Steve Jobs

It's been 5 years since Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011. Much has been written before and since; this is my opinion on what he meant for the technology industry. My familiarity with Apple goes back to the Apple IIe, a European version of their second product. This preceded the IBM Personal Computer, which gave rise to the term PC and brought the concept of desktop computing in to the mainstream. But IBM was Big Blue, almost 100 years old at the time. They were the corporate machine to Apple's up-start rebel. Years before the famous Big Brother commercial, Apple's spirit was different. And that spirit was Steve Jobs.

He brought design values to the computing industry, values that are now omnipresent via the web. He released products that took minutes to set up and learn ( rather than days), came with mice and graphical interfaces, and without noisy internal fans. Jobs didn't invent these things, but he recognized winners when he saw them, insisted on previously impossible standards of scale and quality, and took the risks required to get products to market before anyone realized.  Ultimately, he didn't mind that others copied. Much. That was flattery.

Most of all, Apple products came with attitude. Jobs launched the personal computer industry and revolutionized publishing. 20 years later, as PCs became commoditized, Jobs moved computers into everyone's pockets and purses. In so doing, he revolutionized phones, the distribution of music and film, and succeeded where others had failed in perfecting the tablet form factor.

Leaving aside his remarkable run of hits with Pixar, the ultimate vindication was not being asked back to run Apple. It was in building the most valuable business in the world. Big enough, ironically, to buy IBM. Not that he would have done that, ofcourse. Apple somehow managed to be huge without losing that great, rebel attitude.

And as we knew would happen, Apple misses him now.

Jobs was the inspiration at Apple for 23 years over his two spells with the company. The strategy was design innovation and he was the key man.

My challenge to you today:

1. List the key innovators at your business, people without whom your new product creation would stagnate.
2. Are you supporting these people as best you can, allowing them to focus on bringing successful innovation to your customers?
3. Great innovators are hard to find. Do you have the best retention measures in place? What is your insurance strategy in the event that they left the organization?
4. Do you have a process that spreads innovative practices around your organization?

If you would like to discuss the outcome of this challenge, please contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca to schedule a conversation about your innovation strategy and process.

Revealing Value, one step at a time

Too much time and money is spent on tech that falls short of its goals. Projects flounder, products miss the mark, and leaders become risk averse. The good news is that success rates can be increased with two simple tweaks ...

1. Challenging ourselves on the value proposition to identify untested assumptions early and often.
2. Recruiting Customers (buyers and subject matter experts) to the project team to help ensure that value is delivered.

Business Technology investment is a process of selective construction. We combine technologies, software and information with the intent of solving a problem.

But the discovery of value calls for a measure of sculpting, chipping away at a solution as we elicit feedback from our target user to form the best outcome.

Every technology solution starts with a concept, an idea of what to build, and an assumption of value. The vital question is when and how to test that assumption.

Test early and we will find the right path. Wait until the product is built and we run the risk of launching to crickets; wait until our business system is 'complete' and we may face a protracted rollout that delays the benefit to our business.

To gain confidence that we're building the right thing at the right time, we simply need to engage customers to test our assumptions - early and often. Start before a line of code has been written, even before a design has been finalized. Consider that ...

• If we are building to solve a future customer's problem, we need to find a group of ten customers who care enough to participate and engage them from day one. If we can't find customers, let's find ten prospects. And if we can't find interested prospects, our assumption of value may be flawed.

• If we're changing our own business systems, we begin with crystal clear goals for the value that must accrue. How will we improve the condition of our business and the service we provide? What complexities can we remove from our current operation? Will we enrich the flow of information? Can we leapfrog our competition? How important is this to our customers?

It's all about recognizing uncertainty, then removing it by building learning into our plans. Distinguishing between what we DO and DON'T know at each step, and constructing in short, agile sprints. And engaging all the right people to make this happen.

The earlier we start, the better.

Challenge

Think of a time when you launched a new product or service to your customer base.

Or you when you made a major change to your business systems.

1. Did you fully realize the benefits envisioned at the concept stage?
2. What percentage of the project budget did you invest before receiving your first customer and user insights?
3. What did you learn in the process? Did you learn by accident or through planned consultation? What information could you have used earlier in the process to improve the outcome?

Send your results to me at graham@primeFusion.ca and I'll give you my thoughts. I'm sure that together, we can come up with ways to improve the success of future initiatives.

Know when your team needs help?

I recently enjoyed lunch with a long-time client. It had been a few years since we last worked together, and it was great to catch up. She had recently moved to a new CEO position and wanted to discuss some challenges.

“I’ve been working with the new team for 9 months now and I think I’m getting to know them”, she began, “but when I turn to the subject of shaky systems, heavily staffed operations, and the slow start on the initiatives we all agreed to earlier this year, I don’t feel I’m getting the full story.”

My friend’s concern was that she wanted to help the team, but could not get to the bottom of what kind of help they really needed. One option was to get started (they had) and see how well things developed (they hadn’t). Should she let the team learn on the job through trial and error, or mandate some additional expertise to help them through the hump?

What would you do?

Here’s what I suggested.

As we talked through her challenges, three things quickly became clear; the team was competent, dedicated, and knew the business well; but the current challenges were beyond the experience of anyone on the team; and the stakes were too high to use these projects as a learning exercise. Yet there was a risk of undermining the team's confidence (and their trust for the new CEO) by bringing in help for the first major assignment they had faced together.

My advice was to engage outside help in a short term empathetic intervention to guide the team through a catch up process, simplify the challenges (because I felt there was opportunity to do so), and establish the right approaches to complete the work. The intervention should then back off in to an advisory role, attending Steering meetings and providing additional help only when the team requested.

By doing this, the risk of the CEO alienating her team would be minimized. And that risk was minor compared to the consequences of failure.

Done right, the intervention would be an opportunity to bolster the confidence of the team, and their regard for my friend.

My challenge to you : How do you determine when your team needs help to surmount new, high-stakes challenges?

Here are a few questions to ask of yourself:

1. How long does it take for your projects to hit a pace? If you could plot the progress curve, would look like a trapezoid, a bell curve or a hockey stick?
2. If your team comes to you with concerns about their challenges, would they prefer to tough it out rather than ask for help? Are they being honest?
3. Have you had any delays or re-sets while fundamental approaches are revised mid-project?
4. Has trial and error ever cost you a deadline?
5. Do you think your team needs help?

If you answered Yes to questions 2-5, you might benefit from an empathetic intervention.

Want to discuss the outcome of this challenge? Contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca to schedule a conversation about your results. I'll also help you interpret your answer to question 1!

Simplifying Technology … Investment

I have chosen to spend my career forging a bond between business needs and technology solutions, a role I refer to as Business Technologist. Over the last three decades, I’ve seen rich returns from technology initiatives that have truly transformed businesses. I’ve also seen funds wasted on mis-directed, low value, or poorly executed programs.

It always seemed to be unnecessarily challenging to chart the path to success or failure. But then I had an epiphany, developed a simple perspective on Business Technology, and have since honed this while working with a couple hundred organizations.

It all starts with a distinction between three types of technology spend:

1) Utility 2) Risk 3) Investment

Utility technologies are mature and reliable ( they rarely break if well maintained), provide basic services and foundation capabilities. Necessary, but not sufficient - utilities will not differentiate your business. This class covers email, productivity apps (MS-Office, core CRM), and pretty much all hardware and networking. Even smartphones, undoubtedly the technology breakthrough of 21st century, are now commodities.

Risk covers the tools and measures taken to identify and protect against the business risks associated with technology. Examples include Information Security, Business Continuity and project success. These are not be to ignored.

Investments provide outcomes that materially benefit a business and its customers. Streamlining customer facing and internal processes, delivering new products and services, outstripping the competition. To the extent that these steps provide customer value, they will differentiate our businesses.

And the watchwords are …

Utilities : do not sweat these details. Partner with good suppliers and make reasonable deals, but don’t spend more time than you need here. The wins are small.

Risk : understand your risk exposure and get comfortable that you are not overlooking anything important. Implement the necessary with efficiency, and maintain high standards.

Investment : focus your attention here - it’s where the game changers lie for your business. Without doubt. Every time you choose and execute well.

Allow me to set you a quick challenge for this week:

1) With some back of the envelope thinking, estimate how much you spend in each of these areas. Include operating expense, capital expense and staff allocation in your numbers. 2) If you spend over 90% on Utilities, you are not alone, but nowhere near best in class. 3) If you are spending under 10% of your budget on Risk, get confident that you understand Security and the risk it poses to your business. 4) If you are spending less than 50% on Investments, you’re almost certainly leaving money on the table.

If you would like to discuss the outcome of this challenge, please contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca to schedule a conversation about your results.

Why we need Business Technologists

Back in 1998, I started branding my IT Teams “Business Technology Groups.” We needed to move past the stereotypical view of IT as technicians to the much broader skill set that is required to exploit the potential for technology to fuel business growth. In the years since, it's been great to see the term "Business Technologist" emerge across the industry.

Short of growing up on Mars, it's impossible for any of us to be unaware of the commercial impact of technology over the last 25 years. But I would argue that the pace of tech evolution has out-stripped our ability to exploit the commercial benefits available.

While the tech/ IT industry focus remains heavily slanted towards technical skills and solutions marketing, more sophisticated skills are required to marshal the right technology investments at the right time and pace and to ensure the adoption essential to success.

Consider, for example, the six core competencies of effective technology investment:

- Business design - Change management - Technology implementation - Risk management - Operations - Know your Customer

I'll be writing much, much more on these themes over the coming months. If you would like to know when future posts are published, please sign up for my Newsletter here . Each week I’ll send you a single, pragmatic, actionable email newsletter where I’ll give you the tools and knowledge to replace misdirected, over-run and failed technology projects with flawlessly-executed initiatives that drive dramatic business results.

I hope you enjoy the content!

6 Steps to avoid painful projects

Do you have problem projects? Here are some early warning signs.

Odds are that you have memories of projects that have hit problems. Long days and long, urgent meetings as the deadline looms. Lack of clarity as to how things are going to get done in time. That strange mix of disappointment and relief when the deadline is moved back as reality bites and dependant initiatives are postponed along the way. Or perhaps the project slowly drifted off course due to lack of attention.

There are ways to detect project problems early on and take action to avoid unplanned slippages. In this series, we walk through the life of a project, highlight warnings signs at each stage and offer techniques to stay (or get back) on track.

This is the first in a series on detecting and resolving project problems.

If you don’t know where you’re going …

If any project is worth finishing, then it’s worth making sure that none of these warning signs apply at the outset:

• There is no project definition.
• The CEO or divisional leader is not aware of the project.
• No cadence has been defined for team updates.
• There is no plan.
• The team cannot ALL articulate the project goals in one or two sentences.
• No owner, vested in the successful completion of the project.

Project definitions take many forms, ranging from simple email summaries to formal project charters. The form us up for discussion, but what matters most is that the key issues have been considered, discussed, agreed upon and recorded. The simple act of formulating a record of project purpose (scope/ objectives), team and roles, budget, risks, success factors and timeline gives a chance to consider what matters, avoid the non-essential, and understand how the goal will be achieved. Absent this, the project is drifting from the outset.

Visibility – any project that runs for more than a few days is subject to delay if other priorities get in the way. If the CEO or divisional leader is not aware of the project start and end dates, the project does not matter to them. This is not always a show-stopper, but signals the potential for other activities to take priority when push comes to shove.

Update cadence is the metronome of a project. Regular checkins may take the form of daily posts to a shared project space, co-located and virtual meetings, daily scrums, and some forum to monitor progress with those who are ultimately repsonsible for project success. Lightweight is best, but no cadence is a recipe for failure.

Project plans. Whether the project is to have full governance or is an agile skunkworks, the lack of key milestones and a plan to reach each step is another indicator of failure. At the outset, a project is often green-lit with a high level plan based on +/- 50% estimates of effort and timeline. It is ok to defer the detailed estimation work to the first phase after approval, but approving a project without any idea of a plan is setting everyone up for failure.

If the team cannot ALL articulate the project goals in one or two sentences, they are not equiped make decisions. If a project is to achieve the required benefits with the best budget/ timeline outcome, EVERY decision that individuals and the team make should be tested against a simple question:

‘how does this decision get us closer to our goal?’

Unclear, ambiguous, unshared goals represents poor context for decision making.

No vested owner. The project sponsor, lead or champion is one individual who is vested in the success of the project. A successful outcome will enrich their working lives in some way. Whether this is the developer, project manager, executive sponsor or CEO, a project without a vested owner is apt to drift.

CEO Primer : Information Security Quick Wins

The first article in this series looked at some ways to assess the importance of security risk to your business, intended to help determine whether your budget is appropriate. This post lays out some simple, inexpensive measures that will reduce your Information Security exposure considerably. You should check off these items before investigating any higher spends.

What does Information Security encompass?

Information Security encompasses the means for identifying and ranking potential threats, and detecting, quickly resolving and avoiding repeat incidents. Digital information needs to be protected at rest (stored in databases, file servers and devices around the business and in the cloud) and in motion as it moves across the company network and external internet between privileged users. Paradoxically, while the majority of vulnerabilities occur when your data is at rest, the majority of security industry spend is on the network.

Employee Education

Employee education is the foundation of a secure organization. You can help your team understand the importance of security for your business and how they can help. The majority of security issues arise through accidental or deliberate employee action, and you can reduce the former with some reminders about safe and unsafe practices.

Here is a simple and effective approach:

1. Write up straightforward company policies regarding appropriate use of email and internet, password rules, systems access, and staff responsibilities. You can find a comprehensive list of policies here.
2. Distribute a document summarizing these policies and adding some simple tips and tricks such as the use of strong passwords, deletion of suspicious attachments before opening, and safeguarding of company phones and laptops. 1 or 2 pages should suffice.
3. Include the topic on staff meeting agendas, making sure that you message every employee.
4. Communicate regularly about security changes and issues. Provide immediate alerts and guidelines when severe viruses arise, such as Cryptolocker and Heartbleed.

Getting your team onside is more than half the battle won.

Establish a Secure Environment

Consider your security environment to be an onion skin, with your servers, desktops and phones at the centre, and layers of security applied to data in motion on the network to and from the outside world. Your firewalls and VPNs are at the edge of the onion, and "end-point" security tools at the heart. Strong security consists of several robust layers, but you'd be surprised how common it is to find a single poorly configured firewall between your corporate server and potential hackers.

Firewalls : should be configured by an expert to ensure robust security and appropriate logging of activity to monitor for intrusions. Multiple firewalls can be used to ringfence segments of your company network, an important practice if your business handles credit card information requiring PCI compliance.

Anti virus software : You get what you pay for with anti virus software. Tools that are free or nearly free will fail you when you need them most. Robust solutions with speedy virus updates from reputable providers like Symantec and McAfee are not expensive and WILL save your organization time by avoiding loss of operational time. If your IT is supported by a managed service provider, a managed anti virus service is worth considering.

Encrypting data : when data is encrypted, it can only be read on devices that have access to the cryptographic key that is unique to your business. Odds are that your company has laptops and mobile phones. If the data on these devices is encrypted, company information is protected against loss of equipment.

Use two-step verification for cloud security : Many cloud apps like Gmail and Dropbox support a security technique called two step verification. This is a way to restrict the specific devices that are able to connect to your cloud applications. If your company user accounts are managed centrally, you can restrict this access to company owned or company approved devices. In the event that an employee's login details are leaked, two factor security prevents access from a non-authorized device.

Next : Information Security as a Process

Having confirmed that your secure environment has the right components, the next step is to ensure that the correct processes are being followed to maintain security.

If you contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca , we can get on the phone to discuss how you can make your information security better than many small to medium businesses.

CEO Primer : Technology Strategy

The best technology investments can transform your business. To avoid overlooking opportunities to use IT to best advantage, CEOs and Leadership teams should get comfortable that they have a full understanding of their options when making IT decisions. A balanced IT strategy must consider:

1) Foundation : Employee devices and productivity systems 2) Maintenance : Telecom and Support services 3) Risk Management : Security and Business Continuity 4) Differentiation and Agility : Strategic IT and Project Excellence

Future posts in this series will discuss IT Strategy in different business contexts including startups and small/medium business.

Foundation : Employee devices and productivity tools

Employee devices and productivity tools (desktops, laptops, mobile, email, calendar, file sharing and network) are the first investment that a business considers when planning the IT budget.

This topic often consumes a disproportionate amount of the IT planning discussion. Standard business tools are a commodity, not an area for differentiation. As such, the goal should be to drive costs down by following standards for consistent set up and maintenance, ensuring prudent procurement of equipment, and assessing the pros and cons of BYOD. Getting the basics right will preserve budget and focus for the higher value IT investments.

Maintenance : Telecom and Support services

Telecom is a fast moving and competitive industry where opportunities abound for ongoing improvement of value for money. Every organization should review telco contracts annually and be ready to push for the best deals. Considerations include service levels, network performance requirements, and phone plans (do you still need your desk phones?).

7x24 IT Help Desk coverage for standard business tools can be outsourced to service providers at very competitive rates. IT support encompasses a wide range of skills and a good provider will offer access to experts in each domain when you need them. Considering core competences, any organization with under 200 employees will be hard-pressed to develop a strong in-house Help Desk team at lower cost than a good service provider.

Business system support is typically acquired from the vendor, either as part of subscription fees or as an optional recurring add-on when system licenses have been purchased outright. It is generally a mistake to expect the IT Help Desk to be expert in the details of your business systems, but your employee's life will be simplified if the Help Desk can triage all issues and escalate to the appropriate vendor hotline. Worth discussing with your Help Desk provider.

Risk Management : Security and Business Continuity

Information Security and Business Continuity (Disaster Recovery) planning covers protection against the impact of major failures in the systems that you have put in place. This is part of your risk management strategy, but the subject is often under resourced at budget time. Security breaches can create material problems for your business, and business downtime due to a DR incident can be very costly. Adverse impacts are avoidable with reasonable preparation.

Differentiation and Agility : Strategic IT and Project Excellence

Once your basic systems are in place with appropriate support and contingency for risk, you have a great foundation for using IT as a strategic weapon. Competitive differentiation is achievable through the prudent deployment of business systems to support and empower Sales, Marketing, Support and Service, Product Design and Development, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance and HR. Significant benefits are available to streamline operations and inform decision making.

Such systems must work hand-in-hand with your business operations. Optimal value comes from balancing best practice solutions with your team's evolving business needs. Rapid deployment and agile adjustment requires the development of strong change management competencies.

The Bottom Line

Basic systems and support are commodities to be addressed as efficiently and cost effectively as possible by means of regular vendor reviews, volume buying, standard practice, and quality assurance.

Risk management is insurance, too often overlooked. Do not be alarmed - security and business continuity will not require a huge chunk of your budget if addressed with the right measures.

Building on these solid foundations, business systems and project excellence are where you can reap the most reward from your IT investments. This is the place to focus your innovation.

Over time, you should aim to invest more than half of your IT budget on differentiation and agility.

Why CEOs need to track information security

Information Security is often regarded as something that "IT has under control". In fact, it is a business practice that all CEOs need to stay informed about, with significant impact on employees, customers and suppliers.

Security creates headlines when it fails for high profile companies, but it is a necessary form of insurance for ALL businesses that use digital communications. It's easy for business managers to be alienated by the techno-bable that surrounds this topic, but a few simple measures can go a long way to addressing the risks.

What Risk?

Understand the Consequences

Security breaches can result in the leak of important intellectual property, financial or strategic information, and sensitive customer data. Operational disruption while recovering from damaging viruses can be significant.

Consequences can include significant loss of productivity, damaged reputation with customers, and costly legal action.

Quantifying the impact of these consequences on your business will inform your decisions on what risks are untenable and what responses would be appropriate. In general, "we didn't consider the matter" is not a good response.

Competitive Advantage. Or Disadvantage.

If your business operates in a regulated industry or your customers require you to share your safeguards, Security becomes a matter of competitive differentiation. If you provide a product or service that relies on secure delivery, Security is an important feature that can make the difference between winning and losing deals. Information Security audits and certifications are ways to demonstrate sound practice, but it's important to understand the range of costs and benefits before proceeding.

You don't have to be a big target to be hit

High profile leaks may create an impression that security only matters if your business presents a big target. However, security hackers have means of scanning for vulnerabilities that allow them to easily find weak targets which then become vulnerable to exploitation. Most companies are targeted every day - ask your IT team to show you the logs.

In addition, over 75% of security leaks come from accidental or deliberate action on the part of employees.

Information Security is a Process, not a Project

Implementation of appropriate tools and practices will upgrade security measures, but it's the operation of these practices which determines the ongoing risk. Employee awareness and observation of their responsibilities is a company-wide concern which starts at the top, not in the IT department.

Next : How much will it cost to fix my Security?

Probably less than you think. In the next article, we review a few simple measures that can dramatically reduce your risk.