Early adopters, step aside…the mainstream has arrived.What are the implications behind the increasing trend to engage Directors of the Strategic PMO?
A perspective on the growing trend for Strategic PMOs – what are they and why might you need one
Tag Archive for ‘business process’
The big myth in post acquisition integration
If there’s one consistent message that I’ve heard over the last 15 years of doing post acquisition integration, it’s this: Big deals are more difficult to integrate than small ones Whether it’s the investment bankers / accountants / lawyers / consultants or Heads of Corporate Strategy, this message is probably the one thing that everyone agrees on. Complexity is directly correlated with size…for the following reasons: More people requiring more effort […]
Policy, process and practice – the three dimensions of implementation (1)
I’m working with a client on a transaction in one of the larger markets in Asia. As often happens, the chance to work with some highly motivated and able individuals leads to some new ideas. Whilst in a team meeting, this model came to my mind and I wanted to share it with you. The challenge for any organisation in an acquisition is to understand what the triggers / levers […]
The project based organisation
Following on from my blog last week, I’ve had a few conversations with colleagues around the ‘projectisation’ of corporations, a ugly but appropriate phrase which Thomas Martin uses to explain the next stage in corporate development. If you remember, what I tried to address was the perfect storm convergence of a disengaged and therefore unproductive workforce, a increasing pace of change and a significant uplift in complexity. So, how to deal with […]
Buying the right quality at the right price – the challenge for procurement
I’ve had two conversations with clients around procurement in recent times which I wanted to share with you. The first one included a remark from a client which struck me to such a degree that I wrote it down precisely. ‘Our procurement process actively discriminates against smaller firms because of the perception that they offer limited services’ were his precise words. The second was with a procurement professional who told me that his brief was […]
Domain knowledge – the only thing that matters in consulting?!
A frequent complaint that one hears about consultants is that ‘one team sells’ but another delivers…the implication being that the more senior folk are involved in winning the work, but when it comes to delivery, it’s often handed to the less experienced with the expected consequences. Like all professions that deliver a service, the tendency is to try and win at all costs and think about delivery at a later […]
Bringing project management into the mainstream
With thanks for an excellent seminar last night by Thomas Martin of Forward Intelligence Group and previously Microsoft, and also a reflection from a number of other clients and colleagues, I’ve been observing an interesting series of phenomena in the last few months. A redrawing of some of the traditional boundaries between transformation and business as usual activities, specifically when it comes to allocation of CAPEX. It seems that there […]
Absorptive Capacity, Knowledge Management and Innovation Capacity
Originally posted on Paul4innovating's Innovation Views:
Let’s start with some defining statements. Innovation is totally dependent on becoming aware of external ideas and the knowledge that is needed and then translated for it to become new innovation. We can ‘fall over these ideas’ or we can find ideas or concepts through explicit search. Then to translate these and turn them into something new and different we need to…
Management information in projects – a meaningful source of data or post rationalised intuition?
Much of my work in recent years has been to work with senior managers who are looking for some kind of a magic bullet to give them an insight into their organisation…a data set which: They can trust where the ‘provenance’ is clear and consistent. The consistency in particular has to relate to qualitative experiences they’ve had with their employees or other relationships they have internally or externally Relates to their own experience either […]
What’s the value of a plan?
It may seem strange to those of you who know me that I’m in the profession of planning otherwise known as project / programme management. For years, my life was anything but planned, work opportunities seem to occur through a combination of chance and happy circumstance. Obviously it’s been easy to post rationalise my various moves (!) but the reality was very different. That was not however due to a […]
Communications…how and why we continue to get it wrong!
Three truths about communication which are accepted by most: Non-verbal communication constitutes 70-80% of the message (tone and body language to be precise). Human beings are extraordinarily good at perceiving that which is authentic and that which is not. Leaders lead through the power of their communication capability. Every project manager I’ve ever met, when asked about the core skill required that distinguishes the average from the exceptional in their […]
Systems led change and how to reduce the potential for failure
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece on a change management project we were working on entitled ‘my world, your world…systems led change and why it fails’. I promised some solutions or at least some ideas about how to resolve this type of issue and a number of you have reminded me that I have not been true to my promise, so here goes! Firstly, take the time you’ve […]
Consulting language…who comes up with these expressions!
Many years ago when I first started consulting, my wife said to me, “make sure you continue to speak English, if its your single contribution to your profession that you do this, it will have been a career worth having!” It’s an extraordinary thing that we seem to delight in, coming up with language which is so nebulous as if the sole purpose is to confuse rather than clarify! Maybe […]
My world, your world…systems led change and why it fails
Over the last 9 months, I have been working with a client who is going through as significant a trauma as perhaps I’ve ever seen. Because of an aging population and obsolescent IT infrastructure, he is embarking on a systems led change process which will effect the entire operation. The implications of failure are not worth contemplating in terms of their knock on effect for the group as a whole. […]
There is no such thing as a ‘corporate’ buyer
For me and probably many of you, one of the key changes that I’ve experienced in the last few years has been the growth in stature and importance of the procurement function. From a situation many years ago where these were a source of information and administration around suppliers, their influence these days is significantly greater…typically helping organisations deal with the ‘tail’ of their suppliers more efficiently and through a […]
Inarticulate ramblings of a management consultant 