Why I left SAP…”macro” negatives

Second-guessing oneself is a risk when deciding to leave a leading company, so I needed to ensure that I had no regrets when I left SAP.   In particular,  I didn’t want short-term personal or “micro” stumbling blocks to obscure great “macro” opportunities in the rest of SAP.  Unfortunately, there were too many big picture concerns that nagged at [...]

Why I moved to Mead Johnson — macro positives

As promised, I’d like to outline some of the reasons why I moved to Mead Johnson.   There are several big picture or macro reasons why the move appealed to me:

Engagement in standing up an “new” company.  MJN just had an IPO as a carve out of Bristol Myers Squibb.  While I’ve had a bit of experience [...]

Manager-Leader Gap in IT Strategy

An illustration of the manager/leader gap discussed earlier (here) is drawn in this back-and-forth among Glenn Whitfield (here), Andrew Meyer (here), and others.  All good stuff, though the last two comments on Glenn’s post — from Long Huynh at CIO Assistant and Glenn himself — get closest to my perpsective.
The idea that a CIO can perform well [...]

Value Management and PMOs

I’ve been working on an initiative called “Value Delivery,” which will incorporate value management into our various PMO methods, tools, etc.  These activities are often listed as typical PMO functions, but this really only honored in the breach.  Value management never seems to take off given a PMO’s traditional emphasis on implementing project management methods, [...]

Great post/thread on Mathematics, PM, and complexity

Glen Alleman and a number of commenters contributed to a great thread on math, PM, and complexity (here). 
I try to keep the ideas of complexity “science” in mind when planning strategy and its execution.  In particular, I have a deep respect for the power of self-organization and the need to create flexible rather than brittle [...]

PM Quote of the Day — Harold Geneen

It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance. 
Hat tip: Jonathan Becher at Manage By Walking Around.

PM Quote of the Day — Catherine Deneuve

Opportunities are often things you haven’t noticed the first time around. 

New Leader Focus Area — Competitive Position

Per earlier posts (here. here, and here), I’ve been thinking about what goes into taking over a new organization.  This post takes a look at competitive analysis via benchmarking.  Benchmarking is always useful, though I’m always wary of getting too hung up on one’s competitors.  I don’t have any particular comment on the eight questions from the HBR [...]

New Leader Focus Area — Customer and Profit Pools

Per earlier posts (here and here), I’ve been thinking about what goes into taking over a new organization.  In my last post on this topic, I may have given the impression that costs and prices should be one’s main focus. 
To that end, this area is one that I’ve neglected — the HBR New Leader article wisely emphasizes [...]

New Leader Focus Area — Costs and Pricing

Per an earlier post (here), I’ve been thinking a lot about what goes into taking over a new organization.  Considering the economy these days, this may happen to more of us!   
Anyway, the principle that costs and prices almost always decline over time is a reasonable foundation for looking at one’s competitive and operations health.   Below are six questions from the [...]