What has been the role of chance in your professional life?

Each one of us plays a fundamental role in building a dreamed state of affairs about what we want for our future professional life. In fulfilling this goal, most of us assume a long and hard learning process where continuous exposure to new knowledge, experiences, other professional and new information have profound and irreversible repercussions over our professional life.

In many circumstances, random facts and unexpected things may happen and our vision of the desired state of affairs is then distorted, blurred and in some circumstances, this vision may suffer from profound transformations that determine a new future state of affairs and a new reality ostensibly different from our dreamed vision.

What has been the role that random and unexpected facts have played in your professional life?. At what extent is possible that one may control the power and influence of chance over our professional life?

As always your responses are welcome and well appreciated.
Octavio

Octavio Ballesta

Global Thinker ? Corporate Strategist with Operational Master Plan

There’s an old saying that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”.

I, personally, beleive that “lucky” people are the ones that expose themselves to situations where opportunities might arise, see the opportunities and ensure that they’re in a position to take advantage of opportunities when they come along. From that perspective, you’re almost entirely in control.

Unlucky people tend to be the ones who are unprepared to deal with risks and often have their lives built on a very precarious set of assumptions. (“This job is going to last forever”, “I can carry debt forever”, “I don’t need to take care of my health”, etc.) and one chance event can bring the whole structure tumbling down. “Lucky” people take the hit, recover and try to move on.

Probability and chance still play a part. But, as a friend of mine used to say, you’ll never catch a fish from your living room. Put yourself out there, place yourself in situations and among people who are most likely to present the opportunities and you’ll find that your “luck” increases exponentially.

Hope for the best outcomes and pursue opportunities as if they’re already realities, but be prepared for the worst.

“I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson

Good Luck 🙂

So which works for you in your experience or organisation? Which actually delivers sustainable change in a business – a strong leader with great attitude to the change or a robust process that everyone understands

Steve Sutton

Associate Programme Manager at Sapient

I think communication and engagement of everyone in the change process is more important that a single leader or even the process itself.

You can have an incredibly charismatic leader that everyone will look to for the answers and then blame when the processes fall flat. You can have an excellent process that people don’t buy into to and ultimately ends up falling apart. What you need is to have a continual open dialog with all levels of the organization. (and, no…weekly broadcasts from the CIO are *not* dialog)

The best way that I’ve found to lead change is to explain the goals, provide the people on the line with the tools, encouragement and recognition and then get the hell out of their way. The people doing the work are the ones in the best position to effect change. It takes a strong and open leader to keep everyone aligned to common goals, but the real success comes from that trust and empowerment of the individuals. That sense of ownership also lends significantly to the sustainability of the changes.

The most disastrous change initiatives that I’ve seen have been where a single leader or a small group of individuals determine the processes for the organization. The processes generally end up being very robust and well documented, but are poorly institutionalized. In many cases, the form is followed to meet some reporting or audit requirement, but the underlying foundation of the processes is something totally unrelated (ie: people find a way to work “around” the processes). The end result is like a beautiful 80-story building built on quicksand.

My instinct suggest it’s a little bit unfair to have some person hold:
1) Absolute power and leadership over the company
2) Claim the highest salary
3) Get all the publicity opportunities

etc…
Not that the CEO should be LOW paid. But do you think that if you want to supreme leader, you should let other people claim greater financial rewards (amongst other things).

Clarification added June 12, 2008:

Two million could be the “lowest” salary in the room of course :).

John Taylor

Independent Internet Professional

Compensation is subjective. They shouldn’t neccessarily get what they deserve, they should get what they’re able to negotiate. Publicity, power and where the position places a candidate on their overall career path will have a different value to different people. In a lot of cases, that power and visibility is *why* they get more money. They’re the face of the company and have an enormous impact on public perception, even if they have less *real* power than the board. They’re also the target if anything goes wrong in the company.

The negotiation process should place the compensation at a level where the CEO and the Board are both happy or, at least, comfortable. Value is subjective. While the salaries may seem out of whack to the general public, they’re obviously worth it to the board (at least when the CEO is hired).

In business, the customer we already have is more important than the ones we don’t. It’s more costly to lose a customer than to gain a new one. That being said, what do you do to protect the customers you already have? How can you keep them?

Thanks,

Craig
www.sayhitocraig.blogspot.com

Craig J. Vom Lehn, MBA

Experienced Financial Analyst

You’re sure to get a lot of creative retention ideas from this question. But I’m going with the simple answer. “Talk to them”.

Communicate with your customer. Get feedback. Treat the clients that you have as well as you treat a client that you’re courting. Provide opportunities for them to get to know you and your staff. Find out what you’re doing well and what you can do better. One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is letting the honeymoon end when the client has signed on the bottom line.

We’re putting together a curriculum to train individuals with 4-5 years of work experience to enable them to become Business Process consultants. As part of this role, they would be required to diagnose client problems, use systems thinking to understand existing processes, suggest process and technology solutions that will enhance the process/business functioning.

Thanks in anticipation!

Gurprriet Siingh

SVP & Head – Organization Capability & Innovation for Welspun Group

Communications (verbal and non-verbal. cultural awareness. eliciting feedback. learning and communication styles. Dealing with difficult people/personalities)
Negotiation skills (specifically “reaching consensus”)
A documentation standard (pick one and keep it standard across your consultants. BPML, UML, EPC, etc.)
Requirements analysis and Requirements management (broad subjects, but lacking a partnered BA/SA/TA, the BPC will need to have a strong grasp of both areas)
Adopting a passive leadership role. I find that a lot of BPCs get into trouble by driving a direction and leading the audience rather than facilitating a collaborative effort. It can be a difficult balance, but it’s a critical one when you’re coming in as a consultant.
An basic understanding of Six Sigma. A DFSS (Design For Six Sigma) course or overview may be enough. Bringing them up with a full six sigma curriculum would likely be overkill for most clients.

My perfect BPC would be an engineer turned Business/Systems Analyst with a Six Sigma green or black belt, Certified Technical Trainer (CTT) credential, PMBOK/PRINCE2 credentials and a background in the industry that I was putting them into as a consultant. I’d also love to see an awareness of an applicable framework like CobiT/ValIT, CMMi, ITIL, etc.

If you can get a smattering of the wish list, I think that you’ll have a pretty nice curriculum.

I’m looking for risk management approaches that have been baked into other engineering disciplines to see how well they could apply to software engineering. If you have any experiences or stories to share on the above, I’d love to hear about it.

Here are a few links with more background on the ideas I’m trying to bring together:

FMEA – American Society for Quality
http://www.asq.org/learn-about-quality/process-analysis-tools/overview/fmea.html

HAZOPS – Mike Lihou
http://www.lihoutech.com/hazop.htm

Common-Cause Failure Analysis (Westinghouse, open information for the public on nuclear power station design)
http://tinyurl.com/3gu2f2 (Links to PDF)

Eric Jarvi

Software Engineer

It depends on your design/development methodology. But ultimately it will usually come down to integration into your test cases. Your business requirements break down into functional requirements (and possibly technical requirements). Your functional requirements break down into test cases with potential failure modes identified. FMEA/FMECA can be applied to formulate risks, impacts and responses.

The full analysis can feed into your design process to help improve your up-front quality and potentially reduce or eliminate the failures before they occur. As the product or process moves through testing, you’ll be able to add to or adjust your assumptions and decide whether to change the requirements, design or implementation. (or just determine the mitigation)

After implementation, any additional failure modes that are uncovered should be mapped back into requirements and test cases for the next iteration.

If am appointed as a CEO to a new organization, what is my flexibility in hiring new top level executives or replacing existing executives / replace existing execs to better manage the company? How would you go about achieving this?

What is the typical scenario between CEO and CFO, CRO, CIO, CTO, marketing director etc. There is the board of directors and let’s say I got the buy off from the board, and let us say some top level excs are pals with the board members, but they are not worth their dough / talent. How would you go about achiveing this?

Raman V

Intrapreneur, Entrepreneur [Open Networker, all invites welcome – rvaidy5@gmail.com] 2700 + connections

It depends on the organizational culture, the amount of autonomy the board gives you and the strategy that you’re expected to execute on.

I would recommend the following
-Document and confirm your role with the board
-Confirm the organization’s strategy with the board
-Meet with your existing executive team and confirm their roles, how they support with the organizational strategy and key performance indicators and goals for the next quarter
-Identify gaps that need to be filled (this will let you hire in new talent with minimal pushback)
-Set up a peer review process.

At the end of the quarter *objectively* evaluate your team. Get feedback on each team member’s performance from peers. If there are obvious missed goals or universal negative feedback from their peers, you’re more likely to get board support for changing the lineup. If you can definitively show that someone isn’t good for the business, the board will probably welcome you being the bad guy. (“Sorry, John Doe. I fought for you, but this new jerk of a CEO has the final say”)

If you swoop in and start firing people on day one, you’re likely to lose valuable skills, alienate your team and generally disrupt the business. I’ve been convinced that some individuals are a complete waste of oxygen. However, rather than firing them, I’ve shuffled the deck a little bit and found them to be top performers that were just in the wrong role. Had I gone with my gut and just fired them, I would have lost valuable resources and had to start from scratch with an unknown from the street. Remember that they must have had some skills to get where they are. Sometimes, just talking to the non-performer about your concerns will help you to re-position them to make more of a contribution

Decision time – what would YOU do? Your # 3 sales person has given 2 weeks notice and is going to a competitor.

Let’s say you have a total of 10 sales people in the office. She has already made it known to anyone that would listen that she is getting $5,000 more a year in base pay with a similar bonus structure.

Would YOU give in and match the increase? Why or why not?

(This delicate situation happens over and over again and I’ve handled it both ways in the past – curious as to your thoughts)

Richard A. Johnson

at SunTrust Bank

If she’s making a public noise about the money, your decision is made for you. Show her the door and do damage control. If you offer her the money to keep her, everyone is going to know what happened and you’ll have set a dangerous precedent. Wish her well. Throw her a nice going-away party. Keep very positive and supportive. Introduce your customers to the new sales rep/team and make it very clear that she’s moving on to a competitor. (one really important thing to do is make sure that you, or someone you trust, updates her voicemail message for the transition period)

Had she approached you privately and kept quiet during your negotiations, I would have spent more time trying to recover the situation. Most of the advice that you’ve already received fits that scenario. However, once she starts publicizing the situation, there’s not a lot that you can do. One other thing that you might want to consider is sweetening the pot for your other sales staff once she’s gone. It’s almost guaranteed that she’s going to try to poach them from you once she’s settled in the new position.

Good luck!”

My team is in the process of securing early-stage capital for a new firm that will be part of a higher educational incubator. This knowledge and process enterprise will be targeting distressed industries such as financial services and end-to-end mortgage management.

As background, we have created a detailed business plan, done the research, carved out a niche, created the financials, engaging potential prospects, prepared presentation and marketing materials, and we are actively building an experienced management and delivery team. The corporate offerings are best characterized as global sourcing or knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) in an effort to revitalize and retrain domestic workforces.

We would greatly welcome everyone’s advice on investment groups, angel networks, and other sources of funding that could benefit our effort. We are based in the American Midwest.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Mark Dangelo

Strategist, Consultant, Outsourcing Advisor

Some of this is really going to depend on the amount of capital that you’re looking for.

My advice would be to work your own network first. Speak with your accountant, lawyer, bank manager, chamber of commerce, etc. and make sure that they all know what your doing and that you need capital. Your best promotors are going to be the people that you already have a business relationship with.

Once you have your network working for you, then start the cold calls. A good starting point would be your local SBA (Small Business Administration). They’ll have access to ACE-Net (a pay-to-play matching service run by the SBA.). They should also be aware of investors and groups in your area. Though, I’ve found that some SBAs are excellent while others are clueless. Your mileage will vary.

You can also try the angel directory that Inc. Magazine maintains: http://www.inc.com/articles/2001/09/23461.html or the more comprehensive one maintained by the Angel Capital Association -http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/dir_directory/directory.aspx

Good luck!

Have you ever received a Corporate Promotional gift that made an impression? If so, what was it?

WALTER SABRIN 8400+

wsabrin@triumphstaffing.com LION Invites Welcome – Toplinked

Pretty much anything that’s high quality and that you’d think twice about throwing out. I would avoid technology items since they become dated rather quickly. (though I admit to hoarding USB keys from trade shows)

I have a pen from the ISACA that goes with me everywhere. People always comment on when they pick it up to sign something or make a note. It’s nothing really flashy or extravagant, but it’s a solid, quality writing instrument that I’d give to someone before tossing it out. I also have a retractable network cable that I use constantly. But the logo has rubbed off it and I forgot who gave it to me (not so effective for advertising 🙂

I have nice quality leather folders, pocket knives, clocks, etc. that I also hang on to or pass on to colleagues.

Puzzles, anything made out of cheap plastic, stuffed toys or squeeze balls, buttons, and items that serve no practical purpose other than advertising go into the garbage or to the kids to destroy. I’ve seen some pretty nice ones that make an impression when you receive them. But they ultimately don’t leave a *lasting* impression.

If it’s a targetted gift, personalization goes a long way. You can buy plaques, desk clocks, crystal globes and other fairly inexpensive awards in bulk and then find a local engraver to personalize them for key customers. I had awards made up for a customer project team that I worked with to celebrate the successful completion of a project. I had my own company logo and the customers’ added and I still have people from them team comment on it years later.

Spend the extra money for quality. Unless it’s a quick hit for a specific campaign, you’re probably better off with something that has some longevity and will stay with your customer for awhile.

If you’re making a large purchase of gifts, it might be worth picking a few candidate items and running a small focus group.