Those who have worked with me, even for a short period of time, know that I am a big fan of Ayn Rand and objectivism in general, and I use the terms Relentlessly-Objective-Reality (ROR) and Relentless Objectivity to define my personal, as well as the Ideasphere approach of defining any problem we work on, and structuring the search for solutions to it.  Even though it can be painful at times, and requires extra effort from all of us to engage in dialogue and hold Crucial Conversations rather than debates and witch-hunts, that practice is what makes the work we do at Ideasphere so effective in the long run.  Relentless objectivity enables any executive, interim or permanent, to see what current reality is before the start of an operationally oriented transformation or corporate renewal project, and to develop realistic plans to deal with it.  It also ensures that actions and strategies are meaningful and will produce the desired results.

Unfortunately relentless objectivity is neither easy, nor generally practiced (kinda-like common sense).  Over the years I have been surprised by unintended consequences that were a result of a team missing a key reality, or deploying a “going through the motions” solution that sounded good but did not work.  Teams that missed something that lurked in the background during the initial phase of a project, that should have been obvious, or an failing to conduct an objective assessment of the impact of a proposed solution that could have prevented an ineffective solution being deployed.  Even though some teams eventually recover, their transformation takes longer, or costs more than it should.  Even though the kinds of projects we work with are high risk/high reward projects, this situation is not unique to transformational projects.  Some research indicates that more than half of strategic projects fail to deliver on their promises.  Even more depressing is the acknowledgment by two thirds of senior executives participating in a McKinsey survey of executives from around the world, that their organizations rarely succeeded in achieving major change objectives.  Since making promises to clients and keeping them is what pays the bills around our office, avoiding becoming a part of that statistic has been one of our major goals. So in the process of continually improving the way we work, I have kept a running list of projects where I’ve seen bad things happened, and kept looking for answers to the question “What caused that?”. 

So, with apologies for the bad Star Trek analogies, I think there are four wormholes that transport a team from the Relentlessly Objective Reality (ROR) universe to one of the four Fake Abstract Reality (FAR) worlds.  Because these universes are parallel (or at least that’s a common view), a transformation team can be operating in one, or more, of those environments at any given time.  Frankly, I’ve seen at least one team operating in all four simultaneously.  So, based on my experience, here are the Four FAR worlds and the wormholes that lead teams there:

1)      The Content Free world through the Executive Arrogance wormhole

2)      The Lake Wobegone world through the Cognitive Dissonance wormhole

3)      The Borg world through the Groupthink wormhole, and

4)      The Cardassian world through the Confirmation Bias worm-hole

Continue reading "Relentlessly Objective Reality" »

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An old client of Ideasphere Partners, and now a dear friend, asked me a couple of months back to spend a day with an executive team reviewing a project.  It was one that had gone horribly wrong in a small company he owns in his semi-retirement from executive life.  He was frustrated!  It was an important project with his full support, well planned , with good objectives, and managed by one of his young “Ivy league educated” stars.  A project “guaranteed” to succeed, that not only failed; it did so in a spectacular way.  It was something no one saw coming until it was too late.  After we worked through the project history, a pattern emerged that made it, in hindsight, obvious it was doomed to fail from the beginning.

“What went wrong in our project planning?” was the question my friend asked and the one got me started with this blog about a month ago (never enough time to write for fun these days).  As we worked through their project, and I thought more about projects I have seen fail over the years, including some of my own, the more interesting question became “why do perfect plans many times produce perfect failures?”. So here it goes:

Continue reading "Perfect Planning" »

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Andy Serwer, the managing editor of Fortune magazine and a man I admire, recently wrote a piece in Fortune Magazine on the insane amounts of information and channels available (think Facebook/twitter/etc) calling it the end of blogging.  I like Andy’s view and he made some great points, but I have another perspective.

This deluge of information and the continuing reduction of content to sound bites is not the end of blogging.  It’s the end of critical thinking.  It’s the beginning of an Attention Deficit Disorder pandemic.

Continue reading "Death by a thousand soundbites.." »

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One of the constant challenges we face at Ideasphere when working on operational turnarounds with our clients, besides high debt leverages, inefficient operations, lack of technology management expertise, founderitis, Demday disease, etc., is how to improve performance of the current operations without burning working capital or taking on more debt. Following our People-Process-Systems model, we always start with the people and what we can do to improve everyone's performance. 

This blog entry is a result of a research paper a friend sent to me on how the US Navy worked to improve the performance of the Navy Special Warfare Community and increase the completion rate of their SEAL training programs.  

Continue reading "What the Navy SEALs learned about improving performance" »

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It’s been a couple of months since my last post because of Ideasphere client work and some vacation, but I am back to share some ideas and continue this on-going dialogue with those of you who e-mail me about these musings.  Recently, one of our clients asked me to help him assess two executives he was considering for a promotion to a very important job leading a major transformation initiative we had suggested to the company.  That was not an unusual request, since evaluating people is one of the three components of our People, Process & Systems approach to company transformations.  What was unusual was that one of them was a ten year veteran in the company and had almost twenty years of total experience as a senior executive in their industry, while the other had come from six years in a completely different industry and only had three years with this company.  Both executives were considered solid performers and valuable players on the executive team.

Continue reading "Are experience and time on the job/industry related?" »

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With the presidential election theater going on these days, it’s hard to avoid conversations about politics at the Ideasphere offices, even with some of our clients.   Even though I generally reserve conversations about personal, political, and religious beliefs for a very small group  of close friends, I got to thinking about similarities between politics in the public service arena and politics in the corporate world.  So, even though not my regular practical blog entry about operations or management, here are some thoughts to consider about politics in general and corporate politics in particular.   As always, I would love to hear from you and post your replies to this blog at c.papageorgiou@ideasphere.com.

I think most of us developed our political beliefs based on some initial ideas from our family and upbringing, and some from our cumulative life experiences.  We are what, and who, we are because of the ideas we collected and the choices we made at various point in our lives.   As one of my favored Zen saying goes:  Careful what you think; It becomes what you say.  Careful what you say; It becomes what you believe.  Careful what you believe; It becomes what you do.  Careful what you do; It becomes who you are.

What we think about inevitably shapes who we are.  Our political beliefs depend on the Thought-to-Action path we traveled and the path dependency is the same one that shapes our approach to corporate politics.  Just like our political beliefs, our view of corporate politics is either the result of a conscious process, or one of random occurrences and happenstance we have allowed to shape our thoughts and actions.  Depending on how we came to acquire our political beliefs, we either have an appreciation of the political theater going on in America today, can see the benefits of the ebb and flow of power - and appreciate the maneuvering - or we have a disdain for one party or another and all we want is for our candidate to win and our beliefs to prevail regardless of the process.  Politics; If we can objectively appreciate the process, it can be a great learning experience.  If not, what a shame to be part of such a great show and choose not to pay attention.

So here I go where angels fear to tread:  Corporate Politics, a necessary evil that if it did not exist we would have to invent it.

Continue reading "Politics and “The Dance”" »

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A question my partners and I at Ideasphere have been getting more frequently by operating executives at our client companies is whether an acquisition by a Private Equity Group (PEG) is a good or a bad thing for them.  Based on our experience with many transactions over the last ten years, our answer is, it depends on who the buyer is. Just like assessing Venture Capital (VC) firms who invest in some of our startup clients, the answer depends on the type of money the PEG represents: Green, Gray, or Red.  Depending on that, an acquisition can be good, great, or a really bad thing….Green, Gray, or Red Money? Please allow me to elaborate.

·          Green Money is just that:  A financial buyer who recognizes an opportunity to buy an asset that will grow over time and generate returns with little need for direct involvement by the buyer.

·         Gray Money is green money plus brains:  A financial buyer who recognizes an opportunity to increase the value of an asset by bringing intellectual capital (their business network and access to management talent) to the table, along with real capital (their money).

·         Red Money is like getting in bed with the Devil; No matter what you do, you’ll wake up with horns. Red Money is a financial buyer who recognizes the value of an asset can be increased through non-value-adding financial and operational engineering that consciously cripples the asset in the long term, but generates a short term pop in value that can be exploited for a great return.

Continue reading "Private Equity Groups - Green, Gray, and Red Money" »

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“Our boss is a moron; He is an idiot; He doesn’t get it; He does not understand our generation, etc., etc.”  I had bought a couple of rounds of drinks to get them to loosen up, and once they did, that was the recurring theme around the bar with a group of a dozen Generation Y, newly minted, supervisors and managers from a client company.  I was gathering data to understand the culture and people issues before a turnaround engagement, and since I found alcohol to be a great research aid, I took a group of them out for dinner/drinks.  Now, my definition of a Moron Boss is a manager who is notably stupid, lacking in good judgment, or demonstrates most if not all of thirteen behaviors I call the Moron Boss’ Thirteen.   Having assessed Gary (not his real name), their boss, the previous day, I found him to be a decent manager in a bad situation who tried hard to do the right thing, even if he did not succeed some of the times.  He was not exactly the brightest light bulb on the chandelier, so I rated him a solid B, but to hear these folks talk, one would have thought the guy was a complete failure who should have been fired a long time ago.  

There are many mediocre managers, but true Moron Bosses, just like truly Exceptional Leaders, are rare.  None of us scores zero against the Moron Boss’ Thirteen but a true Moron Boss is a unique experience to behold.  In my twenty years as a manager, operating executive, or management consultant I have experienced dozens of bosses and clients, and I can truly say I only had one manager who was truly a Moron Boss, and an unethical and vindictive one to boot…  But that particular executive is a discussion for another time after a couple of years go by and my non-disclosures expire. 

Continue reading "The Moron Boss' Thirteen Behaviors" »

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The Demdey (pronounced dem-DEY) virus is reaching epidemic proportions in many companies and the Imyprob (pronounced IMY-prob) pill may be the only cure. Demdey Disease? Imyprob Pill?  Allow me to elaborate…

A couple of years ago, after my annual physical, our family doctor informed me my cholesterol was trending higher than my IQ and it was time for a pill.  I was shocked! I am a healthy individual; I exercise and generally watch my diet; I know the research and what I have to do to keep my cholesterol low; so why should I take a pill?  I decided to go without it.  After a year of trying the daily Oatmeal breakfast routine and watching my fat intake, my cholesterol had become significantly higher than my IQ.  Call it a blinding insight into the obvious, but after a year I recognized for certain ailments, even if it’s a bitter thing to swallow, a pill is the right answer. 

Look around your company; are projects frequently falling behind schedule and going over budget? Is quality declining? Are sales dropping and customer complains rising?  Are your earnings lower than forecast for more than two quarters in a row?  If the answer is yes to any of these, it is time to check around for signs of the dreaded Demdey disease.

Continue reading "The Demdey disease and how to cure it…" »

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Second in a series from Budgets, Models, Simulations, and Whirlybirds...

The Grass Growing Forever (GGF) trap is a classic case of forecasting gone wild.  It generally happens when a group of highly credentialed consultants, investment bankers, financial analysts, or maybe a couple of freshly minted MBA’s from the corporate development group, gather in a room to model an acquisition strategy, analyze the growth potential of a product, or assess the future value of an M&A transaction.  More often than not, with no operator in sight, they look at the last three years (or some other legitimate sample period), identify a few critical variables, and create a model extrapolating a baseline growth curve for the next set of years.  To make the model work, they include some “accelerator assumptions” that when manipulated produce the classic Hockey Stick Curve that extends upwards into infinity.  An Internal Rate of Return calculation is generated; a great PowerPoint presentation is made to the investment committee or budget review team by the most articulate of the group and, voila; a budget with positive earnings and stock price impact is calculated and the plan is approved. Soon enough some poor operator is handed a budget and assigned the task of “make it happen” and off he, or she, goes to deliver what the model promised. Unfortunately, a year or two later, real life does not match the predictions of the model and the search for a guilty party begins.

Continue reading "Bad Forecasting and the Grass Growing Forever trap" »

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As we get into budget season and budget models fly around wildly, and almost always out of control, a client asked me to write a column on the subject of models and simulations.  Since there are too many root causes for a bad model outcome to cover in a single entry, I thought I would start a series to share some common modeling traps operators should be aware of before accepting the output of any model.  That applies to accepting the budget model from finance, signing on to operating a new organization born through an efficiency model, launching a new product with a revenue forecast based on a marketing model, or taking on the P&L responsibility of a new merged or acquired entity that looks good on paper and in the models of the investment bankers. 

Continue reading "Budgets, Models, Simulations and Whirlybirds" »

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Recently an acquaintance asked a question on the Linkedin.com website to find out if recruiters really use the website to find talented people.  I thought I would edit and repost my reply on my blog because finding talented people is one of the major responsibilities of good operators and I also recently had a funny experience with a recruiter who checked out my background on LinkedIn.  So here are some thoughts on using LinkedIn to find people, and for operators who are thinking of changing jobs and are wondering about recruiters in general and LinkedIn in particular.

Continue reading "Finding Talent, LinkedIn, and Recruiters" »

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A couple of years ago a group of managers at a client company asked me to help them deal with their boss who suffered a bad case of Visionaritis, a disease affecting some managers who confuse vision with hallucination.  The output of that intervention (successful if I may add) was a workshop presentation I gave at their management training workshops and  a public presentation I gave at management seminars.  The title of the presentation was “Vision or Hallucination, Visionary or a Dreamer.”  I thought I would share it and see what you think.  As usual, you can send me your feedback at c.papageorgiou@ideasphere.com

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Some times a book comes along that is a must read for anyone who hopes to be an operator.  Being an operator, sometimes requires you to be the Designated Asshole, without actually becoming an asshole.  A legitimate authority on the subject, a Stanford Professor by the name of Robert Sutton has written a great book on the subject.

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Continue reading "Operations, Organic Growth, and Outperforming the Competition" »

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Expanding Transaction Processing to the Global Market Place

Entering the global marketplace presents a growth opportunity to many sectors of the US economy. Companies in the Transaction Processing sector recognize it and are contemplating, or actively pursuing global expansion strategies. This article highlights two of the unique challenges and opportunities these companies will face in non-US markets: availability, reliability, and veracity of consumer data, and compliance with privacy and consumer protection laws.

Entering the global marketplace is not for the faint of heart; It carries with it as many dangers as it does opportunities. I believe, the Transaction Processing industry global expansion will be similar to many industries where the early pioneers learned their lessons the hard way, by trial and error, but subsequent entrants used that knowledge to make their entry smoother, faster, and more successful. Having been involved as a manager, executive, or consultant with the international expansion of companies in the Logistics and Transportation, Telecommunication Outsourcing, Call Center Outsourcing, Financial Services, and Transaction Processing segments since the late 80’s I have had the privilege of a front seat view of the flattening of the business world for the last 15 years. It is this perspective and experience I hope to share in this article I wrore for Transaction Processing Atlanta.

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A critical fact is not information. Information can be ignored. To make sure a critical fact is not lost in a river of information, it must bite. Design systems that deliver information that has teeth!
From a presentation by Jim Collins – Co-Author of Built to Last and Author of From Good to Great

Every time I work with, or lead a team looking at an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation, a Decision Support System (DSS), a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, or an executive team implementing a Balanced Score Card, Dashboard, or Critical Success Factors measurement program I bring this quote out. This is probably the best soundbite anyone has ever given me when it comes to designing effective information systems for managing operations.

Continue reading "Operators Need Information that Bites" »

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It’s a funny thing trying to explain to my mom, who never finished elementary school, what I do for a living.  “When are you going to get a normal job?” is a frequent question.  After trying to explain what I do unsuccesfully for many years, I decided the best thing to do was to tell her the five reasons people hire me and my partners to do work for them. 

Continue reading "Why hire external consultants" »

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The 30/30/30/10 Observation 

Most people in operating positions tend to spend most of their time putting out fires.  That does not make them "Operators."  It just makes them operations people.  A good operator spends his or her time "walking around" the operation.  I always found that good operators spend 30% of their time doing "the job", 30% of their time "leading and managing their people", 30% of their time with "the customers" whether they are internal or external, and 10% of their time "sharpening the saw" either by reading or taking classes.

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Special People

When I am engaged in a turnaround, either as a consultant or interim-executive, people ask me why I almost always bring in two “outsiders” to help me out and what their delegated level of authority and responsibility is or should be.  Since one commitment of a good operating executive is to communicate things as soon as they come to his or her attention, and one of the core values of any good operation should be Clarity (see The five Temptations of a CEO), I thought I would explain the role of two special people:  the Organizational Consultant (OC) and the Communications Consultant (CC).

Continue reading "Why we need special people in Operations" »

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This was a presentation I gave to a group of executives participating in the Mentoring Programs run by the Pathbuilders Group in Atlanta.  One of these days I will type up the comment notes that go for each slide, but you can always drop me a note with your questions. 

Download file

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Mindmapping

One of the most powerfull ways to think about and articulate ideas is to create a mindmap

Over  the last few years, I have become a very big fan of MindManager a software tool that generates mindmaps and allows you to export them to many other applications.

Posted by ckpblog at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Why is it that the operations people are sometimes the last ones consulted before a partnership is established or a marketing alliance is announced?  This was a presentations to a group of about 200 executives on alliances and partnerships.  Download file

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Patric Lencioni's Books

If you have not read them, start with "The Five Temptations of the CEO" and "The Four Obsessions of an extraordinary executive."

Politics and Gamesmanship 

The Elements of Influence by Alan Kelly provides a fascinating way to think about the gamesmanship involved in building your reputation as an "Operator."

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I think Michael has this just right!

Continue reading "Giving Operations its Due by Michael Hammer" »

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