Author: The Information Badger

A friend’s son, who starts employment this week after graduating recently from University, asked this question. The youngster – full of enthusiasm, hungry to succeed and keen to pay off his student loan – wants to move up the career ladder swiftly. The Badger considered many possible answers, but after brief reflection one simple answer stood out, namely ‘Learn how and when to say No!’. The youngster was intrigued and wanted to know what underpinned the answer. The Badger thus described a material event from his own experience.

A senior business leader, one of the Badger’s bosses in a matrixed organisation, was summoned by a client to explain considerable underperformance on a contract. The Badger had drawn attention to this for some time, but the leader had taken no action. The meeting with the client was arranged for the first day of a long-scheduled Badger Summer vacation. The Badger was not material to the contract, but the leader insisted the Badger attend regardless. The Badger didn’t like attending whilst on vacation but felt obliged when adverse comments about loyalty and career progression featured in the leader’s communications.

On the day of the meeting, the leader arranged to meet an hour before the client session to confirm messaging and tactics. Instead the leader used this pre-meeting to unfairly berate and blame the Badger for the whole situation. The Badger was taken aback. The leader’s words were like facing into the full force of a hair dryer! To say the Badger was annoyed is an understatement. The subsequent client meeting, however, was benign, straightforward, and constructive, and the Badger sat there wondering why he was attending on a vacation day.

On the way home afterwards, the Badger decided to ‘Learn how and when to say No!’ better. Since then the Badger said No – and meant it – in many situations to great effect. Did it damage the Badger’s career? No. Was the Badger’s loyalty ever questioned when saying No? No. Did the Badger become disrespected or a ‘negative’ person? No. The pressure described above from some leaders are not unusual but never be afraid of the consequences of saying No. If there are consequences, then question your enterprise’s real values and whether you’re in the right organisation. So, what happened after the client meeting? Issues were resolved, and the senior business leader left their post a few months later.

The youngster said he would not forget the seven-word answer to his question, and the Badger believed him! What would your answer to the question be?

Risk pervades life. We take risks every day; for example, when crossing a road or driving a car. The companies we work for take risks. In fact, they thrive by taking risks and successfully mitigating and managing the consequences. Indeed, large companies usually have mature enterprise-level risk management regimes – see some nuggets here – and employees leading the build, test and delivery of technology-intensive systems normally have instinctive risk management characteristics underpinning their career success. The Badger’s delivery experience has emphasised that while formal risk management processes and controls are important, it’s always the people – project, programme, service and business leaders – that must ultimately decide on what risk to take. After all, it’s people at the end of the day who are responsible for the outcomes of their decisions and pay the price for getting it wrong. Today’s predictable departure of the TSB Bank CEO for a botched migration to a new IT system illustrates the point.

Why has the Badger been thinking about risk? Because the news that an Apple ‘driver-less’ vehicle was rear-ended by another vehicle while waiting for a safe gap to join a freeway in California reinforced the Badger’s belief that a human rather than a computer system must decide on whether to take a risk or not.

‘Driver-less’ vehicle technology is advanced, and – if you believe the hype – there’ll be millions of such vehicles on roads within ten years. Big auto and tech companies apparently have up to ~100 vehicles each currently under test on public roads. That’s a very small number compared with daily traffic volumes, and anyone who’s delivered technology-intensive projects and programmes knows that a) things can change dramatically as volumes rise, b) non-technological things like politics and laws can cause serious delay, and c) ‘introduction to service’ at scale with end-users is always challenging! Accordingly, and you may vehemently disagree, the Badger feels that ‘driver-less’ vehicles are over-hyped and the likelihood of significant numbers on UK public roads within 10 years is low.

Why does the Badger hold this view? It’s nothing to do with how good the technology is. It’s because humans have managed risk, and gained excitement from doing so, since the Stone Age. It’s in our make-up. It’s part of why our species is successful. Humans have always used available information before taking a course of action, so it’s unlikely we’ll be psychologically comfortable with completely delegating our risk decisions to computer systems, no matter how clever they are.

In a world that seems increasingly chaotic, it doesn’t feel right to allow advanced, self-learning computer systems to decide on the risks we take in our daily routines. Whatever next! Will machines take all the fun out of life? Hopefully not, but perhaps the future that underpinned the Terminator film in 1984 isn’t that far away after all…

The market is ever changing, and the speed of change is getting faster. If a business doesn’t keep up with the pace of change then it becomes uncompetitive, irrelevant and eventually slips down the greasy pole to failure. There are several large UK companies – particularly, but not exclusively, retailers – who seem to have struggled to change and are now suffering the consequences. The Badger has followed events with interest, and triggered by a recent LinkedIn article penned by an ex-colleague, the Badger has reflected on his own experience with business change to see if one consistent learning point stands out. If so, what is it? Well, one thing emerged, namely that an engaged, effective and action-oriented ‘middle management’ is crucial to the fast pace of change needed for a business to remain relevant in today’s world.

A large company is like a super-tanker, but in today’s world it needs to manoevure like a nimble coaster not a super-tanker! The larger the company, the more important it is to have middle management that is experienced, motivated, and passionately aligned with change objectives and necessary timelines. Middle management is the engine room that implements change. It needs to operate as ‘fresh oil’ rather than ‘treacle’. Good company leaders know that ‘fresh oil’ means having the right people in middle management and treating them as intelligent officers rather than foot soldiers. Having and communicating a clear and credible vision, explaining not just instructing, and aligning hearts and minds to build belief and passion for the required journey and destination are also essential. Middle managers must have belief, respect and confidence in their company leaders, and vice versa. If any part of the equation is missing, then ‘treacle’ will be the order of the day and a barrier to progress.

The right company leadership is, of course, crucial. Middle management need to see their leaders as ‘lions’ not ‘donkeys’. The reverse is also true. Company leaders need confidence that middle management is populated with ‘lions’ not ‘donkeys’. The Badger learned over the years that when company leadership and middle management are both ‘lions’ then ‘fresh oil’ is likely to be in the engine room and change will be implemented nimbly and well. Any other lion/donkey combination is a recipe for ‘treacle’ and a slow and frustrating slide towards irrelevance and failure.

Finally, coasters have the advantage of being more manoeuvrable than super-tankers. Coasters can adapt quicker to changing circumstances. The Badger wonders how many super-tankers are struggling to adapt fast enough to remain relevant. Over the coming months it will be interesting to see which super-tankers have ‘lions’ and ‘fresh oil’ in place to successfully implement the changes needed to remain relevant and avoid the breakers yard…

The IT industry is full of acronyms, and the pretty good list in Wikipedia triggered some Badger thoughts about the likes of ERP, CRM, CTI, IVR etc. This group covers the system and software suites that support the processes and operations of a business in an integrated and efficient manner. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Salesforce are big names in this arena, but there are many others with good, comprehensive and competitive offerings too.

Offerings tend to be functionally rich, highly configurable, and have customisable interfaces allowing data to be exchanged with products from different vendors. They are also ‘sticky’. Once in, they stay at the heart of the relevant business process for a very long time. Replacing legacy systems with such offerings is, however, rarely without substantial challenges, especially in large enterprises. It must go hand in hand with a client’s own human and process-related business transformation activities which, sadly, are often neglected. In the Badger’s experience, initial business cases are often not fully met. Delivery is often much later than expected and costs often exceed the set budget. Relationships between client and supplier can become very strained!

So, what emerged from the Badger’s stream of thoughts? Two things. Firstly, it’s time to sweep away the wide gamut of acronyms covering product-centric offerings associated with integrated and efficient operation of a business. It’s important to simplify and move with the times and the Badger thinks a single acronym – BOSS – should be the simple replacement for ERP, CRM, and many others. BOSS stands for ‘Business Operation & Service Systems’. Getting the word ‘business’ in not only feels appropriate for going forward in the 21st century, but it also provides a reminder of the importance of the human and process aspects noted above.

Secondly, the future looks bright for new and smaller businesses regarding BOSS! The days of having to pay for expensive professional services to configure particular offerings seem numbered. After all, if cars can be made driverless, then artificial intelligence will make the automatic provision and configuration of systems to run a business easy! Just imagine for a moment. How long will it be before you simply ask Alexa to set up and provide all the systems and services you need to run your new integrated and efficient business? Fantasy, you might say. May be – but the Badger doubts it. Commoditisation, easier usage, simplicity and increasing user centricity have been a feature of IT for many years, and that’s not likely to change.

And finally? Billy Connelly, the well-known comedian, said ‘I’m not nearly as afraid of myself or my imagination as I used to be’. That’s very apt. The Badger’s off to test his meanderings with Alexa…

Steak Tartare is a French dish of raw minced beef served with a raw egg and seasoning. It’s a dish that made an impact on the Badger soon after joining the IT industry many, many moons ago.

The situation was this. The Badger, jaded with some aspects of being a university researcher/lecturer in Materials, decided on a career change and joined a growing UK IT company at the forefront of building clever new systems and software for many different industries. Within a few days of starting at the company, the Badger was assigned to a project developing a relational database product. The project team were already well established, close-knit, highly intelligent, motivated, extremely skilled and had an extraordinary team-spirit – helped, in part, by a monthly, company funded, ‘Friday team lunch’ at restaurants in London’s Fitzrovia district.

Shortly after joining the team, the Badger attended his first ‘Friday team lunch’ at a quality French restaurant in Charlotte Street, London. Being new, the Badger was apprehensive. Visiting good restaurants wasn’t something the Badger did often and the whole menu was in French! Most of the team ordered steaks of one form or another, so the Badger followed suit and ordered Steak Tartare in the belief this would be just ‘normal’ steak but with a different sauce. The Badger’s plate of raw minced beef topped with a raw egg was the last to be served, and its arrival caused the hub-bub around the table to cease! All eyes turned to the Badger who somehow managed to conceal his own shock! The team conveyed their amusement and respect for the Badger’s choice, but wagered the Badger would not clear the plate. The Badger, of course, ate the lot… and hasn’t eaten Steak Tartare again since!

So what learning did the Badger take from this episode? Firstly, it broke the ice with the team and it speeded up the development of relationships with other team members. The Badger learned that doing something that makes you stand out or generates comment can help speed up your assimilation into an established group of people. Secondly, the Badger learned never to be reluctant to ask questions or seek clarification, and to always ensure you fully understand what you’re getting from the outset. Thirdly, the Badger learned to brush up his French.

So, overall what’s the message? Simple. Don’t be afraid to be different, don’t be shy, ask questions, learn about yourself and learn how to make an impact on others. Don’t be frightened of trying new things. Try Steak Tartare yourself – you never know, it might have an impact on you that you’ll remember for years to come too…

Commentary on advancing technology and its impact on work and life is everywhere. There’s so much that it’s becoming tedious! However, as the Badger awoke from a night’s sleep recently, a radio interview with Yuval Noah Harari grabbed the attention. It was one of those radio items that you’re not really listening to, until something’s said that triggers mental faculties to speed up the journey from slumber to consciousness.

The interview had facets that resonated with apprehensions about the power of FAANGs (see here). It triggered a stream of Badger thinking that couldn’t be shaken off and culminated in the stark appreciation that the commodity of power this century isn’t gold, cash, natural resources, size of military forces, or nuclear bombs…it’s our data. Hardly a revelation, but it’s sobering to think of it in these simple terms.

Just think about how much of your data – personal info, comments, photos, videos, what you buy, what you browse, who your friends are, who you communicate with, what publications you read etc – is captured when you use today’s technology. Just think about what mega-corporations like FAANGs can tell about you, your family, your life, your habits, your interests, and your political allegiances by analysing your use of their services and the data you provide. With biotechnology and advancing personalised medicine, it’s not irrational to think that the mega-corporations will ultimately have your DNA too! History suggests it would be prudent to harbour some anxiety about mega-corporations wielding this century’s commodity of power to manipulate people to achieve whatever outcomes suit corporate interests.

Is this just paranoia? May be, but that’s for each of us to decide. So, is there anything you can do to help minimise the potential for being manipulated? Yes…think before you provide! Don’t shirk from taking personal responsibility for what you provide, share or exchange on any platform. Parents should not shirk from educating their children about online privacy awareness, using social media and modern technology sensibly, and the need to ‘think about consequences’ when sharing or exchanging data.

Finally, the Badger has a question. Do you just glibly accept the meaty ‘cookies’ pop-ups on websites since the advent of GDPR? Chances are you do – and you shouldn’t! Have a look at the alternative links in the pop up which often take you to the detail and settings of what you’re agreeing to, including the companies you agree can process data. You may be surprised at what you find. Whatever you decide to do next is your choice, but make the choice knowing you will be influencing this century’s commodity of power… your data.

The Badger received training during his career and participated in developing company level training strategy and policy. On the latter, there were many debates over the years on the merits, effectiveness, and benefits of e-learning for the employer and also for the employee. These aired strong views but never really culminated in clear conclusions. So, is it possible to answer the question posed in the title above? No.

So, why’s the Badger posed the question? Ostensibly because the Badger’s feels that traditional Instructor-led Training (ILT), which educates with more group face to face interaction, is becoming rarer – at least in the IT industry. E-learning seems to have become a convenient ‘first choice’ in many enterprises, but possibly at the expense of truly embedding deep learning in recipients. By the way, if you want to read a short and balanced item comparing e-learning versus ILT then just click here.

Training strategy and policy is usually informed by a needs analysis supporting strategic business objectives. In the Badger’s experience these analyses are often highly constrained by ever-tighter budgets. There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s always sensible to live within one’s means! With ever-tighter budgets and perpetually advancing technology it’s hardly surprising that enterprises have strongly embraced e-Learning for delivering training to the workforce. But does e-Learning provide diluted learning for its recipients compared with ILT? Specialist academics, no doubt, have the answer. So, having posed the question in the title which side of the fence does the Badger land?

That’s easy – Instructor-led Training (ILT). Why? Firstly, because the training that had the greatest and most long-lasting impact on the Badger was always where an instructor and a group of people were in the same room. The ability to interact with each other, share experiences, collectively understand, ask questions, and listen to others whilst watching their body language was very powerful in embedding key learning points. Secondly, the Badger’s experience of e-learning in recent years was coloured by dynamics that instructed recipients to comply. Recipients tended, therefore, just to concentrate on passing the online test at the end of the session. Retention of the learning thereafter  tended to be shallow.

So, there you have the Badger’s answer to the question! Of course, the best training is ‘on the job’ – learning from others in your line of business, project or team just doing your normal day to day job. By the way, the Badger isn’t anti e-Learning, just more pro as much face to face, group-centred learning as possible otherwise it could become extinct! One final thought though. Should e-Learning in enterprises be overhauled? After all, why reinvent the wheel when training videos on YouTube already provide lots of the same subject matter content…

Yesterday evening the Badger enjoyed refreshing cold beverages in the garden of the local hostelry, watching the sun set, listening to the song birds starting to roost in the trees around the local pond, and watching ducks marshal their youngsters to the protection of the small island in its centre. It was divine! To say the Badger was relaxed is an under-statement. However, it was also bizarre. Why? Because the Badger’s brain in this idyllic setting turned to reflecting on the results published over the last two weeks by the major IT service providers. Sad, but true.

What the Badger reflected on wasn’t so much the numbers reported, but the buzzwords CEOs used in their webcasts. All the webcasts were pretty standard corporate fayre, contained the usual rhetoric and predictable messaging, and the numbers were well-rehearsed and conveyed with positivity. What struck the Badger, however, was that the words Digital, Digital Transformation, Cloud, Consulting and Systems Integration dominate narratives way more than the term ‘outsourcing’, even though this continues to be an important bedrock within most IT service provider’s business. It was this simple point, oiled with creativity from a cold beverage, that moved the Badger’s thoughts to some murky visioneering and speculation of future ‘outsourcing’ business opportunities.

So, what did the Badger conclude from this murky thinking? First, and most obviously, outsourcing of IT services by major and medium size enterprises is well established and will continue in one guise or another for many reasons. Second, outsourcing for small or tiny businesses – which is influenced by many factors, as the neat little Tenfold item here illustrates – is an increasingly powerful and viable option and this area is destined to continue growing. And third, the piece-de-resistance, the blue-sky handwaving result – families will be attracted to outsource their IT!

Families typically have internet connections, desktops, laptops, tablets, games consoles, smart phones, printers, storage devices holding precious personal information, and so on, scattered around the home and used by different family members. There’s always some incompatibility or something unfathomable wrong causing frustration, and many find it daunting and difficult to ‘join up’ the technology to provide something that could loosely be described as a  service for the family across the plethora of devices. More and more technology is coming into the home, so integrating it and looking after it in a coherent, cost effective way suggests family ‘outsourcing’ for a sensible monthly fee could be viable, attractive and perhaps inevitable. At least that’s what the Badger concluded!

So, there you have it. Cold beverages at a local hostelry on a warm Summer evening have a lot to answer for…

This is a well-known saying with wide applicability. Inside big corporates, for example, individual business units go through periods where they grow, can do no wrong, and their success influences the whole corporation…until they ultimately decline and are surpassed by another unit. The decline is often rapid, painful, and caused by arrogance, complacency, a focus on internal matters rather than clients, or failure to act on clear adverse operational trends. You may recognise these dynamics if you’ve worked in a large corporate.

The saying also applies at a human level. The Badger, for example, learned early in his career that if you are a project manager then you are only as good as your last project. If your last project was perceived as being problematic then that’s what people remember, not the run of delivery leadership successes you had before that. Indeed, when the Badger became a delivery gamekeeper to lead company delivery/risk reviews, any endeavour run by leaders with impeccable track records received a little extra attention. Why? Because one of the underlying questions was always ‘could this be the one that is this project/service manager’s nemesis?’. So, it’s a very good saying which is just as applicable to our career ups and downs and personal lives as it is in business. The trick is to realise this, to keep the saying in mind and think before rushing to follow the crowd, and to realise that business colleagues may have it in mind when they interact with you.

The Badger read recently that the combined value of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (FAANG) exceeds the entire value of companies in the UK FTSE 100. FAANGs also exceed the entire value of companies in the Japanese Nikkei. To the Badger, this rings alarm bells. FAANGs are enormous money-making machines – empires, no less. But are they now too powerful? Can social media platforms be trusted? Hmm. The Badger has always been cautious with social media, ostensibly because ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. Facebook’s recent Cambridge Analytic woes just illustrates that. Furthermore, Google’s recent fine from the EU highlights historic practices but also begs the question about where effective FAANG regulatory oversight is coming from.

FAANGs reported their quarterly results to the market last week. Facebook and Netflix wobbled but Amazon continues its march to world domination. The Badger’s all for the free market, but do FAANG valuations and power ultimately bode well for people, democracy or society? We should all think about what the answer is to this question. Anyway, let’s get back to ‘what goes up must come down’. FAANGs are not exempt and the Badger’s message is simple. If whatever you’re looking at or engaged with has a perpetual march upwards, then just keep in mind that at some stage there will always be a reversal of fortunes…

Over the last 20 or so years lots of software development and IT/Business Process services for North American and European markets moved offshore, typically – but not exclusively – to countries like India, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Today many IT services companies employ more people in offshore locations than they do in their home territories. The IT industry functions globally and changes fast, and in a quiet moment recently the Badger pondered on whether the current heightened nationalistic trends in many Western countries might ultimately lead to politically driven policies to repatriate IT skills and services to home turf. You don’t need to look far in the media to appreciate that many countries know they have IT skill shortfalls, that security and privacy requires crucial local IT expertise, and that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is apparently going to impact employment everywhere. So, do the runes suggest offshoring is in for a fast and dramatic fall? Well, that was the question at the heart of the Badger’s ruminations.

About 20 years ago, the Badger was involved in the acquisition of a small (<100 people) Indian software product development company and then its subsequent growth into an excellent global IT services delivery centre of more than 5000 professionals. (A second centre was eventually opened in the Philippines). Getting Western teams to work effectively with the offshore centres wasn’t easy. Many human and technical problems relating to cultural differences, time-zones, communication, language, and IT infrastructure for seamless global collaboration, were painful but eventually overcome. The Badger’s admiration and respect for offshore colleagues grew in leaps and bounds as these challenges were addressed. Their enthusiasm, ambition, hunger for success, thirst for knowledge, top-notch technical skills and desire to please was impressive and refreshing. Today, of course, onshore/offshore teamwork is routine, largely straightforward and successful embedded as routine across the industry. If it wasn’t then customers wouldn’t keep coming back for more.

So, is a reliance in home territories on IT skills, capabilities and services from offshore countries a problem? Is offshoring in for a dramatic fall? No. Not if international relationships between home and offshore countries remain mature and stable, and technological impacts from the likes of AI are well managed. But there’s the rub. Trade wars with the USA, BREXIT, EU internal strains, China’s relentless progress, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia modernisation, Iran and the Middle East, all seem to suggest global business dynamics and international relationships are changing with nationalistic agendas being reinforced. But let’s travel hopefully. Offshore will continue to play an important part in the IT services industry. The Badger remains optimistic, but Badger instincts are producing some nervous twitches! The aroma of disruption seems to increase everyday…but maybe that’s just the Badger having dodgy thoughts on an unusually hot and sticky day!