Customer is King

Once upon a time, ...

Let me take you back to some 20+ years ago( I would call this as early days for ease of understanding) , when computers , software, software job were the buzz word. Anyone knowing computers and software was called techie( Today the definition of techie has changed). Software jobs were much in demand. Customers were all looking for implementing, upgrading and changing the software /hardware system. Competition was growing and so was business. During those days, I heard these lines , "Customer is King". 

It just stuck to my mind, to travel back to early days and find out how this "King" has evolved or changed with time. I am using top 3 things which comes to my mind.

Customer : Collaboration

- In early days : Customer (Business and IT) were all really charged up for results using software and hence they collaborated well with vendors and results were great.

- Now: Today also Customer collaborate, and  results matter. What does not matter is which solution you are using. This has given rise to easy excuse of not using /the software solution.

Customer : Vendor : Trust

- In early days : Customer had trust on Vendor. any vendor on customer site was treated as expert and even if he did not understand a small part of business, it was okay with customer. Vendor also trusted on customer and hence was more open to try new things for customer solutions.

- Now: Today both customer and vendor has lost trust in each other ( although the projection given is as the best trust bond). As a result customer is not ready to invest time and expect vendor to know everything of the business. This also stops vendor from trying new thing, as they think customer may deny this or worst may not even pay for this.

Customer :Vendor:  Time of Delivery

- In early days : Time of delivery was not the hanging sword for the vendor or customer. Both customer and vendor could spend some time and find the best suited solution for challenge or opportunity for the customer.

- Now: Even before the scope is finalized the date of delivery is fixed. Solution has to be delivered at the date of delivery agreed.

I am sure every one with around 15 or more years of experience would have seen changing face of a customer - vendor relationship. These are my personal thoughts and are not directed towards a customer or a vendor specifically. Idea here is to analyse, gather ( from other people's comments) and then apply in our lives.

Leadership Practice

"Change is inevitable"

The above line would have been heard by each and everyone. This is true in real life and with the growth, change in mind set, competition, increase in competency level of an average person, we do change or are part of change in each aspect of life. This is true even in Leadership. Here I have collected 10 points which should be changed or rather removed from the "Leadership Practices" which we have been following for years. 

Business owners certainly have a long way to go, especially in more established companies where old practices die hard. By creating a company with a clear purpose and values, you'll find your employees connect themselves to something bigger, and that increases productivity.  In other words, a culture of engagement leads to greater customer loyalty, and better financial success.

Remove or throw away following from your leadership Practice.

A.  Micro-management, or the need to control every aspect of your company is outdated.  Empowerment, the ability to give your people some rope--even rope to make mistakes without blame. Empowerment is the Key now.

B.  Management by walking around the office; it is no longer enough to be visible. What is now happening is : Leadership by watching and listening, engaging in conversation, implementing the ideas presented to you, and distributing the results.

C.  Pretending you know everything. You don't have all the answers, so why try to make people think you do? This practice is gone now and what is in is: Knowing your leadership team members and trusting them. Choose great people who have the right skills and fit the culture.  And get out of the way.

D.  No mistakes, or a "no tolerance policy" some still think works, but it does not. Today we are  Learning from mistakes, or being the first to admit an error.

E.  The balance sheet drives the business, and informs all other decisions is out and what is in is  People drive the business, boosting customer loyalty, and profit.

F.  Job competency is sufficient. Do the job asked, and you'll survive. This now history. Need of today is  Recruit "A" players who will go the extra mile. They're out there.

G. Out: Invest in technology to increase productivity. In: Invest in people.

H. Out: Demand change; be very specific about what you want and when. In: Nurture change; your people can come up with the best ideas and you can give them credit for it.

I. Out: Fried food in the cafeteria. In: Wellness in the workplace.

J. Out: Incentives; pay employees more money and they'll do more. In: Rewards; being valued matters more than money.

Think... For all the leaders and all those which aspire to be leaders

5 Things That would Help in Project Management

Information Technology has always been a challenge for people who manages IT Projects. The challenges are different for following reason:

• Information Technology is always been linked to Business and business is always growing , changing and expanding. Information Technology projects goes through changes even before it has been delivered.
• Business users are ignorant about technology(Although we have seen a growth)  and their understanding of how to use the Information Technology to maximize potential is limited. They see technology as solution provider and not the tool to help them.
• Technologies are changing faster than any other business

Keeping all these in mind, we need to have following things to manage our Delivery of the solution in a better way:

1. Open for change: Define the scope and limit it to development but make sure that you are developing something which is easy for change. Avoid giving answers like "this is not possible in this technology?". Remember if you can not do it, some one else would.
2. Understand Business: It is important that the whole development team understands the business to the maximum they can. Once they understand the business and the need of the user , they would themselves come up with solutions which will give then praises from customer and end user.   
3.  Embrace Change:  Team should be motivated to accept changes which are critical to the business requirements. If they understand Business they would definitely accept it more easily.Make sure that team is able to say "No" for a change which is not critical for business or does not add value ( It reminds of Lean Philosophy).
4. Ready Made Code: A typical developer will always love to write his framework/libraries etc , this eating away the time which can be used for some meaningful development, if we take off the shelf available code or already developed frameworks/libraries.
5. Partnership Not Management: Project Manager, Customer and team should work as a Partnership firm, where every one has a role defined and is working for the goal. Manager should not be only acting as some one sitting high and ordering, he should be like a Team member with maximum expertise/information/experience

Finally I would be happy if you people ( whoever reads this!) can comment with their points.

Software Team Management

How is it different from any team management? Lets see how a common ( General Rule applied  ) man ( working in a Company) think of IT.

• If there is a problem, it has to do with software.
• IT does not yield direct revenue to the company
• IT people are paid well above their capabilities.

In all these scenarios it becomes slightly more difficult to manage your team. I am putting down some of the points which we must do, with the team to make sure that we deliver best as per expectations to the customer. These may not be the guide lines for doing it, but these have worked for me over the years.

• Do Explain the project from Business perspective to the team. Make sure when you are explaining, you explain in a layman's language.
• Spend time with the team  whenever possible. 
• Give small doses of appreciation. Who does not like it, even after years of service an appreciation gives me goose bumps
• Make sure you are friend to them when they need you and a tough manager to them when it comes to delivery.
• Ask them to write what they have understood. I learnt in my childhood after writing. It helps you recollect while thinking in mind and then while writing. Also, we have every thing in "Black and White" as they say.
• Remember not to show them that you are smarter than them. Sometimes a foolish idea from them can turn to be a big idea. This foolish idea will come to you only if you show that you are still learning.
• Understand the career plan for each of them and align that with the work given to them.
• Play some games to activate there mind during the project, may be ask riddles. Remember a mind used is mind sharpened. We need proactive ideas, nothing is changing and expanding as Information Technology.

I would appreciate you all to add to this and pass your comments. Finally it is a collaborative world now.

Vendor Management

You might be in any business but your company's overall performance in the market place is strengthened by strong relationship with your vendors. Companies spend lot of time and money in nurturing vendor's who are not directly impacting the bottom line of the organization. As we challenge our expertise in all fields by setting and raising standards, it is also same in case of Vendor Relationship Management. Great companies have best practices which are set of standard which they follow to achieve or exceed. Vendor relationship management also have standard practices which is followed for a great relationship. Ignoring these best practices for managing vendor may result in dysfunctional relationship and hence negatively impacting company's business.


So what is the best practice for vendor management?

What are the important steps for defining best practice?

My experience ( and i am sure most of yours too!) tells me that whatever is the standards or best practices followed, a healthy relationship with vendor yields a reduced cost, quality delivery/products, and high customer satisfaction only if we follow/control/watch some of the key milestones/points

• Remain Flexible


• Monitor Performance


• Communicate Constantly

Although selecting a vendor and defining the contract may be very critical, but we can discard the importance of managing relationship with vendor. Information Technology which is used as a "Tool" for business opportunities, can be used to deliver a needs of process for a successful and healthy Vendor Relationships. Companies can deliver results going beyond the expectations if they have process frameworks and management tools. If you have process framework ( I call it Information Technology Process Framework -ITPF) and strong Management tool (Vendor Management Solution - VMO), the delivery of high expectations of company and challenges of managing a vendor become a cakewalk.



Asheesh Vashisht

Prinicipal Consultant

http://www.systems-plus.com/