Category: Articles

Strategy, Architecture & Problem-Solving

Innovation?

Patents, MVA or GDP: None of them indicate innovation

In “When is it innovation?“, I introduced the idea of a sector’s familiarity with an concept. I’ve just read Bloomberg’s Innovation Index and I find a few of the variables used to be old-school to say the least. It made me wonder what the index should actually include to be relevant to innovation.  Issue 1:…
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Fax Machine

The Parallels Between RPA and Fax Automation

There are times when the cheap and nasty solution is so economically efficient that it can preclude doing it properly later on. Background – The Fax Just under a decade ago, I was working with a local authority client and their NHS hospital partner. The interpretation of the law at that time was that email was…
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A Fabricated Example of Using OKRs with Archimate

Using Archimate to model OKRs for Business Motivation

Following the theme of moulding different modelling languages, methodologies and toolsets together, I want to take a look at how to model OKRs in Archimate. Once again, I’m using Archi (or ArchimateTool) with the Archimate modelling language. OKRs do not cascade Just because the diagram depicts a hierarchy, doesn’t mean that the objectives cascade down…
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Mint tea

Collaboration or Contract: A Decision of Flow

Ask anyone who’s been involved in any significant implementation and they’ll have come across the waterfall approach. It typically leads to a contractual relationship between one team who are working on artefacts that are then handed over to a subsequent team. While the flaws of waterfall have been well-documented, this concept of contract versus collaboration…
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Any car

Surrendering Market Space

There was a radio commercial the other day with the following line: “We’ll beat your quote from a well known car buyer” So that’s one company referring to a second company but without mentioning to that second company by  name.  At what point did they realise that the other brand was so strong, they didn’t actually…
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Direction of Travel for Gym Business Models

New Year, New Gym, New Business Model

The business of gyms is an odd one. It’s full of business principles from the 1970s with a thin veneer of customer service from the 1990s. What’s the modern approach? Let’s look at the typical issues with modern gym memberships. If you search on a few review sites or social media, you’ll commonly see a…
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signature

Look at the Evidence – the Spike and Delay Pattern in Social Care

A number of years ago, I was transforming a city’s social care directorate and, as part of that transformation, we aimed to reduce the time it took to do anything when interacting with the service. The transformation was based on a more fundamental need to free up workers to be able to do the work…
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speaker

The Delay Following the Spike – Issues with Cycle Time in Service Industries

How long does it take you to do what your customers want? Not just the first part, but the whole of it? 1. The Pattern I see this pattern commonly replicated across service industries. It involves a very short spike of activity (e.g. 5-20 minutes) followed by a lengthy delay where something is sent to…
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Chick

The Whole Chicken

KFC has a radio commercial playing over the last few weeks, but I’m struggling to understand what it means. I understand the words but they’re contradictory, even within the commercial spot itself. I’m left wondering what the business motivation is behind commissioning that ad slot. What was the intention? The Content Here are some of…
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Business Motivation Model for GDPR

GDPR: The White Knight or The Elephant in The Room

I’m going to use GDPR as an example of how prioritised goals can make a big difference in how an organisation responds to change. I’ve no wish to jump on the consultancy bandwagon that is GDPR; I’m definitely no expert on the subject. However, GDPR will serve as a good example in this content as it’s…
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