It’s not the slides.
It’s not the words.
It’s not the clothes you wear.
This doesn’t determine your success. Or at least it doesn’t determine it very much.
The bigger issue: What do your clients know? And when did the learn it?
In the consulting trip to Hamburg, our team is about to deliver its report. Lots of ideas. Lots of implications for the future of the client, Bohne Kaffe Logistiks.
But the report has become public. Or at least parts of it.
And everyone thinks they know what is in it. More importantly, they think they know what is in it for them.
The measure of success? Can they communicate the real message.
Tenth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
Cast:
When do they make the mistake?
When do they make a decision that limits – radically limits – options?
Our consulting team is working on a project that is only stumbling forward in the best of light. So what has happened, we ask. Has someone made a mistake?
Has our team done something wrong? Has the client chosen the wrong strategy? Have the managers failed to support the work? Any one of these might constitute the “Fatal Mistake.”
Seventh episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
Cast:
A young entrepreneur.
A new technology.
All the temptations to make bad decisions.
In the series of on the startup SidePocket, we explored the challenges posed by organizational governance, the authority wielded by investors. Our central character, Vinny, walks away from a company that was unable to make a decision and forms a new company, SidePocket, that will be under his leadership. He guides it to success but in the process has to face choices that have no obvious or unequivocally good answers. He builds a profitable firm but in the process, alienates his closest friend, reluctantly accepts guidance he would prefer to ignore and decides to sell the firm against the wishes of his board.
A series that makes you feel the problems of organization governance and appreciate the issues at stake.
Cast:
A business owner.
A group of good friends. And an underlying controversy that simply won’t go away.
Florian Bohne, the owner of Bohne Coffee Logistics is holding a party in the Swiss Alps while his friends believe that he should be back with his company.
So we have a fight, a disagreement among friends. Yet it is a disagreement that seems to be about one thing – how Florian is dealing with consultants – while it is really about something deeper, more profound.
Sixth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
Cast:
It’s a holiday for gratitude in the United States but a holiday for data in the rest of the world.
Ok. They now call it the “Consumer Technology Show” but it’s the same old event. New technology. Lots of talks. Entrepreneurs desperately trying to move their ideas from intellectual conception to money making product.
So what are the bit themes this year? Similar to last year. Machine Learning. Data. Environmentally friendly. (Which may mean the start of the long goodbye to Bitcoin). Autonomous control. Security. Privacy. Security. Privacy. And for one last time, Security and Privacy.
Our podcast team is preparing our new technology for the 2019 show. Our prior entries have generated more heat than light, but that true of most exhibits at the show.
Before we release it to the public, you might want to review one of our earlier products “Rohit’s Autonomous Drone Late Delivery System.” It actually got some interest from investors, though they were investors who did not quite Rohit’s accomplishment in draining Lake Mead and filling it with high quality coffee.
Cast:
Sulley from Policy – Josh LaForce
Karen from the Parents’ Committee – Debbon Ayer
Becky from the Parents’ Committee – Zoe Anastassiou
You don’t, and that”s the point.
We have a company. We have a consulting team. And we believe we have a client, though it would seem that the client is not sure that he would have us. Days after the HWMS team arrived at BKL, it’s owner decided to go hiking in the Swiss Alps. It could be the confidence of a secure leader. It could be a brilliant strategy to get a new perspective on the business. It could also be a poor choice by a misguided manager. We take a moment to get the owner’s point of view as he walks with his friends in the Alps.
A short episode to give us a little insight into the challenges of tech consulting.
Cast:
How do you begin a consulting job?
In thunder, lightening or in rain?
It is chaotic at the start. You move to new offices, meet new people and start to appreciate new responsibilities. Our podcast has been hired by a German firm – a logistics provider to the coffee industry – to review their software systems and make recommendations. They arrive on site, after a long flight, and quickly discover that they did not fully appreciate the environment in which they would have to work.
First episode in a series on tech consulting.
Cast:
When it falls apart, it just goes. You think you understand something. You got the idea right. You’re ready to act, to executive. Then all of a sudden, you realize that your approach has a flaw, a fundamental flaw. It would work perfectly well, IF you could have an infinite pile of turtles. Turtles, Turtles, all the way down.
If this doesn’t make sense, listen to Bix. He’ll make the idea clear.
Cast:
It’s not the slides.
It’s not the words.
It’s not the clothes you wear.
This doesn’t determine your success. Or at least it doesn’t determine it very much.
The bigger issue: What do your clients know? And when did the learn it?
In the consulting trip to Hamburg, our team is about to deliver its report. Lots of ideas. Lots of implications for the future of the client, Bohne Kaffe Logistiks.
But the report has become public. Or at least parts of it.
And everyone thinks they know what is in it. More importantly, they think they know what is in it for them.
The measure of success? Can they communicate the real message.
Tenth episode in a series on the ins and outs of tech consulting.
Cast:
