How Big Company Thinking Can Make Simple Solutions Complex

by Tae FitzSimons on Apr 05, 2010 (0) Comments

The last year I've been working with smaller companies because frankly, I was burnt out on big corporate thinking.  Multi-million dollar projects go on and on for years with little to show the end user, meetings upon meetings and meetings about meetings.  Lots of time and money spent debating company policies, procedures and processes, creating weekly management dashboards with massaged data and pretty colors and filling out templates with information that is almost immediately outdated.  In addition to the bureaucracy and the constant stopping to take snapshots of a moving project to assess project health, the solution selected to solve the problem is often a monster to begin with.

Think big or go home.  Big companies require big solutions.  Step aside, it's enterprise-wide!  Gaudy applications with features galore clutter up data centers while most users only use the basic of functionality.  Purchased software once featured in CIO magazines sit on shelves while projects are building or buying the same exact type of software.  Because a big company's needs are complex and each project infinitely unique.

At big companies that only think big, I've seen simple solutions rejected because they are simple.  To suggest such a solution is often met with outrage and appall and quickly dismissed because this person obviously doesn't understand the magnitude of it all.  I've seen a newly hired executive suggest a simple solution and as soon as the meeting was over his competence was questioned at water coolers throughout the building.

I find it all very snooty, self-important and wasteful.  Over the years, I tried to tell myself that the benefit of such big messes is that more people are working and more parents able to send their kids to college.   But I'm not convinced that's how it all works.

Recently to my joy, I read Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37 Signals.  Here are some of the key points:

  • Solve today's problems, not potential ones.
  • Build less.
  • Fix time and budget.  Change/manage scope.
  • Be willing to say no to customers.
  • Build what you can support.
  • Build half a product not a half-assed product.
  • Planning is guessing.

To put a little context around the book.  It's based on web application development but I really think that the approach can be applied to all technology implementations.

With the economy the way it is, lean thinking is everyone's favorite buzzword.  Maybe now big companies will think like start-ups and actually lean businesses.  Not holding my breath but I think now I'm ready to go back to corporate gigs and use small company thinking to make big companies better.

How a Japanese Restaurant Taught Me to be a Better IT Consultant

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 26, 2010 (6) Comments

Recently, I had lunch at a local Japanese restaurant and learned something important about business.  As soon as I walked in I was greeted, not just by the hostess but by all the nearby staff.  Everyone had a bright smile and upbeat attitude.  I started my lunch on a good note.  The customer service was impeccable.  We chatted about the food when ordering and after the food was served, someone checked in to see if I liked it.  They worked as a team and as soon as a plate need to be cleared or drink refilled someone came over.  The waitstaff was attentive, courteous and upbeat.  When I left, the staff all together said, "Thank you! See you soon!"  The good meal seemed even better with such excellent customer service from beginning to end.

This restaurant has 9 locations in the area and the experience is the same no matter where you go.  So I took a look at their website and found that they specifically train their employees this way.  The origin and concept behind the restaurant gives the owner's history, cultural context for the food and the importance of a proper greeting.  (The writing on the site is a little goofy since it seems to be translated from Japanese.  Don't get distracted by the language and instead look at the basic concepts and how they apply them.)

What does an enjoyable meal at a Japanese restaurant have to do with IT consulting?  Everything.  The restaurant is providing products and services just like the many other restaurants in the same neighborhood but they distinguish themselves by enhancing the perceived value of their products and service with proper greetings, manners and positive attitude.

Here are the basics of how they approach good business:

  • Be courteous, respectful and positive.
  • Begin and end things by connecting with others with a genuine smile and greeting.
  • Be attentive to your clients by being aware of their body language, needs and reactions.
  • Constantly communicate.
  • Work as a team.
  • Enjoy what you do.

Working in IT it's easy to get wrapped up in the seriousness of technology, processes and big budgets and forget to smile and greet someone.  In the daily grind, I often forget to be kind, attentive and open to others.  Good business can be based on good human behavior.  A good product/service seems even better when it's delivered with a genuine smile.  This is how I want to engage with my clients.  Maybe, I too will end up with 9 profitable locations.

Keep on billing with a smile. :)

Are Clients Asking You to Work for Free?

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 22, 2010 (0) Comments

Some companies think they can negotiate aggressively with small consulting firms with the promise of future opportunities.  They'll increase scope and decrease cost with the bait that the firm would be proving itself for larger upcoming projects.

Walk away if you know that you will lose money on the project.  Even if it's a big name company that would look great on your client list.  Sacrificing a little now for later rarely works out and sets a bad precedent.  If the company does not respect it's vendors during the contract negotiation stage, the company usually does not respect the vendor while engaged on a project.

Providing a reasonable and specific service for free such as a 1 day assessment or a 1 hour training class can be a good way to get your foot in the door.  But never compromise on paid services.  Not all clients are worth working with.  Be selective to keep on billing.

Here is a funny video illustrating The Vendor Client Relationship in Real World Situations.

How to Use LinkedIn for Business Leads

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 15, 2010 (0) Comments

Are you really using LinkedIn?  Not, do you have a profile and occasionally accept a connection invite?  If you're a Splat you should be on LinkedIn just about everyday.  Here is how a few Splats are using this business networking tool to get new business:

Check profiles of the people in your next meeting or networking event. Patrick Agostino of Resolve I.T. not only checks the LinkedIn profiles of people he has scheduled meetings with but also the profiles of the attendees of networking events he plans to attend.  He connects with individuals he is interested in speaking with before the event and arranges to meet there.  This way his networking efforts are much more focused and less up to serendipity.

Set up people searches. Amy Graver of Elements Design uses LinkedIn's advanced search functionality to help her find the Marketing Directors she wants to network with. She has a saved search with criteria for the person's title and location within a specific radius.  This way she can easily see when a new local Marketing Director becomes part of her LinkedIn network as her connections grow.

Participate in Groups and Answers. Every Splat I spoke with testified to the benefits of participating in relevant groups and answering questions.  Being helpful is the key.  Don't spam everyone by constantly promoting yourself and your company.  Post interesting and relevant articles to groups to start discussions, comment on other people's posts and answer questions.  By being helpful you are also demonstrating your expertise and customer service.   Many good connections have been made this way and have lead to new business.

Quality vs Quantity of connections. The age old debate, when the quantity of connections increase to over 500, 1000, 2000 does the quality of those connections decrease?  Sean O'Rourke of Syzygy 3 and Dave Hatter of Libertas Technologies have differing opinions.

Sean will not connect with people he does not know.  This helps him to connect with the right people and makes the best use of his time in building these relationships.  He applies a strict etiquette not only when connecting but also in how he engages with his network.   Sean does not aggressively approach his connection's connections and always wants to be respectful and maintain trust.  He's also gotten direct business from his status updates since his updates are going to a very targeted audience.

Dave is a networking powerhouse with over 2500 connections and believes in connecting online and in real life with as many people as possible and making the most positive impression by helping, not pestering.  He spends about an hour a day on LinkedIn.  With such a vast network, if he is interested in connecting with someone at a specific company, a search is always fruitful with 20-30 results.  Once he finds people he would like to be introduced to, Dave always calls his direct connection to chat and ask for introductions.  Since he is comfortable managing a high volume of information, he finds value in every activity, profile update and status update.

One approach is not necessarily better than the other.  One approach can be better than the other for every individual based on what suits that person more.  Both ways can be highly effective when done well and within the spirit of good social networking.

Optimize time spent on LinkedIn and the benefits.  Dave Hatter had a few more good tips.

  • Stay up to date by scanning the RSS feeds for all network updates and specific Answers categories.
  • Keep your Outlook contact information up to date by using the Outlook Toolbar.  Any changes a connection makes is automatically updated in Outlook.
  • Engage on LinkedIn with your personal brand in mind.  Generally being helpful leads to discussions and new connections.  Don't expect everything you do to directly generate business leads.

LinkedIn is a valuable business social network that every Splat should be using.  Take the time to figure out what works best for you and will help you to keep on billing.

Splat Collaboration

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 10, 2010 (0) Comments

The last 10 years I've worked with a lot of Splats.  It seems that many independent consultants and small firms are so darn secretive.  Our industry is full of tight mouthed individuals that don't like to share knowledge or lend a helping hand unless it's for a potential client or billable.

Yes, Keep on Billing is our motto here at IT Splat but it's with the approach that an open community is far better at helping everyone to keep on billing.  Other Splats are your colleagues and friends, not your enemy.  Sure, you may compete against some for contracts but think of all the opportunities to partner up, establish local referral networks, share business tips and tricks or to even share office space in a net gain for everyone.

Give some love to your fellow Splats. Put yourself out there and be helpful to your fellow Splats.  There will be many unexpected rewards and people you connect with and can build trusting business relationships with.  Don't just focus on potential clients.  We're all in this together.

I'd like to end this post with the words of the great American poet, Vanilla Ice:  "All right stop, Collaborate and listen."

While you've got Ice Ice Baby stuck in your head, share your thoughts on this post in the comments section.

Discussion: Pros and Cons of Freelancing

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 10, 2010 (0) Comments

On the radio program AirTalk, Larry Mantle discussed the pros and cons of freelancing with guest Brian Goler of ODesk.

Are Splats supplementing client work with freelancing?  Let's discuss in the comments.  Here are some questions to start us off:

  • Have you done freelance work?
  • How do you define freelance? ( vs project, contract or SLA work?)
  • Have you used services like ODesk and Elance as a freelancer or used them to hire freelancers?  What was your experience?
  • Are such services driving rates down?

This is an open discussion.  Let's hear your questions and opinions on freelancing.

Defuse a Hostile Situation with Feedback

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 08, 2010 (0) Comments

Every consultant has multiple stories about nightmare projects.  You know the ones with more people issues than technical.  It can be a symptom of a dysfunctional company culture, poor management or staffing choices, distrust and resentment from past issues and personality conflicts.  Whatever the reason, there is clearly a log jam of emotional content blocking progress and team work.

It's easy to not get involved with people issues for external consultants so long as the project sponsor is happy.  But in my experience, making it a priority and dealing with it as a goal upfront has helped make projects more successful.  In the end every project entails change that has to be accepted by the company and its customers.  A team with such conflicts can not create good changes and implement well. Success is not just being on time and on budget, it's how well the organization and end users adopt the change.

When the environment has a lot of tension I always facilitate a series of feedback sessions.  Not a meeting.  Not water cooler gossip about who thinks who or what is the problem.  A well structured feedback session to elicit what is working, not working and a list of tasks for improvement steps.  In general, they are a good practice and a vital tool in improving team work when done well.

The approach: Highlight what is working well to build upon it and uncover what is not working well to make changes. A feedback session is not about blame or all negative.  Allow people to vent but in a constructive way.  Discuss what is working well and encourage more of it.  The discussion is about process not specific people.

Key to honest feedback: A comfortable environment to empower everyone to have a voice. It's important to make everyone feel comfortable about speaking, especially in companies that do not encourage open communication.  Half the battle is won when the attendees are willing to let their guard down to share and make improvements.  Set expectations before the session by communicating in person and in the meeting invite the approach and agenda.

Want to learn more?  In upcoming posts we'll discuss facilitation techniques for a successful feedback session.

1 Employer vs Multiple Clients

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 04, 2010 (0) Comments

Nowadays, it seems like being a full-time employee is riskier than being an independent consultant because you're getting all your sense of stability and income from one source.  If you had multiple clients and should one client project end, it's far less devastating.

The same goes for working with just one client full-time.  It's great to land a long term gig that has some of the cosiness of being a full-time employee while having the benefits of being an independent consultant.  But again, it's full-time billable hours from one source.

The best way to mitigate the risk of having no job, no clients is the same advise many have for investing your money--diversify.

Here are some possible permutations of client types:

  • 1 main client (billing at 40 hrs/week or somewhat less) and multiple small clients.
  • Multiple clients long term (2-4) billing at part-time hours.
  • Multiple short term clients.
  • And everything in between.

Add services to help accommodate multiple clients and generate leads: Have clearly defined short term services (i.e. training sessions, assessments or small project work) to supplement main services.  Potentially services completed in 1 day/week can lead to bigger projects.

Repeatable services should have repeatable processes: If your services are repeatable regardless of the client (i.e. system administration) clearly define the service and how you engage your clients.  This way you can provide consistent service to all your clients.

If you juggle multiple clients what is your approach to keep on billing?  Share in the comments below....

SplatSkills: Business Apologies

by Tae FitzSimons on Mar 01, 2010 (0) Comments

There's a lot of public apologies lately.  Tiger Woods and Akio Toyoda are among the most recent.  Tiger for family values/morality issues.  Akio Toyoda on behalf of a company that made serious product safety mistakes.  They apologize because human nature desires an honest acknowledgment of wrongdoing, of the mistakes made regardless of intent and acceptance of responsibility to rebuild damaged/stressed relationships.  We all know how it feels when we are wronged, harmed or unexpectedly impacted by another person's actions. We can all understand the power of apology.

Business is about relationships. It's always about working with people and people have emotional reactions, can feel unappreciated and unmotivated, and can take things personally.  Business, yes even IT business can never be just about the work and the numbers.  It's relationships that gets you your next client.  It's relationships that help you complete a project on time and on budget.

Apology Tips:

1. Be sincere and kind.

2. Based on the situation and person/people involved select appropriate method--in person, note, phone, etc.

3. Don't make excuses or blame others.  Simply state the situation and state the mistake you made.

4. Yes, you have to actually say "I'm sorry."

5. Remember the goal is to acknowledge, accept responsibility and reassure that the same mistake won't be repeated.

Apologizing does not make you a weak consultant or person.  It makes you a strong one.  One who can admit fault so that everyone can move on and work together well to deliver the best results.  We all make mistakes.  It's a bigger mistake to not own up to it.

Here's another example of apologizing.  What are your thoughts on business apologies and how has it helped you in your work life?

When to Officially Incorporate

by Tae FitzSimons on Feb 26, 2010 (0) Comments

Thinking about starting your own consulting business?  Have you decided that you've thought about it for long enough and you're ready to jump in?  You're excited and want to form your company right away.  CEO?  President?  Founder?  You've picked your title, company name and maybe you have a partner.  So why not go ahead and incorporate?  Because you don't have a client yet.

You believe that you have to form a company, have a logo, business cards and a sharp website to open the doors and get clients.  You are now official but maybe it takes 6 months to get a client and meanwhile during that 6 months a calender year ended and you have to file taxes and pay fees without any revenue.  In doing so you've invested time and money upfront that could have been dedicated to getting your first client.

So, do the research and figure out the quickest process for and fees involved in incorporating in your state (can be expedited for 1 week turnaround) and how you can file for the company name to be placed on hold.  Have a business insurance company lined up--in most cases it only takes a day or two to get your company insured.  Get that first client then pull the trigger.

Gotta bill first to be able to keep on billing.