BusinessQuests - tailored advice and facilitation for business progress

Processes as Art, not Science

 In the March 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review, there's a very interesting article about the relevance of distinguishing between processes that can be standardized (process as science) and processes that are and should remain flexible (process as art). The authors argue that it is a deadly mistake to try to standardize business activities that are expected to deliver highly customized output to customers while being run in contexts of highly variable environments.

Quote of the day

Given the experience of attending recent presentations and having workshops and discussions with start-ups or companies in growth mode, this quote may provide motivation to (re)think basic assumptions about a business... or any other creation for that matter. Particularly relevant as a minimalistic tool like Twitter shows unexpected versatility and incredible adoption levels:

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
 
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Quote of the day

"When one puts objectivity in parenthesis, all views, all verses in the multiverse are equally valid. Understanding this, you lose the passion for changing the other. One of the results is that you look apathetic to people. Now, those who do not live with objectivity in parentheses have a passion for changing the other. So they have this passion and you do not. For example, at the university where I work, people may say, ‘Humberto is not really interested in anything,’ because I don’t have the passion in the same sense that the person that has objectivity without parentheses. And I think that this is the main difficulty. To other people you may seem too tolerant. However, if the others also put objectivity in parentheses , you discover that disagreements can only be solved by entering a domain of co-inspiration, in which things are done together because the participants want to do them. With objectivity in parentheses, it is easy to do things together because one is not denying the other in the process of doing them."

Humberto Maturana - Interview 1985.

Quote of the day

"If help and salvation are to come, they can only come from the children, for the children are the makers of men." - Maria Montessori

Quote of the day - source: Cisco's CTO

Padmasree Warrior, Cisco’s CTO, tweeted this very beautiful sentence quoting a poster she saw:

“Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Obama could run, Obama ran so our children can fly”

 

Quote of the day

Since we're entering a time when decision makers are less exuberant we can also expect some of the excessive rhetoric of the past couple of years to recede. Hence the quote of this day (source worth reading) about viral marketing, one of the hottest marketing fads of the recent past:

"Being viral isn't the hard part. The hard part is making that viral element actually produce something of value, not just entertainment for the client or your boss." - Seth Godin

Quote of the day

Provided by a friend, the AIG vice chairman Jacob Frenkel appears to have said the following, which is a pretty accurate statement of the situation, unfortunately not confined to AIG:

"The left side of the balance sheet has nothing right and the right side of the balance sheet has nothing left"

People wary of advertisers' "interest"

With the increased ability to track and monitor people we are coming dangerously close to the advertisers' nirvana, which is to know everything there is to know about your behavior as a buyer. Technology is not yet able to reach and interpret the deeper recesses of your mind, but that will come too... Perhaps a good reason for people to be increasingly concerned about the "interest" shown by advertisers for them...

clipped from slashdot.org Chris Blanc tips an Ars writeup on a survey of consumer attitudes toward targeted advertising. The results of the survey, conducted for TRUSTe, confirm that advertisers are in a tough spot. "[The survey company] randomly selected 1,015 nationally representative adults... Although only 40 percent of the group was familiar with the term 'behavioral targeting,' most users were well aware of the practice. 57 percent reported that they weren't comfortable their activities [were being] tracked for advertising purposes, even if the information couldn't be tied to their names or real-life identities. Simultaneously, 72 percent of those surveyed said that they find online advertising annoying when the ads are not relevant to their needs..."

Quote of the day

"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem." - Albert Einstein

Amazing how this amazing mind went as far as defining something that characterizes many businesses in particular where information technology is involved.What good is it to have all the bells and whistles of modern user interfaces, all the collaborative dynamics of participative media and social networks, all the daring and bravado of a new business, if one doesn't have a clear picture of what game they are playing or if they keep changing the game to avoid making hard choices?

What's key in guiding customers?

"In giving advice, seek to help, not please, your friend."
Solon

Over the past couple of months I've been working on some pretty confidential stuff that made it very difficult for me to share on this blog. However, as I seek to guide my customers towards maximal achievement of their personal and business potential, there is definitely one thing that I am faced with on a near permanent basis: telling them what they need to hear and not what they would like to hear. As an external contributor to their business, I consider integrity as my key asset because it provides the bedrock of coherence, rigorous analysis and compassionate advice. So of course, one of the things I am careful not to let customers do is use me to justify their decisions regardless whether I agree or not with their decisions. Hence the quote above.

A special day

Expecting the birth of a child is quite an experience. Since this is the first time I find myself in such a situation I guess it adds a bit of spice to the whole thing... What analogies can be drawn from the way humans come to life in order to be applied to bold quests in business? I wonder. I don't think I'll explore that just now :-)
Anyway, while I am taking part in my most fascinating "project" ever and with a key milestone just hours away, allow me to offer a quote for today, which I hope will also be good food for your thoughts and mediation:

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

More in a few days...

Quote of the day

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Quote of the day

"It is our earth, not yours or mine or his.  We are meant to live on it, helping each other, not destroying each other.     " - J. Krishnamurti

Today's quote is by one of my favorite authors and I think it is relevant to superb business quests. From those I had the opportunity to watch closely, I conclude that the forces of creation and meaningful cooperation are far more intense than those of destruction and useless competition.