moved on again and market demand and consumption changes. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s the ultimate game of chess, and to win, you constantly have to think five moves ahead.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Wise Words – Never Forgotten<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the early years of Certus I was lucky to be invited to a very small private audience with the late Mark Hurd, Co-CEO of Oracle Corporation. Mark had just got off a plane from California and was being propped up by heavy dosages of caffeine. I was in the front row, when someone from behind me asked him what was ‘top of mind’ every morning? Alert and as sharp as ever, he for some reason looked directly into my eyes and said one word ‘survival’.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What followed was a masterclass, as over the next hour he shared his worries about ensuring how he had to keep the second largest software company in the world remaining <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">relevant </span>everyday not only to grow, but to survive. There was me, leading a small company of then 20 people with absolutely no money and here was Larry Elison’s right hand man sharing his insight into exactly the same problem I was facing. <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How do you survive? The answer is you always focus on the fundamentals of a business operation.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A lesson truly learned and something that is firmly on my mind as I get ready to embark on the rollercoaster of new adventure.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many things will now be tried and evolved before any final offering is ready. There will be plenty of failure along the way. This is all part of the journey. There is no immediate magic bullet, and just recreating Certus as it was is not on the agenda as the world has moved on.</span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHxalqPUcT5oA/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600470596398?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=THBji-xPPfY6eOpQjPQ6cZ_2opVqD2-_jwSSOtl0ZLs" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHxalqPUcT5oA/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600470596398?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=THBji-xPPfY6eOpQjPQ6cZ_2opVqD2-_jwSSOtl0ZLs" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 744px;" /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: 600; text-align: left;">Back at the Bottom of The Mountain Looking Upwards</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;">Despite the past success, which was by no means was overnight, one does not get a free pass back to the top of the mountain. </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, having been able to get to the very top previously the experience does give you an edge, but what <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span> important is to remember it is not the same mountain you are climbing again. Consequently, there will be many new challenges and obstacles to overcome before the flag can be planted at the summit. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">But the view from the top? trust me when I say it is worth it and I want to get back there. <br /></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Finding My Feet Again - Renewal </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQEpE9GM-P9qKg/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600470238006?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=I14gVH67mb0NE8nxLRtTSNyn-YBe30BMR9Z9qSoJiOI" data-media-urn="" height="464" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQEpE9GM-P9qKg/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600470238006?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=I14gVH67mb0NE8nxLRtTSNyn-YBe30BMR9Z9qSoJiOI" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="592" /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Every day is a school day</span>” and one never stops learning. For me over the past year I needed to introduce myself to the next generation of entrepreneurs. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many have sort out my advice, which is humbling, but equally I have learned (and continue to do so) much from them.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is the kind of hard-nosed experience and learning that can only be accessed in the street and not in any classroom. Real innovation created around the kitchen table and in the garage rather than in an MBA class (and yes, I do have one!) or a posh state of the art corporate innovation lab. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">You learn so much from those with hunger in their eyes and you can feel their passion and desire for success. I love learning about their businesses and seeing what they are doing. The UK Tech sector is very much alive, in-fact it bloody inspires me talking and more importantly listening to these people. <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Engaging with the next generation of entrepreneurs is very much about expanding my mind and getting myself match fit mentally again. Time to Reset.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHgCKd5UsHUfg/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600469847820?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=NN0JyrIKA6uMCAju5vQ0YMf4mqL2fe4-sPXRqfe6e38" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHgCKd5UsHUfg/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600469847820?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=NN0JyrIKA6uMCAju5vQ0YMf4mqL2fe4-sPXRqfe6e38" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">The Phoenix Rises – Getting the Band Back Together</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">“<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Phoenix has to burn, before it rises</span>” – well it has been well and truly burnt and now a new Company arises from the ashes. </div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Many of the old faces that created the Certus family I hope will be tempted back for another adventure at some point as we roll the dice one more time and journey off into the next pioneering sunset, looking to push the barriers of technology innovation further, with customer advocacy through delivery excellence of customer value always our goal in the world of business operations and experiences. And just as important re-establishing our reputation as being highly pragmatic and just <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">easy to work with</span>.</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We all know the risks involved. Success is </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">never </span><span style="font-family: arial;">guaranteed and the spectre of failure will always be present. Most importantly it is going to take time, so patience will be a vital ingredient.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Equally, the team (once I have assembled it and this takes time) will be talent spotting the next generation, so very much looking to work with some new faces and seeing what they can bring to the party as well. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In creating a new business, in whatever form it takes, it becomes our vehicle to now give back to the wider community. Just like we were mentored and advised it is so important to contribute by passing on our experience to the generation that follows and celebrate in their success as well.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No more blog disclaimers to keep the Corporate lawyers at bay. If you say it, write it, then you mean it, so stand by it. (Politicians please take note!). So, in words I am going to steal from Robert Downey Jnr “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sometimes you may need to disappear for a little if you want to be successful!</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">See you all soon…exciting isn’t it?</span></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHAFoHjoZxKKA/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600950520732?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=7CiNsahuGoKKCEQuJ3eDB1uV2Io56T7VeG7JQ3NI4qM" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHAFoHjoZxKKA/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1600950520732?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=7CiNsahuGoKKCEQuJ3eDB1uV2Io56T7VeG7JQ3NI4qM" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 744px;" /></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </p>Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-9269023977382170422020-07-29T14:58:00.001-07:002021-01-11T17:01:23.153-08:00Can the Future of Remote Performance Management be found in American Sports? A decade on it’s a Second Coming…<div><div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" dir="rtl" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ne3EJRfzovQ/X_zx3sQFlaI/AAAAAAAAAVo/pccyM9A4Xpk9FdRByrE_laxY9McZ86w8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s720/1596012565462.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="720" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ne3EJRfzovQ/X_zx3sQFlaI/AAAAAAAAAVo/pccyM9A4Xpk9FdRByrE_laxY9McZ86w8QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/1596012565462.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When I started my career in Information Technology or Data Processing as it was known in the 1980’s, the key performance metric for career progression was how much you could drink at lunch time </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> after work with the boss. It was the era of </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">pub culture</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> and if you didn’t drink you weren’t part of the gang. Most importantly if you were not seen to be with the right crowd you just weren’t visible and therefore remembered, with this having a direct correlation to one's progress up the corporate ladder. This was quite normal.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Studying high performing individuals has always fascinated me. I have often looked to the sporting world to understand the makeup of a Champion, especially the mindset that enables delivery excellence and success.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The very phrase <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">human capital</span> implies and screams financial value. My argument being that if we value people as much as we all say we do why doesn’t it find its way onto the balance sheet? (I’ll leave that thought to the Accountants out there). But what really is it? how do you identify it? and how do you measure it? The fundamental problem is that performance scoring an individual always involves a high degree of subjectivity. This often leads to the well known phrase of “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">it’s not what you know, but who you know</span>”.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With Civil Service reform back on HM Government agenda my interest has stirred once more. After all, are we not living in a world where data science rules? so surely we should be able to measure human performance consistently, fairly and accurately allowing for rational informed decision making.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This blog tells the story of an idea conceived over a decade ago that was ahead of its time with the lofty aim of introducing a consistent level playing field across the multitude of HM Government performance management systems, minimising subjectivity, removing subconscious bias whilst objectively demonstrating an individual's employee value to the organisation.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Back to the 1980’s – Fire Up the Quatro..</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Such behaviours create and fuels subconscious bias, and this excludes factors such as race, religion and sexuality, which depending upon one's background and culture are always present to some degree. The workplace was very different back in the 1980’s. Watch “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ashes to Ashes</span>” and you will get a realistic </span><span style="font-family: arial;">picture of what it was really like.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQGu8jyBkad0_A/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595720565718?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=nAgQSGw_QRMTR35tyNHOTE4esF2AJmWEFNRqpVq4UAs" data-media-urn="" height="266" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQGu8jyBkad0_A/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595720565718?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=nAgQSGw_QRMTR35tyNHOTE4esF2AJmWEFNRqpVq4UAs" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We have all witnessed individuals who deliver very little value but demonstrate incredible dexterity in understanding politics and leveraging power accelerating their career up the corporate hierarchy. That in itself is a remarkable skill and I have to admit something I have grown to appreciate over time. Just how valuable it is to the organisation itself I still question though? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Equally, how many times have we seen the individual who works all hours, achieves incredible feats of delivery, but is by-passed and over-looked for promotion?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It can be argued the smart ones gamify the corporate system, but for those that don’t want to play and who look to the performance management system to argue their case can only come to the conclusion that it is fundamentally flawed when it falls short. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the post Covid-19 era, where remote digital working has had to become more widely accepted the perceived disparity for those that are often <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">out of sight and out of mind</span> is only going to increase. </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Flaws of Performance Management Systems</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The internet is awash with articles citing the flaws of performance management systems with the list below being by no means exhaustive:</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Reviews are still seen as an annual or bi-annual event</li><li>Outcomes are heavily influenced by subjectivity and perception of an individual</li><li>Lack of consistency in approach throughout the organisation</li><li>Measures too often not objective and quantitative in their nature</li><li>Measures are not linked to the Organisations goals</li><li>Absence of quantifiable quantitative data to support objective decision making </li></ul></span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-size: 20px; text-align: justify;"></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What are we trying to achieve through performance management? In its simplest form we are trying to identify, justify and reward those individuals who add value to an Organisation. Equally, we are also trying to identify and justify those individuals who are not contributing and where corrective action is required. However, as people are involved we immediately introduce by default various degrees of subjectivity and bias. Consequently we have a lack of consistency and the playing field becomes uneven.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But what if you could minimise or even eliminate bias? thereby providing a level playing field for all, creating transparency for the employees, and rich operational insight for the Organisation. Sounds like utopia? Possibly, but in an era where data drives everything we are only a stone’s throw away from actually achieving this.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In-fact, some of us were here over a decade ago... </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">American Professional Sport and Data Science </div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The underlying thinking for such a solution is not new, in-fact its origins can be found in American professional sport whose use of statistics and measures has been around for what seems the dawn of time. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Over a decade ago I was introduced to a book called <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Competing on Analytics – The New Science of Winning”</span> by Thomas H Davenport and Jeanne G Harris</span>, published through Harvard School Press (2007). On first glance you might think this is a technical book, but buried on page 78 there are a couple of paragraphs on how Bill Belichick, Coach of the New England Patriots, outlined his approach to performance measurement and its influence on team recruitment policy. It also touches upon Michael Lewis book “Moneyball”, and how something similar is applied to Baseball. Whilst Moneyball, thanks to the film and Brad Pitt, is well known, Belichick’s approach is not so.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The New England Patriots were a failing American football team in the 90’s. They were in a very dark place when Belichick was named Head Coach in 2000. He had done his time, with 25 years in various coaching positions in the NFL, including 4 years as the Cleveland Browns as Head coach 1991-1995.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQE-HAAdj95kWQ/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595884971408?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=Lj4kkh9-mUK04DxGa09s8ivzWLiP-DXttoDRQ2_LB8E" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQE-HAAdj95kWQ/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595884971408?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=Lj4kkh9-mUK04DxGa09s8ivzWLiP-DXttoDRQ2_LB8E" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Back in 2000, Belichick’s application of data science created not only a team, but a <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dynasty</span> that turned a failed franchise into several winning teams that spanned multiple eras, winning six Superbowl’s out of nine appearances over a 20-year period! (I guess it also helped that he had Tom Brady as the Quarterback, but let’s not stray off-piste here)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Belichick’s view was the perfect team was one that could deliver high performance <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">consistently</span> week-in week-out. To achieve this, constant performance measurement of the individuals that comprised the team would be required, but it needed to be a combination of both quantitative (objective) and qualitative data (subjective). It was only when both these elements were combined a common scoring system was created that allowed objective ranking and insight.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Innovation through the measurement of human performance</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQF_A2Cd7GtFvw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595720417880?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=V47FMkGgzLUGDsKkR12gQWIDHl_6tB6T_IqmHKadY7o" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQF_A2Cd7GtFvw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595720417880?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=V47FMkGgzLUGDsKkR12gQWIDHl_6tB6T_IqmHKadY7o" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Belichick's insight as a Coach was that it wasn’t <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">just</span> how good an individual could throw, catch, block, or move; this was quantitative data that could easily be measured but of equal importance it was how an individual got on with their team-mates; how a player interacted socially; what they were prepared to do for the team; level of egotism; and their intelligence. This second dataset, or <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">intangibles</span></span> as Belichick refers to them, was devised by a number of coaches subjectively inputting their individual perspective on watching the interaction of an individual with others and attention to detail in terms of research of a players background. In doing so numerous opinions were collated and bias marginalised. No stone was left untouched. Ultimately a player gets one score that represents his value to the team. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Patriots armed with this new outlook began looking for new talent pools outside the annual college draft recruitment - the accepted route into the NFL. The Patriots would look at smaller less well known colleges; Freeagents - players who for various reasons were out of contract; had been over looked or considered to be past their sell-buy date; and finally the minor leagues like Canadian Football League (CFL), where teams might just possess an individual with the capabilities they were looking for. The added bonus being, that players identified from these new talent pools didn't cost as much as the primary college draft route. (that's the "Moneyball" dynamic).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Under Belichick the Patriots installed their "<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Draft Decision Support System</span>" and applied it to everyone across every talent pool, through the draft and at the Patriots Summer Camp, where additional individuals are invited to participate to try and make the squad for the new season. Rigorous and constant application of the new system combining the new performance datasets determined who stayed and who was cut based upon their individual score and their value to the team.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eureka! – The birth of EmpIndex </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHucmGqFbmmcg/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595850978349?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=8H0oL9HoZl-Vif_cIYeJRVdgL1dLhyS_s_1shXPfKgM" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHucmGqFbmmcg/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595850978349?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=8H0oL9HoZl-Vif_cIYeJRVdgL1dLhyS_s_1shXPfKgM" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-weight: normal; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So why couldn’t we apply Belichick’s Draft Decision Support System and evolve it one stage further and create <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a performance index</span>, just like the Stock Exchange FTSE? In doing so we could objectively measure an employee's value and link it directly to an Organisation’s objectives, comparing individuals uniformly across the organisation by role.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Consequently, you could minimise subjectivity by creating an index that comprised of both elements – quantitative and qualitative, objective and subjective data. If everyone is scored with the same criteria by job role, assuming this is a true reflection of the work they do, you create a natural index. Whilst you couldn't refresh this on a daily basis, depending upon the criteria, you could measure on a monthly or quarterly basis, which for this area is virtually real time.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fundamental Concept - An Individual can Create Value, but can also Destroy Value</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A key principle of design is that as much as an individual can add value to an Organisation, they can also be <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">destroyers of value</span>. Negativity, poor attitude, poor performance, creates a negative score. This is absolutely critical in determining the overall score of an individual.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Each factor, regardless whether it is measured by quantitive or qualitative data, has to have an underlying scoring system where it was possible to receive a negative score as an outcome. Technically, behind every factor was a different graph, that allowed a score to be generated between +100 and -100. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When all the factors are combined and weighted the final score is produced.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQGsr69k9msY9g/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595719172379?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=yrCWytcCZVPnZC-o8jqZlV22r0nyUXbl-fMCQyn6z3M" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQGsr69k9msY9g/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595719172379?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=yrCWytcCZVPnZC-o8jqZlV22r0nyUXbl-fMCQyn6z3M" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Subsequently, you could create not only a score for an individual, but for a team, a department, and ultimately for the Organisation as a whole. More importantly you could then track this.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQF5GaYG8dtuMQ/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595719245304?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=K1zi4GbU__4ewKE130FWVGgSRrVy6SMyHQ9Ev33OuLM" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQF5GaYG8dtuMQ/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1595719245304?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=K1zi4GbU__4ewKE130FWVGgSRrVy6SMyHQ9Ev33OuLM" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 744px;" /></span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2009 - UK Public Sector - An Idea was way ahead of its time </div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Back in 2009/10 a group of us looked to push the idea of EmpIndex inside HM Central Government and we met with numerous MP’s who were working with Frances Maud at the time around Civil Service reform.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This was an era just before Enterprise Cloud SaaS applications and even thinking like the 9 box-grid didn’t really exist. The most novel thinking was from the 1990's the 360-degree review, which at this point been around for years but was still not widely adopted.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHJoH7pGnKDlA/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595841496136?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=qHIAn7TBo4VcETSql6MKrKBQcRr-hjY8QpmssKJVHao" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQHJoH7pGnKDlA/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595841496136?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=qHIAn7TBo4VcETSql6MKrKBQcRr-hjY8QpmssKJVHao" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-weight: normal; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2009 - Market Testing – SHRM & CIPD Perspective</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We presented at the CIPD (Chartered Institute Personnel Development) Conference in Manchester and also locally at several branch events. Despite the idea being both revolutionary and innovative, British Companies, the UK Public Sector and some CIPD members were extremely negative, always highlighting the potential flaws of such a system include, but not limited to:</span></div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="text-align: justify;"><ul><span style="font-family: arial;"><li>Adoption, to make the index as accurate as possible, everyone needs to take part</li><li>Accessibility to various datasets; quality of data would influence the scoring</li><li>Would people accept the approach? or will it be seen as “I am just another number?”</li><li>How do you stop gamification of such a system?</li></span></ul></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The points raised were valid, and no-one said we had all the answers as we were pioneering and constantly finding our way.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Our best piece of negative feedback was from a Finance Director of a large Public Sector body who emailed saying, “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We cannot measure our people like this, we would have them walking out</span>”. It is at this point you know <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you have a really good disruptive idea</span>, but the market, especially Public Sector wasn't ready for it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However our biggest breakthrough and interest was from a couple of American multi-national companies and SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), the American equivalent to the CIPD. The Americans culturally simply “just got it” and more importantly saw value in it. SHRM even asked us to participate in developing their standards, but due to our bandwidth we were constrained. A real opportunity lost that I have always personally regretted. </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">2020 - Elevating Performance Management in Post Covid19 Environment </div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now a decade later innovation in performance management systems I would argue is needed more than ever. Not a day goes past where we discussing in the news corporate racism; BAME agenda and lack of opportunities for advancement; unconscious bias; pay gap agenda; whilst we are all having to accept, adopt and adapt to new ways of working enforced upon us by the pandemic. In doing so we need performance management systems that allow us to: </span></div><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="text-align: justify;"><ul><span style="font-family: arial;"><li>performance manage a remote workforce fairly, determining an employee's value</li><li>demonstrate the removal of unconscious bias</li><li>be open and transparent about how we measure individuals</li><li>ascertain and connect employees true value to the Organisation</li><li>unlock employees “Value of Connection” to gain insight as to how things really work inside an organisation</li></span></ul></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Today in 2020 we are living in an environment where data is driving our everyday decision making. So why not use this for the good and level the playing field for all? Getting individual performance feedback closer to real-time and then leveraging this to keep checking the pulse of the Organisation can surely only be a positive.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A hard lesson in Entrepreneurship - How did it end?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At the time my other Company - Certus Solutions was just about to take off and I didn’t have the funds to push EmpIndex forward. It is a classic example of having a great idea but ahead of its time. Software development is a very capital intensive business. I made the call and wrote off my investment, and a great idea was put on the shelf for another day.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The lesson here is sometimes you can be just too far ahead of the curve. They say "<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the bankruptcy courts are full of good ideas</span>". Market timing is everything, and always very difficult to call. But if you don’t test ideas out you never get there, hence why it is important to talk to as many people as possible, even your potential competition, to gauge your chances of success.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQGtryvv-BIFJw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595782172800?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=kc_J4qgmRjMJfgnQnICquEwj_n4SPbN7w50d9BG0IFc" data-media-urn="" height="276" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQGtryvv-BIFJw/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595782172800?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=kc_J4qgmRjMJfgnQnICquEwj_n4SPbN7w50d9BG0IFc" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-weight: normal; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An Open Invitation to Pioneer...</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">EmpIndex </span>was ahead of its time and the market wasn’t ready for this type of solution. However both technology and the market has now moved on at dramatic pace. The need to address the inequalities that we all know that exist and raise corporate capability through diversity and inclusion but based upon performance and the value an individual brings surely must be the new order. We are constantly talking about these topics, but I see very few pragmatic solutions being offered.</div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Has the time finally now arrived? Is the market now ready for something revolutionary, innovative and disruptive as EmpIndex? Could it be deployed and work effectively inside an Organisation, especially one that works remotely? Is it time to brush off the old prototype from a decade ago? Would the UK Public Sector be ready for something like this now, especially with No10's increasing appetite for data science?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Just imagine if you could apply artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to the data, we would take innovation in this area to a whole new level. What insights and discoveries would we make? This technology wasn't accessible to ourselves in 2009.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Please let me know what you think as I am genuinely interested to hear and to talk to those who are interested as I have a mountain of research on this subject. The real question for me is am I going to let this stay on the shelf gathering dust? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As for No10 you know where I am. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="No alt text provided for this image" data-li-src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQFM3sgtzUIVWg/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595852412545?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=2HzJ96dCWVIzXufRTcClgKLqXFEM2r0W-DAXwqEM7FY" data-media-urn="" src="https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C4D12AQFM3sgtzUIVWg/article-inline_image-shrink_1500_2232/0/1595852412545?e=1616025600&v=beta&t=2HzJ96dCWVIzXufRTcClgKLqXFEM2r0W-DAXwqEM7FY" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 20px; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /> </div></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><br /><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-left" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: left; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-left" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: left; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-right" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); float: right; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", serif; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 0px 0px 0px 32px; max-width: 432px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-57175027015279900202020-07-22T14:36:00.002-07:002021-01-11T17:32:01.452-08:00SaaS - The True Cost of the Race to the Bottom of the Rate Card<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NsmIz5AYtHw/X_zUGkGH-kI/AAAAAAAAAU8/M1lacvYOVwEApIVz8rZCJdYE2P6Ux7J5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s317/images.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="159" data-original-width="317" height="201" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NsmIz5AYtHw/X_zUGkGH-kI/AAAAAAAAAU8/M1lacvYOVwEApIVz8rZCJdYE2P6Ux7J5gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h201/images.png" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Recently a recurring theme appears to be emerging regarding Cloud Customers (regardless of platform selected) in not being able to realise the value promised from their Software as a Service (“SaaS”) ERP implementations. Whilst I might attentively raise an enquiring eyebrow, experience tells me that I probably already know the root cause of their problem – they bought an implementation on the cheap, struggled to embrace the change despite being told it was going to be transformational and they never had a plan beyond go-live. So how did the Organisation get here? Well unfortunately it often, but not always, starts with the buying process. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Immediately I now find myself in dangerous territory walking along the tightrope that bridges the Buyer-Supplier divide. But with all my musings hopefully they are educational as it gives the reader a real glimpse of what really happens and where these types of implementations can fail right from the very outset. For some it’s going to be controversial, but I promise to save some of my more outrageous experiences for my book (and yes to those that follow me it is still coming!). Smile.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Seriously though, what I am not trying to do is level any criticism but rather educate through insight by providing a heavy dose of reality of what goes on when a procurement for a Systems Integrator commences and the implications of a price driven competition.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, if price is always going to be the overriding factor in an Organisation’s purchasing </span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">decision making, then no matter what I say here is not going to make any difference. So, before you stop reading, remember in this game you always get what you pay for. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">The Concept of Value?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s a term banded around like sweets in a sweetshop. In-fact we all subconsciously use it in our day-to-day decision making. The dictionary definition of value is simply “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the importance, worth, or usefulness of something</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I am often asked as to how we valued Certus Solutions before we sold it. Now valuing a company as a mathematical exercise can be determined by a number of methods including Discounted Cash Flows; P/E Ratio’s; EBITDA; Revenue Multipliers; Book Value (Asset); and Liquidation Value. Each will come up with a different number. All of this is working to quantify objectively something that can be pretty intangible, especially in Professional Service Companies whose only real asset is goodwill. I can tell you it is the most subjective of all exercises and I have personally spent many hours trying to explain this to people often without success.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, the one single factor that is the most important which is not found on the balance sheet, the P&L or in a valuation method is simply how much a willing Acquirer is prepared to pay? and how much is the Owner prepared to sell it for?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s the same for buying a SaaS ERP and selecting an implementation partner. What is the Buyer prepared to pay against what they value? and what can a Supplier provide at a profitable price point that realises that value for the Buyer?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where both sides reach an accord is the sweet spot of any deal, as both recognise the value generated as being beneficial to one another. To do so means eliminating subjectivity and trying to objectively crystalize value as a commercial transaction ensuring expectations on both sides of the equation are met.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Buy-Side – The Competition</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A professional Buyer quite rightly wants to know they are purchasing the right product or service at the right price and that its going to deliver the benefits that they have identified. Consequently, they will want to </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">test the market</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> against their requirements.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Best practice is always for Buyers to engage the market informally and early to gain understanding of the “players” out there. Consequently, the Buyer can shape the “ask” accordingly, and also sensible conversations lead to Suppliers becoming interested in the opportunity.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A competitive procurement process is full of ironies. After a Supplier has attended a procurement briefing which are usually held as a showcase for the Buyer to tempt and explain to the market as to why they should be participating, the well-crafted Invitation To Tender (ITT) or Request For Proposal (RFP) follows.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a document that has usually taken many months of significant effort to create, with the Buyer explaining in great detail what they are wanting to achieve in terms of outcomes, and with realms of questions they require the Supplier to justify why it should be them.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">But then, regardless of what has been said, the scoring and weighting criteria for price is stacked on the high side. In a single stoke of a pen, the Buyer has completely contradicted themselves.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Supplier also knows the first thing a Buyer does on receipt of a response is to turn to the commercial section to see what it is going to cost? and subsequently skip over the 30+ pages of a Supplier’s equally time consuming well-crafted answers proving they have the capability for delivery and what additional value they can bring to the party.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The rule of thumb is if its 40% or more weighted on price, the procurement, regardless of its size, total value, and what the Buyer says is important, is immediately labelled by the Supplier as a “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">race to the bottom of the rate card</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” and the qualification dance begins. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Price is always going to be a factor and rightly so. However, to achieve value for money, it should be a factor alongside a number of other factors that collectively are all positively correlated to the value generated required. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In my time I have seen some of the most complicated mathematical statistical equations for scoring a procurement which for the majority of us (myself included) need an Advanced Mathematics degree from Oxford or Cambridge to understand. However, this all counts for absolutely nothing if the “Supplier Fit” - the culture, their beliefs and values are not aligned with the Buyers Organisation. Because, when things get tough, and they will as they always do in an ERP implementation, it is the behaviours of both sides that will get you through.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">However, when the Buyer encourages the race to the bottom of the rate-card and gets two horses running they often leverage this by playing one off against the other driving the price lower in search of the better deal. At some point it becomes completely uneconomical for the Supplier to deliver the project. That sets both sides up for a future commercial conflict with the project never meeting the Buyer’s expectations in terms of benefits sort. </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Supply Side – The Qualification Dance</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Every sales opportunity, big or small, always gets qualified. Competitions cost serious money and require significant effort to take part in. Nobody ever plays to lose, as you get nothing in this game for coming second. However, the Buyer sometimes is completely oblivious of the costs involved in playing the game, despite the usual legal wording in the document that the they will not be liable for any costs incurred from the Supplier taking part. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What does qualification mean? Simply should the Supplier invest their time and money into even responding in the belief that they will be successful. If the Supplier believes that they cannot win or the procurement isn’t in the right shape; then it’s a no bid. In doing so the Supplier has just saved significant amounts of effort, cash and often goodwill amongst its staff for another day.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Selling on price is easy, it belongs to the “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">stack’em and pack’em</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” brigade. It’s a valid business model, and there are many Companies that work in the Systems Integration space that are extremely successful at doing this. So, if a procurement is weighted 40% or more on price, your definitely in the game if this is your business model.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Do I personally believe this is the right approach to maximise value from a SaaS implementation?</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Absolutely not! To do this properly you have to constantly generate value over the life of the contract. To achieve that you must have a long-term relationship with the Client and this requires constant two-way investment from both sides.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Selling on value is an art</span><span style="font-family: arial;">. It’s not easy. Your proposition has to be specifically crafted to hit all the Buyers values; and then some! To do that, you need to understand the Organisation and business your selling into, joining the dots as to how your proposition will enable them to overcome some of the market challenges they are facing. This takes research and serious amounts of effort on part of the Supplier before you go anywhere near a keyboard to write the proposal, often then weaving this into the specific questions the Buyer is asking.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So how does this play out? if the price weighting is 30% or less; and the procurement structured in such a way you are given the option to differentiate yourself from the competition, then it is worth looking at if you sell this way. The Buyer is saying “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What can you bring to the party, because we are genuinely interested?</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” and indicating that price is not the only factor, and you have the opportunity to innovate, and therefore differentiate yourself.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The other key supply side qualification criteria is always around the competition and the relationships they have or you yourself have with the Client. What are they looking for? has the procurement been influenced or shaped by someone else in advance. I have talked about this before in more detail in my blog – <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/competing-winning-public-sector-dark-art-mark-sweeny/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text-link-visited-active); font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/competing-winning-public-sector-dark-art-mark-sweeny/</a>. If you are not working the inside channels of a client in advance I will absolutely guarantee that someone else already has or is. It creates subconscious influence and potential bias in people. That's why Suppliers do it.</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Wider Market Impact – Price of Commoditisation</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyone can sell on price alone and equally anyone can buy on price. That is not salesmanship or balancing the equation best practice procurement in a non-commoditised market. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Dropping the price can be dangerous for a Company’s business operations. Deals become economically unviable and cannot be delivered. This has implications as it drains a company’s most critical asset – cash. Large Companies can ride a bad deal out, for SME’s it can be fatal. Buyers putting Suppliers out of business, regardless who signed the contract, never helps the Buyer in the long run. You can't recover costs from a Company that has gone out of business.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even worse it can affect the wider market. A market driven purely by price, becomes commoditised. Two things then happen. Firstly, Suppliers stop competing, especially if known suppliers are constantly undercutting everyone else on price. Choice becomes limited, quality of service is impacted, Customer satisfaction and advocacy drops.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Secondly, with Suppliers unable to make a profit, and therefore not having the case to constantly invest in its delivery capability they start exiting the market. The market in-effect becomes constrained, as potential suppliers leave looking elsewhere for commercial profitable opportunities. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Regardless of what Vendors sometimes say SaaS ERP systems don’t implement themselves. Cloud is transformational, it’s going to change how you operate. If you don’t possess the internal capability to manage such a transformation you are going to need external expertise. Remember, Cloud SaaS technology is not really a leading technology today, the technical risk is minimal, as thousands of successful implementations have been undertaken around the world. Projects fail not because of the technology; projects fail because the Client can’t manage programme complexity; the business change required isn’t delivered; or the Systems Integrator personnel don’t know the SaaS product.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">True Cost of Price Driven Implementations</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Price driven implementations are the equivalent of assembling a building and just switching the lights on. However, when you enter and look around nobody has fitted the building out, so its use is extremely limited. Characteristics of price driven SaaS implementations usually involve:</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">getting the Supplier’s “B” team, with the “A” team players seen only during the procurement process, therefore poor implementation advice results</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">getting the barest minimum, you have contracted for and no access to the real innovative functionality that exists. You didn't pay for value add, so don't expect it</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">having a stressed-out delivery team, that ends up taking time off as they become ill and cannot deliver against the original contract </span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">not realising the benefits over the life of the contract as your Organisation hasn’t accepted the change and adopted new ways of working</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">negativity across the business in what they are being given to use, often results in new Spanish-practice and lack of adoption</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">not in a position to take advantage of new innovation as and when it arrives as you don't have the foundations of the system in place</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">getting a poor reputation in the marketplace. Buying Organisations forget it’s not just the Suppliers that can suffer from reputational damage; it works the other way Suppliers all have unofficial lists of organisations they won’t do business with – so when your looking for help, if you are known to be a pain and "cheap", then suppliers will politely avoid you</span></li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Consequently, low price overall has a negative correlation linked to the value realised.</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Don’t Just Switch the Lights On - Maximising the value from SaaS</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">SaaS applications provide you with truly a wonderful opportunity to modernise the back office in many ways. So how do you maximise the value from the implementation?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">Accept the fact that implementations are only as good for the people who put them in, expertise costs money</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">Stay true to the “</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Adopt, not Adapt</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">” approach to SaaS, adopting out of the box functionality and standardised processes whilst adapting the back-office business</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">Undertake a</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)"> </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cloud Readiness Assessment</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)"> </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">against the chosen SaaS platform up front; understand before you begin the functional fit, business process redesign and business change effort required – formulate your Future Operating Model based upon this; NOT the other way around; you will just incur cost, create rework, and confuse people with un-necessary change </span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">Accept the implementation of SaaS Cloud is only the beginning of the journey and not the end; therefore, you need a long term plan which will require on-going investment to benefit from continuous improvement by sweating the asset</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">Make the transformation stick. Business change activities need to be carried on post go-live; constant re-enforcement to ensure adoption rates remain high is often needed to drive the benefits through</span></li><li style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)">Understand the SaaS vendors product roadmap; looking for the innovation coming through and how look continuously for opportunities to use new functionality as it becomes available</span></li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: 600;">Buy Cheap you Buy Twice</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An old adage, but true. You buy cheap you will ultimately end up buying twice. I have lost count of how many rescue ERP implementation projects I have undertook over my career. Always extremely stressful for everyone involved, very expensive and most of all so annoyingly easily avoided. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For those recovery projects that do make it live, you still have an unhappy Customer as their expectations haven’t been met and they are still upset over the cost. Recovery projects at a minimum get you live and that requires you to revive the Client from their initial cardiac arrest. Even then the building fit out is still required and that requires more investment. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the early days of Cloud, </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">every</u></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> software vendor was sighting just how easy and quick it was to implement their solutions. The truth is that Cloud SaaS technology in a business context was by far too transformational. Consequently, many implementations could not be delivered for the price contracted for, and Suppliers (as I well know) are only going to invest in buying market share for so long. On the Buyer side frustration builds, and the only way to defuse this is through constant education, enhancement and enablement to drive value. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The market moves in cycles, and we are now definitely seeing those Clients that have bought their implementations cheaply are not reaping the benefits that the Cloud SaaS applications can generate. It’s all about expectation setting from the outset and this requires realignment.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Why is this happening now? </span><span style="font-family: arial;">primarily we are in the first major 3 or 5 year renewal cycle for those having bought previously and they are now questioning what they have done. SaaS provides innovation, the functionality is there, but you have to invest to release it. Continuous improvement is the order of the day, but if you are not prepared to do this, then don’t complain you cannot get the value from Cloud, because you absolutely can.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The very best commercial deals are always the ones where collaboration between Buyer and Supplier both parties create value for one another. Those that understand this are the real winners. For this to work properly both sides have to take time to really get to know one another; then work at having an effective working relationship (it doesn’t always come naturally); and most importantly are prepared to share the risk and the rewards of any engagement. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Alternatively, if you side with the opposite logic regardless which side of the fence you are on, that the best deal is where you win and the other side doesn’t, then you will see an appropriate set of behaviours that are frankly counter intuitive to generating not only long term lasting value but you will be lucky to get anything substantive in the near term.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Time to turn the lights on? Anyone know where the light switch is?</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-76977086739110345542020-05-05T14:29:00.004-07:002021-01-11T16:45:19.697-08:00The Magic Dust of a Great Business Partnership<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l-uzWqRBnP0/X_zxB-MKzHI/AAAAAAAAAVc/51NxcLy0jH8YmN9qwPIi5UMeqFqHTLChwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/1588685100490.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1280" height="219" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l-uzWqRBnP0/X_zxB-MKzHI/AAAAAAAAAVc/51NxcLy0jH8YmN9qwPIi5UMeqFqHTLChwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h219/1588685100490.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jobs & Wozniak, Gates & Allen, Laurel & Hardy, Sweeny & Warner? Well we haven’t quite reached their level of success, but I am often asked about the business partnership Tim Warner and myself have had and why it was so successful? why did it work so well? and why has it lasted 15 years? </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, on Tim’s departure this week from Accenture after the successful sale of Certus Solutions we both thought it would be an appropriate time to provide a brief insight on why our partnership has worked. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Believe it or not, it’s something we have never actually discussed before, let alone written about and then made public. However, we think there is value here and if we can positively influence and help someone then it is worth it. If nothing else, it allows me to say thank you to Tim for what has been one hell of a journey.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">First Date - A little bit of history…</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I first met Tim on HM Prison Service Shared Services Phoenix Programme in 2005. Today, many people know this as Shared Services Connected Ltd (SSCL), a venture now owned by Sopra Steria and the Cabinet Office, but we were proud to be part of a truly wonderful team of people whose commitment and diversity of skill under pinned one of the most successful Central Government Shared Services programmes conceived and who can really turn around and say “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">we built the place!</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. Phoenix was also the origin of where Certus Solutions was founded.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Tim was working as a contract Solution Architect for the incumbent supplier, and I was working as the client-side contract Project Manager. Tim instantly made his presence felt on the programme through his expert product knowledge, which seemed to be absolutely endless, and his unique ability to work with the customer to find pragmatic solutions to the myriad of problems we seemed to lay at his door. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For myself, managing something as large and as complex as the HR and Payroll side of the Phoenix Programme (45,000+ employees then) with all its moving parts in a tough operational environment, I was grateful he was on the team. You can just imagine my shock and horror when, shall we say “diplomatically”, Tim had a contract dispute on the supply side which resulted in the supplier Account Manager walking up to me to tell me late on a Friday afternoon that one of our star players was leaving immediately as he didn’t fit their company profile and there was absolutely nothing he could do!?!?!?!. By Monday morning Tim was working directly for me client side and you can say the rest is history. (Who says Tim Warner isn’t a maverick?)</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many successful deliveries followed. Our view was simple, surround yourself with a small highly skilled team of the very best people and successful delivery will be the only outcome with a happy customer. Client advocacy is everything, and our relationship with the HM Prison Service, then National Offender Management Services and ultimately the Ministry of Justice just grew from strength to strength, simply because we delivered every single time on fast-moving complex Oracle back office programmes. We were straight talking, easy to work with, experts in what we did, and got the job done in the right way. Fundamentally we loved what we did, and everyday we felt we were contributing to the Public Sector. Quite simply by using us we minimised the delivery risk in the equation every-time. Projects didn't fail when we were involved.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2009 we were presented with an opportunity that would cement our business partnership, and would see the second incarnation of Certus Solutions born where we would hold initially a 50% stake each, a deal which was done very quickly over a glass of red wine and on a handshake.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">These were the days before G-Cloud, where major Government contracts were the domain strictly limited to the large SI’s and the concept of an SME bidding was frankly unheard of. However, with some highly creative deal shaping, careful positioning, and finding a financial backer in an AIM listed £100m market cap company, we came up with a differentiated value proposition and walked out with a £6.1m services contract from HM Government. Not bad for two boys from Guildford with a few power-point slides, but that is what</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">real</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">selling is like at the absolute edge. Seize the opportunity, seize the moment. But remember you have to</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">always</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">deliver on the promise.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Within hours of being given preferred supplier status the cry of “Avengers Assemble” was issued, and one of the very best contract teams ever assembled (you know who you all are!) then proceeded to work for 6 days a week for 18 months to pull off not just one, but two major Shared Services programmes. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From that we had the start-up capital to create the third and final iteration of Certus Solutions in late 2011, the original pioneers of Oracle Cloud SaaS applications in UK&I, that was eventually sold to Accenture in May 2018. We will leave the rest of that story for the book! (yes, it is still coming)</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">What’s the Magic Dust?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That kind of success is not down to luck. Far from it. You have to create your own luck, and it takes real ability to see business opportunity, a lot of hard work as well as a large appetite for personal financial risk. But without doubt there was and has always been a real business chemistry between us as we would always really listen to one another and think about what each other was saying. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Between us we had what can only be described as “balance”, the “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">yin and yang</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">” of business. In doing so we also found immediately that by pooling our joint resources and working together, our output multiplied. It really was a case of 1 + 1 = 3, or in our case 5, and when we recruited the Executive Team of Certus (Richard Atkins, Ian Carline, Mary Thethi, and Rob English), the extrapolation increased by many more multiples. Throw in the likes of Debra Lilley, Charlene Young, Ryan Jackson, Tom Mann et al with the experience of Peter Jenkins and James Ham, and you are seriously cooking on gas!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, under pinning this for us subconsciously, we had the following ingredients which when mixed together create the so called “magic dust”. So, if you are looking for a business partner we would suggest you use this as a checklist. </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">1. Same Values & Integrity</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">First and foremost, we both shared, and still do, the same core values. We don’t make businesses overly complicated and our values are pretty simple: </span></div><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><ul><li>Do great work everyday and have fun!</li><li>Only work with people you like working with that have a "<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">can do</span>" attitude</li><li>Always make our Customers successful, creating customer advocacy </li><li>Don’t be a d***head!</li></ul></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Trust & Transparency</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We have incredible amounts of trust between us; and that means we have always had to be completely transparent with one another. We never promise each other something that could not be delivered, and we always instinctively know the decisions we needed to make together, rather than alone.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This also means you have to have hard talks about money. We had some really tough times, we were nearly bankrupt with six hours from closing the doors on one occasion, albeit the root cause wasn’t actually down to us; hence my constant distain for high street retail banks when </span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">they say they are small businesses best friend. Trust us when we say, they are not.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">3. Agreed Vision – A Shared Goal</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From the outset we agreed the vision and what the desired outcome was, and then planned the journey to reach our destination. Whilst the route constantly changed at times, we were never ever detracted from what we were trying to achieve which was “building a company of value” and achieving the end-game.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Value isn’t just financial reward, but real tangible things like working with people you like; seeing your customers succeed through things you do; seeing the people who work for you grow; providing new learning opportunities; being able to share the wealth generated amongst everyone and also by just having a lot of fun and a great time.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">It's really all about looking after the “family”, because if you do, the family will also look after you.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">4. Decide Who the Real Leader Is</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Time to park the ego at the door. Regardless of business partnerships, Companies</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">cannot</u></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">be run as a democracy. My role from the outset was to lead the Company and set the direction, Tim’s role was to ensure there was the right amount of governance around me so that I didn’t screw up. By being the Chief Executive, I had a responsibility to report to Tim as the Chairman. This worked really well, it helped me to constantly focus on what I was doing, and also ensured that I always knew I had someone who had my back covered. It really did bring the very best out of me.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We didn’t agree all the time and would occasionally agree to disagree. Infact I can only remember us ever having two proper arguments in all the time we have known each other. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, we both recognised, depending on how the journey progressed, that one day one of us, or even both of us would not be the right persons to take the Company to the next level. Some people are always shocked when we say this, however we both know this is what experience and maturity looks like in practice. As a Company grows, different skills are needed at different times. “C” suite roles are not immune from this, and a hard fact is that the people you start the journey off with are not necessarily the same ones you end up with at the end. We were lucky in that respect as we did.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">5. Complimentary Skills Sets</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Our technical skills sets were complimentary. Tim was the Oracle Product Expert and managed the Oracle relationship, I was the Project Manager and the Deal Maker. This gave us perfect technical balance. When the others Exec’s initially joined, we maintained this balance, on a technical practitioner level – 3 Project Managers (myself, Mary and Rob) with 3 Solution Architects (Tim, Richard, and Ian).</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">6. Complimentary Styles</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">People who know us, will really laugh at this point. But it really is important. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Our management and personality styles are very different. I know at times I come across as the “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Boy from South East London</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” (Not Peckham, more Bexleyheath); but whilst I know some see this as a major weakness, I see it as a differentiator. Remember, when you are in a procurement competition, one Consultancy or Professional Services organisation can usually just look like another. Now in this day and age, people may consciously play around with the diversity and inclusivity mix just to be different but being different for me is bringing out your authentic self. I don’t “b***sh**” and I don't expect it back, my time is just too precious. I just want to do great work and make happy customers. If you buy into me I will get you to where you want to be. Just play fair and I will be standing by you holding your hand every step of the way. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now that style will not always win the day. In-fact for some people it is a complete turn off. However, if your business partner is the opposite - a less extrovert personality that talks with a quiet confidence then that equally can be just as effective. Consequently, we would always discuss who was the right person to “front” something based upon who was sitting opposite us. It was at these times it didn’t matter who led, so long as we won.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Trust me when we say put both personalities together and you have the absolute best of both worlds. Certus would not have been the success that it was if we had had two Tim Warner’s or two Mark Sweeny’s.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">7. Empowered Decision Making</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">We empowered each other to make decisions. The ability to act really fast and decisively is a real game changer when dealing with an SME, you can absolutely kill the competition stone dead with speed. However, good governance is still required. So, we had pre-agreed rate-cards and deal levels, pretty much up to £250K we could do on the spot. Anything, larger would need a conversation, and even then this was done quickly. The checks and balances in running a business are really important, we cannot stress that enough. </div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">What’s Next?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We found each other by chance and we were not the best of friends who socialised together. We were business partners, who had and still have a high degree of integrity and trust with one another. Over time, we have become friends, and are always there for one another. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Our values shaped the culture of Certus, and we lived and breathed them subconsciously and looked for those individuals that shared the same values as we did and were at or really wanted to be at the very top of their game. Work for us means it has to be fun, and the social banter in the office is something we both personally miss. Every morning we would both look forward to getting to the office just to be around the team. Also solving complex problems together is a lot easier than just doing it on your own. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What’s next?, who knows?, but they say “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Phoenix has to burn before it rises</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. As Tim enters semi-retirement looking over the mountains in Switzerland, I can only say we really did disrupt the market and thank you for being the best Business Partner ever.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mark Sweeny</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-9978546188795474002020-03-21T15:28:00.000-07:002021-01-11T14:28:58.411-08:00Managing in a Storm of Uncertainty and a World of Hurt<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5aMcDomZ0rk/X_zRA4D90wI/AAAAAAAAAUw/H72jvRKvoxwP76FykwKGBtBMG1ifdv4XACLcBGAsYHQ/s284/Unknown-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="284" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5aMcDomZ0rk/X_zRA4D90wI/AAAAAAAAAUw/H72jvRKvoxwP76FykwKGBtBMG1ifdv4XACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h251/Unknown-1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Looking at the current global economic crisis and reflecting back on my own personal journey as a business owner, I can’t remember ever facing such a perilous and frankly scary situation as what small business owners must be going through right now. But I do know what it is like to nearly go bankrupt and lose everything, and also having businesses not work out, so my heart genuinely goes out to all of you as I know many people are having sleepless nights right now. The economic impact of Coronavirus will be generational but right now we have an immediate crisis to deal with as we are in a world of hurt.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The ABC basics they teach you in First Aid when putting the patient into the recovery position equally applies to business. A = Airway, B = Breathing, C = Circulation. As a Chief Executive <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">survival</span> has to be at the forefront of your mind, growth and expansion are no good to anyone if you are not breathing. So, if your business does not have a clear airway, is not breathing properly and the blood not circulating correctly, then you are in trouble. The current economic crisis has put businesses, especially SME’s, into shock. Now you have to come around quickly and get moving.</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Whilst I don’t have a magic wand to fix anything, I can contribute in so much as to what I would do if I was sitting in the Chief Exec’s Chair again of a small business facing the current situation. Some of this maybe common sense but even these pieces of advice hopefully can act as a check list of sorts for someone. </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First and foremost, breathe and stay calm!</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (I am not kidding here). The stresses and strains of a business owner / manager is far greater than many can imagine as you carry the burden of not only your own family and livelihood but also those of your employees and their family’s too. You need a clear head, and you also need to stay healthy, otherwise you are going to be no help to anyone. Your job is to lead, and you have to step up to the plate with confidence</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be Knowledgeable</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – In my old office, I would have Sky or BBC News on constantly. If I was not watching it, one of the office staff would be right now. Things are changing fast, and you need to understand HM Government change in direction, new policy, and also Bank of England decisions. Think macro and then understand how its impacts you on a micro scale. You can’t wait until the end of the day for a catchup in this environment </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Plan & Lean In</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Recognise that your original well thought out business plan for 2020 just got blown out of the water! Create a new plan with the senior members of your team. Three or four heads are always better than one when solving complex problems, so lean in and share the burden where you can. If you do have business continuity plans; then this is the time to invoke them as this is what they were designed for. A sensible time horizon for a plan for this kind of crisis is 12 months – Coronavirus isn’t going away anytime soon. You need to know what you are doing right now; in 10, 20, 30 days time; in 3 months; 6 months; 9 months and 12 months. You also need to be reviewing this constantly; things are constantly changing, so you need to adapt accordingly and move fast.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your employees are your business</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Look after them (personal safety is always the priority) so start by communicating to them first and foremost. Be clear about what you are doing and be completely t</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ransparent </span><span style="font-family: arial;">about the state of the company. They are going to be worried and by providing clarity; being completely transparent and also personally available to answer questions, you will build their confidence up in you and what you are doing. You are going to need their help and you need them on your side to get through this. And when something changes (and it will); react immediately and tell them. You need to be pragmatic and flexible.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But remember Employees come first! Always! </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cash is King -</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> without cash you are out of business. Positive cashflow and liquidity is key. So, you need to preserve cash, and make the “cash runway” as long as possible</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Create a <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">weekly</span> cashflow plan – be clear of when monies are coming in and when they are going out; and review this daily</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Freeze all recruitment; don’t compound the problem of having more cash going out than you have to. This is not the time to over stretch yourself until you have a grip on the situation</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Don’t replace any individuals that are already transitioning out of your company</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Stop all and any unnecessary expense; for now (short term) that does include marketing and education but that also includes all the small things like stationary whose costs can go unchecked and mount up over time</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Stop all travel; unless it is absolutely mission critical; 99% of things can be done remotely over video link or by phone. If you haven't got these systems, you can get setup over the Cloud in a matter of hours</li><li style="text-align: justify;">If you do pay dividends? then you need to suspend these. Talk to your shareholders (if you have them); they will understand the situation as you need to preserve cash</li><li style="text-align: justify;">If you do have cash reserves; now is the time you are going to need to use them – but be smart; use the reserves sparingly to carry you through the periods when cash coming in is going to be down; factor into the gaps in the cashflow plan</li><li style="text-align: justify;">If you have outstanding loans and you can pay them off; unless the interest rate is really excessive – <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">then don’t! </span>Cash in your bank account is better than being in someone else’s even if you are having to pay interest</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Negotiate with customers for faster payment terms (reduce your trade debtor days); especially on Public Sector contracts. I often have found by talking to HM Government Procurement Officers that they were more than willing to help an SME out. It is not in their interest for you to go under; especially as the current circumstances have not been caused by you. And if they do help you out; remember to return the favour in some-way! </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Equally remember your suppliers; they have their businesses too – so be fair, and pay them just as quickly as possible</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Take advantage of PAYE, VAT and Corporation Tax payment delays; however, make sure you are talking to HMRC and not just doing this in isolation. They are allowing you to delay payments; but remember when normality returns (and it will), they are going to come back to you for the money</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Debt funding; the Banks are usually completely useless even with Government backed loan guarantees; so, I wouldn’t waste too much time trying to talk to them about overdraft extensions or bridging loans. (I will be pleasantly surprised if they have changed their ways, but I am always highly sceptical here)</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Look at the secondary market and peer-to-peer lenders; e.g. Funding Circle. If you have good credit history; your accounts are reasonably solid; and you have a comprehensive business plan; you will be surprised how quickly you can raise debt finance. But again; remember it is usually an unsecured loan, backed by a personal guarantee – you have to pay it back; and when you do get the physical cash add it to the cash pile</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Your looking to protect the payroll and employee’s monthly salaries providing stability. If you have any bonus payments pending; then discuss with your employees to delaying these to later in the year. Also, if HM Government is providing additional guarantees in the salary arena and you meet the qualifying criteria then access these initiatives (keep in view; it takes time for these to come through, and again no doubt the small print will ask you as the business owner to act as a personal guarantee)</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Equally, as a business owner if you do have a personal cash surplus, lend the business money through the Directors Loan Account, but do remember to charge the Company a commercial interest rate and to draw up the correct paperwork. Naturally, don't start taking the money back out; push the repayments out for at least 12 months - It's your money, you can set the terms of the loan </li><li style="text-align: justify;">Finally, and only if you really have to, reduce your own salary by delaying your payments. It is not something anyone would want to do, but again you need to preserve the business cashflow; and just sometimes by pushing your own salary payments out, you can help overcome cashflow difficulties</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">6. <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Risk Analysis Review of New & Existing Engagements</span> – All projects carry risk; and whilst we try and mitigate these through contract negotiations; right now, you need to look very carefully at a number of factors more closely than you have done so previously that could materialise. Failure to do so could put you in very real trouble far quicker than you ever envisaged. The current crisis compounds any previous risk profile you previously might have had. Key risk factors include, but not limited to:</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Financial standing and liquidity of the Customer (doesn't matter how big they are, they can fail)</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Payment terms offered</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Payments linked to milestones; with Customer dependencies</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Understand where you will be if a financial risk materialises; and cash you was expecting to arrive doesn’t. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Talk to your Customers</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – reassure them that you are very much “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">open</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” for business; but also look and ask what you can do to help them in the short term. We all talk about long term business partnerships and relationships. Well its times like this when “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the rubber hits the road</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. People will remember how you act right now</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reach Out</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">& Help</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - to previous Customers; and even Prospects that you haven’t managed to do business with. Let them know that you are there if they need help. Everyone needs to help each other at this time; it’s the only way everyone will come through this – Be genuine in this, it’s not just about selling something to someone, it’s about helping out right now for no financial reward. The by-product however is goodwill for another day, and there will be another day!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">9. <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stay Focused</span> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">on the Now</span> – Employees may be working from home; but you need to keep the business running normally. Ensure that you establish a routine with your delivery teams, just as normal. Virtual stand-ups three times a week; Monday, Wednesday, Friday. This allows for a sense of community or as we also use to say at Certus “family” and provides the opportunity to cascade information ensuring that everyone knows what’s going on. The key here, is to make sure everyone is undertaking purposeful work – if not on front line delivery; building assets and undertaking education (especially if it is free) is a positive use of time</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">10. <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Keep One Eye on the Future</span> - The implications of a pandemic like we are experiencing are going to have political, financial, technical, economic and social implications for the next generation to come. So, once you know that your business has enough oxygen to survive – and yes you will survive (think positively), new opportunities will emerge, and you need to figure out as to how you can be part of this</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This list is far from exhaustive; and we are going to be all living with the effects of this crisis for probably a decade once it passes. Stock markets and the global economy are not going to recover overnight. Look at the recovery periods of the FTSE and the Dow Jones, post 1987 (Black Monday), 1992 (Euro), 2001-2002 (Dot Com Bubble), 2008 (Financial Crisis), but be assured that the markets </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">always</u></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> do recover and remember what triggered all of this was not a financial crisis.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I do hope this short blog is of some help and my thoughts and best wishes are genuinely with you all. It may come across as extremely self-centred, but when you are the Chief Executive of a company, especially of your own company, the buck stops with you. So I am not going to apologise for that. You have nowhere to hide, and you have responsibilities to your employees, customers, shareholders as well as to yourself and your own family. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As I have said so many times before, if you don’t look after your employees then you won’t have a business. So, right now you have to do the right thing by them for everyone. It’s tough sitting in the big chair, many think they can do it, the reality is few actually can. But for those who do, I know that you will steer your ship successfully through the stormy seas ahead and I also know that you will be truly amazed how your people will rally around you and how much you will learn about oneself. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If anyone wants to talk through where they are, then feel free to connect and direct message me. If I can help, more than happy to do so.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Stay Safe - Mark</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-36125353015481974952020-02-29T14:16:00.001-08:002021-01-11T14:23:48.579-08:00Discovering the Spirit of the Entrepreneur<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NHQzK-x-WsA/X_zP1NLR__I/AAAAAAAAAUk/ZTVdzNfUw58AIimvwpa4jnBIEAfTXX8jgCLcBGAsYHQ/s305/entrepreneur-spirit-e1291674487103.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="305" height="262" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NHQzK-x-WsA/X_zP1NLR__I/AAAAAAAAAUk/ZTVdzNfUw58AIimvwpa4jnBIEAfTXX8jgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h262/entrepreneur-spirit-e1291674487103.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I have to admit, the word entrepreneur was something for many years I used to personally cringe at. “The Apprentice” didn’t help matters (though I absolutely love the programme and was lucky enough to be in New York when the very first series was launched and remember being glued to the TV every night). But it was really for the fact that I had been fortunate enough to work closely for two very successful entrepreneurs during the late 90’s early 00’s who cashed out for hundreds of millions of pounds and in all my time I worked with them they never used the word once. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">These were people who took massive risks, laid everything on the line, and came through the other side both having previous businesses that hadn’t performed well. From my perspective these were people that had earned the right to use the word, where others were metaphorically falsely laying claim to the throne. Equally I would roll my eyes when the corporate world invented the word “intrapreneur” – I think I will leave the debate and my views on that right here.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, it was during a “reality check” session with one of my own mentors and advisors at Certus when I was told I should just accept that I was a serial entrepreneur and I should embrace that fact. The context being that I had just closed a major deal in under 48 hours, something that a big SI would have taken 6-8 weeks to agree, how? – because quite simply I was prepared to take a calculated risk and was prepared to close the opportunity there and then. How many people can actually do that? what was I complaining about? Two business failures behind me, it was now my time to be in the sun.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This blog is about providing some insight into what the essence of entrepreneurial spirit actually is. I will also touch upon when this also can become highly destructive to a business.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">So how does this help you, the reader? Well hopefully it gives you some insight into the mindset, and maybe something to think about, or potentially apply in your own career.</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Exploring the DNA of the Entrepreneur </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For me, the essence of entrepreneurial spirit is the DNA of the entrepreneur. Consequently, you can identify a number of characteristics, but it is the totality of all of these that come together that creates the driving force.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Few people are born with every characteristic I have identified, and the list is by no means exhaustive. However, I do know there are elements that you can learn and can embrace, because I did. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Equally you still have to have a healthy appetite for calculated risk; an eye for business opportunity and naturally a willingness to actually go do something? </span></div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>Passion </li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Passion channelled correctly by being “your authentic self” brings the human dynamic to your product, your service and ultimately to your business venture. If you are not passionate about what you do, how can you inspire others to be? Entrepreneurs are full of passion for what they do.</div></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>A “Can Do” Attitude – A Positive Mindset</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">What does this really mean? Simply, you have to be able to make things happen and to do that you need to have and maintain a positive mindset. Even to the extent sometimes you just have to be “bloody minded” about things. Think SAS: Who Dares Wins or Rocky Balboa, and you won’t go far wrong. Delivery is absolutely everything. You have to find a way to solve the challenges in front of you. Entrepreneurs do not like to be around negative people, so they surround themselves with people who have a similar mindset and outlook. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-weight: 600;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-weight: 600;">Rule Breaker – Not willing to accept the Status Quo</span></li></ul></div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Entrepreneurs don’t like structure or bureaucracy; indecision; lack of ownership; delay; and having someone manage them. Freedom to make your own decisions and knowing that you have to perform just to eat every day are great drivers for success. Annual appraisals don’t cut it in the world of entrepreneurs. It’s also a lens that doesn’t recognise “50 Shades of Grey” either (probably the wrong metaphor, but you get the point). You either win or lose and trust me when I say you know when you’re winning and you especially know when you are losing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Breaking the rules, having a healthy distaste for the status quo and an open mind willing to explore whilst learning as you go. Defining a new market? even better as you get to write all your own rules as you are going along. (Big Smile)</div></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>No Fear of Failure</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Entrepreneur’s don’t have any hang ups regarding failure. If something you try fails, you just learn from it and move on quickly. The rule being just don’t repeat the mistake. The much-scorned old adage of “Fail Fast” has in my opinion a lot of merit when taken in the right context. </div></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>Problem Solving Mindset</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">From my experience no one starts a business just to get rich. Yes, it’s a great outcome if you can make a lot of money, but if that’s your primary goal I doubt you will ever really be successful. An entrepreneur’s “drive” often comes from the simple desire to solve an annoying business problem and/or kill a customer pain point by applying and delivering a “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">better, cheaper, faster</span>” solution. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To solve the problem, you have to be brave and just think differently often being prepared to go where no-one has been before or be willing to choose a path that those around you are not prepared to go. Think Robin Williams Dead Poets Society, standing on a desk “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the world looks different from up there</span>”. That’s always a good place to start.</div></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>An Ability to Sell A Vision</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The ability to sell a vision regardless whether you are talking to an individual or to the masses. Communication is critical and the ability to hold an intelligent, informed conversation whilst listening and taking onboard people’s opinions is vital. Remember “people buy from people”.</div></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>Customer Focused, First and Foremost</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">If you have no customers, you don’t have a business. Customers are everything, albeit I would say from my experience remember first and foremost to “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">look after your employees, as they will look after your customers</span>”. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Entrepreneurs know this in abundance. They seek ways to create long term “Customer Advocacy” which is the most powerful form of marketing you can ever have.</div></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>Business Acumen - Ability to Calculate Risk </li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">A critical skill, and one I can’t give a definitive view on whether you are born with this, or it’s something you can learn. Being able to calculate risk, is all part of having a strong business acumen. The other elements being, primarily having the ability to see the opportunity in the first place, shape it and naturally generate profit. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To seize the day you have to be willing to take risks. Not everything you do is going to work. But to do nothing, and the outcome is certain - nothing happens. Michael Jordan’s quote of “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I missed 100% of the shots I didn’t take</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” always comes to mind. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Entrepreneurs are not reckless cowboys, but they do look at the world through a different lens, can quickly evaluate options and the associated risk and rewards making informed decisions at pace.</span></div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><div><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><ul><li>Ability to Move Quickly</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The ability to see a business opportunity, move quickly and close the deal is absolutely critical. You need to know instantaneously the deal economics, so you can be confident in your pricing. No waiting around, having hundreds of people involved, multiple levels of governance, legal reviews et al before you put a price on the table. Speed is one of an entrepreneur’s greatest assets, and often an element customer’s appreciate and crave. Entrepreneur’s know this, go after the opportunity and make something happen at pace. Executing this alone often can kill the competition in a heartbeat.<br /></span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;">Continuous Learning - Every day is a School Day </span></li></ul><span style="font-family: arial;">Entrepreneurs mess up! but it is never about blaming someone else when something goes wrong. The buck stops with you, and an entrepreneur’s ability to be absolutely honest with themselves about where they went wrong is a critical skill. <br /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Warning – Path to Destruction<br /></span><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Entrepreneurial spirit left unchecked inside a growing company can lead down a path of self-destruction. I have witnessed this first-hand. Founders of companies that start the company off and have the ability to create the vision and lead into the unknown, are sometimes not usually the best people to operate the company as it scales to the next level of maturity. When concrete thinking sets in and those that lead are not willing to listen to others, then you can end up in trouble.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Different skills are often required for scaling a company, and the smart entrepreneur knows when it is time to either exit, or to surround themselves with those who have the relevant skills to grow the company accordingly. Good corporate governance can keep this in check. <br /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Can Anyone be an Entrepreneur?<br /></span><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In theory yes absolutely, in reality no. The vast majority of people are quite understandably not prepared to take the risks involved in starting up a business and do not have the required DNA. The idea of the combination of constantly living outside your comfort zone correlated to financial risk, is usually something people are just not willing to tolerate. (And quiet understandably). <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is absolutely nothing wrong with not being an entrepreneur. Everyone is different, some people want to follow this path, and others don’t. Still to this day, I don’t think being an entrepreneur is a badge of honour and it shouldn’t even be seen that way. At the end of the day it is just an adjective for describing someone. Nothing more than that.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Finally any entrepreneur will tell you that running a business is a rollercoaster ride of massive highs and lows. You often scare yourself, and sometimes others around you, but for me it’s absolutely the ultimate adrenalin drive and the most rewarding experience you can ever have. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Why? because quite simply it’s the ultimate test of one’s self in business and you are walking a tightrope without a safety net!<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Look forward to the comments as always…</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-76361873319420855372020-02-06T14:08:00.001-08:002021-01-11T14:15:05.138-08:00Competing and Winning in the Public Sector - A Dark Art?<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SqE-ezEf2kw/X_zNkgPryiI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/K-bHJ3oY-P0xfh0Pz2uDe_cRWOMG9jFKACLcBGAsYHQ/s926/image-20150105-13860-1fxrybq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="926" height="303" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SqE-ezEf2kw/X_zNkgPryiI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/K-bHJ3oY-P0xfh0Pz2uDe_cRWOMG9jFKACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h303/image-20150105-13860-1fxrybq.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The start of a new decade and we have a new Government with some serious change ahead driven primarily on two fronts – Brexit and the need to revisit and re-invest in our much discarded public services after years of austerity, with Health, Justice, Immigration and Defence leading, whilst one should never discount the importance and contribution of all the other departments across Whitehall and of course local government.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">While the fog of change slowly lifts, one thing that is clear is that our new Government, which I personally believe is now in situ for the next 10 years, cannot deliver its promised vision without help. That help comes from the myriad of suppliers, small, medium and large, that exist in the various supply chains of the private sector. Exciting? Absolutely! As a Champion of SME’s, who contribute 80% of the British GDP and fuel our economy, the question however is “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">how do I access that opportunity?</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Navigating Public Sector procurements in such a way that you are successful can seem to be a ‘</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">dark art</span><span style="font-family: arial;">’ whose secrets are known only by a few. However, the reality is that really isn’t the case but you </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">do need to know the rules of the game (both written and unwritten) and how the game is played</span><span style="font-family: arial;">. Ultimately Suppliers are businesses and need to be profitable to grow, and that means you need to win; but like any game you are going to have to accept that losing is part of it. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This blog aims to provide some insight, based upon my own experience, into this so-called dark art and hopefully encourage the myriad of great British SME’s to become involved. But be warned; working in the Public Sector is a series of paradoxes simultaneously being the most rewarding and frustrating experience one can imagine. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Rules of the Game</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Let’s start with the basics. Public Sector procurement is based upon the concept and the surrounding rules of </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">open and fair competition. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">This means that Procurement and tendering should be conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner. The most important and broadly accepted principle underlying a modern procurement system is open competition – unrestricted, universal access to the market. Translated it means that there is a level playing field for all and anyone can play. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The other key watch word here is ‘transparency’. In a public procurement this means that information on the public procurement process must be available to everyone: contractors, suppliers, service providers and the public at large, unless there are valid and legal reasons to keep certain information confidential.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Behind these concepts is an entire system of procedures and protocols enshrined in European Law (hopefully in time we will dump some of this unnecessary bureaucracy), that Public Sector Procurement Officers, known as ‘The Authority’ (the “Buyer”) will follow. Unfortunately, at times, they also hide behind them.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Public Sector procurement can be viewed as anything but ‘open and fair’ but you cannot beat the system. What you do need to understand is how to roll with it. This also involves knowing when </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not </span><span style="font-family: arial;">to play.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">So how do you play the game?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The ‘leg work’ needs to be done BEFORE any procurement ever arrives. Believe it or not the Public Sector isn’t going to come running to you, you need to go to it. You need to get known and you need to build relationships that allow you to influence and shape people’s thinking. Here’s my checklist…</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be Match Fit </span><span style="font-family: arial;">–– Is your company ‘match fit’ to play the game in the first place. What do I mean by this? Is all the company paperwork all up-to-date and filed with Companies House? Insurance all in place? Are you all up-to-date with HMRC? Do all employees and contractors have contracts? Will the company stand-up to basic financial scrutiny? If not, you will fall during basic due diligence </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the Industry (Macro View) </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– A lot of this can be achieved by just surfing the internet and the industries the Organisation touches. It’s important to know Central or Local Government policy, the Public Sector is the execution vehicle for policy. Educate yourself so when you do meet the department you can have a relevant intelligent conversation. A classic example of this is HM Government’s policy that £1 in every £3 should go to SME’s. Know this and use it to your advantage – nothing like reminding Procurement Officers of government policy </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the Organisation’s Challenges (Micro View) </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Understand the organisation you are selling to in terms of what they actually do? Find out what is important to them and learn how to sell to them. In Central Government every department is different, and no one size fits all, this is due to 'departmental sovereignty' where every department effectively has autonomy over its own business operations</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the Players and Find your Champions </span><span style="font-family: arial;">- Meet the players and understand which roles they play – are they an influencer, the end user, the decision maker, the referee (Procurement Officer), the negotiator? It is vitally important you gain insight and understanding as to who’s who in a department and build support from within. You need to get to the ‘C’ suite, create advocates and find champions. You can’t do this during a live procurement, but you can do it before hand</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the Politics </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– This is the Public Sector there </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">is</u> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">always politics; if what you are proposing is in the wrong direction of travel you are not going to be successful. Getting access to people is never easy but it is possible. You have to build relationships inside the organisation to understand the political agenda. Remember Public Sector, especially Central Government is a very fast paced moving environment, so you need to stay on top of the political map</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Build and Maintain Relationships </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Building and maintaining relationships is hard work, and it is also a two-way street. However, working the Public Sector is always about playing the long game. People do appreciate you being around and offering opinion and advice, especially when there is no commercial contract in the immediate offering, but later, one day down the line there will be. Remember People buy from people</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Procurement Channels </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Understanding the procurement channel and the type of procurement that will be used to buy is absolutely critical. Get familiar with the different procurement frameworks and avenues. You have to get on the frameworks, which is time consuming and costly. But this is the investment you have to make in the sector. One piece of advice – if you see a procurement titled “OJEU Competitive Dialogue” – stay well clear; this is where the Authority will undertake market testing, make you jump through a number of hoops and have you run around all for no contract to be awarded. These types of procurements are only for those with very deep pockets and they carry the highest risk profile </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Supply Chain Channels </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Public Sector is an ecosystem of Suppliers of all shapes and sizes. Certain engagements are too big for an SME, and Public Sector buyers always look to larger suppliers not only for their skills and capabilities but also to take on the commercial risk. Such engagements quite often require such Suppliers to use their SME’s in their supply chain. This is looked upon favourably as they are seen as brining the very best the market can offer to the table, and also solves the headache of HM Government having to run multiple complex procurements. So, get into the larger Suppliers supply chain. Fully accept this is not easy or straight forward, but HM Government usually lends a hand by introducing SME’s to the larger Suppliers as part of the procurement cycle</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">9. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Educate the Buyer - Influence the Procurement </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Every contract that is issued is going to go through a procurement cycle, therefore the trick is to shape the procurement in advance of it formally commencing. This is achieved by investing your time in educating the buyer in your services and how you can solve their pain points </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">before </span><span style="font-family: arial;">the procurement commences. Responding to an RFP or an ITT that is ‘cold’ reduces the chances of success; the reason being that someone else has already shaped the conversation </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">10. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the Procurement</span><span style="font-family: arial;">– When the Procurement is issued make sure you READ IT CAREFULLY and respond exactly how you are being asked to. Failure to do so makes you non-compliant, and you strike out immediately!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">11. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Know Your Competition </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– The competition are important pieces on the chess board. Who is the incumbent supplier? how much does the department spend and with who? (this information is in the public domain) Who are you competing against? Why would you win over them? </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">12. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Procurement Scoring and Gamification Theory </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Find out who your competitors are and gamify the various scenarios and outcomes. From this intelligence you can position yourself accordingly. It is an important exercise to undertake and remember to do it as early as possible as this helps you qualify the opportunity</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">13. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand the Risks Involved and Negotiate </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Dealing with the Public Sector is not without risk, and every contract regardless of size, you will find the Authority offsetting their interpretation of the risk onto the Supplier. This can come in many forms, some of them appear utterly ridiculous from an SME perspective, but understand what you are signing. It’s not in the interests of the Public Sector to bankrupt you, but equally in signing a contract you are taking on the responsibility of delivery. There is always a negotiation to be had</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">14. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Get Known, in-fact Get Famous</span><span style="font-family: arial;">! – You need ‘profile’. You need to get known (for the right reasons!). Remember, regardless of how long you have played the game, Public Sector officials “churn” in their roles as much as the Private Sector, so you constantly have to reintroduce yourself and also remember you are only as good as your last project!</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Knowing when not to play – Qualify Hard!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now this is going to be controversial as no one will acknowledge this happens. However, the reality is it does happen, and you are going to come across the following scenarios when you have played the game long enough. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From the start of any formal procurement cycle you have to work out quickly as possible if the Authority has already made its decision and is looking for formal legal endorsement through the procurement. If they are you don’t want to play, as all you are doing is making up the numbers and enforcing that the procurement was legitimate as you competed but lost. As soon as the procurement is issued the game begins as you have to flush out what is really happening.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You do this by qualifying hard through intelligence gathering from any source available. A word of advice always triangulate intelligence from three sources, so you know on what basis you are making your decision to participate or not. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Participating and competing is expensive, especially if you are an SME, so you have to know (1) that the playing field is truly level (2) if the procurement has been significantly shaped by someone already and who that someone is (3) do you still have an advantage over the competition that makes your proposition compelling that will get you the chequered flag.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Signs to look out for include, but not limited to:</div></span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><ul><li>The Authority simply <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">does not know </span>what they want, the requirement is extremely vague</li><li>The Authority is too specific around the requirement (this is opposite to the bullet point above, it is listed as basically such a requirement limits the field of Suppliers – the trick here is to see if the solution has been specified as the requirement itself) </li><li>The Authority is not an experienced buyer and says it will not negotiate on any T&C’s</li><li>The Authority has an incredibly strong relationship with its incumbent supplier</li><li>Very short response timescales (less than 10 days), a given sign that the decision has already been made (I have seen response times requesting less than 5 days!)</li><li>The Authority won’t grant an extension to a short response time</li><li>For larger procurements there is no Supplier briefing and no opportunity to meet the Authority face-to-face with all communication being through the procurement portal</li><li>Responses to clarification questions are extremely vague or reflect the question back</li></ul></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">To a degree this is where experience and gut feel come into play. The old saying <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck" </span>meaning if you feel for whatever reason the procurement doesn’t ‘look’ right, then gracefully qualify out explaining your reasons for doing so politely.</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Dealing with Losing, Feedback & Challenge</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Try not to get upset. As someone once said “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">it’s just business</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. Personally, I do get upset especially when the outcome is non-comprehendible and seems to defy logic. We only ever get upset over things we care about, and no-one plays to lose, so if you don’t get upset your probably in the wrong game, but learn to let it go. What is important is to understand why you have lost and have the ability to look at how you approached every aspect of the procurement.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Public Sector is about transparency so you should always seek feedback on procurements you lose and also why you have won. However, a constant source of frustration, which I personally frown upon, is when no feedback is ever forthcoming. Public Sector officials don’t like criticism or challenge however it is very poor form when a Supplier has made significant investment in a procurement not to be given the courtesy of any feedback. If you do see poor procurement practice then do challenge it, but always do this constructively and if necessary, bring it to the attention of the Crown Commercial Service. It's the only way the whole system ever gets better.</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Dark Art demystified</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There really is no magic formula, and sometimes it does feel like a complete lottery. However, you can increase the odds of winning and just like ‘Blackjack’ you only need a small percentage to be in your favour for the house not to win. You get nothing for coming second, so in summary…</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Try and meet the Authority before any procurement begins, introduce yourselves to them and get them to remember you, and if possible, shape their thinking in advance – no one ever got shot for being the solution to someone’s problem</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. When the procurement arrives qualify the opportunity hard!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Remember, most procurement competitions have been influenced before they are released as they have been shaped by someone. If that someone isn’t you, then you are on the outside</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. Do your homework – Policy, department, stakeholders, politics, pain points, killer proposition, competition</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. You can’t control the competition or what others will do, but you can control yourself – so if you do decide to play focus on you and play your game not someone else’s</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. If you lose, understand why you have lost. Ask the question – Should you have played in the first place?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. Finally always trust your gut! and apply the “Duck Test”</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I hope this blog helps demystify the misnomer that Public Sector procurement is a dark art. SME’s have a fantastic amount to offer the Public Sector, but you still have to win contracts through formal procurements. Hopefully this blog will make you a better player, wishing everyone every success in their endeavours. Look forward to the comments as always… </span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-20622447193026500682020-01-01T14:04:00.001-08:002021-01-11T14:07:29.254-08:00A New Decade - Ask Yourself Are you a Tiger?<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BBPBYxA1ypU/X_zLpcVYbKI/AAAAAAAAAUE/o-I5g99a2nI8QTMXL3Zyk9R867CJx98OACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/p06n2ddt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BBPBYxA1ypU/X_zLpcVYbKI/AAAAAAAAAUE/o-I5g99a2nI8QTMXL3Zyk9R867CJx98OACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/p06n2ddt.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);">I start the new decade as I ended the last. Ask yourself one question are you a tiger? - which way will you go?</span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Tiger, one day you will come to a fork in the road,” he said. “And you’re going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go.” He raised his hand and pointed. “If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments.” Then Boyd raised his other hand and pointed another direction. “Or you can go that way and you can do something – something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide you want to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favourite of your superiors. But you won’t have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference.” He paused and stared into the officer’s eyes and heart. “To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That’s when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do. Which way will you go?” </span><a href="http://dnipogo.org/john-r-boyd/to-be-or-to-do/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text-link-visited-active); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Colonel ’60 second’ Boyd</span></a><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Nothing else to be said here...no advice from me or anyone else will help you, but always be true to yourself.</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-18647938999427663552019-12-23T13:55:00.001-08:002021-01-11T14:03:11.520-08:00The Value of Mentors<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NcCFRguK0yw/X_zK-vl0J9I/AAAAAAAAAT8/N275icKertkm65V9ZHbiJub_YpHRSVuXQCLcBGAsYHQ/s300/Unknown-4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="224" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NcCFRguK0yw/X_zK-vl0J9I/AAAAAAAAAT8/N275icKertkm65V9ZHbiJub_YpHRSVuXQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h224/Unknown-4.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Last thoughts of the year and time to close out the decade and what a decade it has been! This blog is going to be more than a little self-indulgent but hopefully those that read it will draw something from it. So, with a little reminiscing of the early days I want to highlight the </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">positive influence mentors</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> can bring and also say thank you to those that have supported me throughout my career.</span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I started my career in 1987 at Lloyds Bank at the bottom run of the ladder<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">,</span> in-fact I was in a basement by Blackfriars Bridge on the banks of the River Thames, so you couldn’t get much lower. I never envisaged that one day I would run my own business. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That journey from a lowly “Input / Output Operator” (Yes, that really was my job title) printing bank statements on IBM 3800 laser printers and loading magnetic tapes on an IBM 3420’s tape drive (there the ones you see in the old NASA films) to Chief Executive would never have been possible without those individuals who saw something in me and then took it upon themselves to invest their time into developing me. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My “overnight success” only took 15 years to shape me into an Entrepreneur, and then a further 17 years making a myriad of mistakes and three start-ups until a successful exit. </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Serendipity</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Throughout my career I have never gone out and looked for a mentor but for some reason circumstance and serendipity have played a part where they have always found me. Yes, some of them were my Managers, but Managers are <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not </span>necessarily mentors. There is a big difference here. Also, some of them only stay with you for short periods of time, maybe six months to a year, others I can’t get rid of 33 years later! (Big Smile) and have become dear friends.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have all the academic and professional letters after my name courtesy of seven years of study at night school. Whilst I had my thinking opened through academia it is not this that has got me where I am today, but a combination of personal drive and ambition intrinsically linked to those individuals who were prepared, without asking, to give up their time to listen, to guide, to question and make me think about <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">what I was doing and how I was doing it </span>that has had the real impact on my career. Not only have they made me a better professional but they made me a better person.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Metaphorically, my mentors have come in all shapes and sizes. It would also be fair to say that some of them weren’t even knowingly mentoring me. However, ALL of my mentors have had one thing in common in that they simply wanted to see me succeed. </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Raw Material - A Complete Lack of People Skills</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1987 I was straight out of school and didn’t have a clue about anything except, I didn’t want to go to university and I wanted to work. I did however have a talent for computing and from the start I had a natural grasp on what an IBM mainframe was doing. I can’t tell you why I could do this, I just could. My brain was a constant sponge hungry for knowledge, and I had an ability to learn at pace. This caused its only set of problems, as though I have always been a grafter my people skills were completely undeveloped and my ability to frankly upset people who had been in the job for many years was un-precedented (another natural talent). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For all my technical talent I struggled to communicate with my peers let alone those senior to me. In-fact I developed a rather unhealthy lack of respect for those who just couldn’t keep up. It is probably this why I still cringe today when I watch “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Apprentice</span>” (love that programme, always wonder how I would get on?) as I see myself from 1987. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On reflection this fundamental flaw in my DNA was actually my greatest strength - an ability not to follow the crowd, not to accept the status quo, always searching for a better way of doing something through an enquiring mind are the very foundations you need as an entrepreneur. I just didn’t know it then. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, this “raw material” needed to be focused, channelled constructively and developed in the right direction to create much needed experience and learning opportunities. I was lucky I had the right people around me that were prepared to knock me into shape. </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Highs and Lows </div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have had many ups and downs over my career. The highs have been incredible, the lows have been so deep at times it would be a lie if I said I didn’t think I wasn’t going to be able to climb out of the various holes I found myself in. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This brings me nicely to a story that has always resonated with me from the “West Wing”, (for those that don’t know the West Wing, check it out, it was <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the </span>best political drama every produced). There is a scene from the episode titled “Bartlet for America” where Leo McGary, the White House Chief of Staff tells Josh Lynaham, one of the President’s Senior Advisor’s the following story…</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;">A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now you have to dig yourself out of the hole, but it helps when you have someone who tells you where to dig and shows you how. That’s the value of what mentorship is all about.</div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What to look for in a Mentor</div></span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><ul><li style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Somebody who has been there before</span> – I always say <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“If you are not the smartest person in the room then keep quiet, listen and learn. If you are the smartest person in the room, ask yourself, why am I in the room?</span>” You can learn a lot from reading books, but you will always learn more by talking with people who have got the “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Been there, done that, T-Shirt</span>”</li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Somebody who is genuinely interested in you and wanting to see you become a success </span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial;">– Being around positive people is an absolute must. The world, unfortunately, is full of people who will doubt your ability and find criticising you is a lot easier. In the corporate setting, this is often political deflection in order for self-preservation, so it’s quite easy to spot. My advice is just to stay clear of such individuals, they are not going to be a part of your game plan </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Somebody who is Prepared to give you their Time</span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial;"> – One’s time is one’s most valuable asset. To invest your time in someone else regardless of what level of relationship is something very special. Remember that and also remember to reciprocate </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Somebody who challenges you and makes you THINK!</span><span style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-family: arial;"> - You don’t necessarily have to agree with them but you do have to open your mind to other’s perspectives</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I don’t believe a mentor takes you to the next level that’s something you have do yourself. However, their advice and guidance can give you the focus and direction that definitely helps you raise your game if you are prepared to listen and learn. </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To My Mentors Throughout the Years </div></span><div style="text-align: justify;">My thanks to those that gave me a chance and mentored me over my career, I honestly know I would not be the success I am today without these people being in my life. So indulge me here please… </div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mum & Dad</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>– for instilling my work ethic in me, and the values embedded into all their three children of “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Always treat people how you expect to be treated</span>”; “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Always be true to yourself and don’t just follow the crowd</span>”; and “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No one ever owes you anything in life</span>”</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ian Cohen & Chris Hunter</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>– who took an 18-year old boy who had a lot of potential but didn’t know his arse from his elbow and got him to calm down and to focus. They still guide my career even now and I still go to them for advice, 33 years later – can you believe that???</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barry Coleman</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>- my friend and my first Manager who actually understood me and built upon the on-going work in-progress. Never ever afraid to pull me up when he had to and was never phased by giving me a real wake-up call when I got too big for my boots </div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John Downey</span> - the man who not only introduced me to project management psychology and how to play the corporate politics "power game" to one’s advantage to get things done, but also taught me there was more to life than just work. Albeit it took me years to master this but his impact on me was enormous, and I am forever grateful for his tutelage</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Julie Winterburn</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>- who spent hours listening to me, even when my first girlfriend left me (ah!) and told me on more than one occasion to get a grip! <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“If you want it, go make it happen!”. </span>One of the very best managers I have ever met</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: 600;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lance Alexander</span> </span>- for giving me a chance when I didn’t tick all the boxes and someone that always believed in me from the first moment we met. (That was a blast!). One of the pivotal moments in my career joining a small expanding entrepreneurial company – “The HUON Corporation”. Absolutely loved it and my first real steps after 8 years in the corporate environment into what business was really about </div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mike Freeman </span>– “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mentor of Mentors</span>”. The nicest man I have ever met. A man of such great experience and someone who would always give up his time to talk, coach and encourage you even late on a Friday afternoon on a customer site in deepest Scotland missing his plane home. One of the greatest lessons I remembered him teaching me after a really difficult horrible week, when even we had clashed over something to the point of a complete relationship breakdown, “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Never go home on a Friday upset, it’s just work, you disagree with people but you’re a professional and you have done your job, so shake hands have a drink and go home to your family</span>”. Come Monday we were best of friends again and ready to take on the world. Synopsis “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Learn to let it go, no point holding a grudge, life is just too short</span>, <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and you are always stronger together</span>”. I and others miss him massively; a truly wonderful human being – RIP Mike. </div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gillian Baker </span>– “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark, you’re the most unemployable person I know</span>”; enough said, but when it comes from <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the </span>Lady that broke the glass ceiling in IBM in the early 1990’s and acknowledged as one of the best marketeers in the software industry you can only smile. When Gillian talks to me, I always shut up and listen</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jenny Hedge</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>- Forever grateful for teaching me everything about how Central Government and the Civil Service works – 3 years of daily masterclasses. Best Public Sector education ever. Some-one who became a true friend as we built one of the first (and the very best!) Government Shared Service Centres for HM Prison Service. The “Phoenix Programme” made me famous and was the birth of Certus! (PS: I swear my legs are still bruised from all the kicks under the table at meetings)</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tim Warner</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>– We have worked together for 15 years and the voice of reason behind Certus. <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yin to my Yang</span>; I could never have done it on my own. Someone I still constantly go to get his calming perspective. Also, the person I have to thank for improving my English grammar and introduced to me to Latin. (I am fully expecting he will point out every flaw in this blog)</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Debra Lilley</span><span style="font-weight: 600;"> </span>- For getting my attention and for my constant education in Oracle Product Development strategy and its impact on our company. I have absolutely adored working with her over the years and Certus was so much a better company when she came onboard. One of the very best decisions we ever made.</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Richard Haycock </span>- for trusting me to pioneer Oracle SaaS Cloud in UK&I; for giving us focus, direction and encouragement with the Oracle sales teams in the early days. The man who told me directly “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Face it, you’re an entrepreneur, stop bitching about it, just accept it and get on with it</span>”. I left his office on more than one occasion with my tail between my legs</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Robinson</span> – “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The</span> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Entrepreneurs Mentor</span>”; the “masterclasses” over dinner and several bottles of red will never to be forgotten during the Certus journey. Absolutely phenomenal insight</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mr Peter Jenkins</span> (“Uncle Albert”) for making me the sales-person I am today! The difference he made to my personal conversion rates was truly remarkable. Imagine going into <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">every </span>opportunity knowing, regardless of competition, you had a 50:50 chance of winning. Unreal. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, a massive shout out again to Tim Warner, Rob English, Mary Thethi, Ian Carline, Richard Atkins – my brothers and sister in arms. We took on the world and in our own way and changed it in our space forever. Not many people can say they did what we did with Certus. You were the very best travelling companions anyone could have. Thank you.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last but not least, my wife Natalie. Is she a mentor? absolutely she is as she keeps my feet firmly planted on the ground at all times and as she says I may have been a CEO (now a “Was a”) but not in this house – <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“it’s bin day and the cat litter needs changing!”</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Time to Ride the Elevator</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If your lucky to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down</span>” – Kevin Spacey</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I find my career is now also changing unexpectedly. Ironically since the sale of Certus, opportunities I wasn’t even looking for or I would have thought I was qualified for are appearing. Also, things I never even thought of doing are materialising not just in business but in my personal life. I am dabbling with the idea of going back to night school to bring my education up to date; I seem to have developed a healthy (or unhealthy depending on your point of view) interest in Politics and Political Science. I guess 15 years of working in Central Government has rubbed off on me and my passion for classic cars and planes has never left me. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the business world I now find myself in a small gene pool of those Entrepreneurs that have undertaken a successful exit of a business. I remember many years ago talking to a number of similar people whose ranks I have now joined listening to them say “I would never do it again”. I don’t seem to be in that club for some reason. Only now have I really begun to understand that it is also my responsibility to contribute and give back to the next generation, i.e. send that elevator back down.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No-one can ever make it on their own, so seek out those that have gone before you, meet them and really listen to them opening your mind to new perspectives. Diana Ross said, “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself</span>”. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My own advice to people is always this “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Believe in yourself and</span> <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Go be Brilliant!</span>’. Serendipity played a large part in meeting people who really helped me. But I am a firm believer in that you create your own luck so go seek out those who can help you. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for me turning 51 I suddenly feel I have only just got started. My gut is telling me that the next decade is just going to be fantastic both in business and personal growth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, for now I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I will see you on the other side. </div></span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-62634689719112819912019-12-19T13:52:00.000-08:002021-01-11T13:54:52.642-08:00Fool’s Gold - “Best of Breed” – Part II<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WXThOiuPfAE/X_zHBfnQvsI/AAAAAAAAATw/epqxVgXx9u0RXsLP7cnY-e4mTgDgiY6iQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/images-2.jpeg" width="400" /></span></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In Part I, I raised the spectre of the return of a “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best of Breed</span>” strategy for slicing and dicing up the Back Office corporate Finance and HR systems and outlined the drivers for this behaviour.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The questions I pose too anyone thinking of doing this are: Knowing the benefits of Finance and HR working together why would you separate them? What are you really achieving by having multiple Cloud platforms for the Back Office? Why go to the expense of doing this? Are you really better and have deeper pockets than that of the Silicon Valley fuelled Research & Development (R&D) investment that has taken place over the past 15 years?</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Powerhouse of R&D Investment </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Oracle, SAP, Workday, Unit 4, Infor, FinancialForce et al collectively invest billions of dollars a year in R&D. Oracle’s R&D budget in SaaS applications is quoted to be around $6 Billion a year! Where does it all go? </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Engineering world class software is a capital expensive business and it is fuelled by R&D. It starts off with an abundance of initiatives that over time are whittled down into the final product. Constant iteration against a moving marketplace can easily mean investments can become sunk costs and write-offs as the sands move under you. Software engineering is a high-risk poker game. The rewards can be massive, but the risks required to be undertaken are equally substantial. It all requires money and lots of it and that’s why Venture Capitalists and Private Equity exist in the first place. It is also a game played by experts with a lifetime of experience.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So why do Organisations and the Users of these systems now consider that their new world Enterprise Structure should consist of multiple Back Office platforms? In effect re-engineering and undoing all the benefits and learnings that has been derived from the billions of R&D investments undertaken. If you pursue a strategy of breaking up the Back Office across multiple platforms hosting multiple SaaS applications just why do you think you can do it better? and what business benefit are you really delivering?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The power of SaaS Cloud applications is in the intrinsic value that is created in terms of operational insight of bringing Finance and HR together in a single fully integrated instance. One data model providing the foundation for technologies like adaptive intelligence and machine learning for many years to come. The R&D at great investment has already been undertaken bringing together the very best talent across the world including, but not limited to: the most current thinking of subject matter intellectuals and thought leaders; behavioural scientists; data scientists; creatives; and the very best software designers. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No organisation, private or public sector has the money, time or experience to pull together what the major software vendors have achieved in regard to Back Office SaaS applications, let alone keep pace with the underlying forward investment required to continuously drive innovation. Their sole focus should be on front of house and their business.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Fool’s Gold – Challenges of a Best of Breed Cloud Strategy for the Back Office</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Not one of the Tier 1 Software Vendor powerhouses I know would openly endorse multi-platforms for the core enterprise applications (HR & Finance). The challenges you open yourself up to include, but <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not </span>limited to:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barrier to Entry for Technology Innovation</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Technologies like AI and Machine Learning are embedded in the applications and work off a single aggregated data model as they are </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">data driven not process driven.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Split the data model up and potentially you can’t necessarily make full use of this type of innovation that comes with the platform. The Software Vendors are always building for tomorrow and not for today so you won’t be able to keep up </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Continued Investment to Stay Current </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is the ability to constantly stay current on the latest release of software. To replace Back Office functionality with microservices means you are going to have to replicate similar types of on-going investment. Do you really have the finances and the investment capability to continually do this?</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reduced Negotiating Power</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – SaaS vendors love to do commercial deals on bulk of modules and volume. By not selecting one Vendor for the core product suite, you are at risk of losing significant commercial discounts and your negotiating position becomes weaker</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Higher Implementation Costs</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Now you have multiple Cloud platforms to implement and then integrate. The costs include but not limited to are significant everything from contracting, commissioning, mobilising Consultants with different skill sets to implement, and then on-going support. You lose economies of scale in terms of cost</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Multiple Patching Cadences</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Multiple SaaS packages from different vendors will be on different patching schedules; trying to get these to align throughout the year is not realistically possible. The risk is constant that one side of the two systems (possibly more) is going to change and something is going to break. You are going to be in constant state of regression testing </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Consistency of UX is lost / Accessibility Impacted </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Multiple SaaS packages from multiple vendors means by default multiple UX. Accessibility is also significantly impacted which will result in compromises through off system work-arounds. Consequently, to regain consistency another layer of the enterprise potentially, though not required, would need to be added</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Integration or Interfaces</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">or both</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Open systems aside. Are you integrating the data, or just building point-to-point or a middleware enterprise service bus? Regardless, data models and interface technology changes; these all require ongoing support. It doesn’t take much for either to stop working </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Disaggregated Data Model</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Instead of a single data model, we have data replicated all over the enterprise. This naturally needs to be constantly synchronised and in all probability in real time </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Increased Security Risk</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Profile </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Integration and Interfaces require security. Transferring data between platforms naturally introduces greater risk of data loss. Neither SaaS vendor is going to take responsibility for the data while it is being transferred; that’s for you to take responsibility for </span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Increased Support</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Costs</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – More products, more integrations, more knowledge, different skills required both inside and outside the tent and also the cost of managing multiple vendors and contracts</span></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The bottom line is your total cost of ownership is going to be significantly higher over the long run. Welcome to the 90’s!</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Where does Best of Breed Make Sense?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">there is</span> a place for integration of SaaS application platforms that can leverage huge benefits and that area is in Organisations <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">connecting their Front Office to the Back Office</span>. This is where integration and use of open systems architecture comes into play – at the macro level, not at the functional module micro level in the Back Office.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There are Software Vendors that have laser like focus and have transformed software development for the Front Office from a customer experience perspective. One stands head and shoulders above the rest and that is Salesforce - the blueprint for Cloud in terms of product but also as a service organisation. Being a platform itself it has enabled a myriad of specialist SME’s to bring highly innovative products to the market that <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">should not</span> be ignored! SME’s are the <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">powerhouse of innovation</span>, especially in the United Kingdom. (Definitely a blog for another day)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Personally, I think Oracle still have much to do in the CX area and this is becoming an area of greater focus for them. CX encompasses a whole host of different products usually acquired through acquisition. It is only matter with time with Oracle before they get this right.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, one to look out for is the company “Service Now”. Once merely the domain of the IT Helpdesk, it already is and looking further to extend a suite of “vertical experiences” over the top of other platforms. Personally, I have high expectations for Service Now. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, the “Qualtrics” acquisition by SAP could be their saving grace and a potential game changer here as this is key to their future strategy of delivering “experiences”. However initial reaction to their "X" (eXperience) and "O" (Operational) data strategy has not been overly positive.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What Should You do?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ol><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Decide upon a </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">single core platform for <u style="box-sizing: inherit;">all</u> the core back office business functionality </span><span style="font-family: arial;">and stick with that platform vendor for better or for worse</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Use your single core platform Open Systems Architecture that is rich in API’s to extend the functionality by creating bespoke microservices that provide services that are specific to the Organisation but are not delivered by the core platforms functional modules. (Look to host these as a Platform as a Service, preferably on the same infrastructure supporting SaaS)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Collaborate with your chosen platform Software Vendor to continually raise the bar and help them become an even better delivery partner than they are today. Cloud isn't just about product its about customer service. You will ultimately benefit from this</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Leverage new core SaaS innovation as and when it arrives looking as to how this can positively impact on your business operation and then make sure you implement it and use it (so many don't and this becomes missed opportunity)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Consider a Best of Breed strategy for the Front Office; looking to take advantage of those Software Vendors that have innovated in this area (especially SME’s) or the further build of local specific microservices that reflect your offerings with a view if connecting to the Back Office and driving value end-to-end across the enterprise delivering superior customer and employee experiences</span></li></ol></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Fool’s Gold </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Regardless of platform preference for those that proceed with the approach of splitting up an already fully integrated back office suite of HR & Finance SaaS applications on a single platform need to be challenged. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It doesn’t take much to look into the crystal ball, roll forward the clock five years and listen to the noise around “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">total cost of ownership</span>”; the unreliability of the integrations; the cost of managing all the integrations; the size of the internal Information Technology department; and then for the penny to drop and those Organisations starting to strategically retire such applications and finally move to a single core platform. For me this is and always will be simply “Fool’s Gold”.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, if you have made it through to the end of these two blogs – thank you and congratulations as I have probably just saved you somewhere between £250-500K and 3-6 months in expensive Consultancy fees to point out the same findings. (Nice work if you can get it though). Cheques in the post are still always kindly accepted. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I very much look forward to people’s opinions and the ongoing discussion, but as I stated in Part I, the answers to many of today’s problems can usually be found in the past.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div></div><p></p><p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></p>Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-76404706703268658172019-12-17T13:39:00.007-08:002021-01-11T13:53:54.165-08:00Fool’s Gold - “Best of Breed” – Part I<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3dTvCwjJgwU/X_zGVtNEM9I/AAAAAAAAATo/eidljwdmaFsr4vKqvtRmneon6Tbrw6J5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s276/images-2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3dTvCwjJgwU/X_zGVtNEM9I/AAAAAAAAATo/eidljwdmaFsr4vKqvtRmneon6Tbrw6J5wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h265/images-2.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">You can probably guess from the title that I am not a fan of the recent emergence of “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best of Breed</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” as a strategy for separating out the individual functional components of ERP and HCM SaaS Cloud platforms for the Back Office. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As my thoughts became written-word I took the decision to split this blog into two parts to keep readers focused. Part I looks at the business drivers where Part II the implications and reality of undertaking such a strategy. Yes, this has a heavy Oracle Cloud slant to it and for good reason, however I have commented on the wider market throughout. I want to stress from the outset that I am not talking about the Front Office where equally brilliant innovation can be found amongst both the Tier 1 and Tier 2 SME market providers for </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">niche </span><span style="font-family: arial;">solutions that can add tremendous value to a business and can be integrated into the Back Office.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many will disagree with my views but I genuinely hope many will also find them useful and gain some insight from my observations and arguments which is built upon my 30+ years’ experience as a practitioner who lived through the first generation of on-premise “Best of Breed”; has been involved in 40+ Oracle SaaS Cloud implementations as well being a former Chief Executive who was responsible for the vision, strategy and ultimately the successful exit of the UK’s premier Oracle Cloud professional services company. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Urban Myths and Missed Opportunity</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Over three years ago I published a series of blogs titled “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Urban Myths of Oracle Cloud Implementations</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” (</span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/urban-myths-oracle-cloud-implementations-part-i-mark-sweeny/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text-link-visited-active); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/urban-myths-oracle-cloud-implementations-part-i-mark-sweeny/</a><span style="font-family: arial;">). Technology innovation has advanced relentlessly to the extent that I honestly struggle to understand Organisations that are still “dithering” about moving to the Cloud. The costs involved in making and justifying the many known benefits for what is a “no-brainer” decision too many is just perplexing to me. Add this to the opportunity cost of delay itself or just doing nothing and the missed opportunity in terms of return on investment, both tangible and intangible, becomes eye-watering.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Since then, Oracle Cloud has accelerated in its maturity and functionality across the organisation’s Back Office. Whilst the offering still isn’t perfect (what product ever is?), it’s become THE platform play for combining Finance and HR onto a single data model providing operational insight; possessing a rich depth of business functionality; and become an engine for the constant delivery of technology innovation that makes use of new technologies like Adaptive Intelligence (AI) (a subset of Artificial Intelligence) and Machine Learning (ML) that are already embedded into the platform. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Oracle’s strategy of re-architecting the “Fusion” products for the Cloud a decade ago is now paying off big time. Acknowledged as being late to the Cloud, Oracle Product Development has now created so much momentum it has pushed itself to the front of the pack in the on-going Tier 1 “Cloud Wars” for the Back Office. This is now universally recognised, with even the likes of the mighty Gartner and Forrester (who Oracle have never had the easiest of relationships with) acknowledging this through their magic quadrant analysis.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Missed Opportunity? Not On My Watch</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">People will argue I am naturally biased because of my own rich Oracle heritage. But anyone who knows me well will also know that my argument is that I always saw “Cloud” purely as a business opportunity and Oracle created the best environment for future commercial success and a healthy long-term return on investment.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I will also tell you quite freely what everyone knows already that SAP is not true Cloud but a suite of products collected through acquisition that are “stuck” together and requires somebody else’s Cloud infrastructure to be installed upon. The core was never re-engineered for the Cloud so SAP is effectively “on-premise” in someone else’s data centre. However, the recent “Qualtrics” acquisition by SAP was an inspired strategic move.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Workday is a great company and truly has a great product for HR but soon as you need to stretch the product across the enterprise it becomes exposed with a lack of breath and depth of functionality. Its financial offerings are not as broad or as deep as Oracle or SAP. Will it catchup? Yes, but it feels like the “Peoplesoft” product development market cycle again and time is against them. Workday continue to develop their HR product in terms of depth and position it from a system of record to a collective set of capabilities. Its </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Achilles heel </span><span style="font-family: arial;">is that “experiences” go across an Organisation and finance functions touches every employee in some way so both HR and Finance need to be present. People just don’t work inside functional modules or silos.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The result of all of this is multiple core applications makes the underlying data model disaggregated and you immediately start to compromise on a consistent user experience and accessibility; data mining and insight; and future innovation delivery across the suite becomes much more complex as it is not naturally embedded into the product, not to mention the underlying integration between modules that has to be wired in and maintained. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">The Experience Economy</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The fundamental point here is the game has changed and regardless of platform choice we are now in the business of delivering “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">experiences - a collection of end-to-end capabilities combined togetherover standardised processes ensuring a single record of truth is maintained</span>”. Software Vendors are investing more than ever to innovate at speed and win market share. In doing so tighter integration is required between traditional functional modules as well as a data model that is used by the new technologies like Adaptive Intelligence and </span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Machine Learning.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Employees do not work inside functional modules whatever platform you ultimately select. In-fact with the advances in voice recognition technology the new “UX” is in-fact no “UX” whatsoever. Try doing that effectively on an on-premise system and by the way “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">putting lipstick on a pig</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” isn’t the long-term answer either! (See </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-experience-game-mark-sweeny/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text-link-visited-active); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-experience-game-mark-sweeny/</a><span style="font-family: arial;">) </span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Graveyard of Acronyms & Phrases</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However most recently there has been murmurings across the market of a phrase that I had personally hoped would remain in the graveyard of acronyms and phrases. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">“<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Best of Breed</span></span>” the first time around in the 90’s was probably the most-costly ill-conceived technical strategy ever created and its possible return is now even more concerning. Promoted at the time to be the universal panacea to all of one’s problems it failed on an epic scale. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What seems theoretically an idea of merit in taking the best solutions that each of the market software vendors possess and integrate them to deliver the ultimate enterprise Cloud Application SaaS platform in reality I will assure you will quickly become a nightmare! An absolute money pit of despair and frankly “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fool’s Gold</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">” for carving up back office functionality by module as well as possibly creating a barrier to entry for use of new future technology.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">History Repeating Itself </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I vividly remember such visions of corporate Best of Breed architecture excellence from a previous generation of leaders with business cases stacked full of healthy ROI for justification.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">It was then left to the Technical teams to work out how to get all of this to work. No surprise to any of us that we seemed to spend a lifetime wiring it all together (often with sticky tape and string) to then having to constantly plaster over the cracks. IT departments got bigger as we had to justify keeping this rat’s nest of cobwebs all hanging together as systems were upgraded and interfaces broke. Business got frustrated and hence “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">IT fails to deliver</span>” became the mantra of the day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2020 - Roll forward to the start of a new decade and now we seem to be talking about it again. The technology may have changed and we have sexy new architectures and tools: Open Source; PaaS; middleware; integration clouds; advanced transport mechanisms and REST API’s etc… to play with but effectively the conversation appears to be returning to the thinking of 25-30 years ago. So, what’s driving this? </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Market Competition</span><span style="font-family: arial;">– the thinking that by continually playing Software Vendors off against one another through constant beauty parades prevents monopolies, drives excellence and value for money through competition. Wrong on every count – you cannot manipulate the market as the market adapts accordingly. The tier one SaaS market is already an oligopoly with Oracle, SAP and Workday the only three large scale enterprise solutions in play. Their growth plans are based upon known market behaviours, economics as well as the need for future innovative products</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Avoiding Vendor Lock-in </span><span style="font-family: arial;">- Whilst every SaaS contract has exit clauses and great stress is often put on this during procurement cycles ensuring the customer is not locked in forever into one given platform. The reality is the transition and exit costs are on par with undertaking a new platform implementation. Changing the core SaaS platform on a regular basis (say every 3, even 5 years) is not going to stack up commercially. It is this that locks you into the platform and not the Vendor’s</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Procurement Competition Structure </span><span style="font-family: arial;">- the way procurements are often structured (especially in the Public Sector); it’s still feature function against a scorecard. Completely the opposite way SaaS systems are designed and used in practice. But because business users often see functionality in </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">isolation </span><span style="font-family: arial;">during a procurement sometimes the prettiest system just wins (fickle!)</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pandering to the Business</span><span style="font-family: arial;">- </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“We’re Special”</span><span style="font-family: arial;">- not really prepared to </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">adopt Cloud processes and adapt business processes</span><span style="font-family: arial;">accordingly. Best of Breed can be perceived as a way of providing greater flexibility which in reality it won’t</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Build v Buy </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– There is a real need for the core data held centrally in a Cloud SaaS system to be accessible to feed local satellite systems or “Microservices”. It is these microservices that are specific to the Organisation and used on a daily basis that cannot be delivered through the core SaaS functionality is where local investment and development should reside. However, extending the “build” thinking into the Back Office SaaS domain with moving to a “plug and play” scenario where functionality can just be swapped in and out accordingly at module level is just wrong</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Recognise any of these? I am a great studier of history often citing that the answers to many of today’s problems can usually be found in the past. But similarly, the thinking in some quarters of a new generation is obviously skipping these valuable chapters of the book and are unwisely setting their organisations on a course at best can be classed as “lost at sea” or at worse “a train wreck”. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Look out for Part II where I explain the rationale in further detail and also where “Best of Breed” thinking <span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">does </span>have a place.</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-75209476255178346452019-11-27T13:29:00.001-08:002021-01-11T13:38:52.331-08:00Some People Just Don’t Want to Be Transformed…<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KAAbbyqFe3k/X_zFOn-62XI/AAAAAAAAATc/DTeOrzRgHusOg_DqiqylVwbS0GXp5VStQCLcBGAsYHQ/s300/time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="300" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KAAbbyqFe3k/X_zFOn-62XI/AAAAAAAAATc/DTeOrzRgHusOg_DqiqylVwbS0GXp5VStQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/time.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Experience in sales usually comes from one’s ability to read people within the first 30 seconds into the opening salvo of “discovery” questions, whilst working out simultaneously if there is real interest in the conversation rather than just having a meeting exchanging pleasantries. Body language being the key indicator as you cast your lure to see if the prospect is actually going to bite whilst delivering that important open question, followed by a moment of silence, which </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">hopefully</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> prompts an information download in return.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When it comes to the world of digital the word “transformation” usually follows in the same sentence. Both front and back office Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) based applications have the power to drive permanent change and can positively disrupt the way organisations work as they impact on underlying business models. Throw in some AI, RPA and whatever the current flavour of the month is (acronyms that are now banded around on a daily basis) and with a clever manipulation of an Excel spreadsheet your ROI in such a venture is going to go off the scale. Happy days!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, there is one major problem and its simply that your prospect’s people </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">don’t </span><span style="font-family: arial;">want to be transformed – how dare they!</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Human Behaviour – It’s in our DNA</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Your prospect may say they want to transform the organisation and may even be working on that very business case that is going to return hundreds of ROI percentage points in tangible (cashable) and intangible benefits to support their vision of a brave new world. However, the reality is they really like the status quo and the way of doing things, why? because </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Change is Hard!”.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">People that like change are, in my experience, very much in the minority. (Exclude entrepreneurs here as we are generally on a mission to disrupt the status quo for the better regardless and the fact that you don’t find many entrepreneurs working inside large organisations as they are often the most unemployable type of people that exists. Anyway, I digress; that’s for another blog on another day).</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Basic Human DNA is that when we are comfortable and happy the last thing we want is somebody coming along and up-setting the apple cart. Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? well its true today as it was in 1943 when he came up with it. Mess with the basis of our emotional state and the unpredictable or in this context the predictable happens – instant subconscious resistance to change. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">From a sales perspective again experience usually allows you to identify this within that very first sales call. It is at this point you have to decide your strategy and tactics moving forward to achieve a close. The danger being that you close a sale upon the false emotional context of the buyer. Congratulations on the sale, however this only sets the ensuring engagement up for immediate failure as both buyer and supplier expectations are instantly out of alignment regardless of what it says in the contract. Instead of having the foundations of success, you have the foundations of a fractious relationship.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">What do People really want? The thing they value the most – their time!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Most of us just want an easy life and most people don’t want to change the world. Those that do embark on that journey start by understanding that they usually need to change one’s self first. Change is hard; it introduces risk; it can be unpredictable; your job can change & even worse disappear; and change is not always for the better. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, people are genuinely receptive to a positive “experience”, especially one that makes their lives easier. Think about it. Why would you not be receptive to something that makes your life easier? It is quite possible to use the new innovative technologies that are now available to deliver new “experiences” without having to transform one’s entire world. Believe it or not you can even deliver new experiences without technology simply by stopping doing unproductive irrelevant tasks that most of us undertake on a routine basis.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It is equally possible to deliver enough of these new experiences that over time you transform an organisation’s world by stealth by changing people’s mindset and behaviour incrementally. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A positive experience will resonate and open an individual’s mind to something new. A negative experience will naturally have the opposite effect. More importantly they will remember both.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At this point everyone says “thank you for telling us the obvious”, however brand loyalty is built through customer advocacy - the most powerful type of marketing that exists. It creates the holy grail; eutopia; the universal panacea that we all crave for as it underpins success through repeat business by returning happy customers. Undertaken correctly you create the snowball effect for greater product/service demand and consumption. You would be surprised just how many people don’t understand this fundamental business concept.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">From Front Office to Back Office</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The last decade has seen digital disruption in the front office take a grip and you only have to look at the likes of Adidas and Nike who create as much as possible an immersive customer experience through their online shop windows as they do in their physical stores. They are no longer just retail companies but technology companies in their own right. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">What is now taken for granted as a way of doing business directly with consumers is now targeting employees inside these businesses. Happy employees make happy customers. A positive mindset and behaviour promote superior customer service, creating positive experiences. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the context of a people dynamic at work we can answer the question simply through this equation:</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">What do People really want? = Positive Experiences that Creates Time</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The most valuable thing we all possess is our time. The one thing we all have in common is that everyone’s time is limited and the cliché quote “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">time is money</span>” is absolutely spot on. We all need to use our time wisely. </div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the workplace we want employees to feel they are valued and too achieve that we want them spending their time doing purposeful work that adds value to the business and that usually means people using their time to interact and collaborate with other people. The social and behavioural elements of work cannot be under-estimated. Part time Mum’s and Dad’s often return to work, not just out of the necessity to earn a wage, but because work provides an environment that provides social interaction with others. Intelligent and stimulating conversation, problem solving, and making a difference, being proud are all characteristics that help us make us feel valued.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The mundane, but absolutely necessary, back office processes need to be executed easily and quickly, in doing so this drives down the costs of operation whilst maintaining control. Result “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Better, Cheaper, Faster</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” executed – the best business strategy ever created fuelled by happy employees who are focusing on using their time to create value, rather than wasting it in the back office. </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">So how can Technology play its part in Creating Time?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Stephen R. Covey say’s “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The key is in not spending time, but in investing it</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">”. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">How do we achieve that? by creating positive time saving employee experiences. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Things are moving fast in tech as I stated in one my recent blog “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Experience Economy</span><span style="font-family: arial;">” (</span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-experience-game-mark-sweeny/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text-link-visited-active); font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/welcome-experience-game-mark-sweeny/</a><span style="font-family: arial;">) the technology industry has already jumped aboard this ship turning its attention to the employee experience in the back office with the differentiator of data driving experiences and not process.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Imagine the day when you log on to the company work portal, and the technology based upon your individual behaviour (and even one day your emotional state of mind!) has already worked out the working day - prioritised the mundane back office tasks; informed you of things you must address; even setup meetings automatically and ensured that any “industry breaking news” of interest you are made aware of. In doing so it creates a </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">personalised experience</span><span style="font-family: arial;">. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We now square the circle in terms of argument and end back up in the 1990’s around the “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">efficiency v effectiveness</span>” debate, but this time it’s not about the process but rather about an individual’s time delivered through personalised positive experiences at work. The additional benefit possibly being greater work-life balance, allowing even more leisure time that allows for focus with family and friends. Isn’t that’s what life is really about?</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Help the Buyer, Be the Honest Broker and Change the Conversation…</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Final words of advice - always help the Buyer, especially if they can’t find their way through their own “transformation” strategy let alone their buying process. If you detect that the Buyer isn’t being honest with themselves about their stated intentions - help them, even to the extent of pushing the issue by painting them a different picture that achieves the outcomes they are striving for without having to turn their world completely upside down. Change the conversation.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Full Digital Transformation (as Consultants know it) in the context of the back office is not always the answer and even if it is it, cannot be done overnight and realistically takes between 18 months to 3 years to do it properly. It is also hard work. Winning hearts and minds is never easy. However, using technology to create new experiences can be done today more quickly it just takes creativity, technology innovation and will power to make it happen. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We are now living in a world where experiences are personalised over standardised processes. Remember long-term value isn’t necessary in standardised process but in the experience that gives back that most precious of assets – “our time”. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Views? discuss and comment. As always, I look forward to hearing other’s perspectives…</div></span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-54094254971896219612019-10-30T14:17:00.001-07:002021-01-11T13:28:15.966-08:00"Welcome to The Experience Game"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A9-8sWVn2Qc/X_zCqQ2FHgI/AAAAAAAAATQ/Vm3HQFDFhbor9i9jdgs3kXzfBEit4w4CACLcBGAsYHQ/s231/EE.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="231" data-original-width="218" height="342" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A9-8sWVn2Qc/X_zCqQ2FHgI/AAAAAAAAATQ/Vm3HQFDFhbor9i9jdgs3kXzfBEit4w4CACLcBGAsYHQ/w485-h342/EE.jpeg" width="485" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is probably one of the most important blogs I have written and something I am going to look back on in years to come as we have reached yet another inflection point in the world of enterprise software. Something I began to see at the beginning of 2019 is now becoming reality and I thought I would share my perspective on the direction of travel as the major Software Vendors play their next hand from the deck of cards called “technology innovation”.<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In my last blog I previously highlighted the importance of understanding market cycles to seek new business opportunities and now, with certainty, what I was seeing at the beginning of the year is fast becoming reality and in my opinion is going to redefine the ERP marketplace. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Cliché it maybe, I first wrote about it over four years ago, but the saying “<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">look after your employees and they will look after your customers</span>” is now more important than ever and it just seems like the same light bulb has just gone on simultaneously all over the world. </div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Enterprise Cloud based solutions are now taken for granted and whilst many businesses and organisations have still yet to make the move in terms of technology innovation this is now seriously old news. I have commented extensively about bridging the “innovation gap” as all it does is increase and as businesses and organisations continue to defer the decision to move opportunity is naturally lost. A source of personal frustration when I have conversations and find myself having to smile politely when listening to what amounts to poor justifications as to why one has deferred moving to the Cloud. This is usually based upon a poorly informed perspective through the lack of knowledge. Now we have reached an inflection point and the market is moving again.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The conversation in the future for the back office enterprise is no longer going to be about Finance or HR systems in the Cloud nor will it be about Finance or HR transformation (large SI’s please take note!) or even worse the most over used term of a generation - “digital transformation”. Even the abbreviation “ERP” will possibly now be consigned to the history books as this inflection point takes hold.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600;">Enter the “Experience Economy”</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The term "Experience Economy" was first used in a 1998 article by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore and was subsequently used as the basis of their book “The Experience Economy” where they articulate that businesses to differentiate themselves must constantly create memorable events for their customers and that the memory itself becomes the product, i.e. the "experience". (A revised edition is coming out in December ’19 this year!). This is another example of looking to the past to find the future!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So now apply this thinking to the employee and not necessarily the customer. Imagine a world in the business context where </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">every</u> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">business experience is personalised just for you whilst the underlying business processes are standardised. What has dominated the B2C market for years over the internet has now arrived in the back office. The technologies used pre-dominantly throughout social media and modern retail orientated websites to track our behaviours and influence us subconsciously are now going to become common place in the working environment.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It’s the technologies like AI, RPA and predictive analytics that are underpinning this. Remember though the conversation an organisation wants to have is what experiences are we delivering up to our employees, customers and suppliers and not what the enabling technologies we are using. (A rookie mistake that I see many Consultancies make day-in-day out especially those who still try to be all things to all people). Always focus on the business problem you are trying to solve, whatever you are proposing why is it "</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 0.975em; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Better, Cheaper, Faster</span><span style="font-family: arial;">" than what currently exists today?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In all it’s a new kind of enterprise platform play providing a single employee integrated experience.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Imagine logging onto your work portal to find all your work for the day is already organised for you to undertake. The new platform understands the corporate calendar of business operations, it knows about your personal calendar, it knows your role, and subsequently understands what is required for you to execute your job on a day-to-day basis and it knows how you as an individual like to operate across work and non-work systems (read internet) you interact with. And if something of interest occurs in the field of your expertise is going on in the world, it already has scanned the Internet bringing that article or point of view to your attention. It ensures you have the tools ready and available 24x7 so you can always be on top of your game. This is something that goes across multiple back office systems, drawing in data and metadata alike to build a personal digital persona reflecting your role and the work you undertake. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">No more navigating screens, no more having to go look for something, it’s just there ready for you. Your life at work has just become easier and you feel good because you have more time. Throw in speech recognition and you won’t even have to touch a keyboard.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Superior employee experiences will drive positive customer experience. The two are positively correlated and a single personalised employee integrated experience delivers this.</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Sounds great? Good! because this is where we are now all heading.</div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600;">The Market Place – The pieces of the Jigsaw Assemble</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In my opinion this time Larry and Co at Oracle are ahead of the game. They have talked about this extensively at Openworld and their HCM Captains of Industry and Ambassadors currently are on a World-Wide tour driving home this message leveraging off their current new User Experience tactically, but clearly articulating the future which is here and how they are moving towards it. Give credit where credit is due they even gave the Oracle brand a positive face lift, but watch for greater technology innovation arriving over the next 24 months as Ellison doubles down on his direction in regard to SaaS applications. However Oracle isn't the only game in town.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Salesforce, as you would expect are already talking about this but they still lack the penetration in my opinion across the back office enterprise but to discount them would be fatal. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mike Ettling, CEO at Unit 4, made his announcement and a big push into this space just last month at Unleash19 and last week Bill McDermott, the industry veteran CEO of SAP moved to Service Now even more interestingly the ex-CEO of Service Now is moving to Nike! – That tells you something about the retail industry and the value of those who truly understand we are in the “experience” game. McDermott’s forte is acquisition, so watch out for strategic acquisitions that puts the employee experience front and centre. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Meanwhile SAP are blitzing the SkyNews channel in advertising regard to experience management through their “Qualtrics” acquisition. This could be the solution to what I think is their Achilles Heal in that HANA is not really Cloud, and they need someone else’s – usually Microsoft and also their enterprise suite is a collection of products from acquisitions. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Workday suddenly appears to behind the ball for the first time so it will be interesting to see what announcements they make in this area. Microsoft will no doubt follow in due course as even the newbies on the block UIPath new marketing message is breaking out from just Robotics Process Automation (RPA) into the experience game. Personally, I always thought Microsoft would try and acquire UIPath.</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Just like when Cloud became mainstream the SaaS Platform Vendors are now setting the pace and the tone of the future. The industry has already moved to the new market that being the “experience” play. SME’s take note there is opportunity here. You can argue that the digital design agencies saw this coming over a decade ago, but lacked the technology and capability to deliver, however the point being now is that the “employee experience” is the new “customer experience”. That also leaves a nice gap for the “Supplier Experience”. </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600;">Brave New World brings New Business Opportunities</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So a new game is afoot and many new business opportunities exist. The questions are (1) Can the Customer base get their head around what is happening and see the many benefits that this is going to bring? (2) Can the Software Vendors deliver on their marketing messages? – my bet is very much yes they can and already have started to albeit this is still going to take time (3) Can the Systems Integrators see the new market plays recognising that the conversation has changed?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A final thought is that most technologies become commoditised over time and so do the surrounding services. Will this happen with the experience game? Personally, I don’t think so, my rationale being that experiences are intrinsically linked to human behaviour. Our behaviours over time change, and therefore our expectations around personalised experiences will also change consequently the technology platforms providing these personalised experiences will also need to change accordingly. Whether I am right or wrong with this only time will tell? but I don’t think you can commoditise a personal experience.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I know one thing with certainty though it’s getting really exciting again and the industry is pivoting - I can see it and more importantly I can feel it! “There is gold in those hills…and fortune favours the brave”.</span></div><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); font-size: 2rem; line-height: 3.2rem; margin: 3.2rem 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span></p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-35942942662014785912019-10-09T13:10:00.004-07:002021-01-11T14:15:53.216-08:00Market Dynamics – The Secrets of the Crystal Ball & Finding the Gap<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vnTNVLXHAXg/X_zODS6h2sI/AAAAAAAAAUY/MWXnNCxQQr49h_Y3mcoA8xBA-w2Dviu4QCLcBGAsYHQ/s900/9-hands-on-crystal-ball-and-cryptocurrency-allan-swart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="900" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vnTNVLXHAXg/X_zODS6h2sI/AAAAAAAAAUY/MWXnNCxQQr49h_Y3mcoA8xBA-w2Dviu4QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h295/9-hands-on-crystal-ball-and-cryptocurrency-allan-swart.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial;">My insatiable curiosity for watching market forces is an addiction I have never been able to fully reconcile. For myself my market of choice has always been Information Technology. An interest fostered by my father, who was by his own admission a fledgling IT Director in the late 70’s early 80’s, alongside a teenage hobby fuelled by my home computer (my weapon of choice being the “BBC Micro Model B 32K” because I couldn’t afford an Apple II) and a fledging schoolboy entrepreneurial venture writing “O” level projects for £25 a pop which subsequently led to a professional career spanning over 32 years and counting, comprising many ups and downs. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Over time I have watched my industry change beyond all recognition. More specifically watching the Software Vendors and the Systems Integrators landscape both globally and locally (UK) is something I have always found fascinating. It will always be of great pride and a high degree of satisfaction that in my own small way I was able to put all my knowledge, learning and experience into practice and contribute by founding a niche player which took advantage of a gap in the market and subsequently sold it, with my business partner, to a much bigger fish in the sea. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Understanding market dynamics and the supply and demand equation is just one continuous learning experience. On one-side is the demand which requires you to have insight into customers business operations to comprehend the challenges and drivers that comprise the market forces that are in play. Balancing the equation is the supply side comprising the “players” - the service providers that come in all shapes and sizes with their different value propositions and all trying to differentiate themselves from one another (well the smart ones are at least!).</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As technology innovation continues to accelerate and knowing that the technology of today and tomorrow </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><u style="box-sizing: inherit;">is</u></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> truly transformational my endless curiosity has always been three-fold. Firstly, if consumer organisations can really take advantage of technology innovation and adapt to new ways of working or will they become another tombstone in the graveyard. Secondly, if the existing players in the market can actually change their service offerings and underlying operating models to serve the consumer’s needs not only of today but more importantly of tomorrow. Finally, and for me the most interesting, is whether new market opportunity attracts new entrants with new go-to-market strategies and product/service propositions. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To have a successful business, of any size, from the corner newspaper shop through to the likes of the very large global Systems Integrators, one thing they both have in common is that need to provide products and/or services that are relevant to a market of consumers who are willing to buy through delivery channels that can service the markets efficiently. If you become no longer relevant to your market you will simply, over time, go out of business. Consequently, understanding the market and the buyer’s needs is absolutely critical, especially when market forces and external events are constantly changing. The sand is quite simply moving underneath your feet and remember no one is ever too big to fail, and that in itself is a business opportunity.</span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Finding the Gap</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now the exciting part is spotting the market opportunity or in layman’s terms the “gap”. This either comes about when either the needs of the consumer are not being met by the existing players or when an advancement, usually but not always, in technology creates a new business model and new ways of working and a new need materialises upsetting the status quo and the natural order of things. This is market disruption. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Consequently, the market changes and metaphorically the planets come out of alignment in regard to supply and demand. Being able to spot this and react quickly is the trick as this can happen almost overnight. Even better if you can predict it in advance and position yourself accordingly as this is where you make the real money. Success in business is always about timing and having the cash to fund the venture. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now I could go on at this point quoting much more advanced economic theory, however everything in my opinion comes down to basic market analysis of factors (Social, Economic, Political, Technology, Environment, Legal) and the basics of supply and demand. Then throw in some outcome scenario planning (cause and effect) and gamification theory and you end up with a comprehensive model you can apply. Research is necessarily, but it is important to remember that markets are in a constant state of flux and “windows” of opportunity appear and close. Richard Branson once said that his top team make investment decisions within a six-week window, after that, they believe that they probably have missed the boat.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">What’s the Magic Formula?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For me it’s simply this. Markets are </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">cyclical</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> in nature and therefore to a degree predictable. Combine this with what you know about the supply side and again the predictable nature of incumbent players and the formula becomes complete. History really does have a habit of repeating itself. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ones focus should always be on the market, the consumer, and not in the first instance the companies that service that industry. They are obviously very important pieces on the Chess Board, but the market – the consumer need, overrides everything so this is where the focus needs to be. To para-phase “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">don’t take your eye off the prize and get distracted by what others are or are not doing</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">What have I have Learned? </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now I am not going to go into detail as to how Certus Solutions cracked Central Government with Oracle Cloud here (that’s coming in my book – first shameless plug), albeit in my eyes it is the ultimate case study. But I can assure you it was not down to luck. Luck is a fool’s game, and every entrepreneur knows you create your own luck through vision, focus and a lot of bloody hard work. Several factors were involved and just like when we sold the company it was a case of all the planets aligning and the predictability of the market. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Once you can see this alignment, that’s the sweet spot. But also remember, planets only align for a point in time they then come out of alignment and the opportunity doesn’t materialise again (if at all) until the next cycle. The things I have learned and I pass on here to those that are interested… </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Know Your Market, Know Your Customer, Know Your Competition</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Articulate the target market segment carefully, understanding all the elements that comprise the market, especially both sides of the supply and demand equation. If the market is the Chess Board, do you know and have a perspective on all the pieces?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tailor Your Proposition – Differentiation is Critical to Success </span><span style="font-family: arial;">– Naturally to be successful you need a killer proposition and it needs to be different from everyone else. This needs to be highly focused and targeted at the gap you have identified. Don’t be generic and chase what appears to be the latest trend it will be “fish and chip” paper next week, and the market won’t understand what you stand for and what you are all about. Remember the focus should always be on the customer problem you are trying to solve and not the technology you are using. Also, part of any proposition I honestly believe is “brand” development its key in regard to differentiation – but that’s for another day</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Markets can be Influenced </span><span style="font-family: arial;">- You can never ever control the market, </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">however</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> for periods of time you </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">can</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> heavily influence it and in doing so drive consumers towards you and if you can create the “me to” effect so much the better. Ultimately the market will decide its own direction and course </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Don’t Get Caught Up in the R&D Hype - </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Markets are constantly changing, the speed of technology innovation always outpaces supplier’s capability to deliver it let alone consumer organisations ability to deploy it effectively that it creates business value. Some technologies are “fads” and come and go in a blink of an eyelid. Why? put simply they have no relevance to delivering a solution to a problem, the technology and its use is just immature, or the market is just not ready for the innovation. Example – around 2000-2001 the IT industry started talking about “Application Service Providers”, where Service Providers would host the application and lower a consumers Total Cost of Ownership as they would not need a data centre. The initiative never took off and no one wanted to buy. Hang on – doesn’t this sound like Cloud and Software and a Service, a generation later??</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">First Time Mover Advantages</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - As per one of my favourite quotes from the film “Margin Call”, “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Be first, be smarter or cheat, and as I don’t cheat it’s a dam site easier just to be first</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. Being first is easier because in being first you can define the market to suit you, not the other way around. Now for those naysayers I know you don’t have to use first time advantage as the only winning formula, i.e. Google were the 14th available search engine when it launched and look what happened to them! I am also not saying you can’t enter what appears to be an established market, as you can it is just harder but you can</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">redefine</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">an existing market by providing a solution for a new consumer need. Classic example was the Systems Integrator market for on-premise Oracle systems in the UK, the technology shifted, and the market became all about the Cloud; Certus Solutions entered an established market and became the first Oracle partner in the UK to be specialised in Oracle Cloud and disrupted the existing players and filled the gap. We then let everyone else play catch-up, whilst we set the narrative and banged the drum </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Control the Narrative</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Controlling the story and the message to the market is totally in your power. If your first, you get to do this easier than when the competition arrives, and they will arrive be certain of that. However messaging needs to be local and personal. Too generic, corporate like and wide-ranging means absolutely nothing to nobody. The narrative is driving a call to action. What is the problem you are trying to solve? How are you going to solve it? and in solving it what is the value you are delivering? Don’t sit on the fence, you have a point of view, so amplify it. Remember if you are not controlling the narrative and the story someone else will be! </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You Can Create Barriers to Entry</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Set the barrier to entry as high as you possibly can, this gives you time before other entrants enter the market or the existing suppliers change tact. In-fact the more barriers to entry you can create, the better it is for you to establish yourself. The beauty about being first is that everyone else is immediately playing catchup. Examples of barriers to entry I have used include Brand, Talent, Customer Advocacy (very powerful), Commercial Proposition and Intellectual Property. When you combine them all into a winning value proposition you can really make your presence felt in the market, especially if you can scare the competition into not even competing with you. Perception is reality regardless of size </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Markets Behaviour can to a degree be Predicted</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Gamification and outcome scenario planning are the most useful tools and of course a Crystal Ball with a glass of Red wine usually helps. Plot the cycles of the local economy, the behaviour of your consumers and naturally the competition, over time and look for the patterns, it is this that often shows up where the gaps are. Predictability of both consumers and suppliers behaviour is a powerful ally </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">9. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trust Your Gut</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Finally, and most importantly always “trust your gut” – you can do all the research you want, but as they say if “</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">something looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck then it is a duck</span><span style="font-family: arial;">”. Don’t kid yourself and read things into the data that aren’t actually there just because you want to</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">10. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Execution is Everything</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> – Even if you can see the gap, if you cannot execute then it all becomes nothing. You need to live and breathe business strategy. Anyone can put a set of power point slides together but few in my experience can really execute </span></div><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">Lessons Applied in Practice - Predicting Market Behaviour</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Scenario planning - now I am a big fan of this technique and it’s just like Chess. Can you plot out your customers and the competitions five moves ahead? There are numerous combinations, but just like a Chess board as the game develops and the pieces move around so does the market. This simple technique of playing “What if?” with a small team to generate ideas can give you tremendous insight very quickly on not only what could happen but more importantly as to how your going to play the game. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Again, look for the cycles and patterns over time. Don’t worry about what your competition are doing but play the game your way. Execute your strategy, and if it doesn’t work change it. This is totally in your control. Reacting to everyone else in a knee jerk manner is not a strategy as all you are doing is playing someone else’s game. It’s at this point you subconsciously begin to chase the market and this is always a losing position. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So in summary I have probably dismissed 100 years of more complex economic models, discussion and theory by those who are a way lot smarter than me but what I have provided is the way I approach it and knowing what works for me. However, I do hope the above provides some insight into how to spot opportunity and position yourself accordingly. Alternatively, if you just believe in luck just buy a lottery ticket and see if the numbers drop. PS mine are 1, 7, 8, 22, 42 and lucky stars 1, 7.</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-90909563385582010372019-09-18T11:56:00.004-07:002021-01-11T13:09:49.262-08:008 Years On from 2011 and 15 minutes of Fame – Cloud was it Evolution or Revolution?<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JTM2Pm6vrAI/X_y93xj10yI/AAAAAAAAAS4/6YrJ5r7aBZ4xt7qbkirCGAlvd8AucIZKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1138/Cloud.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1138" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JTM2Pm6vrAI/X_y93xj10yI/AAAAAAAAAS4/6YrJ5r7aBZ4xt7qbkirCGAlvd8AucIZKQCLcBGAsYHQ/w476-h252/Cloud.jpeg" width="476" /></a></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Three years on since I last blogged and now its time to restart – why you might ask? Simply it’s been gratifying to hear from Customers, Colleagues, Business Partners and even Prospects who didn’t buy from me (how dare they!) that have told me how much they missed my blogs, which for the uninitiated are still all available on LinkedIn, so by demand it’s time to metaphorically put pen to paper once again</span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75)" style="font-family: arial;">. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For those that are new to my style you will simply get my opinion on things that I am generally interested in and I will no doubt cover topics like Entrepreneurship, SME’s (of which I will always be a champion of), the Market, Tech specifically Cloud and Oracle Cloud and anything else that is running through my mind that I think might be of interest to a wider audience. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Blogging for me is a way of bringing structure and order to the chaos that is often going on inside me. What you won’t get is any talk of politics (I think we have all had quite enough of the “B” word), albeit I might comment on what I see the future challenges the UK Civil Service faces when we know what we are doing! My opinions are direct and no doubt will be viewed by some as controversial. So please feel free to agree or disagree with me as its only through experience, conversation and difference of opinion that we all learn and you will actually find that it is this that fuels real innovation.</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As we enter into Autumn 2019 and on the last day of Oracle’s Openworld in San Francisco let’s turn back the clock as I am reminded that nearly eight years ago on a very dark and wet night in October 2011 in Fenchurch Street at a then Client’s offices Tim Warner, my long term partner in crime, and I discussed at length a new world called Software as a Service (SaaS) and Oracle’s fledgling offering – Fusion (how many times have they interchanged that name over the years?) and what was then still really amounting to a bunch of powerpoint slides that had been touted around for years but rumour was that it was actually not only a real product but an absolute game changer. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In-fact Larry Ellison, against popular belief, had already made his big bet albeit it is well known that Oracle were a late entrant to the enterprise Cloud game. The more that night we talked the more we felt a paradigm shift was coming that was going not only to change the industry we knew but also the world. It was looking like 1999 all over again.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Looking back when you realise you are staring into pandora’s box and you suddenly know something that possibly very few others on the entire planet know is, on reflection, quite scary and sends shivers down your spine once you understand the ramifications. </div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A period of our own due diligence subsequently followed, so I will dispel the myth now that entrepreneurs are a bunch of mavericks and cowboys that often make knee jerk decisions. However we do move very fast and just three weeks later we were in the position to make an informed calculated risk decision to follow Larry’s fledging vision and “bet everything on Red”. (this story is covered in the blogs of the past so I won’t repeat it here). Cloud was the new market place and we needed to get their first and create the necessary space in the Oracle ecosystem in the UK to thrive, albeit in reality and we do look back and laugh that we had half a product (most of that had key functionality missing), we didn’t really know how to implement it properly (that took us 2 years) and nobody wanted to buy it – the perfect time to start a business.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Roll on seven years and Certus Solutions the company I originally founded in my bedroom and evolved into the first dedicated Oracle SaaS Cloud professional services company was sold to Accenture in May 2018. My 15 minutes of fame had arrived and after 10 years of hard graft, near two bankruptcies, and a host of other personal challenges that I won’t bore you all with, Tim and myself became overnight successes and for 15 minutes complete legends in the Industry and the Oracle ecosystem. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Now that's over moving swiftly on… </div></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: arial; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: 600;">So was Cloud Evolution or Revolution?</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It is just amazing how the software industry has had to change its operating models. Oracle specifically from a product orientated company to a service one (a journey for those involved in the service industry knows never ends!). Something that was started by Salesforce (a company I personally massively admire) is now the norm. Customer success and advocacy are the constant watchwords and rightly so as regardless of Cloud a business does not exist without happy customers.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I once famously told someone very Senior in HM Government in early 2016 after they had spent 18 months pontificating over whether they were going Cloud (as it was a “fad”) that the decision had in-fact already been taken for them by the industry five years earlier and they were going Cloud regardless and it was a decision that was no longer in their gift to make. Shock! Horror! no just a black and white reality check over the seemingly then obvious state of affairs. The only element of control they had was the WHEN they were going and the longer they continually took no action the cost would just increase. Why? simply the gap exponentially grows between legacy technology and the speed of technology innovation, making it more complicated to move both organisationally and technically within a business. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Remember the true cost being not just the financial cost of undertaking the implementation, but more importantly the “opportunity cost” of missing out on the digital innovation that is continuously coming at pace. This is something that is constantly missed from business cases both in the private and public sectors. The bottom line being extremely blunt is “just get on with it because you really are missing out”.</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So was it an evolution or really a revolution? Three years ago, I used the word evolution, why? Because even in a blog I had to be somewhat careful not to scare monger and evolution is a much softer word to use in regard to change. However looking back, it really was a revolution but through stealth. Salesforce, Oracle, Workday and SAP are all highly successful companies, and Cloud technology has facilitated the emergence of whole host of exciting mid-market vendors and start-ups. Many of these are British! and something I am proud to have been and continue to be associated with. The smaller ones just love turning the world upside down – go for it!</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But still why the change of mind? What I never factored into my crystal ball, as I have said many times before, is the sheer pace of technology innovation and its corresponding impact on business operating models. The biggest lesson I learned was that Cloud is TRANSFORMATIONAL – done right it will transform (no going back) your business operation positively for ever. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It truly is frightening but also at the same time so very exciting. The possibilities of improving our working lives seems endless and the opportunities to challenge the status quo and drive positive change especially in the Public Sector (my undying love for it however frustrating it is at times) still invigorates me today just as much as it did when I first got involved with the HM Prison Services Phoenix Shared Services Programme back in 2004. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">We can make Cloud platforms change the way we work better for everyone – employees, suppliers, and customers alike (and anyone else I have forgotten). More importantly in changing the way we work, we also should benefit positively to the way we conduct our personal lives. We just need to look for the win-win opportunities that exist out there. At the very least, it should help make work less stressful and as mundane tasks are removed through automation creates time for value added activities. Our time whether at work or play is the most valuable thing we all have as our time is always limited. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So where has this first blog taken us? Simply I revisit my earlier statements and change my position - Cloud was a quiet revolution as it not only transforms business operations but can also positively (if used in the right way) change our personal lives for the better. The pace of change and technology innovation is not letting up and remember the technologies we are dealing with will continue to transform business operations continuously. The next generation of technologies of the likes of AI (which incidentally has been around for years, but now we are looking at mass adoption) and Robotics (another one in the same categorically) are already available having being built and embedded on Cloud technology platforms.</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Still for those who continue to delay their migration to the Cloud it is just delaying the inevitable and at significantly higher cost. History is littered with case studies of what happened to those that did not adapt and remain relevant to what was going on around them. You only have to watch the evening news and look at our high streets for recent examples of this. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;">There is just as much opportunity today to make a difference as there was when the quiet revolution started. Cloud technology is extremely mature and well proven. The only question one has to ask constantly regardless of your role in society and the economy is are you up for it?</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Comment, and let you know what you think, after 3 years I am a bit rusty...</span></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-1182612126827418042016-10-30T15:12:00.000-07:002016-10-30T15:26:27.330-07:00Shared Services - A Changing Landscape<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2AHxLaSajPI/WBYM2FqtxDI/AAAAAAAAALM/rrbGi1NSLi0wTAwL5gOw4qBLNXKA7rsRQCLcB/s1600/phoenix_rising_by_cgartner-d32w72i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2AHxLaSajPI/WBYM2FqtxDI/AAAAAAAAALM/rrbGi1NSLi0wTAwL5gOw4qBLNXKA7rsRQCLcB/s400/phoenix_rising_by_cgartner-d32w72i.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where has the time
gone? 10 years ago on Monday 30<sup>th</sup> October 2006...</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
…will always be a date forever etched on my memory for an implementation that was so leading edge and truly transformational at the time, it became the leading beacon and “poster-child” for Shared Services across UK Central Government winning multiple industry awards in the process. It was a time when Facebook had only just been opened to a global user community a month earlier and Apple had not even launched the iPhone!<br />
<br />
From December 2004 through to January 2008 I was privileged to lead a team of over 150 people from various different organisations to create HM Prison Service Shared Services – named the “Phoenix Programme”. For the record we were responsible as a combined project team for the deployment of the HR, Payroll and Expenses services over what was then 130 public sector prisons and part of a larger programme that also addressed the modernisation and centralisation of Finance and Procurement functions. In time this would be augmented further with Training and Inventory Management. <br />
<br />
Phoenix was a programme that was founded upon the recommendations of Sir Peter Gershon UK Public Sector efficiency Savings Review (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gershon_Review">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gershon_Review</a>) and from an HR perspective also applied the theories of David Ullrich into harden reality. Personally led by all of the Directors of the Prison Service at the time the message was clear from the start that this programme was very much needed to modernise an out dated and costly disparate locally deployed back office operation. <br />
<br />
The business case stated cost of £65m but delivered £109m NPV of savings over 9 years, and actually broke even after 3.5 years. In doing so it fundamentally changed for ever the “back office” service provision across the prison service using what was then considered to be the proven technology of choice at the time - Oracle E-Business Suite.<br />
<br />
It was a very long journey, with lots of ups and downs but I can honestly say if there was ever one moment in my own career that I can look back and say was truly “career defining” – then this was it! <br />
<br />
Looking back the biggest success in regard to Phoenix I will always be proud of was actually nothing to do with technology, but its wider social impact. The Shared Services operation created around 500 jobs. We fundamentally did something that made a significant positive impact to the local economy of South Wales and from the Phoenix Programme I founded Certus Solutions so its economic impact and contribution has become even wider.<br />
<br />
Why was it successful? Fundamentally we brought out the best in people from different backgrounds and organisations and got them all focused on achieving a common goal. It was truly a collaborative experience, with strong leadership and direction always at the helm and a total focus on achieving successful delivery. Friendships were forged in the front line of project delivery and have lasted what now seems an eternity.<br />
<br />
Did things go wrong? Of course they did – but that’s projects and real project management (which in my opinion seems to be a lost art these days) is really all about how you deal with the challenge when things go wrong and still manage to steer a course through to success. On projects the size of Phoenix the only thing that is ever guaranteed is that things will go wrong – I would raise an eyebrow if anyone said otherwise.<br />
<br />
Over the years I have also listened intently to numerous people’s interpretation and manipulation of “history” surrounding the programme. The irony being that the vast majority had either nothing to do with the original programme and some, worse still, claimed the accolades of others success! It’s amazing how reality becomes manipulated for others causes.<br />
<br />
<b>A Brave New World – the Advent of Cloud</b><br />
So, it may-be a case of serendipity, but 10 years on exactly to the same date I post this blog I find myself literally back in Newport, South Wales in the offices of the Office National Statistics (ONS) as we sit on the threshold of launching the first ever Central Government Oracle ERP and HCM Cloud implementation. The ONS office being literally a stones throw away from the original Shared Services operation. How ironic?<br />
<br />
<b>Ramifications – The End of Shared Services?</b><br />
The advent of Cloud Applications Technology offers government that moment that comes along once in a generation where a paradigm shift has the capability to make a significant difference to the way back office services can be consolidated and the “outcomes” from government wide management information can make radical cost savings in the hundreds of millions. However just like the Government Digital Services (GDS) initiatives it requires practitioners within government with a different perspective and thinking. <br />
<br />
So with a heavy heart I find myself now writing about what I see as the end of Shared Services. Something that 10 years ago was state of the art and transformational is now I believe on the path to redundancy and becoming "irrelevant". In my world disruptive Cloud technology spells the end of Shared Services operations and I predict they will not exist in the next 5 years. Why do I say this? </div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Digital by Default </b>– Will have taken hold. This means you are going to need the business to change the way it accesses and transacts back office services, this has to be communicated and “<i>sustainable business change</i>” implemented subconsciously. Even paper will be finally minimalised and electronic documents will be all the norm – why? because that’s the way Cloud works. The customer experience regardless of the role in the supply chain will be the same as experienced today when using applications like Amazon, eBay, LinkedIn (The largest HR Database in the world!) </li>
<li><b>Adopt and Adapt</b> - becomes the modus operandi. Remember you can’t customise anymore – and why would you? Cloud processes, which are considered to be best of breed, need to be adopted and then adapted only when necessary. This will become the accepted norm and even the most complex transactions commoditised </li>
<li><b>Rate of Innovation</b> - in Cloud is so great, that in 3-5 years’ time all processes will be re-engineered backwards into the operation line. It will still be all about the "service". Business process is just a delivery mechanism for policy. Cloud is merely a technology enabler; it’s a new way of delivering and accessing a service from the “line” with transactions no longer being passed off to a centralised Shared Services operation somewhere. Who knows where we will be in 5 years time? </li>
</ul>
<br />
The evidence in this context is already forming. The offshore Indian outsourcing models that took hold in the 1990’s are seeing a significant decrease in long term revenues as customers decide not to extend their agreements and become resigned to digitalisation taking effect. Also the breaking of the “revenue” traps of the large SI onshore data centres are now blown away with the Cloud. The client can get to their data and effect change quickly than rather not at all due to the cost barriers. This evidence is only going to get greater as on-premise dies and Cloud adoption accelerates. The market and the industry is continuously changing at an acceleration never experienced before.<br />
<br />
<b>Phoenix Rising? </b><br />
So can the Phoenix rise? Yes it can, but it needs new thinking and it will be in a completely different form.<br />
<br />
Einstein quotes the definition of insanity as “<i>doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results</i>”. We are at an inflection point and the opportunity of Cloud and achieving the outcomes on a scale never seen before is in our grasp and in doing so delivering value for money for the taxpayer. The real question is are we going to change the way we have always done things or are we just going to repeat the past? Are we really prepared to think and deliver differently? - Only time will tell…I know some are and some like the ONS and HM Treasury are already on that journey.<br />
<br />
So when everyone later starts to rewrite history later remember the ONS is the <b>FIRST</b> implementation in Central Government of Oracle ERP and HCM Cloud and you can only be first once! <br />
<br />
Variations will no doubt follow. So to the implementation team comprising ONS, Oracle and Certus members I offer my congratulations on a successful implementation. You have all been brave, found a way to work collaboratively together and truly have led the way across government for the adoption of this positive disruptive technology – <b>30th October 2016</b> will be a date to be remembered.<br />
<br />
As for Shared Services, let’s see if my predictions are right and see what the next 5 years bring. As for Phoenix I know it will rise again it will just be in a different form…the form of a Cloud!<br />
<br />
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<![endif]-->Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-50639356807804956802016-09-05T02:57:00.004-07:002016-10-30T13:53:18.384-07:00The Importance of Company Values – It’s about delivery… but more importantly it’s about the way you deliver<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CyN2xSb0zc/V8Cg10Vpq5I/AAAAAAAAAKs/p3OREeBFWGcsnUqoqxDbi8GOCugRTOuEgCLcB/s1600/Twickenham%2BStatue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CyN2xSb0zc/V8Cg10Vpq5I/AAAAAAAAAKs/p3OREeBFWGcsnUqoqxDbi8GOCugRTOuEgCLcB/s400/Twickenham%2BStatue.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In June 2015 I stood in the boardroom of the Rugby Football Union
(RFU) and presented our final pitch after an extremely intense
procurement competition over a five week period. It felt at the end as
we had been in the pre-cursor to the Rugby World Cup itself and our 15
strong sales team (what a coincidence!) of Oracle and Certus were
eagerly waiting the outcome of the decision.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whilst it always
takes a team to win these complex deals, especially when the entire
Cloud suite is involved, as the one who undertakes the final
presentation you do feel what can only be described as the “<i>Jonny Wilkinson moment” (World Cup 2003)</i>
where it’s all in your hands to ensure you carry the team to victory
and you are struck with the fear of letting everyone down. I am sure we
had tears in our eyes at the end and I definitely did when we were
awarded the contract! I felt we had won the World Cup.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From the
outset we gained an understanding that the RFU’s heritage, culture and
values were not just the fundamental cornerstones of the game but also
for the Sporting Governing Body itself and how it operated on a
day-today basis. Like all organisations it doesn’t necessarily get it
right every-day, but that is not for the want of trying and wanting to
make a positive difference in everything it does. As a consequence they
look for the same values in their suppliers and being culturally aligned
is extremely important to them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The RFU is an extremely complex organisation (I would add <span class="underline"><i>not</i></span>
the most we have ever come across) as it covers a range of industry
verticals from being a Sporting Governing Body; Event Management;
Hospitality; Education; Retail and Charity. Add on top of that it is a
global brand that represents our nation both home and abroad and come
game time everyone in the country has an opinion. It has the potential
to be an absolute pressure cooker being constantly in the public eye and
it is very much the organisation’s spirit and core values that underpin
everything it does and how it conducts itself. Everyone involved at
whatever level will tell you rugby is more than just a game; it’s a way
of life. You only have to see the attitude and sportsmanship of Sonny
Bill Williams, the All Backs Centre/Wing at the Rugby World Cup 2015,
who really is the embodiment of the sport to gain insight into the game.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The
really great business engagements from a supplier perspective are those
that leave a long lasting positive impact on you. We as a company have
learned from our engagement with the RFU and they have both directly and
indirectly helped shape us moving forward. Powerful stuff! but their
values encompass: <i>Teamwork; Respect; Enjoyment; Discipline and Sportsmanship (</i><a data-mce-href="http://www.englandrugby.com/my-rugby/players/core-values/%23" href="http://www.englandrugby.com/my-rugby/players/core-values/%23" target="_blank"><i>http://www.englandrugby.com/my-rugby/players/core-values/#</i></a><i>) </i>and when you scratch the surface and look at Certus holistically and the individuals who come and work with us, we <i>share</i> the same values, so here's our perspective:</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Teamwork</b> – “<i>All the talent in the world won’t take you anywhere without your team mates</i>” (Anon). Quoted by myself many times in my postings about Certus “<i>We look after our employees, and ask they look after the company, in doing so they look after our customers</i>”. Building a great company is about building great teams of people knowing that whatever challenge faces us “<i>We win together and we lose together</i>”</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Respect</b> - We <i>respect</i> that our customers have placed <i>their</i> business success in <i>our hands. </i> JJ Watt, American football player with the Houston Texans quotes “<i>Success isn’t owned it’s leased and the rent is due every day</i>”.
At Certus we want to make our customers successful and we want them to
be happy in what we do and how we do it! – Therefore this is something
we are conscious of every single day and in everything we do with our
customers. We set the bar high and it’s a big ask but it always starts
with having respect for a customer’s business and its people</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Enjoyment</b> - We<i> like </i>to have fun! (and We<i> love </i>Rugby!
which includes me as an ardent Manchester United season ticket holder
and life long supporter). Life is to short and we spend most of it at
work. So if we don’t enjoy it then what’s the point?</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Discipline</b> - Certus people are always <i>certain</i> in their approach; build high levels of <i>trust</i> with their clients through every interaction; are <i>reliable</i> and renowned for going the extra mile; <i>resolved</i> and resolute in their own ability; and <i>determined </i>to deliver a successful outcome to the client in the right way</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><b>Sportsmanship</b> – Certus is renowned for a “<i>can do</i>” attitude and at times seemingly delivering the impossible, but more importantly “<i>we get the job done in the right way</i>”.
This is something I have seen many large consultancies falter at time
and time again. It is very dear to our heart and something that
fundamentally underpins us as an organisation</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Values Have A Purpose</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Values are more than mere beliefs. They determine how an organisation will pursue its purpose.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As
Certus expands globally we are at a stage where knowing what we stand
for isn’t just enough among the founders and those who have helped build
the company to date. We have to articulate this to those that join as
we want everyone who works for us “<i>to play the game the same way and with the same passion</i>”
ensuring that our customers have long lasting positive experiences.
It’s important to us that we get this right and that we look to somehow
measure this.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So we will take the RFU value set, consult our
staff, and over time develop our own. However I know we won’t be too far
removed from what we have learned. I think it is also true to say never
has a client had such a long lasting positive impact on all of us
involved.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finally if you are attending Oracle Openworld in San
Francisco at the end of September 2016 catch Patrick McMaster, RFU,
Richard Atkins, EVP Oracle Cloud Practice, and Debra Lilley, VP Certus
Cloud Services, Certus Solutions presenting the Cloud journey in the HR
stream we went on together, but don’t just talk to them about the Oracle
Cloud implementation as you would <i>miss the opportunity</i> to talk
to them about how two organisations can find equilibrium, understanding
and learn from one another in the process. There’s the real insight.
</div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-65621792242262998022016-08-26T13:01:00.002-07:002016-08-26T13:01:56.137-07:00Part II - Building A Cloud Professional Services Practice – The Sir Alex Ferguson Way <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-69Kw-H3G-rI/V8CfXh1pojI/AAAAAAAAAKg/9wmdTVy2ISAQVhB3jemNTwuA4ZbTTAWkwCLcB/s1600/SAF%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-69Kw-H3G-rI/V8CfXh1pojI/AAAAAAAAAKg/9wmdTVy2ISAQVhB3jemNTwuA4ZbTTAWkwCLcB/s400/SAF%2B%25283%2529.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>
<div class="prose" itemprop="articleBody">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In Part I we looked at Sir Alex Ferguson’s model for Manchester
United’s first team squad during his tenure. In Part II we now lift the
lid on Certus operations as Richard Atkins, EVP Oracle Cloud Services
and myself explain how we have copied Ferguson’s blueprint to build
longevity and a delivery capability as the company scales.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>As Sir Alex says “</strong><em>From the moment I got to
Manchester United, I thought of only one thing: building a football
club. I wanted to build right from the bottom. That was in order to
create fluency and a continuity of supply to the first team. With this
approach, the players all grow up together, producing a bond that, in
turn, creates a spirit</em>”.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well at Certus we didn’t want to build just a single delivery team, <strong><em>we wanted to build a great company</em></strong>.
To do that we needed to build and implement a system that would not
only develop talent and create opportunities and experiences for our
people but build long term value for both the company and for our
customers. This is very different from the days of Oracle E-Business
Consultancy models with on-premise implementations and a room full of
contractors.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>The Certus Model – You Learn, You Lead, You Teach</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I first floated the Manchester United blueprint for success
with the Senior members of Certus they first all laughed. Then I “<em>told</em>”
them (not something I do very often) to think laterally and how it
could be applied to a professional services company such as ourselves.
In-fact what this story demonstrates is true collaboration because in no
more than a few days Richard had created our own version of the model.
Richard’s job is fundamentally to deliver our underlying delivery
capability by ensuring we have not only recruited the right people but
they always have the right skills and knowledge to look after our
customers. As a consequence he needs an operating model that
continuously looks to develop and challenge our people.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“<em>When Mark first pitched the idea all he wanted to do was talk
about Manchester United and Ferguson’s model. As none of us really
follow football, and don’t really care for United we had a good laugh.
But he gave me the context and from that I could see after only a few
hours how this could be applied to Certus. Within 48 hours we had
pitched the concept to the entire company at the quarterly company
meeting looking for feedback which was positive. People could see for
the first time how their own careers would now develop over time and how
we were going to build the company – and this was what got people
excited</em>”. <strong>Richard Atkins, EVP of Oracle Cloud Services, Certus Solutions</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Just like Ferguson, who would recruit per cohort within the squad
(see Part I) to provide positional coverage in depth, something the
American’s refer to in professional sport as the “Depth Chart”, we do
exactly the same. Our model consists of three cohorts:</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>You Learn – the Certus Academy (100% employees 0% Associates)</li>
<li>You Lead – Primary Delivery Capability (80% employees 20% Associates)</li>
<li>You Teach - the Masters (100% employees 0% Associates) </li>
</ul>
<img class="center" height="480" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrinknp_800_800/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAlSAAAAJDc4ZWVhODU5LTdlOWEtNGJkYS04YzgxLTgzZDE5NjIwOTZjMw.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>So how do we go about Recruitment – The Rules of Our Game?</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The model has to be fed and we are no different from any other
company in trying to source the right candidates – personnel referral
(always has the edge at Certus); direct applicants; and recruitment
agencies. But more importantly, just like in football, <strong><em>we scout and target people</em></strong> <strong><em>we would like to invite</em></strong> <strong><em>to join the company</em></strong>
– we are very big on this. However all our recruitment has to match
against the three cohorts; positions required and coverage (depth
chart).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Do We Ever Break The Rules?</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rarely, but we do it. If someone we view has the <em>potential</em>
we are looking for comes available we will naturally enquire regardless
if a given cohort is fully staffed. People do not join Certus just
because of the salary we offer it is about being given the opportunity
to be part of something that we are building and be given the
opportunity to truly innovate and deliver positive change to our clients
business operations with the latest leading edge Oracle Cloud
technology. As we only do Oracle Cloud, this alongside our reputation,
makes us an attractive proposition. In fact it differentiates us from
our competition.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The model, however, keeps us true. If you had eleven Cristiano
Ronaldo’s on your football team you would lose the game. A team might be
made up of individuals with different skills, but to become an
effective delivery unit they need an ability to trust each other, leave
their ego at the door, and focus on the task in hand. Team’s win games
not individuals; and equally in our business teams win and deliver
Oracle Cloud solutions enabling positive change to our customers. All of
which requires leadership at every level of the organisation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>The Shortfall - Use of Interim Labour – Our Associates</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Let’s put this into context with another quote from the maestro “<em>The
first thought of 99% of newly appointed managers is to make sure they
win — to survive. So they bring experienced players in. That’s simply
because we’re in a results-driven industry</em>. <em>Winning a game is only a short-term gain—you can lose the next game. Building a club brings stability and consistency</em>”.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well a Professional Services company is in the same game and needs exactly the same outcomes "<em>stability and consistency</em>".
You cannot achieve this by just using teams of contractors. We are in a
results-driven industry and if truly you want to maintain the industry
reputation of the like Certus has "<em>of being the best</em>" we have
to ensure we have no failed implementations and we have happy customers.
So at times we need to bring in experienced players to supplement our
delivery teams. However the key element here is that the associates we
use MUST share our values and represent us as a company. They have to
put the company first and not themselves. This is the key thing we are
constantly watching.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An individual’s performance, associate or employee alike, reflects
not only on them as a professional but also ourselves as a company.
Certus is all about building long term value for all those involved so
we look after our staff, employees and associates alike, as they will
look after our customers. But our standards are high </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
and if we do use a
associate you have to have the right skills and the right attitude.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Drawing a parallel again to Ferguson and the use of loan players –
notably Henrik Larsson, a prolific striker filled in for 13 games (and 3
goals) during 2007-2008 season for injury cover in the top tier (“You
Teach”). After 3 months Larsson departed having made his mark with club
and fans alike. (we loved him!) – However the point here is that Larsson
was a known proven quantity, possessing skills in abundance and when
called upon he delivered.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The agencies will all say - "we get it!". But do they? Really? -
The number of individuals who have credible consultancy and Oracle ERP
and HCM Cloud skills around that puts them in the "Henrik Larsson"
category is a very very small number. Just because someone has 15 years+
Oracle E-Business Suite experience doesn’t mean they can just
transition to Cloud. Equally just because you have just done 2-3 Cloud
implementations doesn't make you an expert. The reality is from our
experience very few can in-fact make the jump. Oracle Cloud requires
Consultants with a new set of skills, of which they have to be
continually updated as the product is constantly moving on every 6
months. This is no longer a technical job of the likes of old.
Contractors have to stay current in the Cloud, otherwise their value
diminishes quickly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Interim labor allows us short term resource elasticity in the
middle cohort, it is not a base that allows company growth and
expansion.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>New Blood Needs a New Model</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
New blood needs a new model, hence why we feel Ferguson’s blueprint
works for all of us involved in the company. True cloud consultancies
have to operate differently, the delivery model is different, the cost
base is lower, massive flexibility is required and customer expectations
are also different. The next generation has to come through an academy
like structure and that is what the model facilitates in a controlled
environment. Cloud appeals to the next generation so the model naturally
allows for opportunities for apprentices, graduates and 2nd jobbers
alike.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<strong>Lets Not Forget The Working Part Time Mum's</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Certus was initially built using part time working mothers (see - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-time-working-mums-most-valued-contribution-mark-sweeny?trk=mp-author-card%29" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-time-working-mums-most-valued-contribution-mark-sweeny?trk=mp-author-card)</a>,
the new model still supports this and they remain an important part of
our workforce and equally slot into the cohorts the same as a full time
employee.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So we can’t finish a piece like this without a quote from Sir Alex himself - “<em>Football, bloody hell</em>”
– What’s that got to do with Oracle and Certus? – well we just told
you! This post just became mandatory reading for those who want to come
and be part of our story.</div>
</div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-90504084144886966072016-08-19T15:09:00.003-07:002016-08-21T05:06:51.416-07:00Building A Cloud Professional Services Practice – The Sir Alex Ferguson Way - Part I<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RRCit1RDrjs/V7eDBu5zHxI/AAAAAAAAAKI/CBYojMV30AgAj2jHUNY4dFs5i5j7wOL1ACLcB/s1600/SAF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RRCit1RDrjs/V7eDBu5zHxI/AAAAAAAAAKI/CBYojMV30AgAj2jHUNY4dFs5i5j7wOL1ACLcB/s400/SAF.jpg" width="305" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At Openworld 2016 Oracle will be highlighting its success and
exponential growth in the Cloud market as it strives to become the
Number 1 Cloud provider in the market. Thanks to the recent Netsuite
acquisition this goal has probably now been achieved (depending of
course on how you wish to measure it) which is fantastic news for all
those involved at Oracle and those in the Oracle eco-system as someone
has to implement all of this and deliver on the promise made. Those
Consultancy practices that made the leap into Oracle Cloud early have
the challenge of now scaling their business to meet demand, whilst those
who have sat on the side are still trying to work out how to enter and
play the game and to be honest will now struggle with the challenge of
building capability quickly, addressing the issue of reference-ability
and learning to adapt as winning business in the Cloud is vastly
different from the traditional on-premise deals of the last two decades.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Certus
being a 5 year veteran in the business of Oracle Cloud we thought we
would lift the cover on our organisation and share how we are rising to
the challenge and scaling our business to cope with the increase demand
for our services. In providing this we hope we can give you some real
insight as to how we are building our professional services delivery
capability and more importantly how we maintain its integrity as we
grow.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So before we lift the lid and let you all into our family
this post will be in two parts and is a collaborative effort between
Richard Atkins, Certus Solutions EVP Oracle Cloud Applications Practice,
myself with the <b>“<i>blueprint for success</i>” provided kindly by Sir Alex Ferguson</b> - and if you think this is something we have just dreamed up - well your wrong so please read on with interest…</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The Blueprint for Success</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All
my life I have followed and supported Manchester United. I remember
when Liverpool and Arsenal were the dominant teams of the 1970’s and
80’s and United came up short year after year then Sir Alex Ferguson
arrived in 1986 and after a slow start the rest is now of football
legend.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United managerial career
spanned 27 years where he won 13 Premier League Titles; 5 FA Cups; 4
League Cups; 10 Charity Shields; 2 UEFA Champions League Titles; 1 UEFA
Cup Winners Cup; 1 UEFA Super Cup; 1 Intercontinental Cup; and 1 FIFA
Cup World Cup – and in all of that was the famous treble of 1998-1999
with the Class of ’92 (Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, Butt, and the Neville
brothers), a feat that will probably never ever be repeated.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not only recognised as the greatest club football manager of all time, but a true leader, master tactician, and the ultimate “<i>portfolio manager of talent</i>”.
On his retirement in 2013 Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably himself now a
Real Madrid legend, whose early career he shaped and developed simply
said “<i>Thanks for everything, boss</i>”.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So when Sir Alex
Ferguson published his book “Leading” last year, I was first in the
queue to buy it and to also go and listen to the man himself. My own
career and experience has taught me that you need a vast array of
different skills as a company grows. Running a £10m turnover global
company is a lot different from £5m and from the days when it was £1m
and only based in the UK. Everybody in the digital economy constantly
talks about growth but you simply <i>cannot </i>grow a business unless
it is stable and similarly United’s success under Ferguson came after 4
hard years of the club’s foundations being ripped up in the late 1980’s
and completely reset with no immediate visible success on the football
pitch.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So when devising how we at Certus were going to create a <i>sustainable business</i>
ready for managing exponential growth and the demand for our services
which we knew was coming I referred back to the teachings of the maestro
himself and in doing so found we could apply the same setup Sir Alex
used at Manchester United to Certus. Now trust me this is not as
far-fetched as it may sound and something today we now swear by to the
extent we are embedding it into the company.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Blueprint For Success - The United Model - Positional Coverage & Depth Chart</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whilst
the overall United blueprint for success was much wider than the first
eleven and looked at every aspect of the management of the club our
focus is on the structure of the first team squad. (for more of this
please see the Harvard Business Review article - <a data-mce-href="https://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula" href="https://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula" target="_blank">https://hbr.org/2013/10/fergusons-formula</a>).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ferguson’s
model was born out of the situation he inherited, where the academy
structure and the entrance point for new talent into the club had been
completely dismantled and he had inherited an aging squad of players
that he knew could not achieve the immediate goal of the club - to win
what today we now call the Premiership title.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ferguson’s squad
itself was circa around 35-40 players in total, including around 25 full
internationals, and separated by age groups with each cohort comprising
“depth” across each position on the Football field. United’s enduring
ability to develop young players and bring them through and play with
the older members of the team, has been one of their foundation stones
of success since the Busby Babes of the 1950’s.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Cohort 1: 17-22 year olds</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The
entrance and transition from the Academy structure into the first team
and also the entrance point for those recruited through the world-wide
scouting system that was put in place to identify the best and potential
talent from around the world. Here you would not only learn your trade
from a technical perspective, but also learn to bond with your fellow
team members. In effect this became United’s “Centre of Excellence” for
talent development.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Cohort 2: 23-29 year olds</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Players
would be at their prime of their career. Natural footballing
intelligence and technical capability would be honed, leaders forged and
the core engine of the team formed to deliver constant success on the
pitch.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Cohort 3: 30-36 year olds</b> (unless your Ryan Giggs!)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This
group would be the “masters”, the leaders in the dressing room and on
the pitch, often referred to as the “Old Guard”. The ones who would not
only give advice and guidance to the younger players, but the ones using
all their experience could always be counted on when the going gets
tough and will pull the team through in moments of difficulty. The
ultimate standard for any aspiring Manchester United player.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Management of the Squad</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now
this is the clever part. If a player did not make or maintain the
standards United set; or got injured; was traded; or retired then the
opening in the squad would be sourced and replaced “<i>like for like</i>”,
thereby ensuring the squads equilibrium was always maintained.
Naturally if the right player could not be sourced, then the position
would be left open until it could be filled. Even for Manchester United a
bad hire would be disruptive. What would not happen would be a squad
member being prematurely promoted as this would equally upset the
equilibrium.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Benefits of the Blueprint</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The benefits of the approach and squad structure are obvious and include:</div>
<ul>
<li>Balance of squad by age, creating longevity for the years to come, with a focus on maintaining consistency</li>
<li>Builds
a natural path for career progression from the academy through to first
team, allowing players to grow up together with the view of delivering
consistent success</li>
<li>Protects the club against injury of a key player or if a player departs prematurely</li>
<li>Creates a succession plan from the outset as younger players develop, and older players eventually retire</li>
<li>Skills gap minimised through coverage and depth chart across the three cohorts</li>
<li>Fosters
greater teamwork, whilst maintaining healthy competition for places and
ensuring standards are maintained, stretched and exceeded</li>
<li>Ability to rotate the first 11, keeping his players fresh over a long season</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now think about the above for a moment, and think about scaling a
professional services practice where your greatest asset on the true
balance sheet is your people’s capability and delivery experience. <br />
<br />
As we were asked by Oracle only last week "Can Certus scale?", we explained Ferguson's philosophy and their response was "<em>Well it didn’t do Man United any harm, looks like you have it sorted</em>". So in Part II, we will explain just how we applied this to Certus and established our modus operandi…</div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-45075766791710814772016-08-06T18:05:00.000-07:002016-08-07T02:16:58.593-07:00Part II - Positive Disruption - Want to be Really Successful in the Oracle Cloud? The Secret Is Simple…<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WLusXr7vu98/V6aIhcu7yDI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/1lBPvZRDK-0n73GYEMrMjftm73A5XR4IgCLcB/s1600/its%2Ball%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bdelivery%2B-%2BP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WLusXr7vu98/V6aIhcu7yDI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/1lBPvZRDK-0n73GYEMrMjftm73A5XR4IgCLcB/s400/its%2Ball%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bdelivery%2B-%2BP2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Things have been so busy at Certus I simply haven’t had time to
finish and post Part II. Wow – where has the time gone this year? So
before reading this you might want a quick refresh and read Part I - <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-disruption-want-really-successful-oracle-cloud-mark-sweeny?trk=mp-reader-card" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-disruption-want-really-successful-oracle-cloud-mark-sweeny?trk=mp-reader-card" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/positive-disruption-want-really-successful-oracle-cloud-mark-sweeny?trk=mp-reader-card</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So continuing the second part of the two part special (from April 2016!) and the underlying theme of having “<b><i>the ability to Execute and Deliver is Absolutely Everything</i></b>”, here are the last 4 points!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>7.
Build a Great Team Around You – Involve your people, its everyone’s
company not just yours - Be selective in recruitment and as you grow
become even more selective!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Returning to my original
point from Part I. Surround yourself with people that not only have
different skills to you but are or have the potential to be even better
than you! Be selective! I have posted previously that one of the best
comments I ever received about Certus was from a partner of a tier 1
management consultancy who said “<i>The nicest thing about Certus is
that it works like an exclusive members club, to work there you have to
be invited to join. Many want to join but very few are accepted</i>”. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For
every new hire focus on the 2+2 = 7 scenario, aim to double the value
of your delivery capability through finding the right hires and
integrating them into your existing lineup. (Going to try and find the
time to explore and share this in more detail as to how we achieve this
in a future blog). For Cloud the emphasis is on business knowledge, you
need people that can have quality conversations on the underlying
subject matter.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In this day and age, finding the right talent is
extremely difficult, but if you have a great company and happy people
then it helps. The way to maintain the culture as you grow is to get
your people involved in the recruitment process; after all who better to
judge an individual if they are going to “fit” than those already on
the front line</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>8. Develop a go-to-market strategy that
involves doing everything completely opposite to everyone else –
leverage social media, create positive noise and build your company
profile and brand</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From day one we wanted to build a
“brand” as we could see the Oracle Cloud was going to be the next thing
and from our experience saw that the traditional players (“our future
competitors”) wouldn’t move fast enough or invest early enough in the
product set. But there are a number of factors that make a brand, and we
wanted to focus on putting our employees at the centre of it, as we
knew if we could achieve high levels of employee engagement and
satisfaction we would achieve similar levels of customer satisfaction,
as our employees would look after our customers. We felt in doing so we
would create the space as a small nimble start-up could easily fill, and
by establishing a brand prospects, our customers and the industry
itself would remember us and people would want to come and work for us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>9.
Execute and remember that your only good as your last project, and that
you need to constantly achieve high levels of customer satisfaction</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The
larger operations can afford to have projects fail and there are
numerous case studies out there relating to this. However when your
operating on a smaller scale you cannot afford to have any project go
wrong - ever! No matter what you have achieved previously this is the
only thing everyone is going to remember– in-fact with the larger
organisations it is almost expected that they will have a high fail
rate, and you will constantly ask why? that despite this they always
seem to pick up the next large contract. All I can say is “That’s Life”.
So knowing the odds are stacked against you and you can’t necessarily
always load the deck in your favour – the one variable you can control
is your delivery. So make sure you not just deliver but deliver in the
right way and achieve high customer satisfaction. This is critical with
Cloud as you are looking at a long term relationship.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>10. Finally, but really most importantly - focus on Customer Success and have happy Customers</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I
have personally become absolutely besotted by customer satisfaction,
and every Friday I go through all of our customer engagements with my
Exec team and ask not just that our engagements are on track but are our
customers happy with our service delivery. If not, why not? and what
are we doing about correcting this the following week. Without Customers
you don't have a business period. Customers will do a more for you and from
my experience help you grow, but only if they are happy!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>So It's Simple?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ok
to be honest it’s really not so simple as maybe I might make out to be.
You need a high appetite for taking calculated risk; a lot of passion; a
“can do” attitude matched with a determination that you can achieve
absolutely anything; an expert delivery team that will literally follow
you over a cliff at times, plus keeping one eye constantly on the Cash - “<i>Cash is always King</i>”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You
also need however to be highly critical of your performance, and when
you don’t deliver be forensic in your examination. So be prepared to
admit you screw up, learn from it and move on quickly and naturally
don’t do it again. If you can’t do this, you will fail.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one
owes you or gives you anything, you fight and take every inch of ground
you can when building a business, and sometimes it really is a case of "<i>last man standing</i>" – just make sure your that man! Finally life is short
so enjoy the experience and the ride, and remember it is supposed to be
fun.<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Oracle Cloud brings innovation, that used correctly can
really transform businesses - I have seen this happen, and the endless
possibilities is what makes it really exciting for your customers and
your company. So go innovate and enjoy!</div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-10510700660085221332016-04-30T03:16:00.000-07:002016-05-02T12:03:24.588-07:00Five Years of Oracle Cloud and What I have truly learned about Business<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q1m-I5xPEaE/VySFeTfwkJI/AAAAAAAAAJo/n9eflImrpuImtHpFmDPTfQtuBsySpkONACLcB/s1600/business-software-e1454021897444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q1m-I5xPEaE/VySFeTfwkJI/AAAAAAAAAJo/n9eflImrpuImtHpFmDPTfQtuBsySpkONACLcB/s400/business-software-e1454021897444.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div class="article-body" dir="ltr" itemprop="articleBody">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Five Years ago this summer, I was in London in a City wine bar off of
Fenchurch Street mulling over the future direction of Certus. “Fusion”,
as it was known then, was really the only topic of discussion as I
could see it was going to be a true differentiator and change the market
for years to come. To say a healthy degree of scepticism didn’t exist
would be a lie but Oracle’s product line, despite its many acquisitions,
in my opinion was like Apple’s in the 1990s – confused, ugly, outdated
with no real viable roadmap and frankly completely unexciting. To be
blunt Oracle was in danger of becoming irrelevant.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Come 2016 and looking back if Oracle hadn’t embraced, what we refer
to today, as the Cloud it would be fast on its way to becoming a
dinosaur regardless of its cash position and healthy bank balance.
Instead of posting monster revenue growth quarters, it would be losing money. Oracle
needed to change, the customers it served were crying out for innovation
as their industries and businesses were changing and Cloud was to be
the Game Changer. Oracle needed to become “relevant” again.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now I have written about this extensively in my previously blogs of
how Certus as a business was born in the Cloud and the digital era of
disruptive technology as well as the challenges we have faced and I am
pleased to say successfully overcome. However the most fascinating
insight I have gained is the difference between those organisations that
are going to be successful and those that are not in this new era.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>My Insight</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The great thing about digital technology, and the Cloud in
particular, it has enabled a multitude of businesses to access
technology of the likes of Oracle that would have been previously out of
reach. Used correctly Cloud technology will transform your business,
from engaging your employees, managing your talent, through to the
adoption of best practice across finance and procurement as well as
giving you access to real time management information. As a consequence
over the past five years we have got involved in a wide range of new and
exciting industry sectors and businesses from Gaming, Technology, <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mining (<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">G</span>old Mining <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Yes Really!)<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, </span></span></span>Charities, Sporting Organisations and Hospitality as well as still
servicing the traditional areas of Financial Services, Telco's and
Government (more about that for another day!).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I honestly believe, as I enter my 29th year in IT (I still call it
that!), we are truly living in the most exciting time of all. I have
absolutely never enjoyed myself so much and love seeing the status quo
in markets being constantly challenged and seeing companies like Uber
and Airbnb disrupt en-masse. Innovation and disruption are now the only
constants in a world of chaos.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now this might sound harsh but for those organisations who didn’t
decide to go Oracle Cloud or any other Cloud or even worse the ones that
decided to do absolutely nothing at all after a protracted irrelevant
procurement exercise (and there have been many) I say face the greatest
challenge of all – <b>Survival!</b></span><br />
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cutting to the chase some people get all of this “stuff” and can see
how their industries are transforming and the many new business
opportunities that are available and some just don't. Unfortunately they
are on the road to failure and extinction.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I always say on projects the only mistake you can really ever make “<i>is not to make a decision at all</i>”
as the impact of indecisiveness costs time, money and business
opportunity. Organisations that I have come across over the last few
years that are indecisive I honestly believe will not be around in 3-5
year’s time. The reason being that the Executives seem completely
“trapped” by their own culture to such an extent that if they cannot
make a decision to go Cloud, especially given the body of evidence
regarding the benefits and the very fact that their competition is using
this technology that sometimes allows a multitude of new players with
new ideas to enter the arena then frankly it is only a matter of time
before their own business disappears. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You can hear it now the famous words of the Nokia CEO being repeated <b>“</b><i>we didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost</i>”. Well sorry you did do something wrong – “<i>You stood still and didn’t bloody do anything!</i><b>” </b>– Game Over.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s truly fascinating stuff that case studies should be written
about, albeit granted it’s only the kind of case study that ever gets
written after the event and not during it. Most of all when trying to
pin point why companies fail, I think it really comes down to culture
and a complete lack of ability to adapt fast enough to a changing world.
You simply become irrelevant.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Digital Darwinism</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Only 22% of FTSE100 companies from 1984 are still in business today
(with Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland only being saved by HM
Government bail outs in the 2008 crash). Technology and digitalisation
in its most extreme form has changed the rules of business. We are now
in an era of pure <b>Digital Darwinism</b>, how many of the remaining 22% will be there in 5 years time?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">““<i>the evolution of consumer behaviour when society and technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt</i>.” (<a href="http://www.mrryanconnors.com/adaptive-marketing-digital-darwinism-one-can-prevent-the-other/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.mrryanconnors.com/adaptive-marketing-digital-darwinism-one-can-prevent-the-other/</a> )</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The successful companies - the ones that survive are the ones that
adopt and adapt. Those that stand still join the dinosaurs. For those
that do survive, they have the constant challenge of staying relevant to
an intelligent demanding consumer base. To do that you need to
constantly innovate and that ultimately requires investment in people
and we come full circle back to the "war on talent".</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Cloud Moves Fast!</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Without doubt, the Cloud is the most extreme fast moving business
environment I have ever experienced. Oracle was late to the Cloud but it
has and continues to change its entire business model, it will not only
survive it will get stronger as it has the financial resources to back
its plays. Does it get everything right? far from it and it still has a
long way to go (sorry Larry, Mark, Safra). We learn by our mistakes and
if you are smart you adapt accordingly. Even Certus constantly has to
disrupt itself not just to stay competitive but to stay relevant to an
ever changing environment and to our own customer’s needs.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Cloud story is still in its infancy and we have many more
exciting times ahead. So strap yourself in and get ready as Roald Dahl
writes in Matilda “<i>Never do anything by halves if you want to get
away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you
do is so completely crazy it’s unbelievable.</i>”</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what I have learned - those that survive and excel are <i>decisive,
they know they have to adapt, are calculated risk takers, and most
importantly know they must constantly innovate to stay relevant to their
consumer base.</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are many more chapters in this book to come and as I have said
before we all write our own story so go be brave and go write the next
chapter.</span></div>
</div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-1831441724043212372016-04-11T15:25:00.002-07:002016-04-11T15:25:14.263-07:00The Urban Myths of Oracle Cloud Implementations – The Epilogue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwX7wi0UirE/Vwwj3RxUwkI/AAAAAAAAAJY/lKYWzIdMlOA1z5WQm5kYYyiqYsyi5e4uA/s1600/MythvReality%2BIII%2B-%2BEpilogue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwX7wi0UirE/Vwwj3RxUwkI/AAAAAAAAAJY/lKYWzIdMlOA1z5WQm5kYYyiqYsyi5e4uA/s400/MythvReality%2BIII%2B-%2BEpilogue.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
T<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">he articles I wrote a couple of months ago in relation to the many
urban myths around Oracle Cloud have generated so much interest that I
have been approached online, at conferences and even in the street! –
Famous or what he laughs! Anyway such has been the interest and the
intrinsic value of a shared conversation I thought I would post part
III, an epilogue of sorts to address the two questions that I have been
constantly asked since publication. So for those who are interested
please find my views on these subjects and in the spirit and words of
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the 19th Century American Lecturer and Poet “<em>Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail</em>”.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>#011 – Is Coexistence Real? Can You Integrate with On-Premise Systems</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oracle <em>can</em> support coexistence and you <em>can</em>
integrate and exchange data between on-premise systems and the Cloud.
Some basic examples do exist but for the more complex scenarios nothing
does exist directly out of the box except the standard tools and you
have to design and build the integration required yourself. Getting data
into the cloud is straight forward so if your integration is one way
going into the Cloud then it’s easier, however if you want two-way real
time integration then it’s much more difficult.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>CHALLENGE:</strong> So yes it can be done, anything can be done for a price. However please be warned it <em>could be</em> expensive in-fact from our experience it <em>may be</em>
more expensive than just going for a full Cloud implementation. The
Implementation Partner needs a number of skills so find one who has done
it before and knows what they are doing as they need to know the source
system; the Oracle Cloud; the tools provided by the Cloud (e.g. HCM
Data Loader / HCM extract); and know how to design and deliver
integrations supporting business processes. Also keep in view
integrations need to be maintained and the Cloud is changing currently
twice yearly therefore there is going be the ongoing cost of ownership
to consider as well. Remember one of the reasons for adopting the Cloud
is low cost of ownership.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So the lesson here is simple, try and do
it on the cheap or find an inexperienced partner then get ready to
write a hefty cheque.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Personally unless it is absolutely necessary
we always advise to consider going full cloud, we always have. However
in saying that we do recognise that this may not always be possible.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>#012 – Business Change is Minimal</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We
need to be clear and differentiate between business change and
training. Implementation of Cloud is transformational. The system is so
intuitive that end users need little to no training especially if they
are millennials. The older demographic can be served by using short
contextual “youtube” help style videos and using standard functionality
to embed these into the system at appropriate points. As for
Professional Users we have taken a millennial intern (age 17) given them
2 hours teaching and training and then had them flying around the
system doing payroll testing! I am not saying it’s always that easy but
it really is not that difficult in terms of system user-ability.
(equally I am not saying here we created a payroll expert in 2 hours!)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">But
we need to be clear the business change effort does need to be
undertaken you can’t just “wing it”. If the business is not engaged,
then the implementation will fail from an adoption perspective.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>CHALLENGE:</strong>
Cloud is transformational and therefore you change for good. You need
to understand the long term impact that Cloud brings on your business,
so find a partner that can articulate the future "service" offering in
such a way to win "hearts and minds". To do that you need someone that
understands the business operation and the underlying subject matter.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The
ongoing challenge is the constant stream of Oracle innovation means
that some organisations struggle with the amount of change coming at
them. Hence moving to a place mentally where the system is constantly
changing and ensuring that employees are comfortable is key. Maintaining
constant awareness, engagement and adoption are the watchwords here.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">From
our experience the most common challenges we see organisations face in
turning to the Cloud include, but no means limited to:</span></div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Industry
best practice, means streamlined processes and automation of
transactions – The impact being is that your Central HR and Finance
departments may need different personnel with a different skill mix as
their role becomes "value add" especially as the embedded management
information means the focus is on insight and informed decision making –
this means organisational change; especially where HR and Finance are
involved together</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The rate of change of innovation and the
capacity of the organisation to consume change alongside business as
usual – this means you need a mechanism for dealing with <em>sustainable</em> business change</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Determining effective mechanism’s for driving and sustaining user adoption The “<em>What’s in it for me?</em>” question needs a compelling answer</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The
bottom line is don’t under estimate the effort involved if you want to
be successful. Remember you only get to transform once.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>Epilogue</strong></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Regardless
of implementation partner a client chooses we want all implementations
to be successful. So writing this article isn’t just too merely
demonstrate Certus knowledge and experience with the Oracle ERP &
HCM Cloud it’s to provide enlightenment and insight to prospects and
clients alike in the hope that this series of articles will, and
continue to, steer them down the path to success. As Benjamin Franklin
said “<em>Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn</em>” – so join the conversation and share your experiences…</span></div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-58223146792334393732016-04-10T12:57:00.000-07:002016-04-11T08:02:58.041-07:00Positive Disruption - Want to be Really Successful in the Oracle Cloud? The Secret Is Simple…<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aurqUHy45jQ/VvhSC2ex00I/AAAAAAAAAJI/oV-Ck7knDUcnf3E1DsSrDgxrQELEqZkKA/s1600/its%2Ball%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bdelivery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aurqUHy45jQ/VvhSC2ex00I/AAAAAAAAAJI/oV-Ck7knDUcnf3E1DsSrDgxrQELEqZkKA/s400/its%2Ball%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bdelivery.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So two weeks ago we signed our first ever office lease – something we
have put off for as long as possible, but due to our growth this has
now become an absolute necessity. Building for growth and scaling is one
thing, building a sustainable business is a completely different matter
entirely and not a day goes by when you remember that “<i>cash is always king</i>”.
In my opinion you build a sustainable business first and then build
out. You can’t grow if you have no foundation. So as another milestone
is hit and the company faces the challenge of further exponential growth
it seems like a good time to share how we achieved our success to date
but also remind ourselves that we keep our feet firmly on the ground
albeit whilst I’ll heads are always in the Clouds.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So here’s another 2 part special, but fundamentally “<b><i>the ability to Execute and Deliver is Absolutely Everything</i></b>”. If you cannot deliver or you get a reputation for poor quality and non-delivery frankly you're dead! As Warren Buffett said “<i>It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently</i>”.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I
am often asked as to how we built a modern day consultancy cloud
practice and as many of you will know Certus today is an award winning
Oracle Specialised Platinum Partner, with a business model dedicated to
Oracle ERP and HCM Cloud. So if you want to know the secret to our
success then please read on…and hey don’t be to surprised if a lot of
what now follows appears to be lifted from the likes of Sir Richard
Branson, Sir Allan Sugar, James Caan amongst others! It unashamedly
has…but let me try and put the Oracle Cloud practice positioning on
this…</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Principals of Certus' industry reputations were always based upon the maxim “<i>they get the job done, in the right way and they always deliver</i>”.
We were and still are the people you come to when you have an ERP
project in distress. The problem with reputations is as the jobs get
bigger so does the risk profile, and the knowledge that regardless of
what you have achieved in the past you only need to screw up once and
that is what everyone remembers!” – So for Certus to be successful it
had to be seen as an extension of our own reputations and based upon a
strong sense of delivering value to the customer. To achieve that you
first need your own strong value set. Employees need to buy into that
value set for the company to grow, and the easiest way to do that is to
build a “brand”, and that is what we did and from that gained the
reputation for “<i>being a safe pair of hands</i>”.<b> </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Equation of Digital Disruption</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even in the era of “<i>Digital Disruption</i>”
which without doubt is very real and tangible it’s still all about
People! It’s a two sided equation, it’s about the people we employ and
it’s about the people we deliver to. If you cannot deliver sustainable
success for your customers then regardless of what you sell them you
won’t survive long in the Cloud game. Whilst investors are chasing
Unicorns (“Emperor’s New Clothes” is the term that comes to mind.
Someone please explain to me why you would invest large amounts of money
in continuous loss making businesses in the hope that they are
supposedly going to one day generate a fortune?), the fundamentals in
any service based industry remain; without customers you are nothing,
and in the Professional Services industry you need to find, develop and
protect your talent as they will look after your customers.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> “<i>The way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers</i>” - Sir Richard Branson</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I still would para phrase <i>Digital Disruption</i> quite simply as “<b><i>better, cheaper, faster</i></b>”
– albeit a quote if any readers have ever heard me speak I always pay
homage to Colin Fisher, IT Director of Lloyds Bank in the 1980’s and
trusted lieutenant to Sir Brian Pitman when asked by an 18 year old who
at the time was under strict instructions from his line management to
keep his mouth shut asked “How do you deliver shareholder value mean?”
and his answer was “<i>better, cheaper, faster</i>” (I’ll leave you
all to guess who that was!). Today, 30 years on the principles are
exactly the same, but what we did and continue to do with Certus I like
to see as “<b><i>Positive Disruption</i></b>” to the Oracle Partner landscape.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1. “Build a Brand”</b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From
day one we didn’t just want to build a great company we wanted to build
a “brand”. We could see where the Oracle Cloud was going (even before
Oracle!) and we also leveraged our experience and knowledge as to what
the traditional market players (our “future competitors”) would do,
betting and knowing they wouldn’t move fast enough to invest in the
product set. This would create the space that a small nimble start-up
could fill and by establishing a brand early on, our prospects,
customers and the industry itself would remember us! Quite simply we
wanted to be a new breed of Oracle partner.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Extend the brand, not only is Certus a brand name today in its own right – its <b>engage® services – engage® Implementation Services, engage® Business Support Services</b> and now (launching this month) <b>engage®.gov</b> is intrinsically linked to Certus. We also protect this with the Intellectual Patent Office! – So Imitators Beware.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2. Be First and Become The Leaders in the field – the Recognised Experts in the Product </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Timing
in business is everything, from seeing the opportunity through to
day-to-day cashflow. We sort introductions and networked into Oracle
Development and then invested heavily in training gaining product
knowledge and experience. We continue to do so today and feel we play a
significant role by feeding back to Oracle our ideas and findings of
implementing the product set. We want to be seen as an extension to the
development team. For many years we have been known as the partner that
trains other partners, but at the start Oracle asked us to train early
adopter customers and the larger tier 1 transformational partners - this
in effect became paid pre-sales as we were front and centre
demonstrating our knowledge of the product set. The bi-product of this
was it created implementation and consultancy opportunities for
ourselves. Remember when starting out you need to get highly creative to
generate cash to reinvest. This laid the bedrock of the business and we
still do it today. Being first is great, you make a lot of noise and it
gets you noticed but then you have to stay there! and that's harder.
For many Certus came out of nowhere!</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3. Be different! </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Oracle
Cloud was a new market trying to establish itself in 2011, early 2012.
In our opinion the Oracle Partner Landscape was “tired” we couldn’t see
any new innovation and there was a high degree of status quo in the UK.
That in itself was opportunity and Cloud was just the enabler. As James
Cann often says he builds great businesses “<i>Observe the masses and do the opposite</i>”.
That’s exactly what we did. We worked out how to implement Cloud
differently and then we started to market ourselves; instead of UKOUG
and Oracle (not saying that these channels aren’t effective), but we
went directly and set up stand at the CIPD – The biggest HR Event in the
UK – back then there wasn’t a Cloud insight!, especially an Oracle one.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>4. But…You don’t have to Redefine The Wheel</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And
here is the contradiction.…do look at the past, learn and reapply from
those that have been truly successful. Edenbrook was (in my opinion) the
last great Oracle Consultancy Practice in the UK before it was acquired
- that was of course until Certus came along <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(smile)</span>. I went and met Mark
Robinson, Serial Entrepreneur who now runs one of the fastest growing
tech companies in the UK – Kimble. I talked through our ideas, the
challenges and listened to the journey he went on with Edenbrook, and
its predecessor Fulcrum. No point falling into the same bear traps if
someone has kindly done it for you already, albeit in another era, but
he has and always is been willing to share his experience with me. As
for me I just shut-up, listen and learn.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>5. Buy into the
Market, this is the risky part – in-effect we had to find (difficult),
convince the first customer we could deliver the project (very
difficult) and subsequently turn the customer overtime into an advocate
(very very difficult with the early versions) </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finding
the first project, buying into the market and putting your money where
your mouth is demonstrates to a prospect your level of confidence in
delivery. It took us the whole of 2012 to find the first customer, and
we have many hilarious stories (especially the one about the Gold Mining
Company in Africa! – catch us in the bar sometime and I will tell you)
that today we still look back and laugh at. This however is very much
the risk part. Yes it was completely loss making and for a SME it kills
your cashflow and you have to be highly creative in resolving that, but
from our “investment” and successful delivery we got reference-ability
and customer advocacy</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>6. </b> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>“Walk the Talk” - Establish Credibility through Reference-ability</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Reference-ability
is everything when dealing with new technology, new implementation
approaches and new markets. The Cloud takes you to new and different
markets, but the rule is the same. If you don’t have happy satisfied
customers, then you don’t get the reference-ability. Those that follow
you will find it harder to establish themselves as well as gain
reference-ability. To get reference-ability you have to <b><i>earn the right</i></b> to ask your customers and you only get that through successful delivery. <b>So whatever you commit to make sure you deliver it! </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i>Part II to follow soon…</i></span></div>
Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2305519324634021706.post-24195775915796183222016-03-07T15:11:00.003-08:002016-03-12T09:49:15.130-08:00The Horse Whisper - Lessons For Business<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KA22k8eqAMQ/VrKBi96k_RI/AAAAAAAAAI4/9NKFdIxk5Kk/s1600/Horse%2BWhisperer%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KA22k8eqAMQ/VrKBi96k_RI/AAAAAAAAAI4/9NKFdIxk5Kk/s400/Horse%2BWhisperer%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div class="article-body" dir="ltr" itemprop="articleBody">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>When you cannot walk Let me help you to run. When you are afraid
Let me teach you to trust. When you feel weak. Let me build your
strength. When you can’t find your voice. Let us speak without words.
When you cannot reach. Let me raise you above the world. When you want
to give up. Let me show you how far you can go. In riding a horse, we
borrow freedom!!</i>” ~ Author Unknown</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Even though I am the first to admit I am not a “horsey” person I have
always quietly admired those who can ride and their relationship and
natural ability to have an intrinsic understanding between human and
animal. “Eventing” (Dressage, Cross-Country and Show Jumping) to me is
the ultimate challenge, requiring the highest levels of skill,
discipline and ability, let alone hours and hours of practice alongside
care that goes into putting on the perfect performance is something I
find completely admirable and also extremely brave. Controlling an
animal the size of a horse and projecting confidence and control in
dressage; undertaking a challenging cross country course; and then
jumping in a tight arena against the clock is by no means can be
considered easy, and all with the risk of serious injury to both
parties. Equestrian riders are far from ordinary people, but then again a
horse is not an ordinary animal.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why am I writing about this? and what parallels (if any) are there
to business? Well good question but for me I am always looking to put
completely different aspects together. Looking for similarities (if any)
or lessons that can be learned and transplanted. I am forcing my
mind to look at things differently as it leads to innovation. This
doesn’t come naturally to me it’s a learnt behaviour.</span><br />
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For me riding and business come together on a number of levels. To be
successful in anything you need to have passion; dedication to
practice; commitment to the challenge and high levels of trust. The
aspect of fascination to me is the underlying psychology and behaviour
in play and it is this aspect that I would like to explore. You find
these characteristics in both.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That brings me to “The Horse Whisperer”, if you have never read the
book – then find time to do so. I love the film, not just because
there is a great love story and it also stars two of my all-time
favourite actors and actresses in Robert Redford and Kristin Scott
Thomas, but primarily it describes the struggle of the journey of an
injured girl and an injured horse against all odds to come to heal each
other after a tragic car accident. Triumph over adversity is right down
my street.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However the controversial element in the film is that around horse
psychology and behaviour, and that the instincts of horses can be used
to human advantage to create a bond between human and horse. In layman
terms horses can be <i>controlled through training</i> <i>and repetition</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘<i>’A good trainer can hear his horse speak to him. A great trainer can hear him whisper</i>’’ – Monty Roberts. Reflect this into a business context my personal interpretation would be “<i>A good leader listens to his followers. A great leader listens to what is not said!</i>”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ok – so good so far? Let’s take it a step further.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Psychology of Horse and Rider</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sigmund Freud’s theories gave us the useful metaphor of the <b>“horse and rider”</b> – with the <b>conscious “ego” being the rider </b>varying
in skill and energy as they try to control a beast that is mysterious,
much larger and more powerful. I apply this to the role of the Project
Manager and the Project he or she is tasked with delivering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All good Project Managers (“the rider”) have a degree of ego, it is
the natural element found in their DNA that drives them to succeed and
rise to the challenge of achievement. Project Management can be a very
lonely job, especially when your pulling both client and suppliers (the
“heard”) in the same direction to achieve what should be a common goal,
so it the strength of personality and ego often carries Project Managers
through the dark moments. If you don’t believe you can deliver the
project, then your not going to convince the project’s sponsors let
alone your own project delivery team.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Again just like any good rider, the good Project Manager must excel
across a number of disciplines and skills. Including, but not limited to
technical delivery skills; great business knowledge and context; the
ability to be able to lead and communicate direction of travel clearly;
and the ability to work with various stakeholders and possess at times
the diplomacy of a NATO peace keeping force!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Psychology of the Project</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The vast majority of organisations, especially those that are SME’s
are not overly disciplined in delivering business projects (especially
IT enabled) in a controlled manner. Delivery takes place, but often in a
hap hazard way, with projects always costing more than usually first
envisaged.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anything that disrupts business operations (digital or not) needs a
degree of management and control. In a nod to Certus activities Oracle
Cloud implementations are no different to any other project.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Project Management and delivery of business change / transformation
projects is not about PRINCE2, MSP and the latest trend for agile (yawn!
Any seasoned project management professional will tell you that, so
nothing new here). True Project Managers know that projects are always
fundamentally about people, and the skill is simply in getting people
who don’t want to do things for you to get them to do things for you. Ok
that’s project management theory dealt with. However you should see the
link here between horse and rider – delivery is a learnt behaviour. <b>Behaviour changes can be taught and adopted</b>. It does however as any psychologist will tell you take time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i>Remember the “P” in PM is much about People Management as it is about Project Management</i>” (Cornelius Fichtner).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The underlying skills of project management that really matter are
those linked to emotional intelligence and people skills, ranging from
displays of empathy and understanding, onto the rare occasions when it
is ok and acceptable to lose your temper. The point being here it is a
display of assertiveness in acknowledging you are proactively soliciting
a pre-determined response. In other words - <i>‘’If a horse says no you either asked the wrong question or asked the question wrong’’ – Pat Parelli. </i>Equally
in Project Management if your project delivery team doesn’t respond to
you in the way you expect, then quite possibly you are reading the
situation wrong or similarly you have “<i>asked the wrong question or asked the question wrong’’. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Food for thought and possible insight into the behaviour of project
managers and project teams. As for me, I’ll keep my relationship between
horses and myself to the racetrack and the bookies! </span></div>
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Mark Sweenyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08807178549106126594noreply@blogger.com0