Generations ago when people were employed in a company they tend to be located on the same premises if not the same building then came a time when rapid expansion forced some people to re-located in other offices, sometimes half way around the world. The recent wave is partially working from home office. In each evolution of working practice the challenges are the same. How are resources integrated on the same team when the members are physically segregated? This issue was partially solved by the availability of higher communications bandwidth and with LTE and WiMAX networks coupled with brilliant devices such as the iPad, applications such as seamless multiple video conferencing, true mobile office has now arrived.
With the advancement of technology working remotely has became more convenient. You can now use even advance projected screens in the office so you can interact with colleagues, much like when you are physically present in the same building. Back in 1991 while I was completing my engineering degree in communications I experimented on how to use holographic based interaction in a mobile devices and wrote a paper on it. Back then the wireless bandwidth was not as high as it is today so the device was rather clumsy, partly influenced from my interaction with two-way communications and amateur radio, however the idea and purpose is the same. Now that the time has come where it is possible, there are still a few kinks to iron out such as effectiveness and efficiency but as human innovations go we are constantly improving.
The challenge today is how do we get the most out of tele presence while increasing if not maintaining work force effectiveness and protecting privacy… The solution is actually an old one, employed even before the time of telegraph… TEAM BUILDING. To be effective and efficient it is imperative that the team functions as one, especially with time zone differences between offices. Let’s take into consideration the challenges in a technology like AmanziTel where we have distributed development, meaning our developers working on the same project are spread across several countries and time zones. It requires effective management to put everyone on the same page and on top of that ensure that our daily software builds as part of our continuous integration processes are bug free and fool proof. Apart from effective management, the team every now and then gathers for social activities that promotes camaraderie and instill the team spirit in each individual member. This reinforces the team’s strengths considering the fact that the entire team is only as strong as its weakest member.
With a coherent team tele presence becomes more effective. The challenges is of course to apply it to a larger group such as an entire company. The approach I would recommend is to group resources in manageable teams where each team shares the same philosophies and works for towards a common goal with the company mission as its battle cry.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Inception in Real-World Business Negotiations
On the movie "Inception" the writer presented the possibility to implant an idea through manipulating dreams, this could be put into good use in the real world, except that it’s all fantasy. The concept intrigued me and begs the question on how to apply such implanting of ideas in business negotiations.
I have seen and conducted my fair shares of negotiations. I have read lots of written literatures around negotiations and in real world we see such negotiation strategies being used. The most common are tied to capitalizing one's strengths and exploiting the other's weaknesses, another common method is good cop - bad cop, and influencing the other party. There are various techniques, methods and strategies and in business one employ's the strategy best suited for their needs. James Borg nicely summarizes this various techniques, methods and strategies in 5 simple ways (1) Competition, (2) Accommodation, (3) Compromise, (4) Avoidance and (5) Collaboration.
Of the 5 I like Collaboration the best since it means all parties win. However is it possible to implant an idea to the other party so they adopt your lines of thoughts during the negotiations? I believe this can be done. Have you ever been on a situation when you are suddenly preaching what the other party is negotiating for instead of your own? If you have then the most common excuse is that you have understood the other party and got the point. Although looking from the outside you were influenced, you were given an idea and you adopted it to the benefit of the other party. The question is how can such influence or implanting of an idea be achieved in a short period while you are fully conscious?
A collaborative approach is a win-win approach since the negotiation is for mutual benefit of both parties. This can easily be recognized during the start of negotiations by observing the other parties body language, the existence of a common interest, the desire for a long-term business relationship. Go on take the plunge and find a way to instill that idea while at the same time collaborating to achieve a win-win solution.
I have seen and conducted my fair shares of negotiations. I have read lots of written literatures around negotiations and in real world we see such negotiation strategies being used. The most common are tied to capitalizing one's strengths and exploiting the other's weaknesses, another common method is good cop - bad cop, and influencing the other party. There are various techniques, methods and strategies and in business one employ's the strategy best suited for their needs. James Borg nicely summarizes this various techniques, methods and strategies in 5 simple ways (1) Competition, (2) Accommodation, (3) Compromise, (4) Avoidance and (5) Collaboration.
Of the 5 I like Collaboration the best since it means all parties win. However is it possible to implant an idea to the other party so they adopt your lines of thoughts during the negotiations? I believe this can be done. Have you ever been on a situation when you are suddenly preaching what the other party is negotiating for instead of your own? If you have then the most common excuse is that you have understood the other party and got the point. Although looking from the outside you were influenced, you were given an idea and you adopted it to the benefit of the other party. The question is how can such influence or implanting of an idea be achieved in a short period while you are fully conscious?
A collaborative approach is a win-win approach since the negotiation is for mutual benefit of both parties. This can easily be recognized during the start of negotiations by observing the other parties body language, the existence of a common interest, the desire for a long-term business relationship. Go on take the plunge and find a way to instill that idea while at the same time collaborating to achieve a win-win solution.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Efficiency vs. Security
It is a common belief that efficiency and security contradicts each other. Let's take a few examples:
* Airports - when the security is tight the flow of passengers is slow
* Networks - the more security check there is the slower is the transfer of information
* Services - when more verification is needed the provisioning of services is slower
There are multitudes of examples and real life situations where efficiency and security are always two items that does not go very well with each other. The compromise is of course finding the right balance between efficiency and security. This balance is often dictated by availability of infrastructure to process the security requirements, most especially in transport and logistics. Some goes to the extent of recommending that the cost of additional infrastructure should be passed to those who require the extensive security check. However such solution would create a wider repercussion to the local economy both good and bad.
There are of course more acceptable solutions such as using RFID. It seems that any solution requires additional infrastructure. Let's look on the human side and on how we deal with efficiency and security. In airports for example more advance detectors are being deployed to make the flow of people faster through security checks. This also goes hand in hand with the introduction of electronic and biometric measurements. For example in some European airports you no longer need a paper passport but can use a plastic "National ID Card" where a machines scans your card and compares your physical biometric info. Others are more advance where they use iris scan. This is both to increase efficiency and decrease the cost of human resources.
With advancement of technology the efficiency gains grow even though the security threat remains high. But is there a much better way? How about using well trained canines to sniff our potential threats and contrabands? How about a more advance technology to ensure a fluid flow of people and merchandize while maintaining the best possible security. It is a need since every now and then humans try to get around security if they can for whatever purpose they have.
* Airports - when the security is tight the flow of passengers is slow
* Networks - the more security check there is the slower is the transfer of information
* Services - when more verification is needed the provisioning of services is slower
There are multitudes of examples and real life situations where efficiency and security are always two items that does not go very well with each other. The compromise is of course finding the right balance between efficiency and security. This balance is often dictated by availability of infrastructure to process the security requirements, most especially in transport and logistics. Some goes to the extent of recommending that the cost of additional infrastructure should be passed to those who require the extensive security check. However such solution would create a wider repercussion to the local economy both good and bad.
There are of course more acceptable solutions such as using RFID. It seems that any solution requires additional infrastructure. Let's look on the human side and on how we deal with efficiency and security. In airports for example more advance detectors are being deployed to make the flow of people faster through security checks. This also goes hand in hand with the introduction of electronic and biometric measurements. For example in some European airports you no longer need a paper passport but can use a plastic "National ID Card" where a machines scans your card and compares your physical biometric info. Others are more advance where they use iris scan. This is both to increase efficiency and decrease the cost of human resources.
With advancement of technology the efficiency gains grow even though the security threat remains high. But is there a much better way? How about using well trained canines to sniff our potential threats and contrabands? How about a more advance technology to ensure a fluid flow of people and merchandize while maintaining the best possible security. It is a need since every now and then humans try to get around security if they can for whatever purpose they have.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Cost Reduction for Wireless Network Operators
Today I have had several discussions on various ways to reduce the cost in wireless network operators. But why reduce the cost? The answer is simple in most mature markets (countries where subscription is close to 80% of the eligible population) and saturated markets the profit margins are decreasing since the revenue are starting to flat line. Like in any business wireless network operators would like to maximize their profits and one way to do that is to reduce cost.
Why cost reduction instead of increase in revenue? Again the answer is simple cost reduction is something that can be controlled while increase in revenue is pretty much tied to the subscribers and marketing is not without cost. Now lookign at the cost what are the best ways to reduce that? You cannot simply fire your staff and reduce your head counts, which in a lot of cases is the simplest solution.
In today's competitive world there are various trends in cost reduction for wireless network operators. One is network infrastructure sharing which is a common trend in UK, Sweden and other European countries. This is a necessity since the number of potential antenna or site location is limited. Another is outsourcing, a very common strategy within the Vodafone group where the operations is outsources to a partner company in most cases an infrastructure vendor. Another is performance optimisation that can reduce the cost of operations and maintenance. Another possibility which is least explored is cost reduction in infrastructure leases. It is least explored since most infrastructure lease contracts put in place are long-term contracts with little possibility of re-negotiations.
The question is which strategy is best to implement? The simple answer lies in the operators’ strategy and how it sees its core business. Operators who see their core business as selling subscriptions would typically outsource their operations. Operators who see their technical operations as a core business but do not want to be bothered by infrastructure usually go for network sharing. There are operators that do not see outsourcing or sharing as the way forwards since they see this assets are part of their core business and those mostly focus on extensive performance optimisation activities. Network optimisation aims to reduce cost while at the same time increase usage and revenue.
Where does the financial solution belong to such as reduction on the cost of leases? Actually it applies to all much like performance optimisation. Even though entire operations are outsourced or infrastructures are shared, the physical site locations (if not the infrastructure itself) is leased from an owner. So how would you reduce such cost without having to go to the painful process of re-negotiations?
Why cost reduction instead of increase in revenue? Again the answer is simple cost reduction is something that can be controlled while increase in revenue is pretty much tied to the subscribers and marketing is not without cost. Now lookign at the cost what are the best ways to reduce that? You cannot simply fire your staff and reduce your head counts, which in a lot of cases is the simplest solution.
In today's competitive world there are various trends in cost reduction for wireless network operators. One is network infrastructure sharing which is a common trend in UK, Sweden and other European countries. This is a necessity since the number of potential antenna or site location is limited. Another is outsourcing, a very common strategy within the Vodafone group where the operations is outsources to a partner company in most cases an infrastructure vendor. Another is performance optimisation that can reduce the cost of operations and maintenance. Another possibility which is least explored is cost reduction in infrastructure leases. It is least explored since most infrastructure lease contracts put in place are long-term contracts with little possibility of re-negotiations.
The question is which strategy is best to implement? The simple answer lies in the operators’ strategy and how it sees its core business. Operators who see their core business as selling subscriptions would typically outsource their operations. Operators who see their technical operations as a core business but do not want to be bothered by infrastructure usually go for network sharing. There are operators that do not see outsourcing or sharing as the way forwards since they see this assets are part of their core business and those mostly focus on extensive performance optimisation activities. Network optimisation aims to reduce cost while at the same time increase usage and revenue.
Where does the financial solution belong to such as reduction on the cost of leases? Actually it applies to all much like performance optimisation. Even though entire operations are outsourced or infrastructures are shared, the physical site locations (if not the infrastructure itself) is leased from an owner. So how would you reduce such cost without having to go to the painful process of re-negotiations?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
To be or not to be?
I am currently organizing my line of thoughts. I have this idea on how to save lives, essentially a medical application that can be accessible to professional and consumers alike. The question is shall I venture on fields outside of my comfort zone? In the past I have had involvement in medical solutions such as walking aids for various patient symptoms, its an area that I feel I can give back to the human race and establish a lasting legacy.
Back to reality, I have received numerous offers to join various organizations in varying capacity, the question is do I jump ship or do I stay put? Do I cash out and do something else, something more meaningful outside of my comfort zone or do I keep on walking the same path and try to reach the same goals?
What are my goals? as a kid growing up I always wanted to contribute one meaningful legacy to mankind, a word, a phrase, an action, an invention... something that future generations will remember me by. That's a tall order considering I am as ordinary as everybody else.
Ahh, that very elusive single brilliant idea it is in the corner I can sense it.., I just need to grab it...
Back to reality, I have received numerous offers to join various organizations in varying capacity, the question is do I jump ship or do I stay put? Do I cash out and do something else, something more meaningful outside of my comfort zone or do I keep on walking the same path and try to reach the same goals?
What are my goals? as a kid growing up I always wanted to contribute one meaningful legacy to mankind, a word, a phrase, an action, an invention... something that future generations will remember me by. That's a tall order considering I am as ordinary as everybody else.
Ahh, that very elusive single brilliant idea it is in the corner I can sense it.., I just need to grab it...
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Implementing Lean Six Sigma without the cost
In AmanziTel we practice the principles of Lean Six Sigma, it is evident in our operations from corporate to software development. In our software development this is evident in the methods we use such as distributed development environment, customer driven development, agile development environment and continuous integration. On our corporate development it is evident on our strategies to minimize cost by operating as lean as possible including benefits from open source software and various distribution methodologies.
For most companies implementing Lean Six Sigma is never a low cost exercise, there is the expensive training, certifications and consultants who assists and advise on implementation and change management. For large companies that have deep pockets this is not an issue since the gains far outweigh the costs. However for companies that do not have the big budgets for implementation often shun the change since they do not see the immediate benefit, a decision that in most cases causes their own downfall. There is of course a simple answer, you can implement Lean Six Sigma without the cost. How can this be done?
These is achieved by keeping things simple by starting from the very top and end at the very top. For Lean Six Sigma to be successful, the management must accept it, embrace it, advocate it and live it. It should become the very air they breathe. But how does it help? The success is in the strategies they choose and the decisions they make. By adopting the principles of Lean Six Sigma as their own it will trickle down to the entire organization and becomes ingrained in the corporate culture. This approach of course is most effective and works only in small organizations, or does it apply to all?
For most companies implementing Lean Six Sigma is never a low cost exercise, there is the expensive training, certifications and consultants who assists and advise on implementation and change management. For large companies that have deep pockets this is not an issue since the gains far outweigh the costs. However for companies that do not have the big budgets for implementation often shun the change since they do not see the immediate benefit, a decision that in most cases causes their own downfall. There is of course a simple answer, you can implement Lean Six Sigma without the cost. How can this be done?
These is achieved by keeping things simple by starting from the very top and end at the very top. For Lean Six Sigma to be successful, the management must accept it, embrace it, advocate it and live it. It should become the very air they breathe. But how does it help? The success is in the strategies they choose and the decisions they make. By adopting the principles of Lean Six Sigma as their own it will trickle down to the entire organization and becomes ingrained in the corporate culture. This approach of course is most effective and works only in small organizations, or does it apply to all?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Six Sigma, does it still work?
This week I was reading a news release that Motorola has spin-out its mobility division since it is loss making. We all know that Motorola pioneered Six Sigma. The question that comes to mind on this recent transaction is "Does Six Sigma still work?”… It’s a valid question since the pioneer of the business practice has consistently faltered in the past years.
I was going over a due diligence issue the past days and the news get me thinking if Six Sigma practice is the right way. Six Sigma is of course based on a few principles where:
- Results are determined by inputs
- To improve results the inputs must be controlled
- Minimize variations
- Performance indicators create consistent improvements
- Focus on critical inputs that have significant effect on the output
Six Sigma originated in production and manufacturing then trickled down to every imaginable industry. The question in my mind stemmed from the fact that in highly developed economies production and manufacturing is no longer the preferred industry. Maybe that's the source Motorola's problems... it is a high tech company in a highly developed economy employing management practice on a business that does not suit where it is located. The argument is of course not valid since production and manufacturing can now be outsourced to any where in the world.
Do you think Six Sigma still work for industries powered by design and innovations?
The more interesting question to me of course is whether Six Sigma also applies to knowledge-based operations such as software development. Please share your thoughts.
I am an advocate of lean operations, customer driven agile development, continuous integration, continuous improvement and open innovations. Is there a place for such practices in the current information age? Only time will tell...
For a knowledge base, high technology industry which methodology do you think works best?
I was going over a due diligence issue the past days and the news get me thinking if Six Sigma practice is the right way. Six Sigma is of course based on a few principles where:
- Results are determined by inputs
- To improve results the inputs must be controlled
- Minimize variations
- Performance indicators create consistent improvements
- Focus on critical inputs that have significant effect on the output
Six Sigma originated in production and manufacturing then trickled down to every imaginable industry. The question in my mind stemmed from the fact that in highly developed economies production and manufacturing is no longer the preferred industry. Maybe that's the source Motorola's problems... it is a high tech company in a highly developed economy employing management practice on a business that does not suit where it is located. The argument is of course not valid since production and manufacturing can now be outsourced to any where in the world.
Do you think Six Sigma still work for industries powered by design and innovations?
The more interesting question to me of course is whether Six Sigma also applies to knowledge-based operations such as software development. Please share your thoughts.
I am an advocate of lean operations, customer driven agile development, continuous integration, continuous improvement and open innovations. Is there a place for such practices in the current information age? Only time will tell...
For a knowledge base, high technology industry which methodology do you think works best?
To blog or not to blog
In the past months I was very busy with multitude of things that I did not have time to put a meaningful entry to this blog. I know some of us are very keen blogger and some simply don't write anything at all. I admire those who put their thoughts everyday on a blog or in any form of written and recorded media.
Sometimes I have the tendency to keep everything on my brains and try to recall every ideas and thoughts I had. Sometime it works and I can recall up to the tiniest of details some times it doesn't. And to me the main difference is how interesting the subject is or how brilliant the idea.
As people we sometimes gasp when we see a new idea, a new product, a new invention then say "oh I thought of that before, why did not I do that" or "why did I not consider that before". We as human have the failings of not recording our thoughts properly, most if not all highly successful people do so. Think how clumsy Sir Richard Branson is, who up to this day carries a notebook to pen his thoughts and ideas. It works!
Now I should remind myself to write down my thoughts and ideas on this blog. It only take a few minutes :-)
Sometimes I have the tendency to keep everything on my brains and try to recall every ideas and thoughts I had. Sometime it works and I can recall up to the tiniest of details some times it doesn't. And to me the main difference is how interesting the subject is or how brilliant the idea.
As people we sometimes gasp when we see a new idea, a new product, a new invention then say "oh I thought of that before, why did not I do that" or "why did I not consider that before". We as human have the failings of not recording our thoughts properly, most if not all highly successful people do so. Think how clumsy Sir Richard Branson is, who up to this day carries a notebook to pen his thoughts and ideas. It works!
Now I should remind myself to write down my thoughts and ideas on this blog. It only take a few minutes :-)
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