ARE WE FOCUSING ON THE WRONG END OF THE STICK?
Organisations are not machines and therefore should not be managed, directed nor changed as if they consisted of inanimate objects that simply respond to the will of the few who profit most from the efforts of the many.
There is considerable damage being done to people, organisations, industries (value chains) and the planet (ecosystem) as a result of this mindset that Peter Drucker refers to as the Industrial Era Management style.
Organisations are living systems - social systems - with a commercial & trading back drop, based on the essence of capital, the nature of cash-flow & profit and the promise of value.
The nature of the living entities (people) in these systems are such that today, enormous value creating potential goes unrealised, in fact, it is being crushed. This process creates a depressing energy wave that reverberates throughout the extended social systems in-turn impacting society.
We believe that awareness and free will are the essential catalytic ingredients that enable the creation of a better tomorrow for people, organisations, industries (value chains) and in turn the planet.
What follows is a journey of awakening, where we infuse the essence of natures living systems teaching with the role and nature of capital & commerce.
Establishing the foundations and thinking framework for the creation of a social system of tomorrow that benefits all.
These conceptual foundations and the thinking framework (guidance) is what we like to refer to as - Architecting the Enterprise .
The following are the stages containing the titles and brief descriptions of how this blog will unfold the journey of awakening ...
NOURISHING AWARENESS - CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS
Anatomy of Value & The Concept of a Value Chain:
The term "Value" seems ambiguous ... It can have many meanings to many people and it can also have the opposite meaning to two people regarding the one subject.
Is it like beauty? Is it a characteristic of an object/outcome that is perceived or felt by the observer?
How can you have clarity around "Business Value" if value itself is so difficult to pin down?
I would liked to propose a line of thought that I have found useful in establishing a way of seeing value, describing value and focusing on value. I propose a potentially powerful insight as to the role of people in your organisation, if you are open to adopting this mindset.
The Evolution & Dynamics of the Supply Chain
Following on from the Value Chain concept - The Value Creation Capability establishes an evolutionary cycle of supply side synergy & specialisation. Increasing the participation in the original Value Chain and introducing greater efficiencies. Distance is created between participants in the Supply Chain and the point of Value Realisation - The Moment of Delight. There is however, an alignment signal that is present in the feed back loop between each of the links in the supply chain. The whole supply chain establishes an interdependent set of supply - beholden to the original "Promise". The natural movements in the "Moment of Delight" affects all participants in the supply chain.
Demand & Supply - the dance of desire & fulfilment
TBD.
The term "Value" seems ambiguous ... It can have many meanings to many people and it can also have the opposite meaning to two people regarding the one subject.
Is it like beauty? Is it a characteristic of an object/outcome that is perceived or felt by the observer?
How can you have clarity around "Business Value" if value itself is so difficult to pin down?
I would liked to propose a line of thought that I have found useful in establishing a way of seeing value, describing value and focusing on value. I propose a potentially powerful insight as to the role of people in your organisation, if you are open to adopting this mindset.
The Evolution & Dynamics of the Supply Chain
Following on from the Value Chain concept - The Value Creation Capability establishes an evolutionary cycle of supply side synergy & specialisation. Increasing the participation in the original Value Chain and introducing greater efficiencies. Distance is created between participants in the Supply Chain and the point of Value Realisation - The Moment of Delight. There is however, an alignment signal that is present in the feed back loop between each of the links in the supply chain. The whole supply chain establishes an interdependent set of supply - beholden to the original "Promise". The natural movements in the "Moment of Delight" affects all participants in the supply chain.
Demand & Supply - the dance of desire & fulfilment
TBD.
A Theory of Work - What gets lost in translation or due to the lack of coherence? - Knowing your organisations role in the Value Chain indicates the value creation purpose your organisation promises to fulfil in order to complete the supply side value promise & commitment to the demand side - THE WHY. What your organisation needs to achieve in order to deliver on that promise is the work - THE WHAT. The sequence and timing of the individual activities are how you collectively perform the work - THE HOW. Your organisations ability to deliver the right outcome, at the right quality, for the right price at the right time whilst ensuring a profit is the measure of HOW WELL your organisation has collectively fulfilled on the promise. My experience is such that I see that there is a lot that is either lost in translation or that has never been articulated/understood. Functional dysfunction is rife through out organisations simply due to the fact that there is no common understanding of "The Work".
A Theory of Capability - Talent & knowledge development must lead the technology development. Technology, if used appropriately will significantly accelerate the performance of people. The Capability Accelerator model describes the dynamic of Capability and provides some insight drawing from living systems teaching as to how powerful people can become once all factors are aligned and developed in lockstep and sequence.
A Theory of the Power of Information - from making decisions with incomplete information, to making decisions with complete, up to date and "first seen" information. The value creating mindset of establishing new concepts of information and thus unlocking new realities. The role that information plays with respect to the value creation power it unlocks in an organisation.
The Da Vinci Code and the Secret of its application - there is a common thread in all of Leonardo Da Vinci's works that he referred to a "Saper Vedere" or "Knowing How to See". The understanding of this code and a theory on how this can be applied is what we refer to as the "Da Vinci Secret"
MARKET ECONOMY FOUNDATION CONCEPTS
The role of Capital in the structure of production: Interest, Principal, Profit and the time preference for money ...
Capital planning - knowing how to focus on the value creation that yields the biggest increase in performance - how investors (debtors and shareholders) view the capital efficiency of an organisation. How the market applies a premium on your stock price which reflects your capital planning performance.
Operational planning - the virtuous circle where demand forecast accuracy provides a reasonable stake in the ground for perfect order targeting which provides a signal to operations as to how they should optimally balance resources which optimises cash-flow; delivering on the promise which in turn enables a closer understanding of the customer and improves the demand forecast accuracy which begins the cycle again with tighter targets and less inefficiencies in operations and cash-flow.
PUTTING THESE CONCEPTS INTO ACTION
Enterprise Business Architecture - Full section.
Enterprise Information Architecture - Full section.
Enterprise Technology Architecture - Full section.
THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGE
Driving change is an illusion - you can only establish attractors that influence, nudge or shape behaviours that in themselves create a change in the organisational system.
Transformation or nothing - there are levels of change, system change, business process re-engineering and transformation. If you are not tackling transformation you are wasting money, time and playing with the edges of value creation.
Constraints based change - focusing on finding the area in the system that is the weakest link, re-orientating every other link to its performance and releasing the constraint - then finding the next weakest link. Understanding the essence of constraints across the demand & supply continuum and profitably affecting these constraints.
The Capability lifecycle model - there is no end state, only continually changing state - as the role of information is to change the state of a dynamical system (information is in fact the life blood of living systems). We present a model intended to provide guidance as to how the capability accelerator engine establishes the DNA of a self regulating value creation engine.
OKAY - GREAT CONCEPTS BUT WHAT CAN "I a CIO, IT Leader or maybe a non-IT functional Executive or Senior Leader" DO ABOUT THIS?
Promote or Do EA to IT - apply the concepts to IT first via the ETA model - this is within your control - the mobile, social and cloud opportunities provide you with the potential to achieve business change that no other function in a business has the potential of matching. Running the business of IT better and more effectively than any other peer function in your organisation. In this section we present a reference operational model for IT and the ETA meta model that describes the conversion process from operating assets to delivering business value contributing services.
Establish a conversation that begins to lift the value that your functional peers experience through interacting with IT by exercising EBA & EIA concepts within the contexts of the conceptual foundations. Remember also that "When the student is ready the teacher appears" so we propose how you can create the conditions to prepare the student for the appearance of the teacher. This may sound pompous however, in my experience, the concepts and foundations of commerce and capital outlined in this blog are not very present in the awareness of IT's functional peers. So, by demonstrating and realising these concepts within IT's control space while lifting the awareness and establishing the conditions for attraction will present an opportunity for IT to provide the change services on behalf of business functions.
This sets the stage for holding a, by now deserving seat at the executive. The opportunity now presents itself for IT to be accountable for revenue and profit growth. Following this, the opportunity is available for IT to play a role in Market Value Creation & driving the strategy engine.
However, if there is little to no traction among your functional peers nor executive - and you can honestly say that this is due to the inability of your peers to "see" the opportunity - you are in the antithesis of the [A Theory of Leadership & Talent] and you should take stock of your sunk costs, gather your learnings and new found capability and look for like minded folk and be part of value creation else where.
Where you are leaving is on the path to self induced extinction …
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