Time Management

I was invited to a time management conference recently and it started late!

Wouldn’t it be great to practice what we teach?

Carbon Trading

It’s likely that carbon trading will actually kick start the stock markets once again as surely as tulip bulbs and .coms have in the past. After all it’s a new commodity, and a whole bunch of industries and companies will start up to serve this brave new world.

If we are going to continue to trade carbon, then why are we going to use theoretical numbers to say how much we are trading? How much of this carbon commodity is really out there for us to trade? Who is going to audit us to see if we are polluting? - hang on, if we are going to be audited, can we switch our machines off on the day of the audit to show how clean we can be?

Is this a case of The Emperors New Clothes?

I uphold the old adage that “if you cannot measure it you cannot improve it” and until someone can prove to me different, I am going to stick to my old commodities of pork bellies and orange juice - at least I will be OK for breakfast!

Bookshop and Bags

In a move to be “sustainable”, one of my local chain of bookshops decided it would not provide a bag to take home my purchase, but rather ask me to spend 10 cents to help save the environment, go green and donate my money to a sustainable charity of their choice - presumably at some point in the future - or offer me the chance to buy one of those eco-bags that last for a 1000 uses for a dollar.

Now this annoyed the hell out of me, because I was not convinced my 10 cents (tax) was not being held onto for a period of time and thus improving the cash position of the bookshop. Secondly, the eco-bag purchase is OK if you remember to carry them around with you but apparently most of us do not. Most importantly the shop could never get the message “look around you at all that paper” the industry pollutes more at source than many other industries and you are talking to be about sustainable - come on you are having a laugh aren’t you? It’s my 10 cents, let me donate it to the charity of my choice will you. Green bags! - how much more carbon is being generated than my old bags in their manufacture, branding and distribution, and how much more carbon every time you fire up the SUV to take them back for next time?

Now, I had a choice of bookshops and chose to shop where I could have my purchases (and I buy books in bulk) dropped into a bag. The original store holder told me I didn’t get it and I was mad. Funny though it appears that most of his “value” customers did similar things and he closed down - hows that for business sustainability? Interestingly his competitors did nothing more than what they were already doing and thus differentiated on what must have been the simplest model of customer delight ever.

Now I am passionate about sustainability at all levels, but unless we begin to look at sustainability from the whole process chain and not just try to treat the systems, we will not effect measurable change. The bottom line is that at the moment sustainability is not in the bag.

Supply Chain and Demand - Maintaining Situation Normal

Some businesses order more than they need. They’re then left with stock that they don’t need and can’t sell. The inventory that’s there that you can’t sell costs you money if it’s just sitting there. It may be cheaper, per unit, to buy 4000 tonnes of coal but if you’re going to waste 1000 tonnes of it then this is extra cost that you don’t need. To get economies in the supply chain, businesses used to buy much more than they required. The retail trade was particularly notable for it. Retailers used to buy much more than they needed. This is where the concept of the retail sales season came from to get rid of excess stock. With modern software packages and software tools to manage the supply chain, this situation has improved and businesses have “got smarter”.

If you want to introduce scarcity and prestige, you can size your supply chain to keep limits on manufacturing so that you have more customer demand than you can supply. In times of surplus it creates artificial scarcity and the rules of supply and demand can raise prices. In times where the whole industry is having problems with excess capacity (as the motor industry is at the moment), it’s only necessary to relax the supply chain rather than dispensing with whole sections of it since you were making the product artificially scarce to begin with. If you can still sell all that you’re producing (but now without the same scarcity) then it’s situation normal.

How to double your book sales in a month

I am blown away - I have just doubled my book sales in a month!

It seems to be due to a groundswell of like minded people who went out and bought the books. Beyond my wildest imagination I am getting 10,000 hits on my website a month. Just goes to show that if you have passion, rigour and stick to what you believe in you will always find friends somewhere and, as we know, friends like to do business with friends.

Make Your Point is available at www.amazon.com or www.leestyger.com

THE RENAISSANCE OF SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Take a look at the drawing and assume that companies have been up at the 100% line for their business pre the economic crisis. Almost overnight you have seen their marketplace retract by over 50%. What effect has that had on them? They have had to cut their business by half. What has that done to the supply chain? Cut the supply chain by half? The dynamic is not That simple. If you have your business cut by half, you cut your supply chain by more than half.

You would do this because there is more in your pipeline already being done, these products are already on order, its the long tail.

So it drops, nothing happens for a while because the bullwhip effect caused by the orders is settling itself down. Now what happens is that you see people reporting more work, now that the bullwhip has settled you have to bring some stuff through. They have gone from really really busy working seven days a week to nothing overnight, to suddenly they have got work again.

Now people think that you will get this grass roots recovery, and it will grow and grow to where it was. It doesn’t, it will bounce along for a long while because you just don’t know what the market size is anymore.

People think that what is going to happen is that their businesses are going to grow again and get straight back up to where they started again. It is a different dynamic now. You were up the top, but you have just halved your workforce, your stock and your working capital based on future orders. Your business has been reconfigured. Your workers and your workers are gone.

The different dynamic is that the CEO’s that have been cradled all their life. The decision to buy capital equipment or put food on the table is a decision that they have been sheltered from, because the work has been sufficient enough to allow them to not to have to do it. Their businesses have now dropped, they are going to assume that the $20million project they took on last year, they can do this year. They will be lucky if they can take on a $2million project, they haven’t got the capacity, they haven’t got the finance, they haven’t got the ability in the supply chain to do this and they physically have not got the people on the floor with the smarts. The officers and the project officers are all gone. If you were asked to reconfigure your business from half of its size to its old size today... you could not do it.

Most of the CEO’s that were running the businesses at the top of the graph, have not had the experience of having to grow the business back up to the top. It is not going to be a straight line. They are going to have to do what every other entrepreneur has done throughout history. They are going to have to go step by step, bit by bit.

This is the renaissance of the entrepreneur, this is the renaissance of the small business manager.

Monkey Trial - Who's Fault is it Anyhow?

The notion of the US Chamber of Commerce taking the EPA to court on a futile Who’s fault is it anyhow? shows the lack of insight regarding the commercial opportunities climate change offers industrious and innovative companies.

I don’t care if its man made climate change or the recession of the ice age, the fact is the environment is changing and something needs to be done. It’s about time we stopped pointing the finger and laying blame and focus our resources on action.

Find one little thing for consensus and start there.

Dr Lee E J Styger

www.leestyger.com

Consensus for Sustainability

There is no shortage of viable and meaningful technology entering the market to assist in cleaning up the planet and maintaining a sustainable future. The problem, as always appears to be a gap between the developers and the end users and/or the stakeholders. More often than not one side will claim the improvement is not enough and the other will claim the target is too high and that’s when the fight starts.

Overall, the greatest challenge to sustainability is not technical, nor indeed institutional, but rather that of consensus of all interested parties. Unless a consensus can be reached, we face years of further green wash and procrastination.

Do something - change something - one little thing can change our whole environment for the better.

Who will save us from these turbulent times?

In this evermore changing and turbulent world I can’t help thinking that sustainability has many different meanings to many different people. Clearly there is the drive to save the planet, but arguments over green wash or robust technological solutions, will be hotly debated discussions that run for many years.

Today, the argument of current carbon trading methods rages in government and science circles alike and the idea that developing audit or statistical modeling that presupposes that a large company will pollute more than a small company and large company must equate to a large polluter and small company must equate to a small polluter is as perverse as it is blind to the real world.

Fundamentally I would argue that if we were going to have true sustainability in monitoring and indeed trading carbon, then we have to move to real measures in real-time. At this point carbon can be traded within real supply and demand dynamics thereby boosting the confidence of the market.

If you can't measure it... You can't improve it

There is growing hypothesis that, following the current economic crisis, carbon trading will kick start the stock markets once again and that carbon is a new “commodity” albeit now being traded in a traditional way.

This carries several disadvantages; the most pressing being that “if you can’t measure it then you cannot improve it”, rendering any audit meaningless as a real improvement measure and resulting in the view that carbon trading is merely another form of taxation.

Unless commerce, government and the environmental groups can find consensus, we run the risk of continued inactivity and polar argument that will not benefit either the economy or the ecology.

NOT IN MY BEST INTEREST TO KILL YOU

It’s not in my best business interest to kill you - it's just not a sustainable thing.

Let me explain; if I provide you with an unsafe work area, and you end up dead, then I have a problem - no not all that legal stuff, I can always blame one of my managers - but rather it's now going to cost me money. I have to hire someone (money), train them (money), accept that there will be a learning curve, and therefore, lower productivity / increased quality issues (money), possible cultural issues with the rest of the team (money) and your replacement might not stay and then I will have to do it all over again (money). After all of this I would still have to attend your funeral - lost production and opportunity for me (money) and send flowers (more money).

No, on reflection it is just not sustainable to kill you. A much more cost effective solution is to provide you with a safe and happy environment, where you have the right tools and working environment to do the job and make me money. I like that idea, its a sustainable alternative for my business.

BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

Much has been talked about the sustainability of business and sustainability of activities across the planet.

In the present economic downturn, the challenges for sustainability are to be able to rise to the twin challenges of a financial climate that is in melt down, and a planetary climate that has been induced into meltdown by decades of neglect and an irresponsible attitude of blaming it on someone else.

As a business manager, whether public sector, private sector or in pubic/private partnership, it is in my best interest to produce an environment of well being. By safeguarding my environment and my resources (people, materials, time and money) I can maintain a dialogue with stakeholders to ensure that the environment is safeguarded and still generate the profits that my business demands.

So how do I safeguard my environment?

If I provide an area of ill being (strategic, financial and environmental) then I drive costs up and that is not sustainable. To make it sustainable, I need to look at the whole process chain, drive costs down, drive value up and thereby deliver a sustainable business and socially responsible environment for all.

CREATE SOMETHING... DESTROY SOMETHING

“Create something, destroy something, creativity is about change and change is never easy.”

Business is about change, in the last twelve months, the expectations for jobs and the whole economic outlook have changed and as a result so has the direction of many businesses.

A roadmap is something that helps you to plan your journey (forgive me, "journey" is one of those “management” words). It’s OK having a map if you know where you are going. Doing more of the same will get you more of what you have already got. Currently what we have got is not worth having for many businesses so it is time to change.

Because change is about disrupting the day to day, it’s about doing something different. If you’re doing something different - you are disrupting what’s happening today - so you might have a better tomorrow.

CHANGING THE FACE OF CLASSICAL BUSINESS

The current economic crisis has completely changed the face of classical business configuration and management. Whereas most organizations have either been able to downsize their operations sufficiently and rapidly, or have simply ceased trading, a “perfect storm” of new challenges now faces the remaining business leaders.

Understanding dip dynamics is paramount in the light of the current economic pressures. Many of the core attributes typically associated with the entrepreneurial management of SME’s will need to be transferred into larger structures if sustainable growth and operation are to be achieved.

The new new thing is becoming old world standards.

AN INCONVENIENT LEGACY

Recent high profile failures of “safe” blue chip companies has left billions of dollars of debt within their suppliers. Business and commerce has not experienced a recession like this and there is no rule book for managing our way out of it.

The premise of Dip Dynamics suggests that organizations will not recover in typically classical ways. Furthermore there appears to be a reverse bullwhip effect within business that suggests commentators are confusing supply chain re-calibration (i.e. stocking at lower levels) with a tangible upturn in the market.

The only way we will know how well our business is doing is by staying close to the point that matters, our customers.

HANDS UP WHO WANTS TO BE THE CEO OF A $1b COMPANY

Who wants to be the CEO of a $1bn turnover company and who want’s to be the CEO of a $100k turnover company?

Many CEO’s of larger companies have been cradled all their life. The decision to buy capital equipment or put food on the table is a decision that they have been sheltered from, unlike owner operators and managers of smaller businesses. Larger companies have been able to access resources, people, credit, supplier and customers. But now business has dropped and by a phenomenal amount.

Many CEO’s may have thought nothing of taking on a $20m project last year, but this year they will be lucky if they can take on a $2m project. Because of the recession, they haven’t got the capacity, they haven’t got the finance, they haven’t got the ability in the supply chain anymore, they have cut their businesses and they are now waking up to the fact that they physically have not got the people on the floor with the smarts. The managers, specialists and technologists are all gone.

If you are asked to double the size of your business today... you could not do it, neither could most of the CEO’s of larger companies that were running the businesses at the top of the “curve”. They have not had the experience of having to grow the business form the grass roots up. We are witnessing the renaissance of the entrepreneur, and the manager of the small company because this is their home ground.

Let’s ask the question again - Who wants to be the CEO of a $1bn turnover company that is making a loss and who want’s to be the CEO of a $100k turnover company that’s retaining 80% earnings?

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS NOT MANAGING PROJECTS

Working with businesses over the last few years, I’ve come to realize that there’s a significant difference between managing a technical project and managing a business project. Each needs its skill base, tools and understanding of the objectives.

Whereas there are a raft of publications on technical project management, there appears to be little on managing business projects. Managing business projects could be thought of more effectively in terms of Business Reconfiguration Management, where you’re taking into account dynamically, the business requirements and business plan to move forward.

Business Reconfiguration Management is what I’m involved with day-to-day. I use a bunch of specialist tools, a specialist project management suite that I’ve built up alongside my experience. I have come to realize that typical technical project management tools such as Critical Path Method (CPM) and Gantt charts do not provide the level of transparency needed in Business Reconfiguration Management and importantly many business leaders simply can’t understand planning tools such as CPM and Gantt leading to mistrust or alienation during the program.

Now I use a new combination of tools to help manage complex, strategic projects. It’s not that I dislike Gantt charts or CPM as pure methodologies. They’re great tools for more technical jobs, but as most craftsmen will acknowledge, “it’s the right tool for the right job”. Put simply, you don’t glue cardboard sheets together with crazy glue, it just doesn’t work. It kind of works, but it isn’t right. Its the same when we try to use classical project management tools that have been developed for building ships and space rockets, to manage dynamic business process and importantly Business Reconfiguration Management programs.

It’s all a question of dynamics and where they come in. Business Reconfiguration Management can handle a situation that’s changing dynamically and rapidly (ever more relevant in todays economy). Technical project management (CPM, Gantt) can handle technical objects that are dynamic (a jet engine’s pretty dynamic) but can’t easily adapt to the dynamics of change as quickly and as creatively.

By its nature, Business Reconfiguration Management takes into account the dynamics of the business. These start from the business strategy and the business plan. They’re the definition of where I need to get to. They’re ever changing and evolving and what’s right for this business cycle may be different in the next.