Month: September 2013
What’s the prize if I win?
In consulting and in business, there is a tendency to believe that if you show someone how to find that proverbial “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” they will be motivated to do so. Seasoned professionals will tend to ask, “What problem are you trying to solve?” to understand whether there is a real opportunity. If you cannot quickly, clearly, and concisely articulate the problem, and why this helps solve it, it is often game over then and there (N.B. It pays to be prepared). But, having the right answer is not a guarantee of moving forward.
Unfortunately, sometimes a mere pot of gold just isn’t enough to motivate. Sometimes it takes something different, and usually something personal. It’s more, “What’s in this for me?” No, I am not talking about bribes, kickbacks, or anything illegal or unethical. This is about determining what is really important to the decision maker and in what priority, and then demonstrating that the proposed solution will bring them closer to achieving their personal goals. What’s in it for them?
Case in point. Several years ago I was trying to sell a packaged Business Intelligence (BI) system developed on our database platform to customers most likely to have a need. Qualification performed – check. Interested – check. Proof of value – check. Quick ROI – check. Close the deal – not so fast…
This application was a set of dashboards with 150-200 predefined KPIs (key performance indicators). The premise was that you could quickly tailor and deploy the new BI system with little risk (finding and validating the data needed was available to support the KPI was the biggest risk, but one that could be identified up-front) and about half the cost of what a similar typical implementation would cost. Who wouldn’t want one?
I spent several days onsite with the prospect, identified areas of concern and opportunity, and used their data to quantify the potential benefit. Before the end of the week, I was able to show the potential to get an 8x ROI in the first year. Remember, this was estimated using their data, not figures I just created. Being somewhat conservative, I suggested that even half that amount would be a big success. Look – we found the pot of gold!
Despite this, the deal never closed. This company had a lot of money, and this CIO had a huge budget. Saving $500K+ would be nice but was not essential. What I learned later was that this person was pushing forward an initiative of his own that was highly visible. This new system had the potential to become a distraction, and he did not need that. Had I made this determination sooner, I could have easily repositioned it to align with his agenda.
For example, the focus of the system could have shifted from financial savings to project and risk management for his higher priority initiative. The KPIs could be on earned value, scheduling, and deliverables. This probably would have sold as it would have been far more appealing to this CIO and supported what was important to him (i.e., his prize if he wins). The additional financial savings initially identified would be the icing on the cake, to be applied later.
There were several lessons learned from this effort. In this instance, I focused on my personal pot of gold (based on logic and common sense) rather than on my customer’s priorities and prize for winning. That mistake cost me this deal, but it is one I have not made since – helping me win many other deals.
Good Hires and the “Generosity Gene”
I ran across this “How I hire” article from Jack Welch today. It talks about some of the qualities that you look for in a game-changer. Most of the attributes mentioned are not controversial. But Jack writes about what he calls the “Generosity Gene.”
This interests me because it makes assumptions about the organizational culture in which these people will be working. People like this can thrive in companies that want to foster collaboration and raise the bar for all – but also provide a safety net for teammates. These are environments where mistakes are welcome as long as they are not repeated (“You’re not trying hard enough if you never make a mistake”) and where winning the right way beats winning at any cost.
So, what do you think makes a good hire? Does that criteria change if you are a business owner versus a manager?
Getting Started with Big Data
Being in Sales, I have the opportunity to speak to many customers and prospects about many things. Most are interested in Cloud Computing and Big Data, but often they don’t fully understand how they will leverage the technology to maximize the benefits.
Here is a simple three-step process that I use:
1. For Big Data, I explain that there is no single correct definition. Because of this, I recommend that companies focus on what they need rather than what to call it. Results are more important than definitions for these purposes.
2. Relate the technology to something people are likely already familiar with (extending those concepts). For example: Cloud computing is similar to virtualization and has many of the same benefits; Big Data is similar to data warehousing. This helps make new concepts more tangible in any context.
3. Provide a high-level explanation of how “new and old” are different and why new is better using specific examples that they should relate to. For example: Cloud computing often occurs in an external data center – possibly one where you may not even know where it is- so security can be even more complex than in-house systems and applications. It is possible to have both Public and Private Clouds, and a public cloud from a major vendor may be more secure and easier to implement than a similar system using your own hardware;
Big Data is a little bit like my first house. I was newly married, anticipated having children and also anticipated moving into a larger house in the future. My wife and I started buying things that fit into our vision of the future and storing them in our basement. We were planning for a future that was not 100% known.
But, our vision changed over time and we did not know exactly what we needed until the end. After 7 years, our basement was very full, and finding things difficult. When we moved to a bigger house, we did have a lot of what we needed. But we also had many things that we no longer wanted or needed. And, there were a few things we wished that we had purchased earlier. We did our best, and most of what we did was beneficial, but those purchases were speculative, and in the end, there was some waste.
How many of you would have thought Social Media Sentiment Analysis would be important 5 years ago? How many would have thought that hashtag usage would have become so pervasive in all forms of media? How many understood the importance of location information (and even the time stamp for that location)? I guess it would be less than 50% of all companies.
This ambiguity is both a good and bad thing about big data. In the old data warehouse days, you knew what was important because this was your data about your business, systems, and customers. While IT may have seemed tough in the past, it can be much more challenging now. But the payoff can also be much larger, so it is worth the effort. You often don’t know what you don’t know – and you just need to accept that.
Now we care about unstructured data (website information, blog posts, press releases, tweets, etc.), streaming data (stock ticker data is a common example), sensor data (temperature, altitude, humidity, location, lateral and horizontal forces), temporal data, etc. Data arrives from multiple sources and likely will have multiple time frame references (e.g., constant streaming versus updates with varying granularity), often in unknown or inconsistent formats. Someday soon, data from all sources will be automatically analyzed to identify patterns and correlations and gain other relevant insights.
Robust and flexible data integration, data protection, and data privacy will all become far more important in the near future! This is just the beginning for Big Data.
The Power of Simplicity
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
In the first part of my career, I didn’t care much for consultants. My experience was that they would come in, tell you what to do, and then leave victoriously while we were stuck trying to implement something that just wouldn’t work. They seemed to make everything seem so complex—often to justify their cost.
Then, I met an amazing consultant who shared something valuable with me. He explained what he believed differentiated a true consultant from a contractor (something I wrote about a decade later in a Tech Republic article). He then made me aware of the Einstein quote above. This was one of those pivotal moments in my career.
For many years, I have met many interesting people. Some seemed to try to intentionally obfuscate even the easiest things to make themselves seem brilliant. Others took such a circuitous route that you sometimes forgot what you were trying to understand and fix. And sometimes explanations were just so tangential that the main point was lost entirely. There are likely many reasons for these experiences – some intentional and many not. The real lesson learned is that it wasn’t just consultants who can be incomprehensible and that clear and comprehensible communication is critical to effectiveness.
Just think about the power of a well-crafted “elevator pitch” when you meet someone new or the ability to quickly explain how your company differentiates itself from the competition (making you the more interesting, better, or safer choice in your prospect’s mind). Or being able to articulate your business strategy in a way that people understand (and can explain to others), which also interests them enough to want to learn more and become part of making that happen.
The best consultants, as do the best employees, managers, executives, and business owners, have this ability to explain something simply. While this is only one attribute of success (likability, powers of persuasion, integrity, luck, etc. are others), it is something that can be taught, developed, and consistently applied.
The power to “explain it simply” is the power to make a difference through better understanding.
Teaching & Learning in a Business Environment
In the past, I had occasion to teach technical courses, often to groups of 20 or more people. It was always interesting. There were one or two people trying to prove how much smarter / better than you they were. There were one or two people who were there just so they didn’t have to work. But most of the people were there to learn. You figured out who was who pretty quickly. Even so, falling into the trap of labeling them and then only focusing on a subset can be problematic.
My teaching approach was to ask people about real issues (current or past) and use them as case studies for the class. This made the lessons more tangible for everyone. People were forced to develop an understanding of the problem with incomplete knowledge, ask clarifying questions, and then offer suggestions that may or may not work.
Sometimes someone would suggest a solution that just seemed completely off the wall. You wanted to understand their line of thinking to show them a better way. Occasionally you would find that their unorthodox approach was brilliantly simple and/or highly effective – and very different from what you expected.
Every time I taught a course, I would learn something. Different perspectives lead to a different understanding of the problems at hand, which can lead to creative and innovative solutions. The best ideas sometimes come from the places where you least expect them.
Even with the most seasoned teams, there are opportunities for teaching and learning. You may hear questions or statements that initially lead you to believe someone doesn’t understand the problem or goal. It becomes easy to dismiss when you don’t feel they are adding value.
But, if you take the extra effort to drill into their thinking, you could be very surprised. If nothing else, your team should feel more motivated and empowered with the process, leading to them taking ownership of the problem and finding a solution. Results improve when everyone is focused on a common goal and feels their contributions matter.
Everyone wins as long as you give them the chance.
Where Ideas, Experiences, and Lessons Learned Intersect 