Educating a New Class of Project Managers

by: admin - January 15th, 2012   Filed under: Project Management Education Add Comment

B”H

One of the concepts we say over and again is how project management, or the ability ensure timely execution of a series of steps (by disparate people) to create value, is probably the most critical skill of the 21st century – at least so far it has been.

I am currently in the midst of a very challenging opportunity - in the form of a very powerful software application in the hands of a very weak and underfunded management team.  The company is obviously in dire financial distress (worsened by the financial trouble of the past 4 years), and yet it’s product is excellent and solves a very real business problem.

However, with many key engineering staff leaving, and no budget for the proper management talent (commanding well over $100K per year each), the company’s future is very much in jeopardy.  My job is to head all operations, from software engineering to support to finance, and make sure we survive long enough to capture enough revenue to fuel a recovery.  My next mission would be a recovery, although so long as we stay in business there are several M&A opportunities on the horizon to reward our effort…

So, here I am, in yet another epic battle to be won by simple yet consistent business execution.  But I still needed staff?  The answer came in the form of 3 interns, hand picked from Crown Height’s Geshem Center.  This is a center delivering technical skills and career placement services for my community, an organization I am very proud to have conceived a few years ago and is now managed by a former student in our first ever course (it was a web development course by the way).

So through the network to young/unemployed talent, I found 3 guys with great brains, can-do attitudes, and no formal education.  I hired them as interns for $250 per week, but promised to train them into first class managers and propel them into successful careers.

With these 3 guys we can do a lot, but our first job is TRAINING.  Over the next few blog posts I will highlight the basic principles our interns will be introduced to in the quest to management stardom.  This will also serve as an excellent introduction for this blog.

For now, here are some pictures of the board as we go through the very basic steps in what business execution is and how it relates to successfully operating a business (i.e. making money).

 

Actions, Objectives, Goals, and Axioms

by: admin - November 25th, 2011   Filed under: Kabbalah and Management Theory, Processes for Business Execution Add Comment

BS”D

The purpose for management is execution.  Execution is what turns raw “material” (like time, people, and tools) into “value” ($).

Execution can be thought of as the process of making “something” from “nothing”, or more accurately – execution is processing something from potential to actuality.  This “actuality” could be a building (in a real estate project), a software product, or a financial transaction (“deal”).

Ask any VC firm what is the single most critical component of success – and they will say it execution.  Even the best concepts can fail due to poor execution.  It is therefore one of the most important subjects of business management.

In Kabbalah, the process of creation (of the world something from nothing) by G-d includes four stages, or  four “stages” in the process from potential to spiritual to physical existence.

These four stages correspond to the four basic stages in the process of business execution:

  1. Actions – This is ultimately what makes things happen, “actions” include a phone call, a meeting, a writing session, coding session, brainstorming session, email, etc.  The mission of management is to maximize actions properly supporting personal and team objectives. Action is the most expensive part of the process.
  2. Objectives – These are the “context” for the actions.  The second greatest source of failure in execution is action not supporting clear objectives.  Objectives need to be measurable and significantly propel us forwards, towards fulfilling our goals.
  3. Goals – In business, goals are usually monetary.  While several objectives usually lead to a single goal ($ from Sale, $ from Investment, $ from M&A, etc.  While a company or business unit has many objectives, they are usually supporting a handful of goals.  A person or small team usually work towards a single goal.
  4. Axioms -These are the intrinsic characteristic principles of the company, team, or person.  These include the “why” questions – “why we do what we do”.

Effective (personal or team) management ensures our actions “rolled up” to the achievement of clear objectives that “roll up” to the achievement of goals that fulfill our intrinsic axioms.

This model, of course, applies to every aspect of life, but we will be basing our approach to management on its application to business.

 

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Producing Value from Resources through Work

by: admin - November 24th, 2011   Filed under: Uncategorized Add Comment

BS”D

This blog is about management.  I view management as the science of producing Value from Resources through Work.  Resources include Space and Time.  This process “moves forward” with respect to, and hence is driven by – Time.

As work gets more and more distributed (geographically) and decentralized, the more complex management becomes.  Of course, the upside is that value can  now be created orders of magnitude more efficiently.  This means more money for more people quicker.

In light of this, I hope you agree that management is a very important science.  In this blog, we will look at how technologies and methods are combined to better manage Work through Time.  You notice I keep mentioning Time, that is partially why the most prevalent tools used for this were Time Management tools (or later Project Management tools).

Ten years ago, massive information systems like SAP and other ERP/CRM applications were managing the work and production of values at the world’s largest corporations.  With time these systems were made available to small and medium business.  Microsoft Office took the power of Lotus Notes to the individual and small business.

Then came GMail and Google Docs.  Then Social happened, then everything changed again.  And again.  And again every 6 months…

Today, work is distributed and communications makes the globe immediately accessible.  Work is now asynchronous, and new challenges arise pertaining to the building and maintenance of knowledge bases – as work creates knowledge along with product (and often knowledge itself is the product).

This blog is about all that.

I first started studying management as an Engagement Manager for a management consulting firm.  We were providing clients with business intelligence based on ERP and CRM solutions.

We were doing this for ecommerce vendors along with financial firms.  I was personally managing client accounts, usually with multiple projects (and project managers) per client.  It got complicated some time, and I was always working 12 hour days.  So I started learning how to manage my “work” and the work of others I was responsible.  Lucky for me, the past 4 years have seen this field reinvented twice a year, there i a lot to learn, and lot to write about.