John Chambers is an executive at Cisco Systems that retooled the way the company worked and changed the fundamental way the company moved in the market. When told it was impossible to have a continuous growth of over 5% he proved it by actions. He looked at what will be needed by the world in the future and made sure his company would be in the best position to give it to them. He did this when it was needed, even if the global economy made it more difficult. He would make sure his company was in the best position to rise the recovery bubble but still not crash when the economy did the same. He diversified the company's focus by having dozens of active projects instead of one or two company-wide. This allowed the areas that performed poorly to be overshadowed by the areas that were growing beyond all expectations. How did he do this?
Chambers took the work force and made teams from functional areas. When a new project was proposed, a team was made from experts within the company to generate a draft and a working business model. The expectation was that if the company could not be best or second best in that market with at least 40% market share then it was not a sound venture. Expectations were set so that everyone knew that to have the project not fail was not enough, it had to flourish. Collaboration was the new kid in town and people were more productive because of it.
How was Cisco able to be so successful time after time? Ask Papa Johns. "Better Ingredients, Better Pizza." While this is by no means the same market or even the same ball park it still holds true. Cisco hired the best and brightest minds out there. They started with the best brains, took the best ideas they had, and then they packaged that into a product that the masses would benefit from. Cisco knew that when you start with a team that has above average performance you will get a superior performance in the final product. Not all companies can have the best of the best, but they can choose to use everyone's best talents on every project that could use them.
New ideas are what drives this economy and the best ones will rise to the top but only if you listen.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Even failure should be considered progress
Medical News Today Article
The disturbing part about this article is the government is the catalyst needed to make these health service providers further their IT. The "Obamacare" misconception of providing free health care to everyone and etc etc (insert your most hated proposition here) but the biggest practical benefit was the incentives and mandates for businesses to better themselves. As it is verbosely stated in the article, across many states different hospitals, clinics, and independent doctors are developing systems together and independently to share patient data.
From personal experience I know the trials of trying to transfer data from one doctor to another. Because of current regulations I could not take my own data to another doctor (if it was lost and my data stolen it would be the doctors fault). My old doctor was non-digital and did well to fax and my new doctor wanted x-rays, charts, and test data that would have been a week through the mail or hours by fax, not considering the x-rays cannot be faxed. If there was only a central data interchange, or even a standardized method of transferring from one clinic to another.
Especially in a worst case scenario where lives matter, data from the primary care physician can save minutes or hours of diagnosis and treatment. While there is no one clear system to be the defacto standard in the future the fact that we have businesses trying to get ahead now gives hope for a brighter future.
The disturbing part about this article is the government is the catalyst needed to make these health service providers further their IT. The "Obamacare" misconception of providing free health care to everyone and etc etc (insert your most hated proposition here) but the biggest practical benefit was the incentives and mandates for businesses to better themselves. As it is verbosely stated in the article, across many states different hospitals, clinics, and independent doctors are developing systems together and independently to share patient data.
From personal experience I know the trials of trying to transfer data from one doctor to another. Because of current regulations I could not take my own data to another doctor (if it was lost and my data stolen it would be the doctors fault). My old doctor was non-digital and did well to fax and my new doctor wanted x-rays, charts, and test data that would have been a week through the mail or hours by fax, not considering the x-rays cannot be faxed. If there was only a central data interchange, or even a standardized method of transferring from one clinic to another.
Especially in a worst case scenario where lives matter, data from the primary care physician can save minutes or hours of diagnosis and treatment. While there is no one clear system to be the defacto standard in the future the fact that we have businesses trying to get ahead now gives hope for a brighter future.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Status Quo Rum
Making decisions is hard. Students would not like to have a 100 question exam if they can have a 50 question exam. Also I would bet that most students would rather have a 100 question multiple choice exam over a 20 question essay exam. People want to have as few good choices to pick from when they make a decision. Also if they do not have to make a change and can keep doing what they always have been doing then there is a good chance they will not even opt to take a chance on a new solution.
As a company you should always try to develop a competitive edge and be a better, more agile, and hopefully more profitable company. What happens when a company keeps doing the same tried and true thing over and over? It becomes stagnant and when you fall behind your competition you are now at a severe disadvantage. Not only do you have to catch up to your innovative competition but you have to work that much harder to get ahead.
So in a business environment how do you make a good decision? What do you do after you make a decision? Most companies would try to keep the new decision (assuming it even was a new decision) as secret as possible and make sure to prevent the competition from having an inside edge. I work in a retail environment now and further believe that high executives would want to keep their decisions away from the lowest level employees because it either does not concern them or the possibility of a leak. This may not be the best decision.
My best analogy to how a business makes a decision would be to use a personal example. A company I work for wanted to evaluate new options for a PC imaging server. They had choices between a new version of what they currently used, a few free solutions that needed some extra work, and ultimately to just stay with what they have. To cut the the chase the company decided to just stay with the current solution. When the option to do nothing and limp along the current system became viable the conversation was over. All the benefits of the free solutions and the free labor I would have provided still was not enough. As Prof. Ariely made a point of when a similar but less attractive option is presented, the original option becomes inversely more attractive.
Knowledge Management means that businesses should look for a way to gather, disseminate, and refine the knowledge the company has. If companies keep doing things the way they have always been done then the results will eventually start to diminish. New ideas should be cultivated and allowed to spread. If we do not attempt change when it is needed then our company will become so stiff it will break under pressure from the competition. Evaluate all alternatives equally. Make decisions because they are the right decision, not because they are easy.
As a company you should always try to develop a competitive edge and be a better, more agile, and hopefully more profitable company. What happens when a company keeps doing the same tried and true thing over and over? It becomes stagnant and when you fall behind your competition you are now at a severe disadvantage. Not only do you have to catch up to your innovative competition but you have to work that much harder to get ahead.
So in a business environment how do you make a good decision? What do you do after you make a decision? Most companies would try to keep the new decision (assuming it even was a new decision) as secret as possible and make sure to prevent the competition from having an inside edge. I work in a retail environment now and further believe that high executives would want to keep their decisions away from the lowest level employees because it either does not concern them or the possibility of a leak. This may not be the best decision.
My best analogy to how a business makes a decision would be to use a personal example. A company I work for wanted to evaluate new options for a PC imaging server. They had choices between a new version of what they currently used, a few free solutions that needed some extra work, and ultimately to just stay with what they have. To cut the the chase the company decided to just stay with the current solution. When the option to do nothing and limp along the current system became viable the conversation was over. All the benefits of the free solutions and the free labor I would have provided still was not enough. As Prof. Ariely made a point of when a similar but less attractive option is presented, the original option becomes inversely more attractive.
Knowledge Management means that businesses should look for a way to gather, disseminate, and refine the knowledge the company has. If companies keep doing things the way they have always been done then the results will eventually start to diminish. New ideas should be cultivated and allowed to spread. If we do not attempt change when it is needed then our company will become so stiff it will break under pressure from the competition. Evaluate all alternatives equally. Make decisions because they are the right decision, not because they are easy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)