In a survey of a broad cross section of CEOs, the Malcolm Baldrige Foundation learned that CEOs believed deploying strategy is three times more difficult than developing strategy. If deployment is so challenging, the questions are:

• Are you making progress? How do you know?
• Are your values, vision, mission, and plans being deployed? How do you know?
• Are they understood and supported by all members of your workforce? How do you know?
• Are they understood and supported by your leadership team? How do you know?
• Is the message being well received? How do you know?
• Are your communications effective? How do you know?

It is never too soon to start improving communication and transparency.

It is also critical that you use the right people to transform your strategy into reality. This is emphasised by the startling failure figures associated with projects and programmes throughout the world.

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The 5th Habit and Programme Communication

Avoid Leading one of 70% of Programmes that Fail

Without adequate monitoring and measuring processes in place, TCOR will be difficult and sometimes impossible to manage effectively. Furthermore, reliance on senior management’s intuition and experience is still the most common way organisations identify risk. The dangers to risk identification relying on experience and intuition alone is a risk in itself.

Read AON’s 64 page report which captures the perspectives of the world’s leading risk professionals from leading organisations. Through all the findings, one theme remains consistent: The worldwide economic downturn has had an enormous impact on how organisations approach and manage risk.

Download AON’s 64 page global risk management survey

Tech consulting firms are finding themselves facing the same harsh economic realities as every other sector. They’ve also been faced with slowed spending on technology, as clients seek to cut costs wherever possible. The signs are that tech consulting firms are focusing on reducing spending, increasing their offshore capabilities, and focusing on making bargain priced strategic acquisitions.

The 25 most prestigious technology consulting firms – 2010

1. McKinsey & Company
2. Booz Allen Hamilton
3. Deloitte
4. Gartner, Inc.
5. Accenture
6. IBM Global Technology Services
7. Cisco Systems, Inc.
8. Lockheed Martin Corporation
9. Oracle Consulting
10. Capgemini
11. Northrop Grumman Corporation
12. HP Services
13. SAIC
14. Computer Sciences Corporation
15. Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Inc.
16. Infosys Consulting Inc.
17. Unisys
18. Cambridge Consultants Ltd
19. Perot Systems
20. Tata Consultancy Services
21. Keane, Inc.
22. Sapient
23. CGI
24. Hitachi Consulting
25. Cognizant Technology Solutions
    The next 25
26. Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.
27. Ajilon Consulting
28. Alliance Global Services
29. Atos Origin, Inc.
30. CIBER, Inc.
31. Clarkston Consulting
32. CTG
33. Detica
34. Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Inc.
35. Fujitsu Consulting
36. HCL Technologies Limited
37. IDS Scheer
38. Interactive Business Systems, Inc.
39. Logica
40. Mahindra Satyam
41. MindTree Ltd.
42. PA Consulting Group
43. Patni Computer Systems Ltd.
44. Perficient
45. Protiviti Inc.
46. Smartronix, Inc.
47. SRA International, Inc.
48. SunGard Consulting Services
49. Telcordia
50. Wipro Ltd.

Download the 388 page guide

There isn’t really any consensus about what the term “business model” even means. Suggestions range from the all-encompassing, everything-in-your-value-chain approach to the reductionist “A business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization makes (or intends to make) money.” That latter definition is from Peter Drucker.

Mark W. Johnson proposes a framework broken out into four boxes which answer the following questions:

1) Why would someone want to buy something from you?
2) How will you make money selling it?
3) What, exactly, are the important things you need to do to pull off the plan?
(there are two answers to question 3 – relating to resources and processes)

Watch the video interview with Mark below and read his book to learn more.

I’ve explored a number of cloud computing solutions over the last few years, more recently for CRM, document management and project management. A common requirement for many firms is CRM as no well thought through business can optimise they marketing without CRM, whether it’s an Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft CRM, SalesForce or Zoho, etc.

For me, the benefits of a  cloud solution far out-weigh the alternative of hosting it yourself. Perhaps this is better backed up by the success of SalesForce in recent years. The move to the cloud is happening thick and fast and GMA is utilising Zoho as its CRM tool.

But back to the clouds and Gartner has cast a big heavy grey one over the survival of IT departments over the next few years. In a recent report, Gartner stated that Cloud computing is set to become so pervasive that by 2012, one out of five businesses will own no IT assets at all.

I suppose one can have their head in the clouds and ignore this prediction or take heed and embrace change. Even if it’s only to embrace the private cloud model – a compromise for the skeptics perhaps?

Ask most cloud solution providers and they will inevitably tell you that some of the main reasons to embrace the cloud include:

1. Delivers Faster Time to Value
2. Requires No Up-Front Capital Expense
3. Minimises Operational Costs
4. Requires Fewer Technical Resources
5. Simplifies Integration

Interestingly, two other Gartner IT predictions are that by 2012, India-centric IT services companies will represent 20 percent of the leading cloud aggregators in the market, and by 2014, most IT business cases will include carbon remediation costs.

On a lighter note, Gartner also predicts that by 2012, Facebook will become the hub for social network integration and Web socialisation.

In a nutshell, the CIO’s strategic initiative will clearly define the desired outcomes and those planned outcomes will subsequently provide the vision for one or more programmes which will give rise to a number of projects and their associated activities.

It is critical that desired outcomes can be realistically achieved. Planning to run the three minute mile or have a baby in four months is unlikely to result in success; regardless of how much a CIO, CEO or other stakeholders might want it. No one should set themselves up to fail. The capability, capacity and the willingness to change all need to be sufficiently available or accessible before embarking on ambitious change.

Some of the key questions that should be asked are:

1) What are the objectives of the proposed change?
2) What benefits will the proposed change deliver?
3) Does the organisation have the capability to manage and deliver such change?
4) Are there any interdependencies with other initiatives that are planned or underway?
5) How will business-as-usual be affected and maintained?
6) Does the organisation accept that considerable effort will be required to bring about change?

Once the CIO is satisfied with all of the above and other considerations, their vision for one or more programmes can become a reality.

At this stage, each programme is expected to remain aligned with the CIO’s strategy and lead change. Of course the CIO’s strategy also needs to remain aligned with the corporate strategy. The Programme Manager has a responsibility to envision and communicate a better future with a significant focus on benefits and threats to them and the ultimate goal will be to design and deliver a coherent capability and add value.

Change is always a challenge, but asking the right questions before embarking on a journey to change, will at least help determine whether the journey is achievable or not.

He discusses the importance of staying focused on the fundamentals, sharing lessons learned, and balancing new technologies with proven methods of programme management as well as the essential elements of leadership and creating a culture of success.

There are another 14 minutes to this video. You can view it all here

Portfolio management is defined within the Association for Project Management’s Body of Knowledge as:

“The selection and management of an organisation’s projects, programmes and related business-as-usual activities, taking into account resource constraints …carried out under the sponsorship of the organisation”.

When fully implemented, portfolio management can eliminate waste on unnecessary programmes and projects and can dramatically increase the percentage of such initiatives that is successfully completed. It provides a link between strategy development, finance and strategy implementation, ensuring that the organisations programmes and projects
make the greatest possible contribution to on-going success.

The booklet begins by explaining how the portfolio management discipline helps organisations to ensure that their collections of programmes and projects provide the maximum business benefit. It also explains that portfolio management provides answers to the questions:

• are we undertaking the right combination of programmes and projects to achieve our organisational strategy?
• are all the programmes and projects in the portfolio likely to deliver the expected business benefits?
• could we use our scarce investment resources better by cancelling some initiatives and investing in others?

When fully implemented, portfolio management can eliminate waste on unnecessary programmes and projects and can dramatically increase the percentage of such initiatives that is successfully completed. It provides a link between strategy development, finance and strategy implementation, ensuring that the organisations programmes and projects
make the greatest possible contribution to on-going success.

The APM is expected to publish the final version of the booklet (by Paul Rayner and the committee and membership of ProgM) in October 2009.