Darryl Carlton's blog

Protection from Prying Eyes

The situation with Stern Hu, the Rio Tinto executive currently detained in China raises issues about data security and protection of important and confidential company information. In the Rio case the Chinese Government have seized computers belonging to Rio and will have access to far more information than they may legitimately be entitled to see with respect to the case which they are pursuing.

Similarly, the Operation Wickenby tax office crackdown was given its start when Federal Police seized the laptop of a visiting overseas businessman while he was staying at a hotel in Melbourne. The information on the laptop led to the prosecution of several high profile Australians.

Now, I am not going to give you advice on how to hide information from the tax office. But it is important to secure your information and your communications in such a way that anybody, who ever that anybody is, cannot get to information which is sensitive and commercially valuable.

Cloud Computing offers an immediate opportunity to secure your communications away from prying eyes.

For example, if all of your email was done via Google’s gmail, then the laptop or office computer (which might be subject to seizure) would have nothing of value on its hard drive ….. all of the communications would be stored only on a server located , well, somewhere else.

Most business applications can now be served by cloud computing solutions, making the laptop which you lug around with you nothing more than a device which you will use to access the internet and use the email, documents management, or CRM systems being served up by a cloud computing provider.

The cloud services could be provided by your own IT division, or they could be sourced from commercial third party providers …. Or more likely it will be a combination of both.

So, free yourself from the pain of lugging a laptop around, the inconvenience of unpacking your briefcase every time you go through airport security, and the risk of information falling into the wrong hands …. Think of Cloud Computing as a way to protect your information from prying eyes.

Focus on What’s Important!

the food in spain fires the imagination

Spain has four restaurants rated in the Top 10 in the world, holding number 1 position for the past several years. It has six restaurants in the Top 50 in the world.

While in northern Spain we visited Etxebarri one of these fantastic restaurants, and Lennox the head chef of the restaurant (and hails from Brisbane) gave me a tour of the kitchen.

Unlike most of the top restaurants Etxebarri does not have an army in the kitchens preparing incredible looking food. There is Victor (the owner), Lennox (the aussie head chef), a pastry-cook and an assistant. Pretty impressive for a world-class restaurant.

Etxebarri’s claim to fame is incredibly fresh food cooked perfectly over hot coals. There are no recipes to speak of. But there is an amazing cooking process which starts with just the right sort of wood, creating the right heat in the coals, and then regulating the heat which gets to the food by the use of amazing grill stations and cooking implements.

The restaurant is an old converted stone pub in a village of some two dozen people. There are no more than six buildings in the entire village … yet Etxebarri attracts visitors from all over the world.

The business lesson which struck me upon visiting Etxebarri is that their success is based on doing one thing really well, focussing on getting the freshest ingredients, and cooking them to perfection. They haven’t overcomplicated the process of cooking, instead they have consistently improved the cooking process and continue to do so.

They deliver the one thing that every diner wants …… fabulous food, nothing more and nothing less.

Focus on What's Important!

This week the world watches, and celebrates, Barak Obama achieving the milestone of 100 Days in office. This mark was first established by Franklin Delanore Roosevelt for his New Deal program of works.

The First 100 Days was set as the timeframe within which the administration was required to lay down the foundations for the program which would follow. Since that time, 100 Days has become the measure of all successive administrations and leaders.

It is now seen that unless you establish your program for change within the First 100 Days the likelihood of creating real and lasting transformation will diminish with the onset of procrastination and bureaucracy.

The criticisms over this past week of Obama’s First 100 Days have centred on “is he trying to do too much”. The Republican’s have publicly admonished him for “doing 17 things badly instead of 2 or 3 things well”.

Not wishing to indulge in too much hubris and suggest that perhaps the Republican’s have a point, I would agree that for mere mortals such as us (those without the resources available to the President of the USA) that in any program of change and transformation it is just as important to decide what NOT to do, as it is to decide what actions to pursue.

In other words, we need to “Focus on What’s Important!”

What are the 2 or 3 things, which if we pursue these to their logical conclusion will make the biggest impact and create the greatest change for our business. We simply cannot do everything which needs to be done. We certainly cannot do everything well.

Professor Henry Minztberg of Canada’s McGill University has been studying how executives spend their time since the late 1960’s. And even back then he observed that, on average, a senior executive spends about 3.5 minutes on any one topic before being “dragged” into another, completely different issue. There is no opportunity to think deeply about issues, to ponder consequences, or for the executive to pursue their own line of research.

As we are being dragged from pillar-to-post, how are we going to pay the necessary attention to any transformation program requiring innovation, thought and reasoned action. Transformation by its very nature involves risk and ambiguity. Unless we maintain a diligent focus on those handful of actions which will result in the biggest benefit, the chances for success become limited if any.

Focus on What’s Important!

Darryl
www.100days.com.au

it's a difference of degrees

like many of us I am working harder, putting in more hours, taking more risks, earning less money, and on many ocassions achieving very little job satisfaction .... times are tough and getting tougher. And like everyone else I am constantly trying to improve my marketability and my prospects in this economy.

I bumped into Jason at the market on Sunday ... he was having coffee and eating a doughnut by the side of the road, dressed in his bikie uniform. He told me that he too had a slow start to the year, but things were steadying now. It was interesting that our observations aligned ..... businesses are not shutting the doors, but they are looking for value, and they are starting to discriminate between potential providers. Jason felt that the "economic crisis" might actually see quite a few companies going our of business ... but like 2001 and the internet bubble burst these organisations perhaps were simply riding a wave and were not really creating and delivering value to their customers.

The "thing" which I am most keenly focussed upon these days is creating value in my new venture First100Days (http://www.100days.com.au). As I go about the business of building this new enterprise I talk to a lot of people, and I have noticed that a "new" form of consulting business emerged over the past few years, one where the business was mostly focussed upon sourcing experience through independent contractors and the firm made little to no investment in intellectual property or even the infrastructure necessary to run a consulting business. These businesses call themselves Consultants, but in fact are mere shells which find contractors and send resumes to potential customers. Any profit is re-invested not in methods, procedures, training, or intellectual property. Profit from these endeavours goes into the recruiting process and towards polo ponies for the principals.

A consulting business, by contrast, invests in the creation of intellectual property which increases the value being delivered to the customer. Investments will go to methods, tools, training and resources which are focussed on improving the customers business.

This is true for the one-person firm, and it is true for the 100 person professional consulting practice. For the independent operator it is critically important to see oneself as a consultant and to do whatever it takes to create the intellectual property which will set you apart from the competition of run-of-the-mill contractors.

For the customer, it is just as critical to ensure that they are getting real value .... expenditure in these times is being scrutinised more closely. Business is about getting results, and you don't want to be paying contract rates for individuals who are not bringing something more to the table.

Good customers create great environments where significant outcomes can be achieved .... consultants need terrific customers, just as much as businesses need great consultants.

focus on what's important
Darryl Carlton
info@100days.com.au

The Boy Scout Model

This week I interviewed Professor Preiss from Clark University in Boston about what he sees happening in American business as they enter the strategic planning season.

His observations were very interesting, and should provide some food for thought for all of us as well.

Professor Preiss has observed that businesses today are focussing their attention on understanding two things - and two things only.

(1) Where are we now, and

(2) Where do we want to get to.

 I call this the Boy Scout Model - a boy scout in the bush will have his tools; a map and a compass. But to determine what path he needs to take to reach his destination those tools are useless unless he knows precisely where he is today.

And so it is with business.  We need to understand where we are today before we can map out a path to our destination. In I.T. this means to build an inventory of our current I.T. assets, particularly our applications and how they support our business processes. Then we need to decide which of those business processes are going to be emphasised in order to move us in the direction of our goal.

Are your investments in I.T. - which have been made over years and years - supporting your current business model ? Are these investments appropriate as you move towards a new and uncertain future ? Will the drop in AUD value mean that all of your discretionary spending on I.T. has been swamped by increased maintenance charges ?

Tough questions ..... not trivial ..... but we can help you to focus on what's important.

Visit our website at http://www.100days.com.au to find out more.

Rule #2: get involved in strategy

We studied the profiles of thousands of executives from 1,500 organisations across Australia and New Zealand, particularly focussing on the management dimensions of VISION and EXECUTION.

Rule #2: Get Involved in the Strategy Process
A majority of CEOs strongly support the CIO’s involvement in strategy, most CEO’s expect you to challenge  the company’s strategy and IT’s contribution to its formulation. Nearly 90 percent of executives in our  research indicated that CEOs encouraged all CxO’s to actively contribute to the senior-management team.  The majority of CIO’s in our research stated that they would like to be involved in strategy, and most wanted  to have more time with the  CEO discussing corporate strategy and its impact on the IT agenda.

An effective balance between Vision and Execution will result in superior results - whether this is for the entire business, or for the IT Organisation.

A leader who talks up the Vision at the expense of Execution is regarded as “all talk and no action” – or in the American colloquial “all hat and no cattle”. This type of CIO espouses a vision, and talks about where he sees the future, without ever empowering his team to realise that vision.

At the other end of the scale is the leader who is completely focussed on the minutiae. The detailed project manager who is more interested in the technology and cannot see the wood for the trees is just as destructive as the visionary with no ability to deliver. This type of leader does not usually understand the business drivers of change, and presumes that IT is a support mechanism to the business and contributes little to the strategic agenda of the company.

The CIO following this path would build his strategic vision for IT as being the low-cost provider, and only implementing  technology which is mature and market leader (ie: old). It is critical that the new CIO build a strong and empowered senior team, and also that they build bridges to the CEO, the CFO and their other C Level colleagues. The CIO needs to have strong support from their immediate supervisor, in many organisations this is the CFO but preferably this should be the CEO or at least the COO.

Carlton Training Organisation (CTO) is a specialist consultancy offering products and services to Align IT with the Business, to review and assess the maturity and readiness of an IT organisation across the dimensions of Enterprise Architecture, IT Strategy, and IT Portfolio Management. CTO offers its services as internet delivered capabilities through http://www.100days.com.au and also as consultant delivered services, workshops and training programs.

We offer a range of consultant led diagnostics:
IT & Business Strategic Alignment
the IT & Business Strategic Alignment diagnostic is  a formal and structured approach to measuring how  well IT and the Business are aligned to deliver  value. This project will take between 4 and 6 weeks  and is conducted on a fixed price basis.

IT Readiness & Maturity Assessment
the IT Readiness and Maturity Assessment  combines a series of individual and group interviews  with specific questions about the IT practices and  artefacts used in your organisation and a series of  industry standard benchmark and performance  measures. This project will take between 4 and 6  weeks and is conducted on a fixed price basis.

EA Readiness & Maturity Assessment
the Enterprise Architecture Readiness & Maturity  diagnostic is a formal and structured approach to measuring how well your IT organisations is  performing the tasks of EA and what needs to be done to further develop or formalise EA. This project will take between 6 and 8 weeks and is conducted on a fixed price basis.

IT Portfolio Prioritisation & Risk Assessment
the IT Portfolio Prioritisation & Risk Assessment builds a model of your current inventory of IT Applications and In-flight projects. The Diagnostic Assessment examines the Business Value & Strategic Alignment of each application and measures the Business Risk across the dimensions of “scope of impact” and “resilience”. This project is usually conducted on a Time & Materials basis, but is expected to be completed with 10 to 12 weeks.

In these uncertain economic times we all need to focus on what's important.
 
Visit our website at  First100Days to find out more.

the First Hundred Days

Newton’s second law of thermodynamics explains that unless significant force is applied, a body in motion will continue along its current path, without change.

So we know that to change something, we need to apply force – and a lot of it. The question that you as a newly appointed CIO want to ask is “where do I need to apply that force in order to move the organisation in the direction that I want it to go”.

This assumes of course that you actually want to take the business in a new direction. The chances are that you have been recruited to do something different to what was being done by your predecessor. Usually what is sought is a leader who will bring some balance to an IT organisation which may be underperforming on one of a couple of dimensions. Perhaps the IT organisation is not aligned with the business and failing to articulate a cohesive and compelling Vision. Or perhaps your new IT shop is simply failing to deliver and it has a serious issue with Execution.  In some organisations it is both, they cannot articulate a Vision for IT which has strategic alignment with the business, AND on top of that they cannot demonstrate effectiveness of Execution, failing to manage and control projects and not able to show value in the systems which are currently supporting the business.

In this case you will be faced with only one choice – Transformation !

Many historian’s agree that the First Hundred Days of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration were “the defining moment”, which laid the foundation for the economic recovery of the USA. And there were measurable actions which he took, which most successful CEO’s take when they accept a new challenge. First and foremost is to assemble a senior team which will enthusiastically implement the new strategic direction. Imagine Barak Obama taking office and trying to lead George Bush’s executive team in a new and different direction – your challenge is no different, and the politics just as intense.

 

 

Salamanca Place - Hobart

a new economic order

in these dark economic days, where the Masters of the Universe have substantially dropped the ball and Government's the world over are rushing to Nationalise (too harsh a description?) the financial industry it is interesting to contemplate some of the other prescriptive measures which these same financial wizards have foisted on us over the past few years.

Specifically I am thinking of the deregulation, break-up and dismembering of the utilities and infrastructure providers - electricity, gas, telecommunications, roads and rail. The battle cry has been that these assets are better off in private hands where they will earn a better return. The banks have been in private hands - and now they have been bailed out by taxpayers, effectively nationalising the most competitive of industries.

There is little objective evidence to support the argument that competition - purely for the sake of competition - is delivering a net benefit to consumers. Certainly the costs of electricity and communications delivered to our homes has risen substantially since the introduction of competition. So we have choice - but what we really want today is a good service at the lowest possible price.

With the financial markets in complete turmoil, with the environment melting down as fast as Wall Street perhaps it is time that we reconsider the "accepted wisdom" of these Wizards of Wall Street - and maybe we stop rushing headlong into unfettered competition and consider the benefits of infrastructure being held in public hands where it generates benefits for the whole society and not just those intent on leveraging their options in derivatives.

does BIG make you smarter

The CEO of NICTA today lashed out at Telstra for its dismal record on research and development, a topic which I have blogged on several times. He supported his assertions by referencing the research and reports of Dr. Terry Cutler who noted that Australia’s investment in innovation and R&D is 50% lower than the OECD average.

So …. here is a question which I would like to ponder

are big companies dumber than small companies ?

logically one has to assume that they are ….. simply the weight of numbers must drag down the average IQ of any organisation (or project for that matter). You start out with a few insanely brilliant guys and as you grow you start adding people … but you cannot find brilliant and motivated people on every street corner. And of course you have to start hiring to meet corporate HR policies. So by definition the average “smarts” are being reduced over time and by growth …. the bigger the project gets the dumber it gets. And, the more people you add at the bottom, the more time it takes from the smart guys to manage those whose contribution is ….well …. less than desirable.

Is it then an absolute corollary that really big companies are getting dumber  ?

what do you think ?