General Management – Page 10

June 12, 2007

Interesting Observation That Project Management Is Something You Won’t Learn In Business School

First saw this post at Virginia Postrel’s site. The originally referenced post is by her other half, Dr. Steven Postrel here. Dr. Postrel writes:

A peculiar fact about business schools (at least in the USA) is that project management is not part of the regular MBA curriculum. Why is this peculiar? Only because a huge percentage of the work managers do is organized into projects, the success or failure of strategies often rests on the quality of execution of projects, and many of the principles and techniques of good project management are not immediately obvious. But hey, if anyone needs to know about this trivial stuff they can always go to a two-day workshop and get a certificate (probably from an engineering department). Or learn it on the job, which in this context often means screwing things up and trying to guess what you did wrong.

I guess on the one hand, I would agree that core management "science" topics (a bucket in which project management perhaps fits into) should be covered in business schools. That said, similar to a somewhat controversial post I wrote here on ethics courses in business schools, my perspective (from the vantage point of an MBA alum rolling back time and putting himself in an MBA student’s shoes) would be that I would not have wanted to shovel out top dollar for that type of course as a customer of the business school product. Project management is a knowledge base and skill set that many people pick up on the job, regardless of whether effectiveness of process, tools, and outcomes are measured systematically. At least I would not have wanted to pay for a project management course in a naked form. The topic could be combined with some other product, such as a product development/management, consulting methods, change management, operations, or governance course. Although I am clearly biased, I think it could play well in a consulting course, especially since projects and engagements are related (but different animals).

May 16, 2007

Thoughts On Job Changes And Job Interviews

There are many variations on interviewing people, but practically across all methods I have used whether case study or more traditional "walk me through your resume" style, I find myself examining two areas very closely. I don’t know if they match up with other interviewers’ experiences, but in any case here are the two areas:

Has the person succeeded in the past with skills and responsibilities that are needed for this job, and how many degrees of separation are there between the old job and the new job? For example, a person that needs both sales and consulting skills for a new job and comes from a sales background may only have one (potentially large) degree of separation from a new job. On the other hand, someone that has performed sales in one job and consulting in a separate job, well in that case, the degrees of separation may be viewed as smaller. It may not be too hard for the interviewer to envision the person being able to handle a new job that incorporates both functions. On the other hand, someone that has a background in R&D only, well there may be at least two degrees of separation from the new job because that person may neither have sales, consulting, nor extensive customer-facing experience.

Just because someone has greater degrees of separation from the job they are applying for does not mean that they should be precluded from being hired. However, when that person is selling me on whether they are appropriate for the job, they need to recognize that they may need to either sell me on other skills that I value or try to frame their background in such a way so that the degrees of separation seem as small as possible. Drawing similarities between work done in the past with work needed for the new job is one potential way of doing this (e.g., "I performed competitive analysis of product offerings as a product manager – these types of tasks likely share a number of similarities with competitive analysis performed by consultants").

As another approach, some people may want to view career changes as a continuum. If the degrees of separation for one job change are too large, then perhaps that person should seek an immediate job position that is closer. Such a step may make it easier to change to the other job at a later point in time.

What is the overall career path that this person is seeking? It is nice to see some logic behind why a person changed jobs, in a large part to figure out whether the new job fits into a logical pattern that is aligned with both the candidate and company (hiring people can be an expensive proposition and mistakes are not good). Although somewhat of a contradiction to my first point above where I like to see how a person’s past experiences can map into those required for a new job, I am not a big fan of functional resumes that organize a person’s job experiences into skill clusters but that cut across individual jobs and timeframes such that chronology is convoluted. I have seen some people use this resume style to grab people’s attention, but I think there are better ways of driving home the point of skill match while still preserving the importance of chronology of job experiences. One method that I prefer to see is a one-line blurb that paints a picture of how one’s past experiences together match a new job’s requirements in a deft way. For example, the blurb might be "experienced sales executive and consultant seeking consulting practice leadership role" or "experienced telecom product line manager seeking wireless strategy consultant role".

In closing, I will say that have deviated from these two frames in some circumstances because there are blind spots. For example, it is possible to simply wind up finding someone that is energetic and can excel at the job. Some people may simply want it enough. In these cases, I may prefer to set up some sort of trial environment, inspect past deliverables/work products, and/or do deeper digging with background checks (e.g., checking customer references).

May 9, 2007

On “Busyness” In An Increasingly Global And Technology-Oriented World

It’s results that matter – not activities.

That statement encapsulates a "widely-held" management perspective that managers should evaluate workers based on the effectiveness of output produced and not by how much they are working. But is it such a widely-held belief? Dr. Andrew McAfee writes in an older post (and in the context of E2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, etc.):

Companies that are full of knowledge workers and that have built cultures that value busyness face a potentially sharp dilemma when it comes to E2.0. These companies stand to benefit a great deal if they can build emergent platforms for collaboration, information sharing, and knowledge creation. But they may be in a particularly bad position to build such platforms not because potential contributors are too busy, but because they don’t want to be seen as not busy enough.

Dr. McAfee’s post made me back up and think more generally about busyness and cases such as the following:

where managers use instant messaging and presence to monitor whether employees are at their computers (as a proxy for work activity)
how those in Western cultures may tend view someone just sitting at their desk and thinking as being lazy and unproductive whereas those in Eastern cultures may potentially view such people as being productive
where consultants or analysts generate tons of paper or analyses (and which may vary by geography), but fail to tie things together into a set of cohesive key learnings or recommendations
how some workaholics may criticize or think less of the Levis 501 worker types (those that line up at 5:00pm and leave at 5:01pm)
where salespeople are viewed as wasting their time by sending cute emails to people or talking constantly about non-work matters with colleagues in their network

So I dunno. It seems plausible that busyness might be valued both to the detriment of productivity and with insufficient respect for technology limitations and global cultures. Are times and contexts changing?

April 11, 2007June 13, 2016

Articulating and Rearticulating Problem Statements

Engineering and management consulting share a core aspect in that each discipline tends to be very problem-solving oriented. In engineering, one may be posed the problem of trying to figure out the optimal circuit or filter for removing or minimizing noise from a radio station transmission. There are structured, mathematical ways for doing this. As another example, management consultants may be posed the problem of trying to figure out the market opportunity and business strategy for a company to extend its product line for a portion of a client’s customer base. There are common business methodologies for addressing these types of problems too.

To pick on consulting for a moment, sometimes it’s very tempting to disappear and run off and solve the problem that’s been articulated in the statement of work signed with the client. But I think that it’s also important to have a good client relationship and regular communication structure that enable the problem statement to be adjusted and refined with the client. As an example for some of the engagements I oversee, I ask consulting teams to write down the problem statement in their own words near the beginning of the project (which may sometimes be a list of key questions in paragraph form that the customer has asked plus the objectives of the project) and refine the problem statement to a finer level of detail throughout the project. The end result of these efforts often culminate at the final executive presentation where the consultant can put the refined problem statement as either slide one or two of the slide deck. The problem statement reaffirms the need for the project and consultant.

So while at the beginning of an engagement, a problem statement might be something like, “Purpose of project will be to determine the technology strategy for XYZ”, in the end, the refined problem statement might be “Purpose of the project is to address the following: 1) determine the business attractiveness of A, B, and C services in XYZ market, 2) identify technology options for approaching the market and tradeoffs, 3) perform full financial assessment of options, including worst case/walkaway price for auction PDQ, which is prerequisite for one of the options, and 4) determine optimal business model for approaching market, which includes consideration of leasing and buy/own models with respect to CBA.

By both breaking the problem statement down to a lower level of granularity and repositioning the statement for accuracy, it becomes easier to determine whether the team is solving the right problem and to divide the problem in such a way so as to let numerous big brains attack the pieces.

Although I’m not much into social commentary, I was in part motivated to write this post based on what is going on in Iran with nuclear fuel and the interests of both Iran and the United States. From the perspective of the US (though I’m no expert) it seems as though some have articulated the problem statement as being, “how do we prevent weapons-grade nuclear fuel from getting into the wrong hands?”. Just for argument’s purposes (since this may not be the right problem statement), what if the problem statement was rearticulated to be, “how do we help countries to achieve their nuclear energy goals while preventing weapons-grade nuclear fuel from getting into the wrong hands”? With a refined problem statement, one might think of more tailored approaches for addressing each issue, such as supporting or even funding nuclear energy goals, while requiring monitoring for process control purposes.

The real point of all of this rambling is that rearticulating problem statements can often lead to better outcomes, stimulate creative ideas, and offer opportunities for teams to get around roadblocks.

Update (4/12/07): I wanted to elevate the visibility of an excellent point made below by Michael Stein. He writes “the problem statement is often different for different stakeholders, and to articulate a statement that encompasses the entire picture may be in itself a major step towards a solution.”

Update (6/13/2016): The other day I was just rewatching the movie Moneyball (original book by Michael Lewis). I think these two scenes from the movie are wonderful in terms of illustrating how people can focus on the wrong problem statement and how rearticulating problem statements can trigger new, valuable possibilities:

April 3, 2007

Musings On The New Loyalty In Business

Note: I was motivated to write the following post based on interacting with a few ex-military people in the UK and getting a sense of their notions of loyalty in business.

In the late-80s, I took a college course on Business Ethics. I remember coming across a characterization of a type of employee that may be close to extinct in this world, the "Company Man" (or Company Woman). This is the type of person that is so dedicated to a firm that they breathe the company mantra, let the company guide both their professional and personal lives, and would fall on a sword to defend the reputation of the company. The reason why this type of employee may have come close to extinct (at least in the US) is in part due to the era of downsizing in corporations. Many companies let devoted employees down by laying them off without warning, without recognition, and without compassion. Some companies backed down from previously protecting their employees (which might have been ok), but then some companies went completely off the other end by being negligent and losing their employees pensions or retirement assets. Yet other companies squandered company resources at the expense of working employees and shareholders. All of these types of things rattled (if not completely shattered) the notion of loyalty from an employee to a company.

I can appreciate the notion of people being loyal to themselves before a company, but I struggle with that simple resolution a bit because I have seen a loyalty voids shatter business relationships. Legal contract asides, here are some areas where a lack of loyalty rubbed me the wrong way:

subcontracting partner decides to go around the prime contractor and solicit the end customer directly, cutting the prime out of the loop of ongoing sales and taking away business
customer verbally cuts a deal with a partnership, but then tries to go back on its word by edging out one of the partners through playing one partner off of the other
project member that is key to a project proposal (and sets themselves up that way) decides to move to a competitor late in the ninth inning before a contract is signed

Whether a person is loyal to the business they work for is one thing, but I think that I have stronger feelings about whether a person should be loyal to others that they work with or that they work directly for. I think that loyalty, at a micro-level, helps to ensure that people are aligned to get actual work done. To me, a "new loyalty" in business lies between loyalty to oneself and loyalty to Big Brother.

March 7, 2007

Musings On Article Citing Americans Hating Their Jobs

MSNBC had an interesting article last month which cited that American job satisfaction hit new lows, especially for younger workers. Although it is hard to make inferences from articles like these for a number of reasons, the following items struck me as key issues in many of the work environments that I have been in (whether corporate, consulting, or client):

The thing that bugged most workers the most about their jobs were bonus plans and promotion policies. Workload and potential for growth were rated poorly also.

On the item about bonus plans, I would venture to guess that a large portion of the time dissatisfaction arises (excepting sales positions) because one feels that they cannot control their own future. If you subscribe to that point of view on the bonus front then that may beg the issue about whether bonus plans may be overengineered in many cases. Why should companies design complex plans if people feel they cannot influence them? Is it mostly related to fairness and good company hygiene considerations?

On dissatisfaction with potential for growth on the job, while the nature of the work, company, and industry certainly play a role in what might be available to employees, growth potential seems to me to be more controllable by an employee’s direct manager. Things like job rotations, temporary delegation of management responsibilty, lunch-and-learn sessions, mentorship, more employee-manager communication, and simple job recognition can go a long way. Maybe I oversimpify, but it’s too bad that Americans are rating work environments poorly here.

So the message is that we’ve hit a new, all-time low. Maybe each of us can find a little something that we can do about it.

February 20, 2007

Made-To-Order Business School Curriculums

Gautam Ghosh points to and comments on an article related to made-to-order business school curriculums. Gautam comments:

I’m not so sure whether such a trend is good or not. Sure, it gives a focus and builds knowledge about a particular industry, but as we HR specialists are finding out, the growth then becomes limited to the function/industry.

In my mind, one key benefit recruiting people badged with an MBA is that I have a good idea about what core base of knowledge that they possess. While perhaps not as rigid as engineering training, say, when someone has an MBA I can be pretty certain that they have more than just a basic working knowledge about things like competitive analysis methods, marketing strategy frameworks, discounted cash flow analysis, and financial or managerial accounting. These are transportable skills, and the foundation also helps one to be creative and adapt to unusual circumstances. One learns about core methods without being tied to what the current industry looks like. This can be important, especially since industries change over time and are influenced by other industries. In any case, if course curriculums are made-to-order, this may help to relieve supply shortage pressures in the near-term for companies, but depending on how the program is designed, training may have its limitations to the function/industry as Gautam mentions.

On a different note, the article does claim that business school curriculums are becoming outdated. While my MBA is pre-turn-of-the-centuryish vintage, I have not seen things that suggest the curriculum should be radically rehauled. Although I haven’t follwed the space rigorously, some areas that are more recent adds to business school curriculums are likely in the international business, ethics, innovation, and technology areas. What else have a missed? What else should be added? Or perhaps the article is just claiming that curricula is outdated in the sense that we are missing made-to-order b-school curricula that can serve long-tail needs (or at least vertical-specific needs)?

Edit (2/23/07): Social entreprenurship (tip to Wakechick) classes may also be more recent adds to b-school programs.

February 5, 2007April 5, 2017

What A Sample Management Consulting Deliverable Looks Like

An updated version of this post with new sources and descriptions appears in The Consulting Apprenticeship (update September 2016).

It is relatively easy to find white papers, articles, magazine publications, etc. by management consulting firms. While these vehicles can be excellent sources of information, they tend shed light on either the thought leadership, research base, and/or marketing aspects of consulting firms. For those that are trying to learn about consulting firms from the perspective of what do consultants actually do and/or produce, there is relatively little information on the Internet that I have found that represents a concrete, traditional management consulting deliverable. In a large part, this tends to be because many consulting engagements involve confidential relationships between the consultancy and the client, and disclosure is not permitted.

That said, I have located a public sector deliverable (by the well-respected management consulting firm, Dean & Company) on the Internet at this site and thought I would share it (note PDF file – Download dean_report.pdf). It is an excellent example for at least a couple of reasons:

It illustrates how best practice consulting should be driven by facts and a scientific method to the fullest extent possible – The presentation I show here is full of both benchmarking information and comprehensive analysis from numerous perspectives.
The presentation style (which I call a “consulting style” perhaps incorrectly) reflects bottom-line titling of slides as compared to topical titling – This is a method that I did not see before entering consulting, and it is a method that I infrequently see in corporate environments (or at least much less frequently as compared to consulting environments). Notice how the title for slide 6 reads, “Expectations of selling service bundles are in line with other ‘triple play’ networks”. Even if one can’t read the blurry or busy figures in the slides, one can end up reading just the titles of the slides in the deck and get the overall executive storyline. Compare that to the situation if slide 6 was a topical titled slide that read, “Service Bundle Analysis”. Now one would have to read the slide to try to extract a bottom line message.

Now it is important to caveat this post by mentioning that this is only one type of deliverable by a consulting firm, but it is a great example. It is also worth mentioning that it is easy to look at a deliverable and completely miss the process aspect of how consulting deliverables may be generated. The process aspect may be equally, if not more important than the deliverable, and the process method varies by consulting firm. For example, the process to generate the deliverable (not necessarily the one here) may have been to facilitate input and involvement over a period of time from multiple divisions and functions within a company with oversight and/or steering by the executive team of the client. The benefits of that mix and method, while too detailed to go into here, should not be overlooked.

The Consulting Apprenticeship is available for purchase at Amazon.