Many organizations have adopted the triple bottom line: People, Planet, and Profit. This contrasts a pure profit orientation; so that an organization also considers reducing its carbon footprint, energy usage, water usage, pesticide usage, etc…  However, as one CEO told me, we cannot lose focus on making profit. If we lose sight of that, then…

The most innovative companies in 2014 were: Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, Tesla, Toyota, Facebook, and Sony (Source: BCG). Many corporations are innovating – yet in different areas that have provided each of them with unique success. ·       Excess Capacity – Airbnb has more lodgings on any given night than all Hilton hotels combined…

From the 1970’s and 80’s, ½ of Fortune 500 companies used this to manage their portfolio of products, R&D investments, and business units. There are two primary factors and drivers:  company competitiveness (market share), and market attractiveness (growth rate).   Cash Cow = low growth/high share Stars  = high share / high growth Question Marks = high growth /…

In a recent conversation with a Program Management Office (PMO) for a large scale, global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) deployment, we discussed the accounting of employee salaries. Of the entire deployment team, most all salary costs were capitalized over the length of the project and were depreciated.  However, the auditor said that the Change and Learning team had to be expensed in the fiscal year that they…

A CEO must balance mature vs. emerging product, while facing intense quarterly earnings pressure. This results in a rapidly shrinking and condensed time between R&D and product profitability. This counters the popular Robert Louis Stevenson quote, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”  Yes, we can…

Globalization requires global leaders. Yet, with the dynamic rate of change in these emerging markets, one has to be current. Just because an ex-pat lived in China a decade ago, does not mean that he understands it today – as China is not static. Thus, companies look to hire locally. These companies are familiar with…

Hiring the right people for a company is one of the most critical tasks. When looking for candidates, hard skills essentially lead to interviews, and then soft skills differentiate candidates enough to make the hiring decision. Other interesting observations: ·       A’s hire A+’s, while B’s hire C’s ·       An outside hire is “shiny”; whereas an…

Bloomberg, with $7B in revenue and 15K employees, has a motto: “Fast is as slow as we go.” This relies on immediate execution with iterations to improve product/process. In addition, there is decentralized decision making, with empowered leaders aligned to the strategic plan who are accountable for the results. Many times, a company will build…

While the developed world faces slower growth, the emerging markets offer: Low-cost, increasingly skilled labor Increasingly prosperous consumers New growth market The emerging market represented 5% of the Fortune Global 500 in the year 2000; by 2025, McKinsey predicts this will increase to 45%. As this number jumps from 24 to 230, 120 are predicted…

How do you know your personal priorities?  Look at your calendar. How do you know your department members’ priorities?  Look at their night/weekend email (i.e., one company turns off their VPN at night to keep people from working…wish I could do the same with the smart phone!). How do you know your company priorities?  Look…