Posts Tagged ‘www.activegarage.com’

4 steps to effective Disaster Recovery planning

by Marc Watley, Aug 23, 2010

IT executives today are, in fact, increasingly faced with the threat of disasters – whether natural or man-made. As organizations – and their customers – increasingly rely on database, server, and IP-connected applications and data sources, the importance and responsibility of maintaining continuity of the business infrastructure and limiting costly downtime in the event of a disaster, is paramount. Read this article to get a high-level, best-practices overview of the DR planning process. more…

Character and Personality #8: Competency

by Gary Monti, Aug 24, 2010

A good leader is also a good politician, one who finds a way to thread through a situation to reveal a path that, when followed, benefits the common good. Competence pulls technology and sophistication together so that one person can meet another person’s needs, i.e., a connection comprising the humanity of the stakeholders who need and commit to finding a solution that works. more…

Social Media and Tribes #9: The fear factor

by Deepika Bajaj, Aug 25, 2010

Even professionals who have gone through many technological innovations in the past don’t find the idea of being transparent and authentic over social media too appealing. They were worried about identity theft, making a wrong impression on a potential employer and above all were overwhelmed by the friend requests on Facebook. These are valid concerns, but not an excuse to avoid social media.  more…

Flexible Focus #16: The decision trap

by William Reed, Aug 26, 2010

Ambiguity causes anxiety in those who are inflexible, and creates possibilities in the minds of the people who have flexible focus. Tolerance for ambiguity drops when you have to make a decision. Urgency adds pressure, and when the decision affects the core areas of your life, you can feel as if you are lost in a labyrinth of choices. Your decision sets the wheels in motion, whereas with indecision the wheel turns without you. Read about the Six Criteria for Decision Making to stay in motion and steer the wheel. more…

Investment Value

by Steve Popell, Aug 27, 2010

In a previous post, Business Valuation in Divorce is Different, Steve discussed why Investment Value is more appropriate in the context of family law.  But, this method is not just for divorcing couples.  In any situation in which the party acquiring an interest (or a greater interest) in a company will become (or continue to be) part of the management team, Investment Value is often the most appropriate method.  Read this article to find out why. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Business Valuation, deepika bajaj, execution, Flexible Focus, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, leaders, Leadership, management, marc watley, Social Media, steve popell, Strategy, technology, william reed, www.activegarage.com, www.datacentertrust.com, www.deepikabajaj.com

4 tips for selecting the right consultant

by Brian Beedle, Aug 16, 2010

Vendor selection process can be an arduous, time consuming, and stressful task.  Receiving quotes that run the gambit of the budgetary spectrum, deciding which product will give your company the biggest bang for the buck and wondering if saving a dollar or two is really worth the frustration of finding the “right partner”.  Every Project Manager has dealt with these issues. In this article, Brian lists some key points may provide some clarity and assist with narrowing the decision-making process when seeking a value-added business partner. more…

Character and Personality #7: Courage

by Gary Monti, Aug 17, 2010

Tiger Woods’ difficulties with his swing and Mark Hurd’s (HP’s CEO) inability to fill out expense reports correctly can be traced back to complexes. In a very public way they both show how trying to succeed simply by ego has limits and the desire to be complete as Self will, when denied, erupt and wreak havoc without any regard to the consequences. more…

Working Hard – Still no progress?

by Vijay Peduru, Aug 18, 2010

According to most economic historians, the Industrial age ended about 20Yrs ago in 1989 when the Berlin wall came down and the internet came up. In the industrial age, working hard meant, using our body and working long hours i.e physical labor. The easiest way to do hard work in the post industrial age, is to love change, train ourselves to love challenges and question the status quo all by using and exerting our mind. more…

Flexible Focus #15: Karma and Connections

by William Reed, Aug 19, 2010

You reap as you sow. Therefore if we want to achieve positive results, you need to think, speak, and act positively. There is also collective Karma, which is often thought of as collective fate, but more constructively can be interpreted as collective action. Things are connected in ways that are not always obvious. Even when the connections are not obvious, it is possible to take small actions which use the butterfly effect to create good Karma. more…

A diverse workforce: The smart thing to do

by Robert Driscoll, Aug 20, 2010

Diversity in the workplace should not be limited to race, gender and age, but differences of views and personalities as well. If this diverse workforce is guided properly, they will share their unique knowledge and discuss their differences rather than what’s common between them. This will lead to generating innovative ideas that could potentially change the marketplace you are in. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, brian beedle, Business Strategy, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, Leadership, possibilities, Project Management, Robert Driscoll, Strategy, technology, vijay peduru, william reed, www.activegarage.com

Integration: Keys to the successful merger of companies

by Matthew Carmen, Aug 2, 2010

Companies merge to increase profits through increase efficiency. But according to CNBC, nine out of ten mergers do not fully meet the goals of their acquisition. The main task that takes place in successful integrations is proper reparation within operational areas. This includes putting together processes and procedures that will need to take place to reach the corporate goals. In this article Matthew describes how he participated in a merger at a large entertainment company and what contributed to its success.  more…

Character and Personality #5: Don’t pull that trigger!

by Gary Monti, Aug 3, 2010

Sometimes you don’t want to confront your fears and uncomfortable situations. This causes blind spots into which organizations can fall an disappear. Instead of taking short cuts and jumping to action we should explore options, analyze our assumptions and manage risk. more…

Managing a project requires actions

by Guy Ralfe, Aug 4, 2010

Just because the project has a plan does not mean we simply have to conform to it. A plan is created when certain realities are true. But as the project is implemented, things change and new realities open up. We need to constantly update our plan and make adjustments based on changes that occur through out the implementation phase. Guy sites an example from his recent experience in this article. more…

Flexible Focus #13: Finding focus in the frames

by William Reed, Aug 5, 2010

Creativity happens much better when you are in your favorite cafe than when you are in your cubicle. Even better, the Mandala Chart offers a fresh approach that helps you find focus in the frames. Once you understand the value and attraction of working with the Mandala Chart on paper, you can increase your skills and improve your results with practice. Here are 8 steps that can help you get started.  more…

Author’s Journey #33: 7 Keys to Profitable Special Events

by Roger Parker, Aug 6, 2010

Last week, Roger discussed some of the ways authors can attract profitable speaking invitations. In this week’s article he takes the idea of “speaking for profit” to the next level, which involves creating, marketing, and producing special events like conferences, seminars, and workshops. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, gary monti, Guy Ralfe, Matthew Carmen, roger parker, william reed, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

I recently had to jump in and manage a project in deep distress. The project was 5.5 weeks into an 8 week schedule and the project was only barely 20% complete. This was a construction project so easier to measure completion than say IT projects.

When I jumped into the project we were about to be removed from the project, I begged for 48 hrs to produce a recovery plan but settled on a compromise of 24 hrs – this was my first commercial construction project so not much time!  In discussing the situation with the general contractor, they kept on telling us how far behind schedule we were against the original (baseline) project plan. This was the original project plan laid out before the project began.

The conversation was just hopeless to the situation – telling me how late each section is; does not give any direction with which to act to remediate the situation. When I asked what were the priorities and what dependencies existed I received the response “they are all critical!”

When the plan was originally built it was obviously constructed based on a number of constraints and priorities known at the time. Today those priorities were in a very different arrangement due to the impact of not having various sections complete that have an impact on others also working on the project.

What I set about doing was to produce a plan, a recovery plan, that defined the work that needed to be completed and by when based on current priorities so that it still remained a comprehensive plan. This plan set out the new objectives and the “new reality” we needed to produce for a satisfactory outcome – with this defined it was shared with the team who now knew what was required. Looking at the project this way provided tangible targets to manage the resources and production against. The obvious problem was – being told you are late yesterday and again today does not provide you any point of reference with which to act.

Another successful tactic we used was not to focus on the small details but rather identify the three or four key fronts we needed to make progress on and constantly reevaluated the plan every day to determine if we had made enough progress… and also, did we need more people and could we shift the load around between teams?

This was a recovery plan but in essence it is no different than it should be for any project correctly managed. Projects are living and evolving ecosystems – a plan helps us anticipate the future and organize a number of people/organizations for the execution of the project. What we need to remember is that when the situation no longer reflects the plan the plan needs to be adjusted and some actions need to take place as a result or the outcome cannot be the same. To manage projects you need to manage the project and not just read the plan!

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This article was contributed by Guy Ralfe, co-founder of Active Garage and co-author of the upcoming book ProjectManagementTweets. You can follow Guy on Twitter at gralfe.

Tagged as: actions, expediting, Guy Ralfe, managing, Plans, progress, Project Management, Schedule, www.activegarage.com

Don’t just invent. Innovate.

by Robert Driscoll, Jul 26, 2010

Invention is not the same as innovation. Starbucks, Microsoft, Red Bull and Ebay did not simply invent. They all did something that was different in the marketplace that connected with its users. Sometimes creating that next big thing is just simply doing it better than your competition or making it simpler.  Ideas are all around us.  Now innovate. more…

Character and Personality #4: Time

by Gary Monti, Jul 27, 2010

Temperaments refers to preferred ways of thinking. Knowing individual’s temperaments can help predict possible outcomes in situations. A typical company will have a mix of intuitive thinker, intuitive feeler, sensing judger and sensing perceiver. Each  of them perceives time differently and understanding that will enable your planning and execution to proceed realistically. more…

Social Media and Tribes #7: Is Twitter doomed to fail?

by Deepika Bajaj, Jul 28, 2010

Twitter has generated enough controversies and we have not seen the end of it. There is a constant debate if Twitter is good or bad. Just like most things in life, it’s not for everybody and not for all purposes. But it will be enormously useful if you know how to leverage it. Share, connect and reciprocate with somebody on twitter and you’ll see it’s potential. more…

Flexible Focus #12: The 8 frames of live – Business

by William Reed, Jul 29, 2010

What career you pursue and how you engage with your work is one of the determining factors in the quality of your life and your legacy. Most people are concerned with the mechanics and features of their work, salary and benefits, but there is one question that should come first - Are you engaged in your work with head, heart, and hands? This article identified 7 hidden opportunities to shift to positive engagement. more…

Author’s Journey #32: Speaking for Profit

by Roger Parker, Jul 30, 2010

Authors depend on information products, workbooks, audios and videos because there’s more money in the back-end products then they’re likely to earn from their books. However, the Internet is a crowded marketplace; there’s competition even in niche categories. Speaking engagements provide a valuable source of profit. In this article Roger explains how to maximize your profits from speaking engagements. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, deepika bajaj, Entrepreneurship, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, Innovation, Robert Driscoll, roger parker, Social Media, william reed, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

Your readiness for managing your supplier after the negotiation

by Brian Superczynski, Jul 19, 2010

Organizational needs are routinely satisfied by external vendors. Letting the vendors manage the relationship will be like the tail wagging the dog. It will lead to serious issues not limited to mushrooming cost. Vendor management includes the negotiation process before the contact is signed, having an organizational structure to manage vendors and having an mature process to monitor the lifecycle of your agreements. more…

Character and Personality #3: Orientation and Energy

by Gary Monti, Jul 20, 2010

Two major components that go into determining one’s temperament are Orientation and Energy. Orientation refers to how we prefer to interface with the outside world. The two approaches are Judging (don’t confuse with Judgmental) and Perceiving. Two possibilities for gaining energy are Extroverts and Introverts. A person can have a combination of these traits and of course these are not the only once – there is a whole slew of these. Understanding these traits will help you manage people and teams better. more…

Social Media and Tribes # 6: Changing the world is addictive

by Deepika Bajaj, Jul 21, 2010

A tribe is constituted of people who care about a specific topic or interest or looking to bring a specific change. Tribes are needed to change the world and social media has created tremendous opportunity to create and lead tribes. Read this article to understand how to gain advantage using social media and not get simply distraught by its demands. more…

Flexible Focus #11: The Principle of comprehensiveness

by William Reed, Jul 22, 2010

In this article you will find an optical illusion. As you increase your field of vision, you will be able to see more white dots. The message here is, you need the ability to see the big picture, the details and the relationships all at the same time. Mandala Chart can help us regain our bearings by seeing our business comprehensively. This will enable us see the opportunities that are never obvious, because the exist in the spaces between. more…

Author’s Journey #31: Managing and Marketing information products

by Roger Parker, Jul 23, 2010

Information products are an author’s best friend; they offer far more profit potential than authors can earn from book sales alone. Last week, Roger’s post explored the 3 main issues involved in creating profitable information products: copyright, format, and topic. This week’s post takes a look at creating a process to produce, market, and schedule information products. more….

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, deepika bajaj, Entrepreneurship, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, Innovation, invincibelle, Leadership, possibilities, roger parker, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, technology, william reed, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

In my last post, I talked about the pillars of success to help start your venture.  In order to make sure that the pillars stay up, you have to have a solid foundation, which are the principles of the leader.  These principles are: integrity, credibility, attitude, teamwork, excellence and vision.

In order to become a leader, you must have integrity.  Without integrity, you won’t have any followers.  Your integrity is your brand not only within your company, but in the marketplace with your customers as well.  As a leader, you are constantly building it and making it better.  You create, maintain and build your integrity throughout your career, but it only takes one unethical act to destroy it.

As you build and improve your integrity, you start gaining credibility not only within your organization, but with your customers as well, as you keep and fulfill on your promises.  You can’t have integrity and build your credibility without the right attitude.  You need to know how to build people up and help them overcome challenges and go above and beyond to not only create opportunities but create success as well.  An organization with smart people with the right attitude in an organization will go much farther than an organization without.  Sounds simple, but great people with the right attitude are the hardest, and most important, assets to find in a business.

A leader with integrity, credibility and the right attitude with a group of people following them who also have the right attitude must be able to create a teamwork environment.  Employees who are able to effectively work together allow a company to accomplish tasks and meet goals that would be very different, if not impossible to do, as individuals.

Being the leader of a company, you must strive for excellence.  You should constantly push to improve your product and services in the marketplace.  Not only listen to your employees recommendations, but more importantly, your customers as well.  Use these recommendations to continually improve your products or services.

In doing all of this, don’t forget about your company’s vision. Always remember it and ensure that your colleagues and employees practice it, believe in it and share it with your customers.  As a leader, you must be able to not only share the vision with others but also make sure it its being followed and practiced.

We all have skills and capabilities that help our organizations, but none of us are perfect.  If you can master most of these, along with the pillars of success, you will not only be an effective leader, but will create a company with effective employees helping you build a successful business.

This article was contributed by Robert Driscoll, co-founder of Active Garage. You can follow Robert on Twitter at rsdriscoll.

Tagged as: active garage, business, Business Management, Business Strategy, Communication, execution, http://activegarage.com, leaders, Leadership, management, Robert Driscoll, Strategy, www.activegarage.com

What can Cloud do for you?

by Marc Watley, Jun 28, 2010

The recent AT&T/iPad security debacle provided some sensational headlines. But that does not mean you should stay away from cloud computing. If you follow Marc’s recommendations in this post, you can adopt Cloud solutions to remain competitive and do so in a secure and highly available fashion. more…

Leadership and Mythology #8: Myth, Self-Discovery and Business

by Gary Monti, Jun 29, 2010

Tired of doing things you regret? Wonder why the behaviors continue even though they sabotage your position? Vacillate from submission to aggression when making business deals? Want to stop all this and just stay on your unique path? Wonder where the Hell that path is? Read this article to understand the three level of truth and how they tie to your Myth. more…

Social Media and Tribes #4: Tribal leadership

by Deepika Bajaj, on Jun 30, 2010

The word “tribe” has become part of the popular lexicon. If you have wondered what constitutes a tribe and how they function, this article is for you. People who end up as tribal leaders are the ones who leave the tribe better than they found them. more…

Flexible Focus #8: Memory is a slippery slope

by William Reed, Jul 1, 2010

Just like there is a learning curve, there is a forgetting curve. Without periodic review we forget what we learn and in a month’s time we retain only 20% of what we learned a month before. In this article William give describes how to use the Mandala Chart to improve retention. more…

Author’s Journey #28: Creating a marketing plan for your book

by Roger Parker, Jul 2, 2010

During the past 10 weeks, Roger’s post have covered different approaches to marketing your book, including list-building incentives, one sheets, and obtaining pre-publication quotes. This week’s article ties the previous 10 installments together and closes Part 3, Planning, by discussing the importance of creating a book marketing plan as early as possible. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: cloud computing, deepika bajaj, gary monti, invincibelle, IT Finance, published and profitable, roger parker, Social Media, william reed, www.activegarage.com, www.invincibelle.com, www.publishedandprofitable.com

3 Steps to making the Outsourcing choice

by Matthew Carmen, Jun 21, 2010

It is now rare to find a company, of any size, that hasn’t outsourced some portion of their IT functions.  This could be as small as an application or as large as the company’s entire IT department.  If you’re considering outsourcing within your own organization, Matthew’s article will help you think through the next steps in detail.  more…

Leadership and Mythology #7: Zeus, Greed and Change

by Gary Monti, Jun 22, 2010

Being greedy can lead to disastrous results. Nurturing your network and cultivating abundance is critical for sustained success and peace of mind. Greed and its consequences show up in Greek mythology. The lessons are quite relevant today especially in a complex, chaotic business world. more…

Social Media and Tribes #3: Mob mentality

by Deepika Bajaj, Jun 23, 2010

Contrary to popular conventions about the Web opening minds, people are more likely to read information or participate in social groups that reinforce what they already believe. A tribe can show dramatic increase in the undesirable action compared with doing nothing at all, because it demonstrated that lots of others engaged in the behavior. But if your message to your tribe is right, you can make positive change happen.  more…

Flexible Focus #7: Inside the lines

by William Reed, Jun 24, 2010

Thinking outside the box is a synonym for creativity. Although this metaphor has captured the popular imagination, the real challenge is to engage in applied creative thinking that solves real problems. Just like tennis is a game that is played entirely within the box, the most exciting and productive creative work is often produced and performed inside the box. In this article William explains how to use the Mandala chart to expand your thinking and stay within the lines.  more…

Author’s Journey #27: Building relationships with your readers

by Roger Parker, Jun 25, 2010

It is increasingly obvious that the whole point of writing a book is not to sell books, but to build long-term and profitable reader relationships. Consider your book the core of your long-term self (or business) marketing plan. In this scenario, your book becomes the hub of a relationship-building strategy that begins long before your book appears and continues for years afterward. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, Business Management, Business Strategy, deepika bajaj, Entrepreneurship, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, invincibelle, Leadership, management, Matthew Carmen, possibilities, purpose, roger parker, Strategy, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

NBA, NHL and your company’s Key Performance Indicators

by Brian Superczynski, Jun 7, 2010

Competitive sports industry lives and breaths KPIs. Everything is measured and compared with the other teams and actionable items created. This helps them to improve their game. Most companies measure KPIs, but find it difficult to do it at a more granular level within the company. Ask your management chain to identify metrics which translate to their group’s success. more…

Leadership and Mythology #5: Psychology and Entrepreneurs

by Gary Monti, Jun 8, 2010

Transitioning from a job to being an entrepreneur takes you through an interesting journey. Typically you start your career by following orders and delivering results. Then as you gain more confidence, you start expecting more and ultimately decide to go on your own. As you go through the various stages, the individual is transformed continuously. Is it challenging or threatening? It depend upon your psyche. more…

Flexible Focus #5: The Mandala Business Diary

by William Reed, Jun 10, 2010

The concept of time is something that many do not grasp. It is not a resource you control. Your quality of life and legacy depends on where and how you spend your time. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a compass to guide you where you want to go? Mandala Chart can help you do that. more…

Author’s Journey #25: Using video to market and sell your book

by Roger Parker, Jun 11, 2010

Video is easier than ever. In fact, the cost of getting started has dropped to zero – it’s free! In this post Roger explains how you can start building your online video presence today, even if you haven’t had any previous video experience.  more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, Brian Superczynski, Business Management, Flexible Focus, gary monti, KPI, Leadership, Leadership myths, mandala chart, roger parker, william reed, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com