I am going to take a different take than the one Timo took on the lengthy article though I recommend reading his point of view where he stress that companies take on how well they use their business intelligence and/or analytics is often called “Illusory Superiority” or the “Lake Wobegon Effect” (a radio show where “all the children are above average”).

My take on the article is to focus on this chart.

So from this chart the CIO/Senior IT executive and/or some other ‘Senior business executive’ is in charge of the data management strategy.

First, what other ‘Senior business executive’ could that be?

The CFO?  Not likely.  So, what other VP would be in charge of it?  Really?

I would love that answer just to satisfy my curiosity, because I am stumped.

The important point is that the CEO is a 1 in 5 chance to be responsible for the data management strategy.

While a CFO is in charge of Finance, the CEO is responsible for the financial stability and integrity of the company.  Just ask those Enron folks.  So the CEO takes a very active role in managing the finances on a daily basis by getting information on the company’s performance related to dollars or euros and so forth.

But, what is the status of our data quality?  The risk to our data integrity?  Not so much I guess.

As CEO, you base part of all your decisions on the data that is provided to you and you are not responsible for the strategy on how to manage that critical asset?  I suspect that the 18% of the CEO’s who are listed as responsible are from companies like ADP.  People don’t like their paychecks messed up.

The CEO need to take the role of data management as part of their role due to the critical (mission, not business) part it plays today and will only grow in your business.

Let me put it this way.  If money is the fuel that a company runs on, then data today, and big data especially, is the oxygen.  The better the quality of the data and the easier it flows to the decision makers, the more efficient (profitable) that your fuel (money) is burned.

If you are a CEO, you need to take the responsibility of your data management and get reports on that daily as well.  It will serve you well to truly be smarter then your competition and not just say you are.

Hey, Timo Elliot said that first.

“Pardon me, just hold up a second.  What is a workaround?”

“Well, it is how we get the activity accomplished by working around the problem.”

“No, no I still don’t understand, can you define the term workaround?”

I look confusing at this executive thinking “Really, you don’t understand what the word workaround means?”

This conversation actually happened and during it, it was explained to me that this is an example of the ‘tech’ talk I use that other people do not understand and I assume they do.

I could see that in the case of the endless acronyms we use in IT with everything from WiFi to ITIL and ERP.  But, workaround, really?  Come on!

Wikipedia states that a workaround is a bypass of a recognized problem in a system.      

Whatis states that a workaround is a method, sometimes used temporarily, for achieving a task or goal when the usual or planned method isn’t working.

Heck there is even a workaround.org blog.

To me the workaround is when the existing process or system steps (mechanical or information system) does not deliver the results desired and a ‘temporary’, often unapproved, change is implemented that does not use the standard mechanical or information system.     

I put temporary in quotes because it is widely known and accepted that those temporary solutions become permanent based out of –

Changing priorities pull the focus onto the next problem and workaround   

Or

Culture of the company is ‘just make it work’ that promotes workarounds as solutions

(great article on the dangers of a workaround culture)

Lastly, that the workaround is a shadow process or system change that supervisors choose to ignore and upper management are not aware that it occurs at all.

My favorite example of this is a major news service 10 years ago discovered during an assessment of their email system that the email system was used for up to 30% for news content delivery to editorial from the field globally.  The email system was labeled as business critical, thus could be down for up to a day compared to mission critical editorial content delivery systems were downtime was measured in minutes.

No one in upper management in IT or Editorial was aware of this workaround.  Why the workaround, well many areas in the world had poor connectivity (wired) to access the core editorial systems, so they would hope on a local ISP, use a yahoo account and email to editorial their stories.  Editorial at the regional offices would copy and paste the story into the editorial system.    

That was a potentially costly workaround that required a revamping of the email redundancy and also a change in the future editorial system replacement requirements.

So there you have the workaround.  Look around your home and office, how many workarounds can you spot?

Note: Workaround book

Enterprise Resource Planning definitions:

• Standard – systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization. (thank you Wikipedia)

• Software industry definition – a system the will, through automation and best practices, optimize your business processes for greater profitability.  

• Customer definition – a system that will help us run our business and provide the necessary information to make better decisions, but won’t kill our business.

Then thinking that this would need to be expanded I dissected the components of an ERP (not really) system (see previous posting about how ERP is not really ERP any longer).

Three pieces of a solution:

1. The database – the most important as it is the core of not just what the applications use to input, process and publish (output) data, but also critical for integrating with other applications internally and from your customers and suppliers
2. The applications – ranging from a core of financials, order management, inventory management and production management to customer relation management, e-commerce, performance management and so on.
3. The reporting tool – not just paper reports, but downloads to Excel and exports out to customers/suppliers allowing the ability to track data quality and correlate data not just from the system, but also from other sources.

The important part of the above is 1 and 3.  Frankly, the applications not only the boring part of the system, but are the least impactful of the pieces.  After all, your data what you take with you when you divorce yourself from your old ERP system.  Now, the data tends to be in not so great condition, but it is priceless.  The reporting tool, call it business intelligence, analytics or magic 8 ball, is how you use that data in making GOOD business decisions.    

Yes, the applications do transform some of the data as in order to cash and product configuration, but how does an application make decisions better?

How does a processing a purchase order or updating an inventory quantity improve your integration with a customer leading to a greater share of the available spend?

Following this I moved into the territory of what is a general reason to install a new ERP.

When deciding on taking the large impacting act of selecting and implementing a new ERP you must first, and most importantly, think about where you want to be in a year, two years, or more.  If your business isn’t at optimal capacity now but your plan is to get there within a year or even two, now is the time to buy.

Second, is the fact that ERP companies are also still looking to make sales (read deals!) and are offering more tailored, industry-specific packages.

Will ERP launch a business into a higher stratosphere?

Nope.

But, can it give you the information that you can make the decisions to hit those bigger goals?

Certainly.

There is more to it than those two points, but do not dismiss them.  Especially the first one.

Innovative Culture

Their culture of innovation was based on several things, but the one that resonated with me was how conceptual failures by 3M’s engineering and science areas (so-called bad ideas) were not tossed away.

Of course there is the famous Post It Note story.     

There are many more were an idea that was first, second or even longer a failure. But, thanks to good process of documenting the idea and the failures, with the most important part of having the ‘failure’ reviewed occasionally to give it another shot.

The innovative companies understand that you should never give up on any idea.

Some ideas are just not ready due to –

• the organization is not ready for that large a leap
• the technology is not available to make it a reality
• the solution to make it successful is not present

Regardless of your organizations industry or role, you can have it be highly innovative, by being fostering an atmosphere of tolerating failure and reviewing your failures for future successes.

The more innovative you want to be the higher level of failure you need to be able to tolerate.

is one of those 60 second reads that serves as a great reminder for us executives

who have been through MBA to Center for Creative Leadership training, but

like a golf swing that is Ernie Els one minute

and Charles Barkley the next,

your fundamentals break down and you need to remember the basics.

This is a back to basics reminder on leadership.

The line “sometimes the only person you can count on to tell you the unvarnished truth is you.”  is ever so poignant in the down economy as your staff and peers are worried about their jobs, their financial condition, their future in general and tailor their responses to protect themselves.

I am often one to cherry pick what I like about a book, lecture or presentation.  After all, I only chose to follow four of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

The only modification I would say for myself, is not performing this function every morning, but weekly.

–Jason Hiner, writing in TechRepublic’s Tech Sanity Check blog

“A decade ago, there was a lot of new stuff that needed to be set up — ethernet networks, directory servers, mail servers, company laptops — and a lot of baby boomers who still needed helped transitioning into a computerized workplace. Those days are long gone.”

This will be a debate about the above statement, but I for one agree with it completely.  That does not mean that there are not a need for setting up servers and networks, but those can be focused with cloud based services versus every company having their own data centers filled or not so filled with equipment.

The short article does bring to light what many business leaders need to recognize about their information technology evolution in the next 5 years (not 10 or 20, 5).  It will not be about hardware or devices.  It will be about the data and the applications that present and manage that data.

This is where I veer from Mr. Hiner.  He states “it’s going to increasingly be about web-based applications that will be expected to work smoothly, be self-evident, and require very little training or intervention from tech support.”

Fully agreeing with the ‘require very little training’ portion of the statement as Apple has proven that intuitive design trumps feature rich.  However, the focus of development on applications without a mention of database development is where I feel he left something out.  Those web-apps will need databases that integrate data from multiple sources and be optimized to deliver that data to the app at the performance rate of the customer’s expectation.

Therefore, the developers will two sets, the presentation side with web-applications and the data side with data modeling, integration and optimization of performance across multiple virtual installations.

This is a highly confidential report/slide show that you would not want shared with the public, never mind your customers, suppliers or competition.

You are not aware that this report/slide show was created in Google Apps or stored in a Dropbox account sync which Ms. smart as a whip or that you are viewing it on Slideshare.

Your employee did not use the company  -

• MS-Office license or
• servers for storing the file or
• as such the file is not secured, password/firewall/ACL/ or
• using an encryption process.

The file is just out there protected by the most highly security procedure in the world – ignorance.

This is not a bad thing.  Your employees are using the tools that the web and their mobile devices make available to them to do their job more productivily for them individually.

Here is the bad thing.

You need to be aware of this as an executive of your company so you know where your intellectial property (that precious company IP beyond trademarks) is being created, modified, shared and stored.

Here is the worst thing.

Your reaction being a quick policy statement banning this type of activity.  Stating that all work product by your knowledge workers MUST be done on company computers, using company software and stored on company servers.

Right – that will work.

How is that enforced exactly?  Just like a yield sign in New Jersey right?

The reaction should be –

1. Find out how prevalent this is in your company
2. Discuss at the executive level how this impacts your risk management of your IP
3. How this impacts your current IT strategy (licensing, having your own data center, mobility)

You cannot stop this – so find a way to use it to your advantage.

– tech·nol·o·gy

1. The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, esp. in industry: “computertechnology“; “recycling technologies“.

Wikipedia – Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function

Look squirrel note – Somewhat cool look at future laptop technology

Technology is derived from the Greek words, techne and logos .

Techne meaning art or craft

Logos signifies discourse or organized words

The practice of technology is frequently that of an art or craft, as distinguished from science, which is precise and is based upon established theoretical considerations and formal processes.

Let us all state that again the word technology means to craft a manner to organize words.

Replace craft with create and words with data.

So, while there are a google of definitions on Google, for me – technology is creating a manner to organize data to provide knowledge.

Examples are –

Your mobile device connects you via text, voice and/or video DATA

Your business application systems (ERP, CRM, BI, etc…) combines text and other file data (soon it should have voice and video) and should be organizing that data to answer questions providing knowledge on business decisions

Your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and now Google+ accounts collects or receives input DATA from and about you and your connections, then provides you and your connections that knowledge of your (and mine surely) mundane activities, likes/dislikes, and so on.

All the latest web/mobile based apps are about DATA, with the push for geographic information systems to check-in, show coupons and so on to give you knowledge of what is in your surroundings.

Thus, I contend that technology is now is creating a manner to organize data to provide knowledge.

Now, for you business people let me make a point beyond just my pontificating about my thoughts on the definition of technology.

You NEED a data focused person.  Call them a database developer/analyst/programmer/engineer, BUT NOT DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR.

The DBA provides operational service and support for the server, but the developer role is focused on the data and how best to move that data around to provide the knowledge to the business.

Whether that be in a business intelligence tool

Or integrating with your customers or suppliers systems

Or most importantly measuring the quality of that data.

Yes, I said it – you need to care and focus your attention with a full-time role to track, measure and report to the executive level the QUALITY of your data.

Data – meaning the knowledge you make ALL your business decisions on, after your gut of course.

Why would you not be able to justify in your mind and budget that role?

Now a tip on hiring this role, creating requires a type of personality and mindset that is open to non-linear thought processes and limited in how much they judge things or people.

A linear thinking person who is strong in judgment or thing and people should go into accounting, engineering or politics.

The low judgment factor has them very accepting that there are different approaches to solving a single problem.

So improve your knowledge by using technology by hiring a crafty creative database developer.

Sure, if all that is done is people hanging out in each other’s desks chatting up and exchanging the latest jokes, fantasy sports picks and recaps of the weekend well your problem is not your staff, but you. But, that is handled much better by smarter people than I, like -

Stephen Covey - too many books to mention

Tom Rath – Strength Based Leadership

Patrick Lecioni - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Marty Wolff – a plug for my favorite emotional intelligence/change management guy

My point is that during my 20 plus years in small to large organizations I have seen various reactions from management when they see/hear a group of employee’s gathered and laughing together.    

The ‘what the hell’ reaction – manager either looks over disapprovingly like a hawkish librarian or walks over and directly “Let’s break this up” or indirectly “Excuse me everyone, I need to talk to one of you”.    

The ‘this is a place of business’ reaction – manager explains that we are serious here and all are working hard and there is no cause for this banter and frivolity. Okay, that is a bit of Oliver Twist style management.

 The ‘can I join in’ reaction – manager scampers over to the group to be part of the team.

There are others. Each of the above are wrong reactions. The response versus a knee jerk reaction should be a simple smile at the group and perhaps nodding up and down to show you approve.

THESE PEOPLE ARE GETTING ALONG AND THE WORK TOGETHER. DO YOU GET THAT!

Okay, breath – woooosh. I am okay now. Most of the time organizations place groups of people at odds with each other as one tries to feed the other information, forms, and so on. Pushing down or up the line requests or orders. They need to work well together and that starts with them having a relationship that will help them communicate and understand each other when problems arise. And problems will arise, damn shooting they will.

Therefore, you want to smooth out the problems.

Get the focus on the solutions and not on who caused what to happen.

Well, let them laugh and show them it is okay.

This is a touchy subject for me on two counts.

1. That I as the employee were talked to about spending too much time having fun and not being ‘serious’ about his work.

• Trust me I was never involved with any busy that you should be that serious about – not curing cancer, defending the country or ensuring that playcall was correct upon review.

2. As a manager in several roles including executive, I had to respond to it being brought to my attention that members of my team were seen gathering and laughing and that I should be aware that the ‘perception’ that activity projects.

• I would listen and express to them that the perception is countered by their successful execution what we do, the laughter is not a by product, but the fuel for that success.

Build a culture of fun, hard work, and no fear of failure. It will breed success.

Start with the fun part.         

Author

A quick read with each chapter giving you something useful to put into practice.  All too often leaders get frustrated that completion of activities is not occurring and they lash out at their teams.

I have been guilty of this action and thankfully my teams have been forthright enough to point out that I was acting like a crazed Captain Kirk asking to get 110% and to just make it so (ok that is Picard).

-       Seven essentials of execution on page 57

• While these are built upon in the rest of the book, reminding myself quickly brings back the concepts to actually use.

-       As a leader you have to show up on page 63

• Showing up defined as being present, not losing your attention by focusing on your smartphone, tablet or SQUIRREL!
• Focus on the person or people in front of you.

-       New EDS Beliefs on page 91

• Changing not the values in your business, department or team – but changing the beliefs about those values.
• First as part of your SWOT identify the old beliefs both internal and external, and then define the new.

-       Leadership Assessment Summary on page 151

• A simple chart to evaluate the potential and current value of your team

-       Principle of simultaneity on page 232

• During planning session and budget development change from doing separately and start with a gathering all business leaders to set the foundation for simultaneously agreeing to direction, plans and budget allocations.

I review this book once a month to refocus my efforts when working with teams.  It offers simple reminders on focusing on priorities and facilitating the same with your teams.