Chris is an engineer at a leading scientific instrument company, and his career is stuck. He hasn’t been promoted in years. He’s an Engineer III, but he thinks he should be at least a IV (out of six levels altogether). He has more than ten years of experience, and he knows he’s made several significant technical contributions to the company’s products. Continue reading
2016 and 2017 have seen a virtual tsunami of compliance failures involving some of our largest companies. From Mitsubishi to VW, from ANZ to Target, almost weekly there have been media reports about some company employees having run amok – unbeknownst to their executives and boards. People are asking: “What happened to the compliance management systems that are supposed to monitor and prevent such abuses?” Executives and boards are naturally starting to question the entire compliance management function. Continue reading
A predictable surprise is a risk event that in some form is known within the organization. It is of a nature that if left unresolved, it could be costly. But fixing the problem appears to have larger short run costs, than long term benefits. The Volkswagen diesel emissions fraud is one such example. It also a case where the penalties imposed outweighed the short term costs. Moreover, had a risk assessment occurred at several points along the way, there might not have been a scandal. Continue reading
If you want your business to survive, you need to innovate. If you want your business to have a chance of thriving, you need transformation. Certainly, either innovation or transformation are no guarantees of success – but the lack of both almost certainly leads to doom. Need proof? Can you name one company or one industry (other than government) today that, when faced with a change in the marketplace, failed to innovate – and instead stayed with its traditions, and survived – not to mention, thrived? If you think of one, let me know. How about a company that faced a transformation in the marketplace – how did it fare over time? Continue reading
The increasing complexity and dynamism that the markets have today, but especially those where organizations operate using Information and Communication Technologies as the core of the business, as well as the resulting uncertainty thereof, suggests that the Strategic Development in those Organizations should be based on the usage of traditional processes as well as other emergent strategies that arise from internal processes and daily activities. Continue reading