Old dog, new tricks....

Strange how many aspects of business change, and yet the basics remain the same.

The same need for customers, for a positive cash-flow, a viable supply chain, and a profit that keeps your business chugging along. So we've had a few 'Brexit issues', and 'SARS Covid' has been a nasty surprise for many people, and gas prices have risen steeply this year, but we'll see our way through all of this. It's that 'Dunkirk' spirit that keeps us optimistic in the UK.

Or perhaps it's time to change....time to move away from reacting to events and starting to think through how to get ahead of the problems before they evolve into crises. And that's where the Business Cube can help you look at your business as a whole, using the criteria that your customers and clients really care about. The quality and service that you're delivering every day, every transaction: and to do that consistently, you have to think ahead of the competition, ahead of the latest business surprise, and get to those problems before they get to you.

To do this, there are two decisive factors that can create business improvements. The first is Leadership - and you've got that covered - and the second are Systems. If you have the Leadership nailed, then the Systems will automatically become the next stumbling block. And this requires major re-engineering (acknowledgements to Michael Hammer!). The days of 'moving the furniture around the Titanic' of your business processes are fading fast: you can no longer afford those built-in costs that come with doing business in ways that have only been automated, not eradicated.

You have to think about your whole business in a different way - only then can you look forward and anticipate the next market changes and prepare for those unexpected changes in business fortune. So we're not proposing that you buy a new 'Dog', just train yourself with some new 'Tricks' for the opportunities that wait around the corner.

IPA - UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority, not India Pale Ale!

Spent some time reviewing the Projects currently in progress and being monitored by the UK Infrastructure and Projects Authority. As might be expected, a mixed bag of achievements from very different projects.

In September 2020, Nick Smallwood (Boss at the IPA) added an interesting Blog entitled 'Setting up for success: The Importance of Front-End Loading', closely followed by the publication of a Handbook to add substance to his argument. The essence of what he said was this:-

Getting the basics right

But while increased speed will play an important role in the rebuilding of the country, we must not neglect the importance of getting the basics right in how we deliver projects. That is one of the reasons why we recently published the eight principles for project success, a quick guide for project delivery professionals on things to get right for any project to succeed.

The principle that stands out to me is principle number two; “plan realistically”.

We must invest time in thorough up-front planning to ensure that projects are deliverable and affordable before commitments are given. No amount of good engineering, management, and construction will provide much resilience if a project was the wrong one to begin with and even good project management will not recover the needed value in a poorly selected project.

The importance of front-end loading

That is why we need to target the front end of projects. In this context, front-end loading refers to the implementation of robust planning, design and preparation for project execution in the early stages of a project's lifecycle to improve the potential for a successful project.

I couldn't agree with this more: until looking at the diagram for the 8 principles for project success. It's a re-iteration of 'best practice' for successful project management with very little material that is either new, or inventive, or better than in many textbooks. So I'll state that the Business Cube approach to understanding your business (or a project) is a far better approach, as is the Implementation Model.

If you'd like to know more, please contact me

Why you need to use the 'Business Cube'

Although most companies use some combination of project management styles, a 2017 report from 'LiquidPlanner' showed that 25.5% of manufacturing companies currently use waterfall. The benefits are that it keeps training simple, shows Project progress, makes the project easy to manage, and saves time and money. But there’s a failure rate of 94.4% for all Project types. It’s important to understand that virtually all big software projects are late, or fail.  There’s some brilliant stats. on this in a Computerworld story published on Monday. Standish tracked 3,555 big-ticket projects from 2003 to 2012, and told Computerworld that only 6.4% were successful. Another 52% were over budget, late, or fell short of expectations.  And 41 percent were abandoned. These figures come from the US HealthCare.gov., and the drive towards Obamacare. There is no difference in failure rates between Waterfall and Agile projects: and no significant difference between software-based projects and Lean focused projects. The simple fact is that human-beings create and manage all types of projects: and bring their unique set of personal preferences and problems to any Profit Improvement Programme. (Article on Project failure rates, October 2013). So how does the ‘Business Cube’ handle this situation? By ensuring that your Project progress is systematically checked against the 27 Blocks, which cover all aspects of your business. This bolsters the current follow-up processes that already exist, which are inadequate.

April 2019

By Nick Jones, from the book 'Square Peg, Round Hole', 2019