Life is Camouflaged
I take daily walks. Not because I want to, but because
my little Chihuahua would act berserk all afternoon if I didn't. So
every morning I snap her leash on her and head out the door.
Our route tends to be the same: We walk the perimeter of our
neighborhood - either clockwise or counterclockwise - resulting in a
good twenty-minute stroll.
The unchanging sameness of each day's trek has taught me
something valuable that I've adopted in my life as a consultant:
Life is camouflaged.
Let me explain....
When I began this daily journey around the neighborhood I
couldn't help but wonder if I'd soon become bored seeing the same
houses, the same woods, the same roads day after day after day after
day. But that's not what happened.
As Maboo (my dear Chi) and I traveled our daily path it was as
though scales fell from my eyes. I began to see things I'd never
noticed before.
Subtle changes my neighbors had made to their houses began to
whisper for my attention. Birds I'd never seen before - bright birds
like Blue Jays and Cardinals - began to appear like a developing
photograph. Squirrels, muskrats, cats, raccoons, deer - all these
animals live in the same neighborhood as me - and I never knew it.
So here's my point: As a consultant it is my job to notice the
things other people, owners, managers and executives, can't or don't
have the time to see. It's my job to look at something long enough
for the camouflage to disappear and for the scales to be removed
from our eyes.
I have the daunting task of not only living life, but stepping
away long enough to really see what's going on - in all places, and
in all situations. I need to see the hidden processes, the quiet
gestures of coworkers, the nonverbal communication other people
miss. It's these observations that make my consulting career come
alive.
In a nutshell, life is camouflaged. I need to see through that
camouflage and show this real world to others. If you need to see
through the camouflage or through the scales, give me a call.
-aj-
See
our Case
Studies.
|
| |
Greetings:
Could it be that Summer has arrived? Could it be that our
economy is on the rebound? Only time will tell. Let's get
ready for a rise in both temperature and GNP!
The Value Manager this month focuses on information
technology (IT) processes and projects. Has IT taken a back
seat during the economic downturn? Is IT supplying the
information you need for business decisions? Unfortunately
that information is usually directed toward supporting
internal operational decisions and provides nothing of use
about the business environment you need to know. Let's look
into IT.
Read on for helpful information and ideas. . . .
|
|
|
|
|
IT Doesn't Matter |
| |
It looks like IT may go the way of the railroads. So
what should companies do? From a practical standpoint, the
most important lesson to be learned may be this: When a
resource becomes essential to competition but inconsequential
to strategy, the risks it creates become more important than
the advantages it provides.
In the long run, though, the greatest IT risk facing most
companies is more prosaic than a catastrophe. It is, simply,
overspending. Studies of corporate IT spending consistently
show that greater expenditures rarely translate into superior
financial results. In fact, the opposite is usually true.
Read more in this reprint from Harvard Business Review
written by Nicholas G. Carr.
IT
Doesn't Matter (PDF)
|
|
|
Book Report |
| |
 IT Project Management
by Jolyon Hallows
If you don't have the resources to hire Value Management
Partners to manage your next IT project, then at least get
this book. Information Systems Project Management is the
complete guide for helping systems project managers live up to
their responsibilities. Put to practice, it will produce major
gains by helping create projects that provide real benefits,
with team members who know how to deliver value and are imbued
with enthusiasm and high morale.
This honest and thoroughly detailed book takes the reader
through every step of the project management process. It gives
a realistic account of project management in a corporate
environment, including how office politics affect the project
manager. And all the information is presented with checklists
and examples drawn from actual IT projects.
Read
more reviews at Amazon
|
|
|
Independent Verification &
Validation |
| |
One of the most important reasons our clients use us is
to get validation for their technology strategies. One client
asked for our opinion on their plan to provide new desktop
environments and an executive information system. They valued
our insight gained from working with other customers in
multiple industries. In particular, we brought externally
validated credibility and strategic perspective to the
contractor and reseller selection process.
Just as there are certain critical factors in how you
approach the implementation of major IT projects from the IT
side, so there are also critical success factors in how the
business management side makes their approach.
Learn
more about IV&V
|
|
|
You can quote me on that. . . . |
| |
"Study after study shows that there is simply no
correlation between IT spending and business
success."
--Dr. Peter Grindley
"In all large corporations, there is a pervasive fear that
someone, somewhere is having fun with a computer on company
time."
--John Dvorak
"The computer is a moron."
--Peter Drucker
"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most
of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be
done."
--Andy Rooney
|
|
|
Information Security a High
Priority |
| |
 Information security is the highest ranking issue in
the technology community according to the results of the 2003
Top Technologies Survey by the American Institute of Certified
Public accountants (AICPA). Last year security ranked third.
New issues making the list this year include business
information management, application integration, wireless
technologies, intrusion detection, customer relationship
management and privacy. Not suprisingly, old favorites like
disaster recovery planning and remote connectivity remained on
the list. According to the AICPA survey, these are areas
destined to have significant impact on business in the year
ahead.
For a complete summary of the list, visit the AICPA site at
www.cpa2biz.com.
2003
Top Technologies Survey.
|
|
|
Please let us know. . . |
| |
Do you have a problem with a project or business
process on which you did not use IV&V? Just reply to this
email or visit the Contact
Us page on our website. We'll help you through it.
Remember, it's guaranteed!
Please forward this newsletter to your colleagues. Click on
Forward Email below. Thanks and see you next time.
Oh by the way, we've collected some of the past issues of
The Value Manager at our website. If you would like to review
some past issues, check it out!
The
Value Manager archives
|
| |