What counts for a successful IT project

Today i was reading this article when I came across a very thought provoking comment from Hemant Kogekar. On the subject of great universal lies, he says, I quote,

17. Project success is being on time, on quality and on budget
“As we all know, a project is successful only when the business gets the promised benefits.”

UNQUOTE

Those of us who have spent time in IT and Projects would know of the number of times success criteria has been defined as above, on time, on quality, on budget.

And yet, business never even blinked when a new release was operationalised in IT. More often it has been shouting when projects ever slightly tweak the user interface / service delivery to adopt the new release - discounting the opportunity / benefits that has been envisaged in the project. 

Isn't it time we all started to define the measurement of a project by business outcome? How will you measure success of a project?

Its 4C: No more no less - company, channel, customer and competitor

In my opinion, we need to address all the four C in conjunction and not one over the other.
Today I read this interesting and "almost" convincing article in Fortune. It made my resolve stronger in the view that we need to look at the overall company strategy from all the four perspectives.
Over emphasis on any one may lead you towards a direction that is too skewed. It takes away the balance. So whether Customer Is King or Competitor is the true measure of Customer Shift is not the only question to be evaluated.
What is the Route to Market strategy with the channel?
And the last but the most important, what is the core values and strategy that the company wants to drive.
I would like to hear from my learned friends on this aspect.

Jack Trout Gems

I was just browsing through the new book of Jack Trout "In Search of the Obvious:The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess". And came across a good summary of his points, worth a read.

1. Common sense is your guide.

2. Marketing's big problem - Wall Street

3. Research can obscure the Obvious.

4. Advertising people can be an Obvious Problem.

5. Advertising is a science ... you should never let art get in the way of selling a message.

6. What works in marketing is the same as what works in the military, the unexpected.

7. In the long run, every market becomes a two horse race.

8. The future is never obvious, A search for the obvious is about today, not tomorrow.

Have fun reading the book.

Branding - Learnings of an Organisation

Rule 1: 68% of customers LEAVE because of poor employee attitude.

- Parkington and Buxton, Study of the US Banking Sector, Journal of Applied Psychology.

Rule 2: 41% of customers are LOYAL because of a good employee attitude.

- MCA Brand Ambassador Benchmark.

70% of customer brand perception is determined by experiences with PEOPLE.

- Ken Irons, Market Leader.

Brands can:
Drive customer connections
Provide connective and inspirational glue
Make the experience personal and relevant

Writing your CV

"Market your Potential, Not your Past"

For many years now, I have been recruiting guys into my company and one of the things that I really want to emphasise is the value that you can show in your CV / Resume / Bio Data.

Consider this, that CV/ Resume is your advertisement of you as a product. And, more often than not like every bad advertisement that you remember for it being so run of the mill, here is what is very common to those. They all talk a lot of the product features. Contrast this with the advertisements that you do remember and you do coz, they were the ones that created a picture in your mind, an association to something that you aspire, or cherish.

Ditto for your CV!

Show them a story board, where you draw a picture for them. The best employees that I have seen performing have been those who have created a picture of the potential that have, want to explore or have an attitude to deliver.

Thats what successes are made of.

Don’t be emotional with money

Many of my friends are very concerned these days. They form two basic categories of people.

One are those who are reaching the other side of middle age who are worried that they may not have enough when they retire. Inflation is eating all their savings. 

And then there are those on this side of middle age who think they don’t have many avenues these days to invest. Almost all kinds of investments are giving negative returns.

My advice to most people has been to 
1. Realise yourself – be sure of what kind of financial profile you fall in
2. Act according to your profile
3. Set your expectations correct and stop being emotional about it

Today, I will discuss only the first part, Realise yourself. How does that come about?

I have seen the following category of people in my life:

CATEGORY: AGGRESSIVE
These are typically the folks who can do the following well:
1. Take risks with money and not flinch if they fail
2. They are the mavericks and early adopters of investment patterns, they bet big on aspects of investments that they research “enough” but decide using their “guts”
3. Generally understand the laws of demand and supply

CATEGORY: MODERATE
These are typically the folks who can do the following things well:
1. Take calculated risks and sometimes mourn their loss but never get disheartned, maybe become averse to some forms of investments but in general they take the tested path of investment returns
2. They are the mainstream investors with moderate funding sources, and try only the tested formulae in life
3. Generally understand the laws of leverage

CATEGORY: PASSIVE
These are typically the folks who can do the following things well:
1. Take low to minimum risks when it is about money.
2. They are the laggards, not given to losing money at all.
3. Generally border between paranoia or lethargy. Paranoia of risking the money. Lethargy to do the research to invest properly. It may also come from lack of information, knowledge, education or simply pessimism.

CATEGORY: FRIVOLOUS
These are the folks who:
1. Take “unnecessary” risks – some pay off but most don’t.
2. They are the hearsay guys, and their money follows their heart and ears.
3. They are emotional about their money.

If you know which kind of personality profile you are, next time I will talk to you about what kind of actions you should take to make some money.

In the meantime if you have read or interested in reading check this book out, absolutely fantastic in teaching you the basics of investment.

How to create your own career?

I have been asked by many of my colleagues and juniors on how to build and manage career. As I stand at an interesting crossroad on my career, and I don’t know if I am successful yet in what I am trying to do now, I have been considered successful till now and therefore I believe I have some words of suggestion, that you as a reader may find interesting.

Here are some pointers on how to build your career?

1. Setting GOALS is a very important aspect of life.
   a. GOALS must be S.M.A.R.T (Specific-Measurable-Actionable-Result Oriented-TimeBound)
   b. Life can have many aspects. Decide what are most important aspects for you. Some examples of life aspects for which you can decide goals could be: Job, Finance, Personal, Professional.
2. Roadmap – you need to have a roadmap / a plan, on what you want to do with your life. 
   a. Those who are at the start of their career need to create a roadmap of 25 years / 10 years / 5 years / 2 years timeframe.
   b. Those who are in the middle of their career need to look at the 15/10/5 year timeframe or any chunk that they feel comfortable to manage.
   c. Those in their late years can only plan on a 5 year horizon at most.
3. Network – ability to leverage networks is very important. Build networks that can:
   a. Give you advice on how to shape your career
   b. Provide you with opportunities
   c. Help you have fun 
   

These three are essential the building blocks of your career. They form the strategy. 

Next time on this topic, I will discuss how to operationalise this strategy.

Never Burn those Bridges

Never burn bridges.

In a weak moment of rage it may seem the absolute truth to burn the bridge, to speak the unthinkable, to angrily summarise your colleagues’ failures / incompetencies as you see them.
But experience has taught me that there are more than one way of saying what you want to and not burning the bridge.

Always start on a positive note, say what you like about the person and then slowly ease in the direction you would like the colleague to take at work or whatever it is that you want him / her to perform.

Why should you do this? Simple, you and you alone are responsible for your future. But you really don’t know what it has in store for you. Who knows the same person whom you insulted could become your boss! Or if you are running your own business, he / she could be the decision maker on behalf of the customer!! Or worser still, while you are on a roadshow promoting your product, the journalist who needs to take the interview is that same person!!

There are many permutations of what your future holds for you, but are you willing to trade your future for that one moment of passionate outrage? That’s the question that you need to answer, I think I would not burn any bridges unless I really don’t want to cross that river ever in my life.