Collaborate to innovate
It's often said that a problem shared is a problem halved. That's increasingly the case for organisations keen to generate fresh thinking and ideas within their businesses.
For many, collaboration has become a driver for innovation, especially in today's difficult times. The current struggling state of the global economy and the continuing quest for business growth means that organisations are turning to their Chief Information Officers and IT departments and asking, 'Okay, what can you do to help us get through this downturn?'
This theme of collaboration was the overarching subject of DAV's recent Enigma Roundtable, 'Collaborate to Innovate.' Click on the link below to learn more about the Roundtable's conclusions.
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On your marks
The challenge of acquiring and subsequently retaining clients in today's competitive business environment means organisations must ensure their contractual procedures are both appropriate and effective when dealing with clients, suppliers and subcontractors.
This means taking time in advance to pay attention to the practical commercial and legal aspects, getting the balance right in the sequencing of contractual relationships, and understanding how and what you are trying to achieve, will benefit the business long-term. Click on the link below to identify your next move.
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Good people are hard to find
Welcome to our Summer Enigma enewsletter. It's hard to believe that we are now half-way through 2009 and hopefully on our way to seeing some green shoots of recovery. It was a tough start to the year, but our plans have remained solid and we have continued to invest in the business and in hiring bright new talent.
The next six months will still be challenging for most organisations. The world has altered dramatically since the financial meltdown in 2008 and the subsequent recession in 2009. Transparency, pace, reputation, integrity, flexibility, agility, innovation and collaboration will be vital ingredients for creating successful programmes moving forward, plus getting the smartest people together to figure problems out. To read more about DAV's developments and recent new hires please click on the link below.
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Leaders or administrators?
Welcome to our Winter Enigma enewsletter. Over the last few years, we have witnessed a gradual 'dumbing down' of a number of well known television and radio programmes. At DAV we fear that we are now starting to see a similar 'dumbing down' in the programme management industry that seems to be driven by a belief that successful programmes can be delivered simply by managing the process - a sort of 'programme management by numbers' that risks turning programme managers into a mere commodity.
Structured discipline is, of course, at the heart of any decent programme manager, but anyone that's been on the receiving end of a programme driven by process alone will be well equipped to tell you where the pitfalls are in this approach.
Organisations are increasingly dependent on the success of their programme investments to deliver critical business change and this demands skills, techniques and, critically, behaviours that go way beyond the ability to simply manage a process. To read more about DAV's views on the management choices organisations face when embarking upon a complex business change programme, please click on the link below.
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Leadership in a challenging economic climate
George Bernard Shaw once wrote, 'The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.' That's often the case in business when programmes and initiatives get into trouble and don't meet their anticipated outcomes. Effective leadership is built on this concept too according to Professor Christopher Bones, Dean of Henley Business School.
Professor Bones argues that effective leaders not only have drive, judgement and influence, they also have an innate ability to spot troublesome issues on the horizon, know how to act on these and have a well attuned environmental radar that means they say and do the right thing at the right time to inspire people to go the extra mile.
Leadership and the challenges leaders face in today's recessionary climate was the topic of DAV Management's recent Enigma business roundtable, 'Leadership in a Challenging Economic Climate.' To learn more about the Roundtable conclusions please click on the link below.
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Remarkable people
When we say that someone is remarkable, it means that they are worthy of being remarked upon or noticed. One may even go as far to say that they are extraordinary. At DAV, we think this certainly defines our most recent recruits. Mary-Louise Hoskins packed her bags and left her home country, New Zealand, to fly half way around the world to take up a new and exciting role at DAV. While Natalie Bull, who trained as an aeronautical engineer and then spent a number of years managing and leading change programmes, states that the essence of engineering science and invention, and a 'thinking outside the box' mentality has helped her develop an enviable career in programme management. To read more about Mary-Louise and Natalie, please click on the link below.
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New horizons
AirAsia is one of the leading low cost carriers in South-East Asia. With core operations in Malaysia, plus Thailand and Indonesia, it operates over 80 aircraft and can boast over 75.5 million passengers in the seven years it has operated.
In a fiercely price sensitive and highly competitive market AirAsia is keen to ensure that it is operating an effective and efficient business and decided that an overhaul of its online reservation system was required in order for it to leapfrog other carriers in the market. With help from DAV, AirAsia has embarked upon a programme to upgrade its current reservations and booking system to Navitaire New Skies. To read more about how DAV Management is helping AirAsia complete this vital programme of work please click on the link below.
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Feedback or criticism?
Have you ever felt that a conversation about performance could have gone better? If you answered yes to this question, then you should read the latest management book, entitled: 'Feedback or Criticism? written by our Enigma Sponsoring Partner, Noggin. This insightful volume on delivering effective performance-related conversations is co-authored by Daryll Scott and Ben Houghton, joint Managing Director's of personal development consultancy, Noggin. To read more about 'Feedback or Criticism? Driving Exceptional Performance and Creating a Culture of Coaching, please click on the link below.
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Extraordinary thinking
They say the Customer is King, and certainly that's true in today's economic climate. Delivering and maintaining a great customer experience is critical for those organisations that want to shift gears and take advantage of any brightening economic outlook when it arrives. It means spoilt-for-choice buyers will identify with the value in your products and services as opposed to being tempted by the siren voices of your competition.
This theme of delivering on the customer experience was the subject of DAV's recent Enigma Roundtable, 'Extraordinary Thinking,' which was attended by senior figures from a variety of industry sectors. Read on to learn more about the Roundtable's conclusions.
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Enabling true collaboration
We live in a complex world of communications. From coping with a once simple world of phones, and then email, we now have to manage phone and email, plus Instant Messaging, wikis, blogs, Facebook, Linked In - and now, Twitter.
Collaboration, whether capturing and reusing knowledge within the organisation, or working externally with partners, has become a business imperative. Steve Masters, Head of Unified Communications at BT Global Services set the scene for collaboration at an Enigma roundtable event hosted by DAV earlier this year. To read more about Steve's background article on collaborative working, please click on the following link.
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Sailing high with DAV
The DAV team is confidently striding ahead following the successful appointment of our two Principal Sector Heads, Steve Mitchell and Sharlene Jobson in 2008, both of whom are making a very positive impact on our clients, the team and our business. In 2009 recruitment is still a priority for DAV and we are delighted to have appointed a new Programme Director, Russell Clifford to our expanding team. Russell brings with him over 20 years of experience from EDS where he was involved in delivering many large and complex IT solutions involving significant business change management and business process re-engineering within both private and public sector organisations. Russell will be joined by more new DAV hires planned throughout the summer.
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Putting green IT into practice
Renowned 'green' analyst for the 451.group.com, Andy Lawrence, provides an incisive review for the successful monthly IT title, Information Age on one of the latest published management books entitled: Green IT in Practice: How One Company is Approaching the Greening of its IT by Gary Hird. The book provides a concise insight into the experiences of a common-sense practitioner trying to work out what to do about Green IT without having a roadmap to hand. Click on the link below to read Gary Hird's story under review.
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Moving with the times
We're over three months into 2009, and already a multitude of business transformation programmes are underway as companies attempt to reduce business costs and rationalise to save money. In the last few months those that have shed jobs include Marks & Spencer, Corus and Barclays. On the credit side, however, Subway, Asda and H&M all created jobs, so January didn't bring only bad news. All February brought us was snow! But now Spring is in the air.
2009 is going to be a challenging year where cost efficiencies and working with organisations that can truly make a difference will be at the top of the CEO's agenda.
And this is where DAV can help. We have worked with many organisations planning, managing and delivering complex, business-critical, technology-based change programmes and over the years, our senior consultants have gained a unique insight into the most common causes of programme failure. They've witnessed previous recessions in the 80s and 90s and so have the experience, know-how, and nous to guide companies through the transformation challenge.
To read more about recent developments at DAV, please click on the link below.
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People make companies
They always say that 'people make companies' and this is particularly the case at DAV. Our people always go the extra mile, working in our client's best interests to get the job done. DAV's managing director Charlie Mayes and three of DAV's experienced team working out in the field: Ben Scott, Alan Hewitt and Phil Baker discuss the ups and downs of working with different customers both at home and abroad in often challenging cultural environments, and describe in detail the qualities needed to make the customer engagement a success. Click on the link below to read more about why People Make Companies.
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Communication... what communication?
There are thousands of mergers and acquisitions every year, mostly of companies that we never even hear of. But in the last eight weeks M&A activity has been firmly in the spotlight with takeovers of the size and nature of Lloyds TSB and HBOS, for example. As a result, we felt it would be difficult to deliver an enewsletter without including some comment around this subject. One of our Enigma sponsoring partners, Daryll Scott, from personal development consultancy Noggin provides some insightful information around M&As and why so often these fail to live up to financial expectations. Click on the link below to read more.
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The war for wealth
A renowned journalist on the successful monthly IT publication Information Age, Pete Swabey, offers an incisive review on one of the latest published management books entitled 'The War for Wealth'. The true story of globalisation, or why the Flat World is broken delivers food for thought to IT decision-makers pondering what the long-term effects of offshoring might be. To read Gabor Steingart 'under review' please click on the link below.
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The breakfast of champions: Driving performance and creating a culture of coaching
Delivering feedback to staff on their performance can be a headache on both sides of the table. The employee is inevitably defensive because their manager or mentor rarely has the skills to prevent the discussion becoming a negative conversation. Usually, the individual receiving the feedback has a kneejerk reaction to it, and the person delivering the feedback is equally defensive, anticipating a negative response and trying to avoid it.
Neither benefits, and an opportunity to have a beneficial exchange of views from which both parties can learn is lost. As is so often the case, it's not what you say, but how you say it.
These issues are discussed in 'Feedback or Criticism?' a new book published by Ben Houghton and Daryll Scott, the founders of DAV's Enigma sponsoring partner, Use Your Noggin. To read more about The Breakfast of Champions: driving performance and creating a culture of coaching, please click on the link below.
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Unlocking IT budgets
How new IT financing models are opening corporate wallets
Maintaining tight budgetary control in today's difficult times will be the key to survival for most businesses right now. But this 'hang on to your cash' mentality can be a double edged sword and detrimental to smaller businesses for whom cash flow is the life blood of the organisation.
That means IT vendors are having to come up with more creative buying models to persuade customers to part with their money, the likes of which we have never seen before in the IT industry.
To read more about Unlocking IT Budgets: how new IT financing models are opening corporate wallets, please click on the link below.
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The interconnectedness of things
Why a proposed air traffic management shake-up means airlines' airport slots may have less value
The Single European Sky Committee, a European Commission-convened, Eurocontrol-led group, is trying to find better ways to improve the flow of air transport around Europe.
The group's work on the European Traffic Flow Management initiative (ETFM) mandated in the Single European Sky legislative package, discusses the misallocation of resources and the inefficiencies that arise from aircraft not arriving at the time set out in their filed flight plans.
In future, it suggests, airport slots could simply be lost, a move which devalues them as an asset.
To read more about The Interconnectedness of Things: why a proposed air traffic management shake-up means airlines' airport slots may have less value, please click on the link below.
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Business transformation in a downturn
We are now fully underway with 2009 and with it comes the reality of the new business landscape. Organisations in all sectors are transforming themselves to cope with a challenging and uncertain year ahead.
The business agenda for 2009 will see economies of scale driven as never seen before and the mantra will be 'how can we achieve both sustained and higher levels of success whilst reducing baseline costs and enhancing organisational efficiency?'
'Doing more with less' is a worthy maxim, but it's riddled with potential pitfalls.
The harsh reality is that many large scale business transformation programmes fail, becoming the victim of bloated budgets, overdue delivery or the inability to meet stakeholder's expectations, thereby resulting in benefits not being realised.
Delivering successful business transformation is not as hard to achieve as some may believe but it needs someone at your side with the skills and experience to enable you to successfully plan, manage and deliver the programme.
DAV's professionals have witnessed the 80s and 90s downturns first-hand, and have the requisite know-how to both guide companies through the transformation challenge and, importantly, position them to take advantage of the eventual business upturn.
Getting it right is a must-have in today's volatile market.
How are you positioning your organisation in 2009?
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The art of persuasion
In a business change scenario, we are often trying to get people to come round to our way of thinking, to persuade and influence other people's decisions. In this latest extract written by Daryll Scott, Joint MD for personal development company, Use Your Noggin, and one of our Enigma sponsoring partners, Daryll provides some useful hints and tips around creating a positive rapport with various groups of stakeholders. This helps to ensure that the way in which we deliver messages is even more compelling and convincing and plays a major part in ensuring that all stakeholders are engaged in the right way. To read more about The Art of Persuasion, please click on the link below.
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Evolution of the CIO
A decade or so ago, the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) began to emerge in corporations, reflecting the importance of the CIO and the IT department as a necessary custodian of the organisation's information resources. Since then, as information technology (IT) has been expected to be firstly aligned, and then integrated with the business, the CIO's role has changed.
Now, the CIO role is changing again, putting IT executives in charge of not simply information, but also business collaboration, innovation and change management. Tomorrow's CIO must have a greater affinity for business than has previously been the case. Indeed, nascent technologies such as Web 2.0 and collaboration are now fostering the image of IT as an innovation driver and an enabler taking the business forward amid a challenging economic landscape. To read more about the Necessary Evolution of the CIO, please click on the link below.
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Is green the new black?: Enigma Group Roundtable
Green is now firmly in the mainstream with companies of all sizes promoting their dedication to the green cause and for good reason: in a world of rising energy costs, companies can compete better by reducing their carbon footprint.
There are significant cost savings to be gained from cutting energy consumption, but this is not the only reason for aligning your business with the green agenda.
Is being green a better way to do business or just another way of driving profit? This was the subject of DAV Management's recent business Enigma Group Roundtable, 'Is Green the New Black?'
Interested in the roundtable conclusions? To read more click please click on the link below...
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