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As the year draws to a close it is impossible to look back and suggest 2011 has been anything other than a momentous year…

It is equally true to say that only a few of the events of the year are, actually, truly over.

So, what will 2012 bring?

* politicians (especially in Europe) and high street shopping ‘gurus’ – but not most bankers – will begin to realise that the paradigm in which they have previously existed is no longer relevant

* the eurozone will reduce to a rump of nations at best

* the uprisings of the ‘Arab Spring’ will continue – and similar unrest will spread throughout other countries who continue to oppress their people – and even those who just take their people’s compliance for granted!

* there will also be widespread social unrest throughout former eurozone countries as their economies re-adjust

* growth in India, China, Indonesia and other developing nations will reduce, with serious economic implications for those economies relying on providing commodoties to fuel growth- Australia, Brazil, Russia

* 70% chance that the coalition in Britain will fail, bringing on elections in which the Conservatives will win an outright majority

* the NHS will continue to muddle on – forever in a state of crisis brought on by being too big and unwieldy… and no-one will have the courage to do what needs to be done to fix the situation

* the Olympics!

Your predictions?

Cheers,

Gen

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One aspect of Building Business Value is charging the RIGHT price!

I am often amazed at how many businesses get this wrong, under-charging AND over-charging for their products and services.

Why?

1. They don’t actually know their Unique Selling Points (USPs)… or, if they do, they don’t know how to make the most of them;

2. They don’t understand the market or their competition properly;

3. They are afraid of charging enough money for their time;

4. They don’t recover their overheads (mostly because they don’t actually know what their overheads are!!!)

Is this you – what are you doing about it?

Is this someone you know – what are they doing about it?

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Sir Philip Green (he of TopShop fame) has finished his report into how the Government can become more efficient…

The headline, centralise purchasing!

Whilst there are, undoubtedely, major savings to be gained from having contracts for commonly used consumables and services (as per the framework agreements already in place in many departments)… the issue is – surely – far more complex?

Our observations from designing and implementing change programmes across many parts of Government – and the private sector – would suggest that a total process review, including procurement as one function, would result in far more workable solutions being developed.  There is no point in ‘solving one problem in one place as it simply pushes that problem somewhere else… needing to be solved all over again!  A comprehensive review must encompass strategy, structure, process, systems, technology, resources – and PEOPLE!  To do otherwise is kidding yourself… and perpetrating the mess Government is already in…

In addition to this, there are many things that Government is doing that they should not be doing… contributors to our Linked In Group, Building Business Value (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3375267) have been talking about these… and the impact on business just this week.

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Fascinated to hear what the UK’s Strategic Defence Review finds when it finally gets underway.

As far as I can tell, the UK is a senior middle-ranking power… with major threats coming from terrorism and insurgencies, not nation-states.  The question must then be what good do nuclear weapons, aircraft carriers and submarines do when facing these type of threats?

Surely we could use the money that is wasted on these remnants of the military-industrial complex more effectively – in beefing up the capabilities of ground troops, but also in other – more needy – parts of our economy?

The problem is the paradigm that the British – and others – are stuck in… that Britain needs to have a nuclear deterrent (against what – and… really… would we use it???) and that Britain needs to be able to ‘project power’ – the sooner we get out of that archaic mindset, the better!

Is this a cut you would make?

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There are many reasons people start their own business – they think they can do it better… they are sick of the rat race… they have a great new idea and want to benefit from it…

Most of these business begin – and go on – as one man bands…

Assuming they survive in business (80% will fail within 5 years), when I first meet them, they are making a living – but not much more…

The challenge is to turn their business from a ‘lifestyle’ decision into something that generates more than income for today – it generates security and value for their futures…

I’d be interested in what the one-man band businesses have to say on this subject?

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Another headline… in a series of many headlines… of a supposedly smart – and definitely well-connected – business person going on about how the role of universities is to prepare students for employment / vocations.  Is it really?

Perhaps if we (in most of the developed world) had not:

* dumbed down degrees (and their entry requirements) so much

* tried to ‘streamline’  universities by amalgamating them with technical colleges

* put less emphasis on telling kids they “had to go to uni” and more on proper vocational counselling

* stigmatised many – very respectable professions – removing their vocational elements and making them too academic

Surely universities provide an academic grounding – that, when properly distributed, is suitable for the brightest and best (not necessarily the richest) and it is this that has provided the foundation for many of humantities greatest discoveries?

Isn’t preparation for employment is a separate thing?

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I’ve been working with health service providers for over 10 years – trying to bring a holistic approach to the need for cost reduction / service improvement.

I’ve worked in and / or visited acute hospitals in over 20 (mostly 1st world) countries in the course of this activity.

Almost eight years ago I wrote a paper (http://www.ithacabusiness.biz/web/images/downloads/how%20to%20really%20save%20$235%20million%20a%20year.pdf) identifying the changes needed – which, if not addressed holistically…(people, politics, technology,   structure etc.)…in my view will not work in a robust and sustainable manner. Definitely technology is a tool, not the answer – and past experience shows that, if technology is tackled in isolation, it will not work.

Part of that paper also identified the ‘blockers’ to real, sustainable, effective change actually happening – and, as far as I can see, these have not changed, a few of the key ones:

• vested interest in maintaining the status quo (from those in a position of power)
• short-termism by politicians (measuring the wrong things, therefore creating the wrong behaviours)
• change exhaustion (health care workers)

The bottom line for me is that only long-term projects, addressing things from a people and process perspective first – led by the boss, championed by people at every level and engaging change experts who – as a result of matching technology to process – can make it happen together will have any chance of success.

Bleak, but – from everything I’ve seen – true.

Do you agree?

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The other day I read a quote from a Government Minister, it went along the following lines:

“This company makes a first class car, we can’t allow this business to fail.”

Rubbish!

He totally ignored the first rule of business – to be successful there must be a market for your products or services.  Sure, with new things you may need to put in quite a lot of time and effort ‘educating’ and ‘creating’ the market – but, in the normal scheme of things, most products (and businesses) have a life cycle.

My question is, do we (the people) want to be shareholders in businesses that have clearly reached the end of their life cycle?

The fact is that, when businesses die, true entrepreneurs will pick over the bones and retrieve the parts that retain some value – yes, jobs will be lost in the short-run…but, in the long run, new and better businesses will arise from the ashes without the baggage of the past.  These businesses will employ people and the cycle will begin again.

Surely it is this short-term thinking that is partially responsible for getting us into the mess in the first place – the politicians are, in this case, replicating the errors of the bankers…seeking short-term gain at the expense of longer-term stability.

Let’s stop giving life support to businesses that are failing – let them die – what emerges will be stronger and better adapted…

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Governments around the world have, in recent years, been clamping down on immigration.

The reasons for this are myriad – the politics of fear generated post September 11; perceptions of foreigners ‘taking our jobs’ and general protectionist sentiment…

A dispassionate observer might think that many immigration policies are ‘missing the mark:

• the primary ‘immigrants’ between EU countries are from other EU countries…immigration policy won’t stop these movements
• retrospectively changing the rules for people who have already legitimately arrived does not make sense
• the worst offenders are overstayers from other 1st world countries – not refugees or asylum seekers
• despite the recession there is still a need to fill many low – skill jobs, we don’t need people with Master’s degress to do this
• immigrants are, in the history of the world, the strongest, most resiliant people – they contribute these attributes to their new society

What do you think about the immigration policies of your country – and why?

Gen

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No, it won’t!

How many time have you heard this mantra even in today’s tech savvy / process savvy world?  …and how many times has it been right?

Equally flawed is the belief that a new, organisation-wide system, can be implemented pretty fast and be up, running, contributing massively to productivity, speed and outcomes within very short periods of time.

Case study evidence from systems implementations from 20 years ago until now shows that 80%+ of all systems implementations fail to meet their objectives – whether ROI, productivity, improved service levels or the like.

Those that do succeed almost always take longer – and begin with process alignment / optimisation…building these into functional specifications for finding the RIGHT system.  One way of looking at this is depicted in the diagram below, from a project I did a few years ago:

You don’t need to see the detail…just that the as-is set of processes are very messy and inefficient.  Having this enabled the right systems and processes to be selected and developed in order to achieve an outcome that cost way less per year, delivered better customer service – and helped the people in the business to be more satisfied with their jobs, because they weren’t getting bogged down with all the rubbish…see the outcome:

Retail Supply Chain - Optimised Outcomes

Looks a lot different, doesn’t it?

I’d love to hear your stories – good bad or indifferent – about your experiences with systems implementations…what went wrong, what went right – I’m also happy to engage in discussion about getting the process right first time!

Gen