What is Consulting?
April 29, 2008
“Good Morning”
“Do you have a need for Contract Programmers?”
Here at LUCRUM, Chuck has done a great job at filtering our email solicitations. However, I still get the one above from some guy named Patrick Harris….it reminds me of how LUCRUM is positioned in the market as a consulting firm providing business and technology solutions.
There’s a real difference between “contract programmer” and “consultant.” The industry often mingles the definitions together and customers tend to negotiate for consulting services using “contract programmer” pricing.
LUCRUM has had a rich history of hiring IT professionals that thrive on “consulting” using their technology skills. With that statement, let’s ask ourselves “what is a consultant?” Consulting is bringing expertise of one’s experiences into a firm on a project or fee basis. One of the ironies of consulting is that the goal of the consultant must be to make him or herself obsolete.” All of us have been in the position of being frustrated (either as an internal or external consultant or even as a perm-placement worker) by management’s careful efforts to defeat any and all attempts on our part to transfer the knowledge we had to at least one (other) person in the organization. This puzzles me because I learned early on in my career that it is far more probable that a company will retain “intuitive knowledge” about their system/applications/data/whatever if more than one person has that knowledge.
To provide our technology expertise is simply not enough in today’s global economy. The disparity between India (and other Asian-based services) and the US will continue to have companies use “contract programmers” that are truly just “coders” and not consultants.
Why do I bring this up? It’s our livelihood! I also know that our mantra has been “85% social and 15% technical.” My ratio is skewed purposely to emphasize the requirement to “over-communicate” on every part of our daily assignment. The technology works; it doesn’t work if people are not communicating. As consultants, it’s up to us to take the lead responsibility with the customer on communications. That’s our largest challenge. You’ll see LUCRUM’s focus to grow our capabilities in this area with Customer Alignment Sessions, leveraging Whole Brain Organizational Development processes internally and with our customers, and a new larger emphasis on the consultant, and in developing unique professional skills. Jodie Heflin, as our Delivery Leader, has the proven track record of Customer-oriented 85/15 skills. It’s her goal to get all of our firm up to a higher level of capability; to “think” as a part of our customer’s business in addition to our technology capabilities.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Tuesday Model
April 29, 2008
Tuesday, not as bad as Monday, and not as good as Wednesday. Its a forgotten day to most people. If you have an average and dull life, then you could say that your life is a bunch of Tuesdays I guess. Is there any way that Tuesday could mean…a little more…here’s something that I use to get me through the Tuesdays of my life.
I have been at LÛCRUM now for about three weeks, and one of the first projects I have been asked to participate in is concerning customer loyalty. So I thought to myself, customer loyalty, how to get it, and obviously how to retain it, when it hit me….Tuesday!
What does Tuesday have to do with customer loyalty, and what is the Tuesday model, you ask? The Tuesday model is a little bit of advice that was given to me by my mentor in College. A successful venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, a man that I respect. Anyways, one day we were out at dinner and I was picking his brain about business, life, etc. when he told me this. “Andrew, all relationships, business or personal, are based on three criteria. Expectations, understanding and trust.” E.U.T or T.U.E the prefix of Tuesday as a way to remember it. “These are the building blocks of relationships” he explained. His logic was that, once expectations are not met, then understanding becomes clouded and thus, trust falls apart. Naturally he concluded “that trust is the backbone or all relationships.” I listened to my mentor and it made sense, moreover, this was a man that I respected and I could see he was great a forging strong ties in every aspect of his life and this was the secret ingredient behind his success.
Since that day I have implemented the Tuesday Model into everything relationship I in my life; family, friends, work and girlfriends. It helps you empathize, which fosters understanding and clarity. I have also amended the model itself. Trust, Understanding and Expectations is how it was originally conceived, but a sub note to expectations is communication. Only if communication is clear can expectations be derived and met. Of course this screws up the acronym but it’s worth it.
So now that I have acquainted you with my philosophy (something that I will do a lot if you let me), it is time to implement the Tuesday Model with my tasks here at LÛCRUM. Going along with the theme of Tuesday, you can find further “rants” if you so desire every Tuesday from here on out. If you agree with me great, if you have anything to add, I’m all ears, or perhaps you think I’m insane, either way, discourse is always welcome.
Sphere: Related ContentWe Win When We Talk About Them
April 17, 2008
I never thought I would pick up sales tips from James Carville, but sure enough it has happened. Over the past weekend I was watching one of the Sunday morning political shows, and Carville, joined by his wife Mary Matalin, was discussing the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Specifically he discussed one of the tenets of running a great campaign he learned from former President Clinton, who love him or hate him, was a great campaigner. The idea he put forth was so simple but so correct. “If we are talking about them, we are winning.” “If we are talking about us, we are losing.” Now, the idea behind his comment is perhaps a little different in the context of a political campaign as opposed to a sales call, but how incredibly insightful is that. The best sales calls often involve very little “selling.” If the person across the table from you is talking, and you are discussing them - not you - you are winning. I have experienced sales calls where you trot out every feature, function, advantage, benefit, company history, past clients, and on and on, only to walk away saying to myself, “I just don’t think we will win that one.” By the same token, many of the best calls I have ever made, involve asking questions, and then listening to someone else talk about themselves. Yes I can tell people LUCRUM is Cincinnati’s best provider of Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, (all of which I believe) until I am blue in the face, but if I don’t understand them first, I am losing.
I observed this first hand today while on a sales call with two of my colleagues. We had a great meeting that lasted well over an hour, very little of which was spent discussing LUCRUM. In doing so, we identified numerous business problems LUCRUM can solve through our understanding of technology. More importantly we took the first steps toward building a new relationship with them based on understanding of their unique business needs. No pushy sales pitch. No dog and pony show. Just having a real and meaningful conversation about them When we are talking about them… we win.
Sphere: Related ContentGiving Back - Continued
March 26, 2008
I was checking out our new blog today, and saw a post by one of our newest employees, David Bowman. It is great to hear about people in our company giving back. It is an important part of our culture and frankly, it’s one of the most special parts of living on this earth.
I guess when I think about giving, I go back to my parents and the stories that they taught me about their growing up in the Great Depression. In today’s world and the complex financial crisis that the sub-prime mortgage market has along with the recent failings of some of Wall Street’s giants, I have to admit: I still think we as a society have no clue about the real impact of what our families and relatives went through in the Great Depression. My parents were fortunate. My mother is First Generation American. Her parents immigrated from Eastern Austria-Hungary and the Ukraine shortly after the beginning of this last century. Coal-miner, shoemaker, Goodyear Rubber & Tire factory work, her parents always put food on the table and had a modest life of comfort and stability. During the Depression, they constantly had people coming to their door asking for chores. Back then, pride was 100% of your character. One never took hand-outs. You would not take “free food” even though my grandparents were willing and able to share. My father grew up the 6th child of a Southern Alabama farm family. Again, lots of people were very unfortunate in the South during the Depression. He learned to give to his neighbors and support the community. This was a practice that he continued throughout his entire life.
Fast forward over my years growing up with them. My 2 brothers and I were in Boy Scouts in our formative years. Outside of camping in the Upstate New York Adirondacks once a month, community service was the core of our activities. Weekends were spent participating in newspaper drives, helping in the neighborhood parks, cleaning up the “teen center” and many other volunteer activities. We learned to support our community.
Fast forward to today: I still have it in my blood. LUCRUM is committed to participating in Community Service through providing 4 approaches: economic, leadership, professional, and material assistance to local and regional organizations. Economic simply means donated cash. Leadership is where people in our firm invest their time in guiding, assisting, participating in community organizations. Professional is where LUCRUM provides consulting, web development, and general software development services. LUCRUM’s community support initiatives have recently included: The United Way(www.uwgc.org) and the Tocqueville Society Campaign, the Central Clinic (www.centralclinic.org), the Boy Scouts(www.danbeard.org), the Evans’ Scholar Golf Outing, the Epilepsy Foundation, the Cincinnati Art Museum (www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org), the Fine Arts Fund (www.fineartsfund.org) and their new Technology Sector campaign, and the National Father-Son Tennis Tournaments to name a few. As you can imagine, it’s contagious with our employees and their commitment to the community amplifies ours.
So, “thank-you” David Bowman. “Thank-you” to all of our LUCRUM professionals in their commitment in supporting our community.
Sphere: Related ContentFollow the Leader?
March 25, 2008
More and more in today’s spin zones, trade magazines, training classes, and blogs, a focus on leadership continues to grow - a trait that many feel everyone must be good at. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, there’s becoming a more and more noticeable lack of focus on what it takes to be a good follower. After all, if no one’s following, why lead?
Leadership demands great capacity for learning, communication, discipline, humility, vision, execution, initiative, and host of other characteristics and traits bantered about by today’s leadership “gurus”. All of which are good and essential, to one degree or another. Interestingly enough, these same traits are essential to good followership as well. Think about it. As a leader, don’t you look for people to be a part of your team that have these traits? I certainly do!
Another way to look at leaders and followers is to consider that our leaders today are actually followers too. Think about it for minute, the VP’s unto the SVP’s, unto the C-level, unto the board of directors, unto the people (public company example). So while the SVP for business development is certainly in a leadership role, they’re following someone higher up on the corporate ladder.
Is there a difference between leaders and followers? Absolutely. Is everyone in a leadership position, absolutely not. Is everyone in a state of followership, absolutely.
I believe that in order to be a great leader, one must be a great follower. And since we’re all followers to one degree or another, who better to place responsibility on for the development of followers than on ourselves! Confusing? Not really. It’s a state of reality that we too often choose to ignore, especially if we’re already in a “leadership” position.
So what then can be said about good followership? Well in today’s media, the hyper-competitive market, Wall Street, you name it, not very much is said about being a good follower. Why is this? I’ll argue that much of it stems from humanity’s inner will to appear stronger, smarter, “better” than the next person. Our own egos. Admit it, we’re all afraid of embarrassment. Maybe we think that we won’t make enough money simply being a good follower (…don’t forget the SVP example above). The list goes on…..
How then can we make a difference? By becoming better examples to others in our current follower roles. Some spin this as “Managing up” or “Leading your boss”. Call it anything you want, bottom line is most of us have as much room for improvement as we have to offer others. Without attempting to pull together an exhaustive step-by-step recipe for success, let me suggest a few principles to guide us.
Start by recognizing that everyone’s (including you) following something/someone. There’s our (your) baseline.
Next, place yourselves in the position, for example, of wanting to get a promotion, a raise, etc. (this shouldn’t be hard to do) How would you go about getting that? Would supporting your boss be a good start? I would think so. What can you do better, different, more of, less of? Sorry, no hints here, you all know these answers.
Next… put your ego on the shelf. Pride cometh before the fall.
The Journey. We must ask ourselves what is the true purpose of being a good follower or leader. The Whats, the Whys, the Where To’s…. To what do we aspire? Is there an end? Is it just money? Hopefully not. I say it’s a journey…one on which we’re all traveling. Becoming an effective follower or leader is a journey….the journey is about people working together in many different roles to achieve a worthy ideal. To cultivate others, to learn, to live, to perform, to decide, to take risks, to laugh. When we focus our time talents and energies here, leaders will emerge, followers will rise up, and there”ll be no end to the possibilities that we can achieve. This is the paradigm shift we all can help make happen.
Go and make a difference,
John
Sphere: Related ContentMove Forward One Step…
March 16, 2008
As we continue to experience the global economic correction in the US economy, we hear about the perfect storm: inflation, recession, credit markets becoming unbelievably tight, and the general struggle with the value of the dollar. Day after day, this is all we hear, and yet, if you read a lot of financial performance news, you understand that many companies are at or ahead of their forecasts and the economy is more sound. Who’s right?
What you can’t do is bury yourself in the sand. “No action” tends to be the less-than-optimal solution, for sure. “Back to the basics” theory historically says, “one step at a time” and you’ll have a lot of progress in anything you try to accomplish.
It is the same way for the world of Fine Arts. Cincinnati, Ohio, has historically made an economic name for itself as a predominant manufacturing economy. It is more likely that a person outside of this area knows Cincinnati as a sports town with the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals. In fact, Cincinnati is really a “Fine Arts” town. At the center of the Fine Arts is the Cincinnati “Fine Arts Fund.” It is distinguished by having the oldest arts fund in the United States. Founded by the esteemed Charles Taft in 1923, the fund has continued to grow and prosper supporting hundreds of fine arts organizations and programs over the years.
Did you know that a lot of IT professionals are also artists? I know several that are musicians and still play in bands. Others are artists using paint and other medium. We once even had a former ballet dancer as a client-server developer! I’m a brass guy (trumpet) that now is constantly playing jazz on my Gibson Les Paul guitar. On this last week’s business trip to New York, I crashed in on Stanley Jordan at the Iridium Jazz Club, one of my favorite hideouts in New York. Stanley is still young looking and fresh. In fact, he told me afterwards that he’s 48 and playing as well as ever. I purchased a CD from him that I have never heard of before: “Relaxing Music for Difficult Situations.” It’s a 60-minute jazz guitar solo. Perhaps we play it for our economy!!!
LÛCRUM continues to be a great supporter of philanthropic causes in the greater Cincinnati community. This year, LÛCRUM is proud to participate in our first Fine Arts Fund Campaign. As you may or may not know, the Fine Arts Organization is also one of our clients. In addition to being a client of LÛCRUM, the Fine Arts Fund (FAF) does wonderful work within the Cincinnati community and throughout the region supporting more than 95 arts organizations, promoting the arts, and developing outreach programs to thousands of area schoolchildren.
Recently, LÛCRUM and the Fine Arts Fund co-hosted an “IT Entrepreneur Leadership Networking Event” late last month with Chris Hjelm, CIO, of Kroger, as the guest speaker. Chris’ talent outside of being an IT executive, is that he’s a weekend chef. Cherry pies, chili, and other delights can be found at the Hjelm residence.
LÛCRUM put a lot of time and effort into making this year’s campaign as well as making a modest monetary commitment. From a time and effort contribution, I am committed to doing as much as possible to support the FAF in their efforts to reach the $12 million goal set for the 2008 Campaign.
Did you know that if you give a personal gift this year of $75 or more, you get to receive the “Fine Arts Fun Card.” This discount card allows you to enjoy the arts and save money at the same time! There are even more benefits for donors at the $150 and $500 levels in 2008. Please go to
Breathe deep and keep taking “another step!”
Sphere: Related ContentChief Cook or Manager?
February 18, 2008
When I was 16, I worked at The Beach Waterpark. By the end of my first summer, I was promoted to a “Lead Sales” position. This was one step below “Supervisor” and I really wanted to be a Supervisor. In order to move up, I took on any assignment that I was given. I moved around a lot and I learned from my Supervisor all the necessary tasks (like timesheets, money management, scheduling, etc.) and by the end of the second summer, I was promoted. Once I made it to Supervisor, it became my job to start identifying the next person that should become the next Lead Sales.
I worked in the largest food stand in the park. Things that were important in that stand were effeciency, cleanliness and timeliness. Essentially, we needed to serve the customers quickly, get them the right order, and keep the place clean. So, who to promote? Which of those qualities were most important and which would get you promoted quickly. The truth? None! What I learned when I was 17 was that just because you were great at your job, did not mean that you would be great at managing people. By promoting our fastest, cleanest, most efficient cook, we had to teach someone (who wasn’t interested), how to do timesheets, balance a cash drawer and order inventory. Now I had 2 problems:
1. I was 1 cook short and
2. My cook had no interest in cash drawers, inventory and timesheets.
I have found that the IT industry has similar challenges. We want to recognize and reward our best employees with advancement, but the only track available is typically to advance into management. For most technologists, this is not interesting or rewarding and we lose the best architect or developer in the process. Seems to me that we need to recognize that the advancement path for a technical person is not into management (most of the time). So what is the right path? It seems to me that a truly technical person wants to be recognized for their accomplishments and wants to take on bigger technology challenges. How can we make these fit together? Seems to me that there should be a track for that. A track that allows a person to grow into a leadership role that is more creative, challenging and innovative. The trick is to still give them a voice on the senior team, and remove the management responsibility. Is that possible? I’d love to hear your thoughts…
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