Author Archives: mflatow

Who should drive the cutover plan when your company is approaching the finish line for a large, complex system delivery?  Your Company?  The System Integrator? An Independent Consultant? 

Your company has hired select experts for a reason and expects them to deliver tried and true success.  Would the Client Lead be able to hold the other company organizations responsible without creating animosity and strained relationships or perhaps favoritism? 

What about the SI?  May be like the fox guarding the henhouse?  Would you be able to fully trust the Integrator who is responsible for over 50% of the implementation and detailed tasks with unbiased execution on cutover weekend? 

Speaking from experience and having driven numerous conversion strategies – the cutover is best led by the independent.  Someone who can “ride herd” and hold teams accountable.  Someone who can call the SI’s bluff during execution.  Better an independent resource, who is well versed in the overall program, to build the plan, ensure responsibility and successfully drive delivery dates, risk management and issue resolution. 

What’s been the reason for your wins (or breakdowns) in executing a complex system cutover and did you have the right leader in place? 

According to Jason Jennings, author of the The ReInventors, 67% of CEO’s believe their current business model will only last another three years.  A startling statistic that suggests that if you don’t innovate or re-invent – you may find someone else “eating your lunch”.  An extreme example would be the company Blackberry, whose CEO at one time said in response to the question of when would they launch a color model – “who the hell wants to read their email in color”?  It is surprising Blackberry is still around – but a far different company than the world-wide industry leader it once was.  Instead, Blackberry could have taken a reinvention path.  Given consideration to reinvention of its:  values, mission, vision, strategy, tactics and it’s product and services.  Think Starbucks.  In the end, leadership is responsible for building a culture of change and growth.  To keeping, growing and rewarding the right people in the organization.  To finding, keeping and growing more customers.  Rather than being forced to change, be ready to change when change makes sense.  And don’t just reinvent for the sake of change – reinvent if it truly makes sense to do so.  Build a culture of change and growth and strive to place a lot of small bets.  Is your company making a lot of small bets on it’s journey for momentous improvement?  Will it (and you) be around after another three years?

Superior processes have been at the forefront of helping companies achieve a competitive advantage for decades.  Leveraging technology and people, the key differentiator is in an organization’s ability to orchestrate a group of interrelated activities that together create value for the customer.  With superior processes – you maximize value and eliminate waste.  Since the 1980s when companies like Motorola introduced the techniques for Six Sigma, various terminologies have made their way to the forefront in driving process excellence:  Process Re-engineering (1990s), Business Process Transformation, (2000s), and Digital Transformation (2010s).  In fact, the concept of lean processes was introduced in the early 20^th century at Ford and refined decades later at Toyota. 

I easily harken back to my days at Accenture and serving as the lead instructor for the roll-out of Michael Hammer’s Process Excellence Principles to a group of several hundred consultants.  These principles were the core to helping my clients re-invent their organizations by focusing on 5 key principles. 

1. Process Outcomes Create Value
2. Target High Value Processes
3. Innovate, Don’t’ Duplicate
4. Excellent Processes Need Excellent Owners
5. You Get What You Measure

These principles help companies achieve superior business performance in the areas of market share, profitability and industry leadership.  Process design needs to focus on:

1. Simplicity and flexibility
2. Compressing time
3. Providing real-time feedback
4. Maximizing value
5. Eliminating waste
6. Customer focus and user friendliness

Processes also need to be actively owned and managed, measured, supported by technology and performed by people who are trained in the process.  If you would like to learn more about how to achieve Process Excellence contact me at mflatow@meftac.net or message me on twitter.

It is easy to find project failure statistics such as:  only 2.5 percent of companies successfully complete 100 percent of their projects.  Or companies typically go over a project budget by an average of 27 percent.  Or the failure rate of projects with a budget of $1 million is 50 percent.  What isn’t clear is if any of these failures included the effective execution of a steering committee engaged to help mitigate statistics like these.  Have you ever been asked to create a steering committee in order to manage a key initiative or program?  How big should it be? How will it make effective decisions?  How do you gain strong participation?  Here are seven keys to an effective steering committee

• Pick people who have proven themselves effective in a team environment.
• Ensure key organizations are represented understand the plan, description, purpose, and current scope of the initiative.
• Establish ground rules for operation, including budget targets and scope change limitations
• Meet only when necessary – with an intentional agenda and stated objectives
• Keep the size manageable. An effective number 5-7 individuals
• Establish agendas and distribute in advance
• Have a single project leader serve as the general liaison and the goto individual for information and coordination

Steering committees are a critical component for helping organizations deliver project success and meet challenges.  What’s been your experience with a non-functioning steering committee?

One of the largest capital expenditures in organizations is money spent on strategic initiatives.  One Harvard Business Review study reports that 70% of leaders spend an average of one day a month on strategy and 85% of leadership teams spend less than an hour per month discussing strategy. Often times, senior leadership does not have the ability to focus on the success of these initiatives.  They are tied up solving internal issues, resolving conflicts, managing budgets, and overseeing their team’s performance.  In another study, of companies that poorly execute strategy, a staggering 60% do not even link their strategies to their budgets, guaranteeing a disconnect between commitments and resources.  Leadership has so much on their plate that aligning the big picture with their day-to-day operations takes a back seat.  And often, they don’t have a dedicated resource who has been there before and is taking the heat to drive the strategy implementation.  They need someone who can take the reins, help them lead and identify trade-offs – pinpointing where an organization will invest, compete and win.  How do you find time to focus on company strategy rather than responding reactively to your workday?