Do The Right Thing

Introduction

You see, many organizations do not realize they are dying. Without any improvement or intervention, either the next economic or industry shift will see their business forced into dissolution. This is why we need to improve the business the right way so that your organization will be healthy and viable, able to withstand market shifts and economic downturns, and continue to serve your customers in the best way possible.

To improve the business the right way, you must first understand the components of a business not from a single-minded book, thought, or idea but from the customer’s point of view, because in the end, the customer is the one paying for the product or service. We also need to study how a business really works and the components that make a viable operation that is profitable and healthy. We also need to understand real business performance not just from a myopic point of reference or a set of misguided analytics but also from organizational goals the way the original vision was intended.

We will be exploring major parts of business improvement including an organization’s operations, process, technology, and exactly how to recognize the correct type of improvement for an organization. These include not just methods, methodologies, standards, or templates but also the essence of the business itself and the reason why projects underperform or fail completely. All of this is exciting, perplexing, and required so we can improve the business the right way.

In some cases, these ideas will be a major change in the status quo and even earthshaking for existing technology, process, and improvement leadership. It will require steadfastness, mental toughness, perseverance, and committed resolve. But in the end, you will perform for the company as a whole and be able to say, “Yes, I did the right thing for the company.”

The first part of the journey is to understand the common thread throughout all improvement failures. We need to understand what reality-based business strategy looks like and to understand what really matters to an organization that drives performance. Before embarking on any improvement project, one must understand what is at the core of improvement and the strategy to embrace it. Let’s begin the journey into reality-based business improvement.

Chapter 1

Business and the Common Thread

Organizations are always on the move. They are either expanding or contracting. They react to environments in which they operate, including changes in governments, resources, culture, and markets. They constantly need change and improvement in order to continue a profitable operation. Without successful business-improvement initiatives, a company’s continued performance will be in jeopardy.

But business-improvement success or failure is squarely on an organization’s leadership ability to manage an initiative to improve the enterprise. This sounds pretty basic and obvious, but the interesting revelation is that many COOs, CFOs, CIOs, and even CEOs do not know how to interpret the true value of an improvement initiative for their organization. This is hard to swallow, but just look at the data surrounding the success (failure) rates of improvement and technology innovation projects.

o 83 percent project failure rate and budget overruns in 1994 (The Standish Group 1994)

o 72 percent project failure rate and budget overruns in 2000 (The Standish Group 2010)

o 71 percent project failure rate and budget overruns in 2004 (The Standish Group 2010)

o 68 percent project failure rate and budget overruns in 2008 (The Standish Group 2010)

o 70 percent project failure rate and budget overruns current (Cantara, et al. 2014)

o $209 billion lost on failed projects in 1994 (The Standish Group 1994)

o $3.7 trillion spent on IT (Gartner 2013)

I believe anyone who has been in the technology or business-improvement industry for at least ten years has seen the effects of these dismal statistics or struggled with his or her own failing improvement project. With trillions of dollars spent on projects that struggle or are canceled completely, leaders have to deal with these facts. Many of these leaders have fallen victims to endless organizational restructures or from project fallouts claiming improved performance with these new projects. As you can see from the statistics above, the rate of project failures or underperformance continues to be above 68 percent. It sounds like the industry of business and technology improvement is not improving business at all, especially if you factor the costs of all projects that have failed. It is a very expensive endeavor to spend resources on projects that fail most of the time.

So what is the cause of these failures? In overseeing, reviewing, or participating in upward of sixty business- and technology-improvement projects from all aspects, including strategizing, implementing, and failed project reviews through expert witness forensics, I have seen a basic element that was common in each failure. It was not the single aspect of project management, project resources, executive sponsorship, or even requirement’s definition. A common thread was that leadership did not implement a project that empowered the organization’s most basic goal. The most basic goal is the organization’s core business model.

To have success, management must relate every improvement initiative to an organization’s core business model. The core business model is central to organizational improvement from all aspects, including process, technology, and any innovation enablement.

During the course of this book, we will connect the core business model of an organization to improvement performance. To understand the core business model, we must first understand the law of business reality. So let’s explore the foundation of business improvement. The common thread through all organization starts with the exploration of the law of business reality

Chapter 2

The Law of Business Reality

The law of business reality is real. Its aspect is real, its affects are real, and in the end, the results are real. It is the basis for all successful organizations. It is an understanding in practice rather than stated perceptions. The basic elements are understood by experiences rather than logical reasoning or operational concepts. You cannot escape it, and if you ignore the law, it will eventually bring reality to your organization.