The Crocs and The Buzzards

A few months back, I was on a trip down Rio Grijalva which runs through Sumidero Canyon in South America when I came across this scene.  No, I did not have a zoom lens and yes, I know that being this close to a hungry crocodile is almost always a bad idea; however, I just had to get this shot. When I came upon this scene, a thought came into my mind, “There are two kinds of creatures in this world … the ones who make things happen and the ones who wait for things to happen.”  Now I suppose that in the animal kingdom one particular creature or another doesn’t have a lot of say in the matter, I mean in the canyon you’re either a croc, a buzzard, or somewhere on the menu.  But in our world, the world of humankind, we actually do have some say in the matter. 

Do I dare make the analogy?  Do I dare propose that People, like the crocs and the buzzards, generally fall into one of two groups?  That some people make things happen and some benefit from the things that others make happen?  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making a judgment call valuing one over the other; I’m just proposing that the two groups exist and are fundamentally different.   The crocs choose the meal and take first pick of what and when to eat; the buzzards get to eat what the croc chooses and when the croc chooses to be done. 

Now some may read this and find themselves getting a little perturbed?   So what sparks that emotion?  What could make a person want to discredit this analogy, to file this in the “things that apply to animals and not humans file”?  Could it be that deep inside, we’d all really rather be crocodiles?  We’d all rather be out there making our own way, setting the menu … making it happen.  So why not?  It’s a new year, the past is the past and the future is yours to make … take the risk, put in the effort, work harder than you’ve ever worked before.  GO FOR IT … BE A CROC!  Oh by the way, Happy New Year!

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Shaun Williams is the co-founder and managing partner of The Operari Group

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The Operari Group is a consulting, delivery, and training company and we believe that for any organization to meet its goals and objectives, it must be able to find elegant and creative solutions to what we call the people, process, and information equation. The people, process, and information equation simply states that to achieve your objectives you need the right people, in the right jobs, at the right time, and at the right cost.  Those people must be following efficient and effective processes that have been well defined and documented.  And finally, they must be enabled with access to high quality and relevant information for decision making.  Operari’s products and services are fully aligned with the people, process, and information equation.

Survive and Win in 2010!

I don’t know where you are with regards to the “how fast will the economic recovery happen” debate, but myself, and a growing number of economic analysts, are not particularly optimistic.  I’m expecting slow and moderate growth for the first half of 2010, with a few more bumps in the road throughout the year.  The problem is that many American businesses are reaching the point where “slow and moderate” just isn’t good enough.  I think there is a missing piece, one unanswered question.  Is there a way to survive and thrive even during a very slow recovery?

Consider a recent study by the Aberdeen Group that looked at organizations who were considered “best in class” from the perspective that they fully leveraged their corporate information as a strategic asset, some people call this Business Intelligence (B.I.) Maturity.  The study confirmed a direct correlation between the level of B.I. maturity and the ability for an organization to perform well, even during an economic downturn.  Consider figure 1 (click here if you do not see the image below of to the left) from the Aberdeen report (as reprinted in a recent issue of KM World). 

As you can see, the best in class, top 20%, experienced double digit growth in operating profit and high levels of customer retention.  Compare this to the laggards who experienced double digit declines in operating profit and much lower customer retention. 

To survive and win in 2010 you are going to have to find new and creative ways to leverage one of your greatest corporate assets … your information.  If you aren’t 100% sure that your organization is among the best-in-class, we should talk. I have a short presentation to guide our discussion, and you can preview a few of the slides here (low res for easy download). 

Shaun N. Williams

The Operari Group

shaun@operarigroup.com

www.operarigroup.com

(866) 219-9224 Ext. 302  ofc

(210) 326-6146 mbl

Wow, I really get around!

I received an e-mail earlier today from a software company, who shall, in order that I may be spared a lawsuit, remain nameless. They were thanking me for being a customer. I will say this much, the software they develop and market is a data integration product which includes an entire module for data quality. This e-mail was from one of the senior leaders and was being sent to all of their customers in Cincinnati, OH to inform them that this particular leader would be in town and would really enjoy the opportunity to meet and hear my perspective on their products and services. How nice … two problems. I’m not a customer, never have been, and I live in San Antonio, TX. My company has no affiliations or branch offices in Cincinnati, OH and the last time I was there was in 2006.

Someone must have realized the mistake because I received a recall request on the e-mail … at least they know they have a problem. Well, the great news is I just got e-mail number two from the world’s premier data integration and quality software company, this time describing the wonders of their product and all of its capabilities. The e-mail then informed me that I was receiving this message because I had stopped by their booth at some conference in New Orleans. Okay guys, just one more small problem … I’ve never been to a conference in New Orleans. My favorite part is the last line of the e-mail, and I quote, “I would like to chat about any current or upcoming projects that will require data integration or cleansing efforts.” Let’s just say that a company that can’t solve the data cleansing and integration issues in their own CRM process probably won’t make my short list of vendors for my next project. Oh by the way, this is not some small company!

It is an all too common problem and the most frustrating part of my 15 year career in information management and strategy. Data quality has been a passion of mine since I helped a manufacturing company save $4.6 Million dollars by solving one data quality problem in the management of fixed assets. After that, I gave it a try in retail, and demonstrated a measurable $12 Million in real savings over one year thru a holistic, comprehensive, approach to data quality. Even with these great success stories, and many others, I get more executive blank stares when I address the issues of data management and the importance of understanding an organizations current state data quality and associated costs.

If you are an I.T. leader in any organization you should be able to easily quote one simple statistic … your data quality index. You should know what is it, what it was, and be able to communicate the significance of it to a non-technical person with ease. The data is the life blood of your organization; you spend millions storing it, millions backing it up, and millions making beautiful reports out of it. How much money did your organization spend last year insuring the data being used in all manner of corporate decisions is of high quality? If you want to know more about data quality maturity, how to calculate the costs of data quality issues, and how to track and manage a data quality index, please contact me using the information below.

Shaun N. Williams

Managing Partner – Information Strategy

The Operari Group

shaun@operarigroup.com

www.operarigroup.com

(866) 219-9224 Ext. 302 ofc

(210) 326-6146 mbl

The Right Stuff

Process engineering, at its best, optimizes the most strategic components in an organization to best achieve clearly defined goals.
Strategic components require key indicators, like the needles on the dials of a jet pilot’s console.
A corporation president might consider earnings per share a key indicator. A school district superintendent might look at student graduation or retention.
Think of an organization as a machine. It has levers — those day-to-day specialized tools and specialists — that let the organization move each needle. Unfortunately, organizations often struggle to get their levers moving needles in a positive direction.
What do you do when your big needle won’t go where you want it? And why is Operari any different from the next process engineering team?
Traditional process engineers take a business process and optimize the process. They break it apart, put it back together and create an “optimal process.” But all they’ve done is realign levers. They can’t tell you what the levers are doing to further your organization’s primary goal.
Operari’s strategy is about optimizing only the processes that impact your key indicators, and putting in measurement systems so you can track the efficacy of your processes.
Our goal is to get managers to stop managing to their business process. Our team doesn’t get lost in the organizational machinery.
Instead, we help our clients manage to key performance indicators.
Here is an academic example:
I met with the school board members of a public school district, and we talked through this concept. They described two of their levers as an Alternative School program and an Attendance Incentive program.
I asked them what they thought their key indicator was – what big needle were their eyes fixed on?
They thought the big needles (they had two) were attendance and graduation.
I asked why it was so important to graduate students.
“We want to produce productive members of society,” came the response.
Okay. And how does graduating a student achieve that? They saw it as a step in the right direction, but what they really hoped for was follow-up — graduates taking the initiative to enroll in college, a trade school, or jumping straight into the job market.
I said the big needle may be graduation, but if you want to create productive members of society you cannot prove it.
The information systems they have today have no mechanism to track these things. They can talk about direction all they want, but they have no way to measure the thing they want.
What about the students they push to graduate who do not become productive members of society?
At our company, like the jet pilot with all the variables of flight, we help our customers understand them and then help manage them.