OSS consultants provide you with the opportunity to bring a different set of ideas, insights and connections to your OctopOSS
“Employees should never be told to protect valuable assets. If they’re told this, they usually protect an object that may be expensive to replace but is not what creates or could destroy value. How value is created is a business’ most important asset, and that is what people must focus their protection resources on.” Scott […]
“Do you think that such a role (a Chief Simplification Officer or Project Simplification Officer) is justified? If so, what do you think are the essential traits that this person would need?” I posed these questions in a recent article entitled, “Chief Simplification Officer,” so rather than just leave you with an open question, today […]
“What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” Tony Robbins. Complexity is the single biggest challenge that stands in the way of us delivering OSS masterpieces. As described in, “The triple constraint of complexity,” the reduction of any complexity should have a multiplier effect towards the […]
“The Toyota production system has been built on the practice and evolution of this scientific approach. By asking and answering ‘why’ five times, we can get to the real cause of the problem, which is often hidden behind more obvious symptoms.” Eric Ries, in his book, “The Lean Startup.” Some time ago, I prepared a […]
“Most systems deal with complexity by adding more – more systems, more measures, more internal meetings, more units, more custom products, more unique processes, more new initiatives, more coordinators at the interfaces, and on and on. Our belief is that for more companies, the antidote to escalating complexity – and to the greater distance between […]
“A while ago our world exploded. The environment and the world of towns and cities and families and communities blew apart, along with the world of ideas and information, of entertainment and communication, of politics and diplomacy, and of course the world of businesses and organisations. It’s hard to date when the explosion started, but […]
“I don’t have any easy answers to the time management dilemma. For me, it works best if I divide my week into 10 half-days. My guess is it would take much less than half a day a week to coach your team on the messages and vision the CEO is passionate about.” Rob Davidson, here. […]
“When you hire somebody to cut your lawn, you don’t give them a list of all the blades of grass in your yard and the length to cut each one to (prescription), you tell them to make it look nice (intent) and they figure out the rest. Intent-based networking emphasizes the “cut my lawn” interface […]
“You are in the business of testing your guesses, not convincing yourself that you are right.” Nathan Furr, in his book, “Nail It then Scale It” The speed of implementation of OSS projects tends to be quite lengthy (months/years on tier-one CSPs), so we’re not exactly as responsive as some other industries by example. However, […]
“A manufacturer or retailer that responds to changes in sales in hours instead of weeks is no longer at heart a product company, but a service company that has a product offering.” Bill Gates, in his book, “Business @ the Speed of Thought.” How often does an OSS vendor win a new sale? Is it […]
“Many OSS systems were initially not linked to each other and often required manual intervention. For example, consider the case where a customer wants to order a new telephone service. The ordering system would take the customer’s details and details of their order, but would not be able to configure the telephone exchange directly — […]
“The problem with requiring people to be loud and angry to get things done is that you’re now surrounded by people who are loud and angry.” Seth Godin in this blog. The beauty of working as a consultant is having the opportunity to experience many different corporate cultures. Seth’s blog reminded me of a small handful […]
“Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation” Vannevar Bush. In the Christmas Day blog, I indicated that I was going to begin a series on how OSS vendors / integrators can start with the customer experience and work back to improve their […]
“The most common thing that pegs an entrepreneur as an amateur is when they come in and immediately start talking about their amazing new technology, and forget to start the discussion with, “What big problem in the market am I trying to solve?” If they don’t start with the problem, then I know they are […]
“Upstream marketing focuses on innovation. It tries to answer two questions: where the market is moving and what customers will want next.” Scott Thompson here on Chron.com. As indicated in yesterday’s post, I have a series of posts coming up shortly that will look at the customer experience and how OSS might look at doing […]
“In looking at ways and means of marketing the specific features of service products, the management of the relationship with the customer is, thus, always important. The nature of a service also makes it hard for the customer to evaluate an offer prior to purchase. Unlike a car, it cannot be test-driven; it is difficult […]
“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.” Confucius. Further to yesterday’s blog about OSS Consulting by Walking Around (CBWA), consultants and vendors should be continually striving to understand their client’s businesses better. That’s a given of course. It’s not the duration of the placement (of product in the […]
“The term management by wandering around (MBWA), also management by walking around, refers to a style of business management which involves managers wandering around, in an unstructured manner, through the workplace(s), at random, to check with employees, or equipment, about the status of ongoing work. The emphasis is on the word wandering as an impromptu […]
“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” Frances E. Willard. As you all know already, OSS projects can be large, complex and cumbersome. Over the years, I’ve found so many different styles of inertia at play, some conspiratorial, but mostly related to […]
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Chinese Proverb. This old proverb is oft quoted – to the point of being clichéd. It describes two ends of a fishing continuum that are used to analogise business situations like coaching […]
