Last post for PM411 for awhile. My content will remain here so come back often. My Top Ten Posts are the previous ten……and don’t forget to visit www.lulu.com/workingtheplan for my books and articles on value selling large projects and innovative technology enablement.
One more thing. Check out my daughter’s fashion and style blog at http://www.laculturecreators.blogspot.com/; you’ll be glad you did!  
Image Source: stockxchng.com

I read the summer reading guide for IT pros on CIO Insight. It reminded me of the days I worked for AT&T Solutions, an “insightful” consulting firm within AT&T that picked “futurizing” as it’s mantra. We couldn’t get out of the starting blocks because of all the “ideating” that was going on. We read ALL the books but they were about as bad, in terms of practical action, as the organization I was a part of.
One book CIO Insight missed, which has completely changed my thinking about the highest impact actions a company can take, is Advanced Project Portfolio Management …read more

An older post on what governance boards want is garnering some attention this month. In it is a great example of a CEO dealing with HIS upper management: the board. It turns out that they didn’t want his detail financial analysis until they saw how a proposed acquisition linked with corporate strategy. Projects must be linked to strategy or they shouldn’t be projects!
I’ve been doing a research project on how continual improvement programs are embraced and drive companies from the executive and cultural perspectives. Interestingly, the best practice that seems to be emerging is excellent project prioritization based on alignment with …read more

Our b5media Theme Day focuses on Graduation – New Beginnings in a Challenging Economy led by Darlene at www.interviewchatter.com. Since my three daughters are in their “new beginnings” periods, I’m a sought after advisor. They are: 27 years old- just married and building fitness business, 25- radio show host of S&H Culture Club and fashion blogger, and 21- college senior who is a singing star. They are all fast moving, innovative and creative people. MORE IMPORTANTLY—they all realize that changes are coming…and preparing for them.
Fortunately I’ve suggested that they focus on research, organizing, coordination/compilation, and decision making skills in college …read more

I have some great, reliable, commentors. One of them is Alan Wilensky. Commenting on my June 7th post ““Fewer, More Successful Projects”: The New HP” he gave one of his great personal examples of an IT organization run amuck. Here is his comment (edited by me) and my response:
Alan W: A while ago, I was a bidder on fair sized contract with a specialized mfr. They had a BIG IT plan, SAP, SCN, you name it. They were hostage to their IT man, he had them seduced and bought in to the tune of 30 projects (none fully implemented) and …read more

CFO’s article on risk management brought up a fascinating point about how the Federal Reserve policies contributed to poor risk management in banks during the subprime mess. CFO makes a shaky link to Alan Greenspan’s role. Banks had been shedding, instead of managing, risk for years by passing it on to investors. They claim that Greenspan “praised” this dispersion of risk since it in fact bolstered the “safety and soundness” of the industry.
I think it did and that Greenspan was right. An important point in my thinking is that the banks that failed did NOT manage risk on the risk …read more

“Risk was not integrated but split between a credit risk officer and a market risk officer, both of whom reported to the CFO, who then reported to the CEO. That may work at a place like Goldman, where decisions are made collectively among executives. But at a firm with a strong-willed CEO, like Merrill, it can backfire. People close to Merrill say that even if Edwards [CFO] saw the risk, contradicting then-CEO Stan O’Neal was a dangerous game.”
This quote from the CFO magazine article on risk management on failing (Goldman) and successful (Merrill) banks, reveals a problem with many high …read more

CFO magazine covered how poor risk-management techniques, and more importantly, organizational culture and structure, contributed to the subprime problems:
“the inability to properly manage risk, and the failure of stress tests have so far resulted in global bank losses of $265 billion. With a few notable exceptions, bank CFOs seemed willfully ignorant of snowballing risk.”
The worst performers, like Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, shared common problems of a siloed approach to risk and insufficient communication among executive levels in finance, risk and operations. The best performers so far, represented by firms such as Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, give risk a high …read more

Here are the top viewed posts for projectmanagement411.com for May 2008. Interesting that the first two are much older (2-3 months) but continue to be top vote getters. Everything from innovation to PMO governance boards. The recent series on collaborative innovation seems to be sparking some great interest- very much a ground breaking “best of the best” practice! Check them out:
1. http://projectmanagement411.com/innovations-are-under-your-nose-go-and-see/
2. http://projectmanagement411.com/organizations-as-boxes-analogy-reveals-power-of-projects/
3. http://projectmanagement411.com/social-network-positioning-new-age-solutions-to-old-economy-problems/
4. http://projectmanagement411.com/heres-what-pmo-governance-boards-want/
5. http://projectmanagement411.com/a-softwares-history-gives-great-insights/
6. http://projectmanagement411.com/social-networking-strategy-more-important-than-being-green/
7. http://projectmanagement411.com/open-innovation-brings-companies-together-to-solve-problems/
8. http://projectmanagement411.com/how-to-protect-intellectual-property-in-collaborative-innovation
9. http://projectmanagement411.com/networking-an-important-step-in-collaborative-innovation/
10. http://projectmanagement411.com/a-key-to-collaborative-innovation-defining-the-problem-generically/
What’s the latest hot topic at your company? What are you doing about it? What are you doing to make your company’s strategies happen?
Don’t miss a post! Subscribe via RSS …read more

I’m realizing that I’m a focal point for all things “project” having to do with executing strategies and innovation. In other words, I usually read what I’m interested in on this topic and then pick and choose the best for YOU and put my slant on it. This is my small way of changing things- how about you?
If you like what you see, and many of you have told me so, then that probably means we have the same interests. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that we think alike because that would only lead to boring conclusions.
Blogs are for dialogue and …read more