Regain executive control: Avoid project bombshells
Everything you are being told says your business-critical project is progressing well - but is that really the case? Are you being told the true story? Look beneath the surface and you could discover a time bomb.
Click on the link below to find out how you can monitor the progress of critical business pogrammes on your terms.
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Getting to grips with the 'new norm'
Welcome to our Spring 2010 Enigma enewsletter. It's unavoidable. The recession has had an impact on every business. We're not a gambling organisation, but we'd wager that there aren't many companies that have escaped or are immune from a worldwide recession of the magnitude that we have just witnessed. Whether this has led to a reduction in budgets, employees not being replaced, longer decision making cycles or a speeding-up of decisions as companies rush to implement new initiatives, the consequences are that we've all had to cut our cloth accordingly.
A direct and positive impact that we have observed at DAV is that we are starting to see partnerships, and affiliations becoming more prevalent, particularly within smaller organisations. Joining forces in this way enables businesses to provide the level of expertise and capabilities their customers are looking for without necessarily hiring an army of employees. Plus smaller companies are able to nimbly compete with the larger businesses so creating an environment of healthy competition rather than a monopoly.
To read more about DAV's views on the changing business landscape and what we are now aptly referring to as the 'new norm' for businesses in the twenty teens, please click on the link below.
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Defining and measuring business excellence
Quality can be hard to define and measure because it means different things to different people. What one person values and will pay a high price for, another will dismiss as immaterial.
The concept of quality came out of a post-war desire to satisfy a population and what seemed to be needed at the time i.e. quality, service and value at a very respectable price. Over the years quality has featured as one of businesses top competitive priorities. However in recent times as cost cutting exercises have come to the fore, has this altered our view on quality and do organisations really strive for quality or just tell a good story? Quality and the short-term ramifications of the recession was the topic of DAV Management's recent Enigma business roundtable, 'Defining and Measuring Business Excellence' To learn more about the Roundtable conclusions please click on the link below.
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Thriving, not simply surviving
We are living in an age of uncertainty where the interconnectedness of things means it is increasingly difficult to make sense of one's environment and outcomes are unpredictable. This new order of 'complexity' is presenting business with a huge challenge to survive, one that requires us to 'think anew, act anew'.
In a recent article for the Harvard Business Review, Dave Snowden, founder and CSO of international research organisation Cognitive Edge, perfectly illustrated the nature of the challenge we face. He said: 'In a complex context, however, right answers can't be ferreted out. It's like the difference between, say, a Ferrari and the Brazilian rainforest. Ferraris are complicated machines, but an expert mechanic can take one apart and reassemble it without changing a thing. The car is static, and the whole is the sum of its parts. The rainforest, on the other hand, is in constant flux - a species becomes extinct, weather patterns change, an agricultural project reroutes a water source - and the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. This is the realm of 'unknown unknowns,' and it is the domain to which much of contemporary business has shifted.'
Click on the link below to read more on the challenge of complexity and how new methods and tools can help businesses set the right course by making sense of the environments in which they operate.
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What the tweat is it all about?
Twitter has 25 million active users. Facebook gets 5 times more page impressions than Google and has 400 million users, 35 million of these update their status each day and 2 million are 35+. Is this a community that we just can't afford to ignore anymore? Or are these simply social sites that have no business relevance and are just for kids?
Social Media provides a remarkably compelling way for users to develop relationships with other users as well as companies they wish to do business with. But the trouble with social media is that it is a relatively new phenomenon and there is no blueprint for how businesses should use these tools - it's an anarchic tool and dangerous if used in the wrong context. Plus it is hard to justify whether spending time, money and effort will deliver a real business impact. To read more about Social Media and the opportunities and challenges this new medium presents click on the link below.
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The post recession CIO
Our focus during this edition of our Enigma enewsletter is around quality and innovation, harnessing technologies, using different practices to glean results such as cognitive theories and what the world will look like post recession.
It is already widely acknowledged that Chief Executives see IT as a driver for revenue growth as the economy recovers, but IT leaders cannot expect things to return to the years of corporate excess pre-recession. Traditionally the CIO has been seen as a technologist. Now, however there is a generation of equally IT-savvy and business literate executives coming through the ranks of the business who may be more suitable for the CIO's position. So what will this next breed of CIO look like as we move into a new decade? To read more about the Post Recession CIO, click on the link below.
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Brilliant business creativity
According to Brilliant Business Creativity, the latest book in the 'Brilliant Business' series authored by marketing guru, Richard Hall, creative thinking in business is like gold: it keeps going up in value.
Brilliant Business Creativity is an essential guide to one of the most important business skills today. It provides readers with an indispensible creative thinking toolkit that you can apply to any business challenge, great or small. To read more about Brilliant Business Creativity - What the best creatives know, do and say, please click on the link below.
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