Leadership

By Ronald Brown • May 11th, 2012

Global commoditization and complexity make innovation an urgent priority for firms of all sizes. And to promote innovation in a meaningful way, individual development teams must be the focal point of your strategy. Culture and vision are extremely important components, and developing them properly takes time and effort, but innovation improvement is mainly an organic, [...]

I’m sure you know that in 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a very memorable commencement address at Stanford University. He told three stories about his life. The first was a lesson about “connecting the dots.” He said that you can connect dots looking backwards, but you can’t connect them looking forwards. For that, he [...]

When he does not get the results he desires, the singer of a classic song asks the question, “What kind of fool am I?”  Or when entering an unfamiliar structure or organization, a person may ask, “What kind of place is this?”  Both questions move the questioner into a new stage of learning or development. [...]

A decision calendar? You’re already drowning in calendars, I know. You maintain your project milestones calendar, your team’s meeting calendar, product launch calendars, the meeting and milestones calendar for every project you support, your own Outlook or Gmail calendar, and that’s just for work. Yet, projects still feel chaotic, and you wonder whether your team [...]

Part II – Effect of High School on Final Board Examination –The Analytical Treatise Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Co-Author-Project Lead Contributor, Ms. Reethika S. Iyer*     Background: In Part I, we shared our experience on how parents make decisions to selecting high schools. Once the students graduate they are then again faced with the [...]

Part I – Impact of High School Choice on Student Final Year Performance Dr. Shree R. Nanguneri and Project Lead Contributor, Ms. Reethika S. Iyer* Background: In an earlier publication on this forum we focused our discussions on the relevance, meaning and value of LSS and PMP professionals in the industry. In Part I of [...]

Enhancing PMP with Business Process Excellence Part III (Final Part of Series) Viable Lean Six Sigma Solutions to Validate Project Timelines and Increase KPI Linkage for PMP leaders Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg   Meandering in a World Swayed by Certification: In Part I, we addressed the vitality of the linkage of a [...]

Enhancing PMP with Business Process Excellence Part II (of an III Part Series) Validating Project Timelines against Expected Changes in Customer Requirements Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg Background for “Changes in Customer Requirement:” In Part I we initiated discussions on how the KPI needs to link with the business goals and objectives.  In [...]

Linking PMP Leaders’ KPI with Customers’ Success Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg click to hear music Brief Introduction of the current PMP and LSS status quo: Whether we refer the PMP or LSS leadership success there is a clear process that is transparent as shown below: With the PMP space we are looking [...]

On a closely related topic to my last post, I would like to relate a recent experience I had with a consumer product that illustrates one very important aspect of consumer products that is often not given enough importance in the product development priority list: User Interface Speed. We have been satisfied owners of a [...]

You have all heard the old saying, “Time is money”. Well, obviously, this one is very true. Especially in our modern, fast-paced world of rapid product development cycles and short time-to-market windows, every second lost in a product development cycle means lost customers, lost sales, or even business failure. So, what are you as a [...]

Originally published on ProjectConnections.com in Nov. 2011. Lately I’ve been fascinated by a book, Creativity in Business, based on the famous course in the Stanford University MBA program by that name. In fact, I’ve been carrying it with me non-stop for the past couple of months and practicing the numerous creativity exercises recommended at every opportunity. [...]

In my last blog, we looked at the research-based link between happiness and the ability to focus the mind. Simply put, people who are able to focus their minds a greater percentage of the time (most people’s minds wander about 50%) appear to be happier and more productive at home and at work. Now, I’d [...]

I really didn’t give much thought to the concept of happiness in the workplace until I was walking through the Phoenix airport and spotted The Harvard Business Review (HBR) out of the corner of my eye. Why did it catch my attention? Because here was a big yellow Smiley Face on the front cover (gasp!). [...]

Beliefs, and by extension, belief systems, are powerful energy magnets that shape our inner and outer worlds … and they can be innocently (or not so innocently) misleading. For example, in the 1500′s, authority figures believed that the world was flat as a pancake; in the 1940’s doctors appeared in ads advocating the health benefits [...]

Wouldn’t it be nice to value our manual performance just as much as our computers’ operation? Below are some simple steps to keep our career running smoothly.

We’ve all heard the phrase “Live it up!” in regards to a particular event or party. But what I am suggesting here is to LIVE UP — take your life to your next higher self or level. Gracefully clear away anything or one that is slowing you down.

Many of us feel overloaded and overwhelmed with aggressive schedules and never-ending todo tasks. Often we wish for more time, or more hours in a day. What we don’t often realize is that it’s sometimes as easy as turning the hour glass upside down; emphasis on the phrase is “upside down”.

Who are you? Is it your star sign? Is it your Myers Briggs label? Is it your Blood Type? Who are your work colleagues? How do you know them? And their future behavior? The final blog, of this triptych on simplicity, concerns the challenges of leading and managing across cultural boundaries. The understanding and analysis [...]

We all like to hear good news every now and then. Especially as the days are getting longer and the warmer. And so it was nice to hear Bill McDermott, the first US born co-CEO of SAP recently stated that the dark days of the economic crisis are behind us and we need to prepare [...]

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.  - Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) A close examination of the role of management on large and more complex projects has often spawned the creation of a new field to address particular issues. Recent examples include the management of human resistance on [...]