Strategy

Strategy

When To Fix The Process, Not The Break

Tags: , , Advice, Business, Process Design, Strategy, Uncategorized
photo credit: Hamed Saber via photopin cc

photo credit: ralphbijker via photopin cc

There are many ways to deal with ineffective and inefficient process. You can create workarounds. You can bubble-wrap it with additional processes as a form of assurance. You can always do nothing, especially if you don’t care enough about the results at stake. And sometimes – if you are serious about long-term value of the process – you can fix the root cause itself.

cibsys has recently conducted a process efficiency review for one of our clients. Within that assessment, weidentifiedactivities in the operational process that were a form of assurance rather than value-adding activities. Effort-intensive manual intervention was used to assure that system errors were caught before appearing to customers. Such manual intervention, of course, did not address the root cause of the problem. Neither did it guarantee timely and appropriate fixes. inconsumably Read More

Is Your Process Chain Joined Up? Can You Deliver What You Sell?

Tags: , , , , Advice, Business, Organization, Process Design, Strategy
photo credit: Hamed Saber via photopin cc

photo credit: ralphbijker via photopin cc

In two completely different clients in two completely different sectors our consultants have seen on recent projects the same challenges.  Both clients were actively seeking to improve both their offering to clients and the efficiency of the processing that supports them after the sale or contract.  We saw the same issues despite very different products and very different business models and this lead us to think that this must be a common problem within many industries and businesses. Read More

Paradigm Shifters – Hire a Junior to Lead Your Company?

Tags: , , , , , Advice, Strategy
photo credit: Hamed Saber via photopin cc

photo credit: Hamed Saber via photopin cc

First of all, there will always be a paradigm. There might be a state where conflicting paradigms are competing for supremacy but a time without paradigms is not possible.

Having recognised how your own expectations and therefore paradigms influence your beliefs about the world, you can use this ability to advance.

Assuming you have discovered the state of severe discomfort where your old paradigm does not fit anymore, what kind of leader or in general human resources are necessary to complete the paradigm shift? For instance, why do the big strategy consultancies employ often people with backgrounds that often seem counter-intuitive to the business that are in? Read More

Do Our Expectations Cloud Our World?

Tags: , Advice, Assess, Assure, Strategy
photo credit: One Way Stock via photopin cc

photo credit: One Way Stock via photopin cc

In strategic decision making, we have certain expectations about the world and how it behaves. In order to find your blue ocean, you are on the lookout for distinguishing elements.

The aim is to make competition irrelevant by carving out for yourself a hopefully close to inimitable competitive advantage. These processes are often similar to paradigm shifts in sciences. These shift describe the advancement from one paradigm, e.g the sun circulates the earth, to another, e.g. the earth circulates the sun.

Read More

ATMs, Microsoft and the End of Life

Tags: , , , , , , Advice, Assess, Strategy
photo credit: redspotted via photopin cc

photo credit: redspotted via photopin cc

Those of you familiar with this blog know that a recurring theme in our posts is planning ahead and being proactive. We like to think that strategy is a living process in organisations and not a one off and random act. Well sadly in many, and especially in big organisations, planning ahead strategically can be sadly lacking.

Let us examine a simple fact, way back in 2007, Microsoft announced that it would end support for XP that much loved but inherently insecure beast of an operating system that we all love and hate at the same time. They gave us all 7 years, yes 7 years, to migrate to something newer, better and more secure. The end date is 8th of April – after that, support will require penal license fees. Is the world ready? In a word, No.

To continue reading this post, please visit our sister blog at: ‘ATMs, Microsoft and the End of Life’

Why Generation Z Does not Want to Work for Big Corporates

Tags: , , , , , , , Advice, Assess, Business, Human Capital, Strategy
2013 Deloitte Report: Exploring Strategic Risk

2013 Deloitte Report: Exploring Strategic Risk

As a small but growing consultancy, we receive an increasing amount of applications on our vacancies with an increase in the quality of applicants.

This is an interesting trend and constitutes a shift in the perception of applicants towards big multinational corporates. As Maslow outlined in his famous Hierarchy of Needs, the need for self-actualization is most highly desired but often not fulfilled in a junior position within a large corporation. Generation Z, 18-30, tends to value this criterium with an increasing importance. This is one of the reasons to choose a startup with all its risks over the safety of a big MNC because you are often given freedom in how you are doing things and often partly what you do, e.g. Google’s 20 per cent set aside time per employee for own projects.

Read More

5 Questions to Ask Your CIO as Non-Executive Director

Tags: , , , , , , Advice, Assess, Organization, Strategy, Uncategorized
photo credit: jamuraa via photopin cc

photo credit: jamuraa via photopin cc

Chris Ham, Managing Director of cibsys, has spoken in cooperation with John Holland at the Eleven Canterbury event ’New Technology Trends – Risks and Opportunities for Non-Executive Directors and Boards on the 20th of January at the Institute of Directors. Often Non-Executive Directors find themselves in the position to ask critical questions about unfamiliar topics and this event aimed to equip them with the necessary tools and a critical set of questions to be able to stand up to seasoned IT executives.

In the following, we have picked five interesting questions which you can use to “penetration test” your CIO with. For your convenience, we have added related blog articles below the questions.

Read More

Managing IT Risks in the Real World

Tags: , , , , , Assure, Business, CIO, Process Design, Strategy
photo credit: frozenchipmunk via photopin cc

photo credit: frozenchipmunk via photopin cc

Several times in our previous articles here on this blog, I have referred to the challenges that come with managing disasters or threats in the IT world. cibsys is part of a group training Non Exec Directors (NEDs) on how to handle the risks and opportunities that come with IT at the executive level, in fact our next course for NEDs (and executives who want to know more about IT risks) is on 20th January in London, please contact me directly here for detailed information. Read More

Hit me when I’m down – The gloves are off in cyber attacks

Tags: , , , , , , , , Advance, Advice, Assure, CIO, Organization, Strategy
photo credit: Evil Erin via photopin cc

photo credit: Evil Erin via photopin cc

We all know in boxing that you cannot hit below the belt as well as hit someone when they are on the canvas. Sadly, in the world of IT security and hackers there are no such rules. Watching the recent real world events in the banking world, we have seen a number of banks hit with cyber attacks in the run up to the Christmas period.  Consumers relying on payments and being able to make purchases have been disrupted, dare I say, yet again. Poor old RBS group and especially NatWest seem to have taken the brunt of the hits in the past weeks (NatWest, Ulster Bank)
Read More