, via Wikimedia Commons”]

By Dinesh Pratap Singh (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htm

In the last blog post, “Upgrade Your Business,” we explored 4 best practices  to make your business as lean, agile and profitable as possible. In this post, we’ll examine how analyzing your business projects as value chains  reveals opportunities and savings that might have gone unnoticed, and how understanding your place in a larger chain of added value forges new links with other small business, providing powerful leverage in a growing economy.

Sanusi predicted that the Nigerian economy would double within the next decade, partially on the basis of yearly 7% growth over the last, but challenged us to create an economy with more manufacturing and production of domestic goods. Leaving aside more complex questions about subsidies and the politics of larger industries, we can each in our small business evaluate how we contribute to the overall business environment and provide each a small part of the unified infrastructure that will support more domestic production of the very goods and services we seek.

Analyzing your own business as a value chain is the process of identifying all activities contributing to the value you create for your customer, whether it’s a product on the shelf or the service, knowledge and relationships that bring your customer back time and again. The graphic above illustrates the generic categories Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter used to describe a value chain. You can use these general concepts no matter what your business or how big your workforce.

The horizontal boxes represent the infrastructure that you or any operation, large or small, will have to have in place for any project to get started. If you’re a small business, human resources may not be a large concern, but you still have the infrastructure needs of payroll and taxes.

The blue and green boxes at the base of the diagram represent the flow of producing value for your customer. Inbound logistics may cover materials procurement, or perhaps research in a knowledge based business. Operations are simply the activities used to transform these raw materials into your product. Outbound logistics covers how you provide your product to your consumer. Marketing often involves the greatest portion of a business’ expense, as they seek the most sophisticated methods to generate sales. Service after the sale can be a tremendous way to add value, depending upon how you structure your product. You can see how easily these categories overlap, with service and marketing reinforcing one another. The margin is the difference between what your customer is willing to pay for your product and the sum of every value generating step in your process.

By applying this model to projects within your business and enumerating with your team all the activities comprising each step, you’ll unearth ways to streamline  your procedures and identify how re-organizing steps and processes results in synergy and savings.  Begin by gathering the whole group; by including everyone in the original brainstorming process, you’ll make a meaningful investment in all hands buying into the result of the process.  During the brainstorming phase, you’ll list every step currently required to complete that phase of the project. Having your entire team participate assures you won’t miss any of the component steps. In the next phase, you’ll name and quantify where possible the value that step adds to your product and customer’s experience. Only at the end will you propose new technology, processes and organizational structures. Having identified the status quo steps and the values they add, you’ll be able to easily evaluate the impact any new suggestion can have on your margin and your value.

Similarly, when you seek new customers, customer bases or products to add to your offerings, you can take a higher level view of this process and identify where your proposed product or service fits into your customer’s needs and how you can offer prospective partners and clients ways to add value to their own procedures. By applying this straightforward but powerful model methodically to your activities and partnerships, you’ll best understand how you can become the next powerful link in the national value chain.

For our part, we will be bringing best practices and technology to Nigerian businesses. We started out by testing all these technologies on Abr with astounding results, but we now have at our disposal so much more than we cam implement at our organization alone. Technology is meant to make complicated things simple and expensive things affordable. Think about sending a an invoice to a client; a traditional firm will need paper, correction fluid, a stamp and a jaunt to the postbox to achieve this project. On our traffic-laden streets, how long will this take? These days, it can be as simple and cheap as sending an email and this takes minutes.

Here are some easy ways small businesses can save money using technology

Use as little paper as possible
Use none at all, if possible. I go to government offices, schools, offices and i see mountains of papers filed away that have gathered dust as thick as a chemistry/history textbook. I am so sure that some of these files will disintegrate once they are touched. This is totally unnecessary. Practically all processes from invoicing to accounting to human resources, business processes are complicated enough without heaps of paper which have to be arranged and stuffed into alphabetized files. More paper equals more work-hours spent tracking that paper down, It is hard enough looking for documents on my laptop using its search features. Even in Nigeria it is possible to go almost, if not entirely paperless, and it makes your data easier to organize. store and retrieve as needed. A paperless system is also a huge time-saver and space-saver for any organization, it will save you a lot of expensive trips to the office supply store. Your customers will appreciate the change, helping you to stand out from the competition.

Communication tools
Take advantage of cloud based services. like skype, blackberry messenger, google talk, webchat services, video chats, project management software and cloud document storage. First of all this reduces your cost of operations. On our website, we have facebook and twitter links. This means our customers can get in touch with us for FREE and we can also communicate with them for free. All this instead of spending between N25 to N50 a minute to talk to them on the phone. Also, and this is a very interesting consequence, it changes the basis on which we compete with bigger, more established organizations for talent. Because our documents are cloud based it means we can get a lot done without coming to the office. So we have less down time which staff of other organizations spend in traffic getting to work or from from work. How many of you will take a significant salary cut if it means you no longer have to spend 3 hours each way to and fro work? Yes my kid can sometimes drive me to distraction when I am trying to meet a deadline but I will rather that problem than being stuck in traffic for 4 hours. In fact as I write this, I am in the UK, and it is being edited by my colleague in Lagos and when we are done, it will be reviewed by another colleague in Atlanta, USA when she wakes up.

Ayo Sanni,PMP

So, is having a problem really a problem? The answer is clearly no-but having the same problem twice definitely is. Problems may very truly be inevitable, but the same problems should not occur twice.

Problems are good?

Scholars and philosophers agree that there is at least one good thing about problems-you always learn something new from them. As a matter of fact, be it a problem with your PC or a problem in your project, every problem does have a solution. Once you face a problem, you are bound to learn two things at least-you learn how to solve it, and if you are a little more attentive you will also learn how to avoid it. However, this doesn’t lead to the conclusion that problems are always a good thing.

Does a problem occurring twice mean it is twice as good for you? Apparently not!

Why Do Problems Occur Twice?

Does that imply that you are destined to benefit from the ‘’goodness” of that problem a little more?

When problems occur twice, it means you have not quite learned the lesson you were meant to learn on the first run. To put it more simply, it means that you have repeated the same mistake twice. Now it may be wise to try again and again, but it is never advisable to commit the same mistake again and again. If one path leads you to a dead end once, it clearly means that it will never ever lead you to your goal.

So, if you find yourself facing the same problem again, go back and see if you have just repeated your previous mistake once again.

Why Same Problems Should Not Occur Twice?

The same problem occurring twice points toward your lack of ability to learn from your mistakes and plan for your future. We have already talked about the optimistic side of a problem, but here is a reality check. Cons of having a problem really weigh down any pros of it.

Problems, regardless of their size, cost a lot of time, money and mental stress. When a problem occurs twice it means more mental stress and frustration. This results in the inability to carry on the task in a smooth and efficient manner.

Moreover, many researchers and psychologists believe that a mistake which is committed twice has a higher likelihood of being committed again. In layman’s language, we can assume that if you do not learn the first time, you should always learn the second time around.

Therefore, it all sums up to the conclusion that problems occurring twice do not offer more chances to learn. Rather they might just indicate that there is no probability of learning at all.

Both physical offices and virtual offices have their advantages and disadvantages. As you consider your business choices, consider some good and bad things about each.

Some Good Things About Each…

Physical Office

Presence: One of the best things about a physical address is presence. If you have a physical place, it easily allows you to hold meetings, conduct interviews or, at the very least, really show your availability. Nothing shows a client that you will be there like you actually being there.

Organization: For many, a physical office helps keep things organized. Employees can, literally, leave their work at work, and they don’t have to worry about it until they arrive at the office the next work day. Also, work and personal files or documents don’t get mixed up as easily; work files stay at work.

Virtual Office

Availability: While organizations with physical addresses can certainly have worldwide appeal, something about a physical address gives the impression of physical limitations. A virtual office shows that the only physical limitations are where the internet doesn’t reach.

Low Cost: There is no or little rent to pay for a virtual office. There is the price of an internet connection, and of some tools, like a computer, pens and paper, maybe a cell phone.

Some Bad Things About Each…

Physical Office

Cost: Probably the biggest downfall of a physical office is the cost. You have the price of rent, utility charges, property taxes, and so on. You also have to drive to and from the office, which is just one more cost.

Accessibility: Having an office, especially one with regular business hours, gives the impression that you are not always available. Some people also get the impression that having a physical address limits national or worldwide appeal. Neither of these may be true, but people get those impressions anyway, which could be harmful to business.

Virtual Office

Presence: With a virtual office, it is hard to establish presence in the eyes of some clients, especially if your business targets a certain community. People can’t walk in off the street. They can’t come to your “place of business” for a meeting or a handshake.

Work vs. Home: Nobody wants to work all the time, but when your computer’s right there, it’s just too easy to work more. Pretty soon, you find yourself taking your work anywhere; then one of the good things about a virtual office becomes one of the downfalls. Having a life outside of work is important for work productivity (and personal health). Not having a physical office makes it hard to leave work at work.

Retweets

This is the bread and butter for businesses. The potential for one Twitter post, or Tweet, is astronomical. Even if you only have a few followers, one retweet can put your post in front of thousands, maybe more. Consider this. You just opened your account and you only have 25 followers. Your insightful post, including a link (all in 140 characters or less), catches the eye of one of your followers; let’s call him @Bob. @Bob reads your link and likes it.

Now, @Bob has been at this Twitter game a little longer, with 350 followers. He likes your post and link so much that he retweets it, making it show up in front of his followers. Four of his followers like it, and each of them has 800 followers. Out of all of those followers (3200 for those not keeping up), forty decide to retweet it. And so on.

In less than a day, your post and link could be in front of thousands of people.

Don’t Just Promote

One of the mistakes many businesses make is that they use Twitter as only a promotional tool. While it is a promotional tool, you will have better success if you use it as a communication tool. And, as we know, communication is multi-faceted. You can’t just tweet every time you have a new product on the market, or when you’re about to open a new store. In order to maximize on Twitter’s potential, give a little too.

Read what your followers have to say. Click on some of their links. Retweet some of their tweets. Reply to some of their comments. Being involved will help you gain the respect of your Twitter followers, which will help you earn some retweets, and eventually some sales. Once you display your willingness to participate (and not just promote), you get to promote more.

Chae J. Pak, the author of Me Paradox, calls this social credit or social capital, and it works like a credit card; you get extended social credit based on who you are, and you can earn and spend social credit up to a limit.

Making Time

Often businesses don’t have the time or energy to sit in front of the computer and tweet tweet tweet. The mobile apps don’t do much to alleviate this discomfort either; we could just spend time doing other things.

Make time.

One way to help your business make time is to spread the task of tweeting among your employees. Don’t make it a one-person show. Not only does this free up your employees’ time, but it also keeps your tweets from becoming monotonous. If all else fails, you could outsource this type of task, but only do this as a last resort.

One other way to make time is to develop a system. For example, you could start in the morning by retweeting three items from those you follow. Then you can post one or two things (maybe one “human” comment and, in another tweet, one “business” link). Repeat this in the middle of the day, and then once again before leaving for the day.

However you decide to make time for Twitter, the important thing is to make time for Twitter. It has too much potential as a business tool to be ignored.

On the other hand, you can’t expect anyone to design the perfect site for you if you don’t even know what your organization stands for. Even if the web designer you choose has the skills to give you killer content and incomparable design, it won’t hold much water if internet users find it useless information wise. Your job is to set out a plan with your own web designer regarding your company’s specifics, as well as the image you want displayed.

You have to collect at least 3 basic company essentials for your business site: planning, basic techniques and your goal plans. Make sure that you tell your designer to use professional language when creating content. Nothing puts off potential clients more than a business website that compromises their professional stance by addressing them as if they’re talking to their buddies!

Long download times are the bane of internet surfers. No one likes being kept waiting and internet surfers aren’t the exception either. If you want users to stay awhile, then make sure that your business website doesn’t take forever to download.

Site maps have always been popular with internet users since it acts as a guide to an entire website. Help them locate information faster by having one made for your own. This component is especially important if you decide to have an intricate website made. The look may be good, but it will gradually lose its appeal if users get lost while searching for relevant information!

The content is perhaps THE most important aspect of any web design. Your website’s job should be to attract users, but also to try and keep them there for as long as possible. This is why you have to keep updating your content so that users keep coming back for more. Original content is like ambrosia for search engines, which can compel them to place your website on the 1^st page of search engine results.

Word to the wise, consult an SEO expert if you have no idea what you’re supposed to write that can boost your search engine rankings. These professionals will guide you regarding appropriate keyword placement, as well as how and when you should keep updating your website.

Remember, an effective corporate web design combines all the winning factors of your organization into one cohesive virtual space that has the ability to net your niche market. People like to be entertained even if their intentions are business oriented. Try not to compromise your image with simple designs but don’t go overboard with the flash images either. You’ll either ‘blind’ your target consumers with false information, or bore them enough to click on your competitor’s website!

The key to a good project manager is one who can both roll it out and manage the people involved successfully. There’s a reason this esteemed position is given high regard. Not only does the project manager have to work on a limited budget, but he/she has to do so with little to no help from the management, infighting and the political machinations of their fellow colleagues.

However, if one decides to become one nonetheless, it speaks volumes of his/her planning skills, patience and fortitude. Following are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to try your hand at it:

See the bigger Picture

As a project manager your job is to define the scope and extent of each project you’re asked to look into. Some questions you have to keep in mind are:

• What are the aims and objectives of the project?
• What is the expected output?
• What can be considered as a successful compilation?

Write all of the answers to these questions on a separate sheet of paper so that you won’t have any trouble breaking down the project into workable parts.

Pick the best of the bunch

You may have all the skills that are needed to complete a project quickly and efficiently, but going solo may harm you in the long run. Your team is there for a reason. The successful completion of any project depends on the skills and specific talents of each of your team members. The ideal situation would be to pick the best of the lot and preferably those who have a wide range of skills. Each team member must know everyone in the group and the tasks they’re appointed so that the whole group can work as a cohesive unit aiming to fulfill a single goal-the successful completion of the project.

Watch that Budget

Every decision you make will have financial repercussions. You have to keep your budget in mind each and every step of the way, so that you don’t overspend or compromise the project in any way. This includes cost of the labor, consultancy, equipment required etc. Your project budget must take into account all these things which also include knowing how much money you’re willing to spend on each part. Keeping your country’s economic background in mind (not to mention current affairs) will also help you manage projects efficiently.

Present your Project with a Bang!

Now that you’ve successfully completed your project, it’s now time to think of presenting it to your client. This includes outlining how the project went down as well as a summary of any adjustments or revisions you decided to make. The project manager has to take the stage on this one initially to present the completed project to the client. Needless to say your presentation skills must be exceptional if you want your client to acknowledge your hard work with the amount decided upon.

Incidentally, you also have to keep in mind each and every aspect of the assignment as well as each team member’s role in its creation. Why? This is the point when the stakeholder(s) will start asking questions and you DON’T want to leave them unanswered.

Benjamin Franklin gave us this trenchant definition of insanity: “… doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Seem familiar? Well, Koskela and Howell in their much ballyhooed 2002 paper for the PMI “The underlying theory of project management is obsolete,” argue that this apparent defect in our processes directly results from a lack of any theory at all. Hal Macomber in his rejoinder subtly suggests that this endless defect loop is a bit of manufactured obsolescence that keeps us coming back for more, and suggests “It is crazy to give the greatest effort to detail when we know the least about the project…at the beginning.”

Our emphasis on planning front loads energy into the management team when optimism is high and juices are flowing. We all know that the later we get into the project cycle, the more obstacles and competing demands of scope, cost and schedule interact, meetings will be less interesting and possibly well attended. We want to milk the natural energy of a project beginning by anticipating every detail.

Koksela and Howell describe the problem: “The actual progress starts to drift from the plan, the updating of which is too cumbersome to be done regularly. Without an up-to-date plan, the work authorization system transforms to an approach of informal management.” Informal management is really just personality driven flying by the seat of our pants, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, your pants may be really great, but without any formal processes for response and agreements, your possibly brilliant management skills undermine the process of which you are a part.

Rather than taking the plan to the process, which has a natural consequence of controlling rather than observation, why not begin with delineating all known contributors, constraints, barriers and goals, and bring the process into the planning? With this more empirical approach, the whole team can remain open and eager for the control loop, making it more than a mere appendage to the planning process. More recently, theorists have been advocating this kind of decentralization and open, rather than closed, loop of the control processes.

By instead engaging in a shorter, less detailed planning phase we open resources for later collaboration with the multiple stakeholders on whose buy-in we depend, with the result of strengthening, rather than overthrowing our previous processes. Malcomber puts it succinctly, “The coupling of planning with execution in recurring commitment conversations — negotiating, promising, declaring complete, and re-promising — builds the network of commitments that brings structure to our projects.”

Whether we conceive it as a smaller, repeating loop or a more open-ended loop, we can leave to the theorists. By consciously reorganizing resources from planning to later stages and integrating all stakeholders, we subvert the tendency toward informal management. After all, pants are meant to fly by and plans aren’t products.

The thing is, no matter how eloquently you describe your plan to others, people are bound to misread it either wholly or partially. No one’s perfect after all. The job of a competent project manager is to understand the various components of this crucial practice and the ways he/she can implement them to ensure that each task is completed without misunderstandings.

This problem isn’t a new one. In the 1960s, renowned Theorist, David Berlo, came up with a model that encapsulated the essence of this dilemma and the way it can be overcome. Apparently there are 4 sources of communication that one has to keep in mind, each of which have different factors that can reduce or improve the quality of the desired message:

The Source

The source of a message refers to YOU and the way you put your point across. This is influenced by many skills, namely the way you write, how you speak and your attitude towards certain people and issues. Your knowledge level regarding the issue you want discussed also has a lot to do with it. Keep in mind, that the attitude you project acts as a non-verbal message to your audience. In other words, try and stave off any negative feelings you may have before you decide to communicate with someone.

The Message

This includes content, coding, structure and the language you decide to use in your message. All of these things have the ability to distort your meaning, a scenario that is the bane of all managers. Furthermore, too much information at the same time may also make your point hard to understand.

The Channel

Communication is not all about talking well and writing as well. The format you use to lay your instruction out on paper for instance, have a direct impact on the message that the receiver comprehends.

The Receiver

The one receiving your instructions is the one to focus on. He/she is the last piece in this puzzle. You see, the individual you’re trying to explain things to may have had the same influences as yourself. If you speak to them in a negative tone, for example, they may react negatively or may even misinterpret the message ‘unintentionally’.

The solution? Make them see YOUR perspective from THEIR point of view to make them willing workers. Plan out projects in ways that leave little to the imagination, but have the same influence that a full out presentation would.

Kayode Ajewole

On the job training – you still need some!

Those who have reached a designated level in their careers
would think that the time of undergoing a new training course had passed away
long ago. The real answer is that, it is the RIGHT time to get a new training
course.

In fact, you have reached that level in your career because
of your education, and the initial training you had before you started working
in your first job. Since that time, and you have depended on that strategic
storage of education and developed skills to advance in your career. In other
words, the curve that was going up in the past, is now going to flip down if
you do not know how to give a boost to your career.

No matter, what your career line is and what you are doing
for a living, every single day new people are joining the same line, but they
have up to date training before they join their careers. Put yourself in the
shoes of any given employer and compare an employee with up to date knowledge
with one who hasn’t updated for the past ten years. The answer is obviously in
the favor of the one who took that extra step to develop new skills and sharpen
the old ones.

If you think that you have been so long in your current
position, and that you deserve a promotion, wait no more and take a training
course to freshen up your knowledge, find out the new technologies in your
career niche, and learn what you need to get the higher post you deserve. Taking
a training course would make you stand out of the crowd; as it declares clearly
that you are a perfect candidate for a promotion because you have combined the
experience with the education needed for that post.

You can maintain your current post because of the experience
you are compiling every day, but you will not be able to compete for a
promotion with experience only, you need the nitrous boost of up to date
training in order to win such a competition.

The common mistake that people always make is to wait until
they have a job opening and then search for the needed training. The smartest
move to take is to decide which position you are looking for, what are the
skills needed for that position and start on them right now. Combining the
years of experience with up to date training will make you a golden target for
Head Hunters and job recruiters.

It is time to unleash
your buried powers and use them fully, gear up for your new promotion with a
training course that makes your dream extremely achievable. You can never go
wrong with a training course, you will always benefit from it.

Most of those who reach a middle management level position
start to think more about investing their savings. Invest in yourself and
increase your skills and knowledge assets, when you get a higher management
post, you will have more savings to invest so… do not worry!

Kayode Ajewole, PMP