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Delaying Decisions As Opposed To Being Indecisive

My family’s vacation was marked by an incident that led to my first 911 call in my life. I have reflected upon this incident for many days with a mixture of thankfulness for the safety of my family  (and others on the boat) and personal anguish that I could not have done more.

We were on a whale watching cruise miles off the coast of Monterey with about 40 other people on a 50-foot some boat. On the return trip back to shore, there was a malfunction that caused the exhaust pipes and roof to catch on fire. The engine was cut by the captain as it seemed it might have been a driver for the fire coming out of the exhaust. Life boats were on top of the cabin on fire. Life preservers were all in the cabin on fire (with the exception of the two preservers my two kids were wearing who had put some on at the beginning of the trip). All the fire extinguishers were spent quickly, and the flames just got worse as time passed. Shore seemed to be a long ways away, but at least we were not out 30+ miles (I’m guessing) from where we started. There were very few boats that we could see, and there was a lot of smoke coming off our boat. A 911 call was made from my mobile phone, and I handed the phone to the naturalist on the boat who was (potentially) better equipped to identify our location and condition. A number of people were panicking, and many gathered in the very back of the boat to distance themselves as much as possible from the fire and smoke. Things did not look good by any measure.

I had been in the water a few days before. The temperature was not too discernible from ice water from my perspective. I had seen seals, so I was hoping that there were not any sharks in the water.

A question raced through my mind a number of times. Was the situation bad enough that I should I pitch my kids into the water? Then there were intervening questions entering my mind … what happens if something explodes before I make a decision? The boat is rocking pretty violently … can I actually pitch them far enough from the boat that they won’t get walloped by the swaying boat? Would they survive long enough in the cold water? The questions going through my mind were endless.

I chose to delay my decision to throw them into the water. (After the trip, I realized my wife had the same thoughts going through her mind)

The fire continued to spread. Eventually the life boats were released. No sign of the Coast Guard. A small boat came alongside and threw us two fire extinguishers. The other boat was too small to take many people, and very soon the new extinguishers were exhausted. Smoke got worse. Maybe five minutes passed.

What to do?

At some point, the captain decided to restart the engine. Though I didn’t speak with her after the trip, I presume that she decided our chances were better if we tried to gun it to shore (even though speeding up the engine could have increased the fire). We gunned it towards the nearest point on shore. The increased exhaust may have served to cut some of the flames, but who knows.

We made it to shore to be greeted by the fire department and the local news (the incident was the lead story on the news that day and made the front page of the paper the next day). Coast Guard arrived 10-20 minutes later. Everyone was safe. No one needed to go into the drink.

Did I make the right decision to delay throwing my kids in the water? Was I indecisive? Did the captain make the right decision to take command and gun it to shore?

In my opinion, the captain made the right choice. We were out of options to put out the fire, and it was not clear that we were going to get any help in the near term.

As for whether I should have delayed my decision to throw my kids in the water, I am still at odds with that. True they are safe, and the direct threat at the time may not have been imminent, but in reality, I am a layman about boats, and the threat could have been imminent for all I knew. But delaying the decision to throw them in the water allowed me time to gather additional information, such as whether some other boat might come to our aid, whether the fire was spreading, or whether we would get feedback from the crew about our distress calls.

In numerous business settings, I have found that delaying decisions can be beneficial, more often in cases when one is trying to gather additional information that will make subsequent decisions more informed and definitive (e.g., you should posture yourself as ready to make a decision once information comes in as opposed to just being indecisive). Sometimes this can be counterintuitive to those in the business world, where things seem to be driven by a culture of being decisive and making decisions with whatever information is on hand.

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University of Chicago MBA Applicants Must Submit Powerpoint Charts

From an article at OrlandoSentinel.com:

At business meetings the world over, PowerPoint-style presentations are often met with yawns and glazed eyes.

At one of the world’s top business schools, though, such slide shows are an entrance requirement. In a first, the University of Chicago will begin requiring prospective students to submit four pages of PowerPoint-like slides with their applications this fall.

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Why I Dislike Microsoft Project for Management Consulting

Sort of as a follow-on to the post about project management and b-schools, I thought that I would post something (a bit one-sided) about the use of Microsoft Project in management consulting projects. I dislike the tool and sometimes even discourage the use of the tool by consultants running projects. Here’s some reasons why:

  1. While project management is a function that moves things ahead, Microsoft Project as a tool can create barriers to communication. For the average user, there’s generally not enough flexibility to do things like highlight workstreams in an engagement, create a view of danger/risk points in a project, show progress to plan plainly, and summarize a project plan on one chart.
  2. Because the tool is not part of everyone’s basic software configuration, there are additional barriers to communication because the native file format often cannot be easily exchanged with clients, colleagues, etc. who need to work and update things in real-time. Project plans in Microsoft Project need to get exported to things like PDF files, etc.
  3. Updating the project plan can become a project in of itself and prevent the project manager from doing other important things like communicating with stakeholders, managing risks, working to solve problems, and completing tasks.

Getting the theme behind my dislike for the software?

I much prefer using something like Powerpoint or Excel for developing project plans. I like Powerpoint because of its visual nature (which can be helpful in managing projects and leading people). I like Excel because of its greater structure over Powerpoint and ubiquitous availability to business people.

Am I right? Probably not entirely, but I have definitely seen the types of recurring problems described above in many engagements. The negatives often outweigh the benefits of using a more structured tool fit for purpose.

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For My Blog Diary: Whirlwind Notes On Blogs In 2007

For a snapshot of what I am sensing in 2007:

Compare this to what we saw in 2003-2004 and the rise of the blog in 2004.

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The Downside of Saving for That Perfect Occasion

My wife is quoted in a recent U.S. News and World Report feature on credit cards where she talks about a quirky aspect of consumer behavior:

Suzanne Shu, assistant professor of marketing at Southern Methodist University, says rewarding people with luxury experiences gives them permission to indulge in splurges that they might otherwise feel guilty about buying. The risk, she says, is when the experience seems so special that people wait to schedule it and end up putting it off into the future indefinitely.

"People get into the problem where no occasion is quite special enough where they feel like they’ve earned the right to use the reward," she says, whether it’s an expensive bottle of wine or a gift certificate to a high-end restaurant. Her advice is to set a specific date for the reward and then use it. "It’s the drive for the perfect occasion that really throws people off."

Note to self: Companies that can better understand systemic quirks and biases related to consumer behavior can apply such learnings to improve their sales and marketing programs.

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In Consulting The Process Is An Essential Part Of The Deliverable

Situation for consultant #1:

  • Client needs help in determining business strategy and writing business plan for its Board
  • Consultant follows traditional MBA frameworks by performing 3Cs (Customer, Competition, Company), Porter’s Five Forces and competitive advantage, etc. to research and analyze the best way for client to move forward
  • Consultant uses structured frameworks for outlining and documenting the tactics and logistics for pursuing the business (e.g., marketing 4Ps, traditional business plan outlines)
  • Consultant prepares full financial proformas (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and notes)
  • Consultant writes business plan to spec
  • Consultant delivers written business plan to client
  • Consultant invoices $40,000
  • Client ends up being lukewarm about the deliverable.

Situation for consultant #2 (differences in bold):

  • Client needs help in determining business strategy and writing business plan for its Board
  • Consultant sets up engagement timeframe and governance structure with consulting team and client leads, extended resources for all key workstreams, and steering/approval committee
  • Consultant follows traditional MBA frameworks by performing 3Cs (Customer, Competition, Company), Porter’s Five Forces and competitive advantage, etc. to research and analyze the best way for client to move forward
  • Consultant sets up workshops and strategy sessions with the executive team, key functional managers, etc.
  • Consultant uses structured frameworks for outlining and documenting the tactics and logistics for pursuing the business (e.g., marketing 4Ps, traditional business plan outlines)
  • Consultant sets up regular review meetings and working sessions with client to review best practices, evaluate options, and refine and revise strategy
  • Consultant prepares full financial proformas (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and notes)
  • Consultant sets up working sessions to familiarize client with models, align financials with chart of accounts for client, get client input, and educate client about industry benchmarks
  • Consultant writes business plan to spec
  • Consultant involves client with interim drafts and presentations and gets organizational buy-in
  • Consultant delivers written business plan to client (largely same as before)
  • Consultant invoices $250,000
  • Client is very happy and ends up getting multimillion dollar business moving forward through Board and project launched.

Vanilla business plan $40,000. Client buy-in … priceless.

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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).

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Where The Engagement Manager Position Embodies The Essence of Management Consulting

Between different consulting firms and practices, the job responsibilities and experience levels of engagement managers vary widely, but there is one characteristic of the position that I like because it captures the essence of management consulting better than do characteristics of other typical consulting positions (e.g., principal, partner, director, associate, manager). By understanding the central function of "engagement management", one can better understand the essence of management consulting.

Engagement managers own the problem statement from the perspective of the customer, and thus, have the responsibilities to ensure that consulting team both structures the problem solving methodology correctly and executes on the problem solving methodology.

Thus as an example, a problem statement may be to help figure out whether a client should enter a wireless business, identify under what circumstances it makes sense, define the strategy and plan for how it should be done, and get cross-functional buy-in from the management team and Board of Directors. In this case, the engagement manager may need to work with the consulting team to synthesize primary and secondary marketing research from end users and distributors, construct financial analyses, develop technology scenarios and architectures, conduct client workshops on various subjects to gain insights and share best practice perspectives, perform gap analyses between present methods of operations and desired future states, or perform competitive analyses and forecasting.

Another problem statement might be, "figure out the root cause of declining customer satisfaction and fix it because my internal management team is giving me mixed messages". Yet another one might be, "how do I transform my business from doing lots of low margin X to doing more high margin Y". (As a quick digression, one should note that setting up the problem statement properly is very key to selling consulting engagements and solving them – do not take it for granted that the problem statement is articulated properly).

In essence, the role of the engagement manager is to help the client to solving their problems by synthesizing the work of smart people and subject matter experts in different functions and areas from throughout the firm.

In closing, I find that people frequently confuse the role of project managers with that of engagement managers. There are definitely some overlapping functions, but the essence of project management is more to ensure that things are accomplished on time, on budget, and according to customer specifications. On the other hand, the role of the engagement manager is to own the client problem statement as if it were their own. At risk of sounding like I am diminishing the importance of the function, project management becomes more of an execution detail in the greater scheme of things.

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