TO HIRE OR NOT TO HIRE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

CEOs around the country are anxious and busy analyzing this option? I keep hearing from them, “How do I hold onto cash and support the growth in customers and revenues?” The Wall Street Journal on August 12th sited the Labor Department reporting non-farm productivity gains of 6.4% at an annual rate last quarter, the most since the third quarter of 2003. Unit labor costs fell 5.8% last quarter at an annual rate and costs were down 0.6% from a year ago. Companies have laid-off enough people to bring their costs in line with revenues. These gains are not sustainable if a company’s strategy is to grow market share.

The question I have is how many companies have changed processes resulting in higher productivity? Improving your processes, policies, practices and procedures will result in sustainable productivity gains. This is how you get results that last.

Sustainability of your business is achievable with the right tools and people in place. Here are three areas you can focus on to improve your business and position it to sustain productivity gains.

1) Start with automating manual processes and knowledge capture. The money you invest will have a strong ROI if you stay focused on critical processes and human centric areas of delivery. Take on the low hanging fruit and quick hits first to get your organization in the ‘change management’ groove. Ensure you document all your processes and work flows. The tools you use should support data repositories for the whole of your organization with virtual access so all your constituents, both internal and external, can access data. The platform should enable management and operations to work relatively independent of one another while enforcing governance. The system must provide situational awareness that monitors measures and helps you manage your business processes giving your team visibility to their work loads, performance with the knowledge to improve.

2) Organizing your people is where you will get the most bang-for-your-buck or the opposite if you don’t manage it properly. Document the talents and competencies of your workforce against the tasks and workflows necessary to fulfill each function in your organization. You should already have the right people on the bus, so get them into their seats. By organizing the business functions and positioning people to their strengths you will see tremendous productivity gains without a single new hire.

3) Set your target revenue growth out 3, 6 and 12 months. The goal of your improvement strategies should result in lower unit labor costs so you have money to grow your business. Use that money to gain market share. Develop marketing and sales plans that take market share from your competitors and grow the business. While everyone else is hording cash you are winning customers and positioned for the recovery.

One Way Schools Can Save Themselves

K-12 Schools Can Lower Administrative Cost with Technology

Here in Arizona and across much of the nation schools are about to feel the shock of losing tax revenues. The legislature is determined to balance the budget and it likely will lead to layoffs and a lowering of services. Scottsdale Unified School District has a $190 million budget and is trying to trim $21.4 million in operating costs based on the state budget cuts.

Administrative costs to run schools average between 2 and 6 percent of the total operating budgets. Districts running a lower cost administration pride themselves for getting the most dollars into the classrooms they can. How are they doing it?

Like America’s businesses that saw huge productivity gains over the past 20 years, school districts that embraced technology and implemented software and hardware solutions effectively, have seen enormous financial benefits.

Automating Administrative Processes

When you visit a school you see lots of manual paper form processes that could easily be automated. From sports sign-ups, permission slips and medical release forms, grading and test scores, expense reports, the list of opportunities seems endless.

Software technology has matured and standardized making the cost of implementing solutions much more affordable, within the reach of many school districts, non-profit organizations and small business. Now is the time for organizations to invest in technology that will in many cases save them the cost of the investment in less then a year. With solutions being offered over the web and hosted, the costs of ownership are lowered even more and the ongoing costs are known and manageable.

Contract Lifecycle Management is Good Value

Some Thoughts… Our team at VISTX has spent a considerable amount of time these past few months developing and delivering a powerful Program-Project Management Solution on our ePaaS technology platform (VISTX ePaaS for PPM) for a global client.

The solution enables multiple partners, vendors and the client with an integrated fully automated solution for the virtual management of activities, workflow, progress reporting and includes a fully scalable, easy access content repository.

From the executive level to the detailed task level, the system provides real-time governance through controlled access helping our clients manage their complex – global initiatives. As we extend the value of ePaaS, we have been asked to incorporate the ability to manage the lifecycle of the associated contracts.

What is Contract Lifecycle Management?

Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is a systemic approach to the proactive and methodical management of a contract from initiation through award, to compliance and renewal.

Key areas of CLM are:
Central Repository – Contract Information & Documents
Risk and Compliance – Pro-active Management of Deliverables
Pre-Contract Management – Feasibility, Capture & Qualify Management
E - Decision Support – Sourcing, Agreement, Evaluation & Selection
Document Management -- Storing, Linking, Accessing & Versioning
Contract Development – Standards, Templates & Workflow
Reporting and Analytics – Dashboard Views & Reporting
Virtual Access - Executive Level to Contract Deliverable Details
Integration and Services – Management Control, Governance & Oversight
Utilization of a Proven -- Methodology & System Architecture

Why CLM:
The key benefits of a contract lifecycle management system are in ease of access for both sides of the agreement in relation to the progress of the agreement.

Businesses that have situational awareness of key deliverables in agreements are able to pre-empt and take action on critical contract milestones and triggers. Clients and Partners are able to certify payments to suppliers and ensure delivery of contract obligations. Vendors can maximize the relationship with their Client, while Clients can better manage the array of participating Vendors. A systemic approach using a proven methodology of consistent workflow with integrated activities will mitigate the risk of lost revenues and over-expenditures to occur.

Further, managing contracts should be considered a full time engagement without overload of work for those charged with oversight. A system designed for end-to-end traceability, manage-ability and contract milestone monitoring to mitigate the risk of and liability in potential legal action allows executives peace of mind. Combined with a program – project management system, CLM easily manages compliance with the obligations of agreements commercially critical terms and conditions for all contracted parties. FJH

Training as Cover for Poor Software Architecture

I was just thinking… After developing corporate education programs to support a new software rollout, have you ever wished you had more influence on the architecture of the database software your employees must use to get their work done? Do you spend the majority of the time training people on software procedures that have no connection to the learners experience and knowledge about the business? How is it that virtually anyone can pick up an iPhone and begin using all the features and applications without pulling out a manual or reading online help? Folks today expect intuitive design in the software packages and solutions they use and most of us don’t have the time or much patience for anything less.

My view, a good tool has ‘user guides’ built into the architecture, naturally guiding the employee through the software as the employee’s needs are defined. Architecture that follows workflows, governance and process, so users can focus on the things they know, need to know and to truly help them accomplish their activities. Additionally, optimal architecture enables linking to additional tools and support environments for enhanced learning. If the design of the database interface is intuitive, then the user will receive feedback and prompts to learn more about how to work well within the system. The learning is rapid, flexible to user needs and effective for the organization.

AT VISTX we encourage our clients to use learning professionals early in the design and development phases of software projects. The learning professional will influence the software architecture to maximize the intuitiveness of the application. They will introduce a strategy to support early communication with a focus on hands-on learning. The software is designed with feedback mechanisms to support continuous performance improvement. Introducing or upgrading new software into your organization is always a daunting undertaking, take advantage early in the process to begin to lower your total cost of development and deployment.

A poorly designed tool is more than a pain in the …, it can be the difference between true ROI and optimal employee performance or it can be an internal challenge for years to come.

JLS

Business as a Project

Some Thoughts... I have had a number of discussions in the past couple of months that are driving me to conclude that most businesses are really operating as a series of projects that flow through functional areas from concept to customer.

Some folks concede, that is how their products or services flow and they can see some similarity in, say - how an IT development project is conducted. You know there are stages, resources, tasks, timelines etc. but most dismiss this for their business as a whole.

If you cut the typical business into parts, we see roles/responsibilities, functions that have activities and tasks that need to follow process (so everyone knows what comes first, second etc). There are requirements for reporting, there is a need for research, requirements for developing or building some deliverable for either internal or external use. These are typical steps in your business, whether structured or not. You get the drift...

Whether you are a start-up entrepreneur or a seasoned executive in a well established business your employees and the 'stuff' you need them to do is far closer to the steps, governance and objectives of a project than a unique collection of to-do's that only your business knows to preform.

We suggest you take a look inside your company and begin to apply some of the basic blocking and tackling procedures and practices that are used in well versed Project Management Offices. A good PMO manages their portfolio of programs and projects with methods and tools to provide timely and accurate situational awareness. They are designed to improve the clarity in visibility, to advance the accountability, enable flexibility and hold specific responsibility to the project or in this case the business. We see this applying to Sales, Marketing, Finance.... you should be able to receive daily measured results end-to-end.

A sound approach to aligning strategy and objectives to tactical deliverables is what every executive strives for -- at VISTX we have a suite of Solution Accelerators that can help you begin the process of establishing the techniques, implementing the methods and deploying the supporting tools to get your business aligned to what it really is - a portfolio of projects!
FJH

Is the 'Office' Your Office?

Some Thoughts... I just finished reading an article in Science Daily published from research co-authored by a Brigham Young University business professor. The gist of the article is the value a Dwight Shrute type individual brings to the organizations ability to have more success in solving problems.

Dwight Shrute is the Beet Farming Volunteer Sheriff's Deputy/Paper Salesman on the NBC show 'The Office'. Dwight is an awkward and socially distinct (not inept) peer to the Dunder Mifflin Paper team that continually keeps the group off balance - out of their comfort zones.

Socially distinct newcomers are normally considered -'outsiders' and their style, past work experiences and approach to business challenges generally do not fit the organizations preferred world view. Most would consider this person as an impediment to problem solving and a not so positive contributor in the overall effectiveness of the group.

But the research suggests just the opposite; that folks who are inserted into a group's decision process, with a unique social distinction, not aligned to the fraternal or social harmony of the organization, are much more likely to force the hand to get folks to step outside of their collective - group think and deliver better results.

Diversity in the workforce is proven as a value over and over, the statistics prove it. But there are different ways to diversify, and the Socially Distinct folks are adding an interesting twist to more than just comedy on Thursday nights.

To read more follow the link to Science Daily -http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090330091700.htm

Enjoy... FJH

Results take more than rhetoric

Some Thoughts... Vision statements in the business world are most often considered statements of long term goals that management wants the organization to focus on. How true is that in today's trying economic cycle?

I just read where GM this morning announced (good news) it will not need $2bn from the government to survive the month of March, with no idea what April will bring. I wonder how focused GM is on those vision statements... if the long view is only a matter of weeks.

Reading between the lines, (using war as a metaphor), what is really going on is a series of battles - where organizations are in the bunkers engaged in a daily barrage of fire-fights with no idea of what will come once this day of fighting ends. Will it be just more of the same tomorrow, death, surviving for another battle or will the smoke clear and those in the bunkers be able to see beyond their line of defense?

We hear a lot about how continual doom and gloom rhetoric contributes to lowering expectations, re-enforces fear and extends pessimistic views. So the natural response should be to change, think positive, focus on the good news, be happy... which is always easier said than done.

How can you win a war when you are bogged down in the heat of battle? Well of course you have to think positive, but we all know that is a first step not an end. My thought is to be innovative, to drive yourself and your organization to positive actions. Reduce the over-thinking (as with GM, it is often a matter of weeks), focus beyond the initial smoke and fire...

The other day I was reviewing a proposal for an investment opportunity that one of our partners has on the table; a very good, well thought out business plan to optimize processes and become a leader in a specific industrial platform. The proposal is solid and the ROI is near-term with considerable upside for the long-term. I view this opportunity as positive for the investor and the seller, but the real story will be the vision and positive actions taken by the leader who invests in this opportunity - positive results will ensue, risk will be rewarded and the battle lines re-drawn for this visionary individual or group.

To get out of the bunker and see beyond the lines of defense, leaders need to focus on the basic principles (defined as; a general or fundamental truth in deciding conduct or choice) as they manage their products & services, their employees and attend to their customers needs. They need to take action, be positive, that is vision. FJH