Richard Lannon

What Does Coke Sell?

2010-06-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

I watched a great documentary on Coke last night.

Question: what does Coke sell?

Response: They sell a moment of joy in the daily lives of people.

I often ask my business client’s what do they sell? What business are they in? What is their package? They usually say the product they sell. For examples I sell doors or computers or whatever it is. The challenge in business is to understand exactly what you sell. This is not always easy.

The world around us has changed. As consumers we have a lot of choices. Just go to the drink section at your local superstore and check it out.

Coke got this point nailed down. That is why they stay true to their original brand and invested heavily in diversification, future product development and seeking the next big thing.

Like any business they have challenges. Even with this they stay true to the fact they sell a moment of joy in the daily lives of people.

Do you know what you sell?

Setability, more than a technical term!

2010-02-18T12:36:00.001-08:00

I was listening to a podcast by Scott the Nametag Guy about the importance of owning a word. His thinking is that everyone should own a word. As I listened to his presentation he asked his audience what word do they own? Slowly people started to say a single word they owned. It was right then I decided I would own the word Setability. I decided to look it up in the dictionary. The word did not exist, so I googled it! I discovered that Setability is a technical word that relates to fine-tuning technical instruments. For example, computer monitors - often the question that is asked is whether the technical system is settable or does it have setability within certain range or parameters.

I wondered what lessons-learned could people acquire from these technical documents and the word setability? When referring to setability the technical documents referenced words like resolution, parameters, amplitude, frequency and reliability. These are all great words and can easily be aligned into the business thinking of a professional, team or organization with long term strategic impact.

Consider these words, what they mean and their every day implications for you and your business environment.

Resolution: Is a degree of sharpness and the determination to act upon something that you have decided to do and to do it with resolve. It is never too late to fine tune your resolution or to make a decision on a change or course of action. Consider writing down what it is you want to do and create determination by making it SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound).

Parameters: Is a variable that must have a specific value during execution of a procedure. It usually has limits or boundaries or guidelines - for example, the basic parameters of a technological setting, an organizational policy or process. These all have parameters and you do too. Like a technological setting, we all have parameters that we live by within our personal and professional lives. As technical professionals, managers, team leads and business leaders you should know the parameters by which you and the business operates. Think about your values and write them down. It is important that individuals, team and business parameters align.

Amplitude: Is referred to as the greatness of size; magnitude; fullness; or the breadth or range of something. So I ask you, how bright do we shine? To what level will you work to? Who are you telling? How loud are you expressing what it is you are want or willing to do? If you want to be successful, tell someone. Express your greatness, the magnitude and range that you are willing to go to. Amplify your amplitude.

Frequency: Is the rate of occurrence, as in the number of periods or regularly occurring events of any given kind in unit of time. How often do you do what you do? What is your consistency level? In order to achieve your resolution within the parameters that are set and within the amplitude you have expressed, are you practicing frequency? Frequency is important to your success. You must practice frequency every single day.

Reliability: By definition is that may be relied on; dependable in achievement, accuracy, honesty, for example having reliable information or they are a reliable person. Reliability is truly about trust. In a systems world reliability would simply mean it does not break down (often). How reliable are you and can it be measured within the parameters that have been set.

Part of setability is the ability to set or re-set instruments to make incremental to gradual measurable changes that make significant difference. Often adjustments are made to the resolution, parameters, amplitude, frequency and reliability of a system. We all have systems, our way of doing things.

As people we can make adjustments to our systems that over time amount to significant impact in our personal, professional and business lives.

If you needed to set or re-set something in your life (personal or business) what would it be? In what way would you fine tune your environment so you could achieve your preferred future? What is your setability factor?

Rolling Calendar Year

2009-11-07T11:09:00.001-08:00

Rolling Calendar Year

Recently, Mark LeBlanc reminded me about the rolling twelve month cycle. He reminded me that we should forget the calendar year and stop thinking that 2010 is where it is at. Well, I can't agree more. Looking past the regular fiscal year provides creativity and opportunity thinking. What better way to start the day, every day, as if it is a new year. No time to waste. It works!

Every day is a new day, whether it is 2009 or 2010. In business it is all the same. Get the business, do the business and collect on the business. Creativity and a willingness to explore that which no one else will can provide amazing results. I learnt this from my Dad.

My Dad made money throughout the depression, several recessions and a number of difficult times in his life. Did he do it by thinking well next year will be a better year, No! To him every day was just another day that required action. He had his task list and he went and did it. No matter what else was going on. In our generation often we stop, we become stalled like a plane ready to fall out of the sky. Not knowing what to do. At 87, my Dad still going strong. One day at a time. There is a lesson in that.

Supposedly there is a recession or depression or whatever you want to call this taking place. I know a lot of people who have been layed-off or have moved to a 2 or 3 day work week. They have also pursued other things to make ends meet. So what can you do now, today, that will have a positive impact in your life?

In a society like ours there is always opportunity. Open your eyes and explore it. Embrace it. From my Dad's perspective, "people get in their own way when all they need to do is get over themselves." I heard that a lot as a boy. As hard as this sounds sometimes I have to agree. We all need to rethink our situations, focus on our needs, remove ourselves from our wants and push forward. We all need to think like people from my Dad's generation and embrace our abilities, develop our brainpower and positively impact our bottom-line.

We all need a rolling calendar year where every day is the first day of our lives.

SWOT's that You Say

2009-10-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

SWOT's that you say?

One of the best ways to approach the making of strategic decisions within your business and personal environment is by the use of a SWOT. This means looking at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Look around and simply ask what is happening right now that has impact internally (Strengths and Weaknesses) and externally (Opportunities and Threats) on me, the team or the organization. Focus your SWOT analysis within one context; the possibilities are endless ... sales and marketing, entrepreneurship, business development, stakeholders, customers, competition, leadership abilities or on relationships and partnerships.

A SWOT analysis within any of these contexts consists of a candid look at and appraisal of your Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The key is to identify those things that are strategically important, focus on them and build a plan around them. Some potential Strengths are overlooked and should be given more focus. Some potential Weaknesses are overlooked, and should be changed. In the external world, Opportunities are sometimes ignored and Threats go unnoticed until it is too late. It is important to evaluate the SWOT in terms of what the implications are for your particular situation and, following that, to develop an appropriate strategy. Once you are ready, make sure you share your SWOT with the right people, those who are in a position to help.

Think SWOT instead of WHAT and answer the questions that are naturally posed and you will discovery key areas to focus that will make a difference in your life and business.

SWOT's that you say? That's a SWOT, I say.

Opinion: The unspoken truth about managing geeks

2009-10-15T08:46:00.001-07:00

Opinion: The unspoken truth about managing geeks

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What It Means to Run IT Like a Business - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

2009-07-21T11:27:00.001-07:00

What It Means to Run IT Like a Business - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

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Can organizations benefit from using social networking?

2009-06-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

Social networks are good if strategically leveraged. Organizations should use them to enhance their business and contribute to the bottom-line. But, and it is a big BUT, if an organizations is going to strategically leverage social networks you need to know what you are doing. Make sure you have purpose, a strategy, goals and objectives and controls in place to ensure you are getting the value required. If the business and technical organization can not establish strategic benefit due to their tactical thinking and limitations then they should engaged in an appropriate dialogue that breaks this limitation. Social networks for strategic gain will continue to develop and can impact the business and organization's bottom-line. Whatever the issue, don't get left in the dust. Seriously consider the way in which your organization will leverage social networks.

Question: How did I develop my technology support staff when I was a Senior Manager of IT Operations for a major professional service company?

2009-06-13T11:57:00.001-07:00

Surprisingly, I get this question a lot. Really it came down to a plan that the people could get into. The key is to recognize that tech people want tech or hard skills training and the business wants business or soft skill training. Over a 4 year period I (we) developed a program that included:

Annual National Conference with focus on soft and hard skills training
Annual Regional Conference that focused on specific requirements for the region including hard skills and soft skills plus effective team building events
Individual SWOTs where the techie actually had say into the four quadrants
Individual tailored learning plans with SMART goals and objectives
The identification of levels for core competency development
Mentorship and Support tagging on company initiatives
One on one coaching sessions to build skills and sometimes just talk about what was important to them
Team hiring practice. All interviews would be conducted by HR for fit, the team for technical expertise and personal fit, the team lead for future fit and then head office for OK
Befriend HR professionals and leverage their expertise. We had 3 in our region.
Working with your boss to best build your team
Sharing with peers the responsibilities of the job and cross training
Weekly meetings were people would do a quick round table of what they appreciated about the other person. We would record this and encourage people to put it in their personal evaluations
Monthly reports where we would do CAR stories (challenge, action, result) in three sentences. These could be placed in annual performance reviews
Opportunity to work with different teams in different locations across Canada
Opportunity to travel to work in different areas with different teams
Developed a cross-training matrix were people could back up other people when needed

These were the things we did to develop our technology teams hard and soft skills. In the end it worked great. Skills improved and team members advanced to higher professional levels based on core competencies.

Do you think based on your understanding and experience of business analysis/IT, can a BA position be shipped offshore?

2009-06-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

The trend in our location of the world is to keep BBA (business - business analysts) and outsource TBA (technical business analysts). Organizations have made a distinction between the two. There are a number of organizations that have made the strategic decision to do 80/20 or 50/50 splits as part of their outsourcing model. The management and the BBA tend to sit above the line as the business does not want to loose the business knowledge. The TBA are more likely to be outsourced to mid tier near shore providers. The lower level BA's are easier to outsource.

Check out: Project Management Times and Requirements - 12 Important Rules of Effective Delegation

2009-06-03T12:33:00.001-07:00

Title: Project Management Times and Requirements - 12 Important Rules of Effective Delegation

Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/-377315252814428081611&cbd3ce7f540cdeac21eab014ba384b2e

Look Before You Leap

2009-06-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

Business people tend to jump in and do whatever to attract customers without considering their needs. Step back and ask yourself a few questions that give big results when you leverage the answers. First, what business are you in? Second, who needs your product or service? Third, in what way will your target benefit? Fourth, how does your target market what to receive information about your business? Fifth, how do they make business decisions? The answers to these five questions will save you time and money and allow you to target marketing materials that focus on your prospects needs.

Check out Do It Right the First Time; Get Measurable Results

2009-05-27T06:19:00.001-07:00

Title: Do It Right the First Time; Get Measurable Results

Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=521142015245257762531&i=cbd3ce7f540cdeac21eab014ba384b2e

Creating A Sure BET - the challenge of our time

2009-05-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is a summary of the items that we must do to Create A Sure BET:

In order to create success when business and technology sectors are working together, there are some things you must do:

Develop your business and technology professionals. Make them Business Enterprise Thinkers through training and coaching in business leadership, acumen, decision making, and command skills. Make sure they know the strategic objectives of the organization.
Ensure that the right people—those who understand the key impact zones of the organization and can provide guidance and advice—are at the table. Align business vision, mission and objectives with the organization, teams and individuals. Communicate.
Develop a clear understanding of the business problem, define key objectives, brainstorm challenges, outline the solution domain. Create a clear pre-project scope including the risks, financial impact and benefits. Then make a decision, one that moves the organization forward.
Establish effective organizational change and transition practices with embedded continuous improvement strategies. Build Business Enterprise Thinking skills and share knowledge between the departments and the various resources.

In the final analysis, it is all about alignment, business practice, and transformation. In our world where organization’s objectives are rapidly changing due to global issues, developing Business Enterprise Thinkers from the working ranks of the business and technical professional will have positive impact on your organization overall. These people do the work of the business. They should not always be the scapegoat. The business has a stake in creating a sure BET, in developing Business Enterprise Thinkers.

For a complete copy of this article send an email to info@braveworld.ca and request the article.