What do tulips and Internet and Social Media stocks have in common? Maybe a lot or nothing at all? But, read on. What’s the best way to describe what’s happening on the Web? Folks are searching for the right metaphor to explain the current frenzy over Internet stocks. The Dutch tulip mania illustrates what happens …
The machine rules. Paul Ambroise Valery, Philosopher Today’s electronic world (e-world) is transforming work by creating new work processes. Just about everything we do in business interacts with technology. Computers and information technology have evolved into organizational nervous systems. They touch and ultimately transform the entire organization. Brand U’s know how to use technology to …
No compelling sense of urgency Flavor of the month Lack of vision Lack of senior management support Middle management hinders the process Fear of learning new tasks and methods Key stakeholders not consulted No understanding of the technologies surrounding change Euphemism for being fired Imposed on the organization Underestimating implementation requirements People, team, and organizational …
The external customer in varying degrees is usually the driver of either a transformational or an incremental process change. A radical transformation may ensue if the customer is very unhappy with a product and may litigate because of health, safety, or environmental concerns. Or, the customer is simply unhappy with performance or product quality. Or, …
Develop a vision of the new process Create a project management structure Identify customer requirements Flowchart present processes Define value in each process step Identify process disconnects Eliminate unnecessary work steps Identify and understand sources of variation Conduct gap analysis between the present process and new process Train people Proceduralize the new process Monitor …
What are your organization’s or customer’s core processes? What are your core competencies – or what do you do best? Are you using your skills or core competencies in your work now? Are you a Brand U core process worker or do you support them (think of Handy/Hutchins model)? Are your core competencies aligned with …
Organizational transformations also have changed how we’re trained to work. We were trained, nurtured and rewarded for pursuing a narrow functional career such as accounting or engineering. We’re evolving into Brand U specialized generalists as more work is structured along horizontal process lines. Love risk. Risks are going to be higher for everyone. Chaos is …
In the last ten years, the prevailing business model was to acquire, merge and diversify to increase profits. The model said that size matters because ‘economies of scale’ would result in lower costs. The result was huge companies that became global conglomerates with many unrelated core processes and products. There are many examples. Westinghouse went …
Hammer and Champy in Reengineering Management also proposed that management, specifically functional middle management, fundamentally changes. They meant dramatic, breakthrough change, not an evolutionary or incremental change. Hammer and Champy believe that today’s Brand U managers, will require three skills, which don’t have much to do with traditional management. Managers will evolve into process owners, …
Do you see yourself as a Brand U product and if so in what ways? Or, are you offended by this idea? And if you are in what ways? Can a career, even yours perhaps, be managed like a product brand? What has been your career and work lifecycle? What products or services have …