Author: Gerald J. Leonard

Leadership

PofE 054: Sam Walton – Enhanced Walmart’s Customer Service through Strong Values and a Superior Distribution Model

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Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC"Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not  quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality." -Peter Drucker

Background and Challenges:

  • Sam Walton was born on March 29, 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma to Thomas and Nancy Lee Walton.
  • His parents were farmers until around 1923. Due to the Great Depression, his father gave up farming to go into the farm mortgage business.
Value Delivery

Community

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It’s time to get involved and support our global community.  KIVA KIVA – If you are looking for a charity that provides support to those who are trying to help themselves, then you have to checkout KIVA.  Donors Choose   Donors Choose: Helping public school teachers and students in need Hope World Wide Hope WorldWide: […]

Cyber Security

PofE 053: Willis H. Ware – Inducted Into The National Cyber Security Hall of Fame

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Cyber attack concept in word tag cloud isolated on black background"When the satisfaction or security of another person becomes as important to one as one's own, then a state of love exists." -Harry Stack Sullivan

 Background and Challenges:

  • Mr. Ware was born in New Jersey on August 31, 1920.
  • His father worked as a delivery man using a horse drawn wagon after being discharged from the U.S. Navy.
  • During his formative years, he lived in Pleasantville, New Jersey where his father worked for A&P, a chain of supermarkets in the Northeast of the United States.
Results

PofE 052: How To Patent Your Ideas Like Dr. An Wang That Gets Results

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Intellectual-Property-Patent"If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run – and often in the short one – the most darling prophecies seem laughably conservative." -Arthur C. Clarke

Background and Challenges

  • Dr. An Wang was born in 1920, in Shanghai, China and was taught English by his father until age six.
  • He entered third grade at age six and excelled in science and math during his time in elementary while being fascinated by radio technology in high school.
  • He attended Chiao-Tung University to study engineering with an emphasis on communication technologies.
Problem Solving

PofE 051: Azim Premji – India’s IT Problem Solver and Philanthropist

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Businessman-solutions-the-problem“Life is a continuous exercise in creative problem solving.”

-Michael J. Gelb               

Background and Challenges

  • Azim Premji was born in 1945, in Bombay India, as the son of M.H Premji. Azim's father was an entrepreneur who started a manufacturing and distribution company called Western India Vegetable Products around the time that Azim was born.
  • Azim enrolled into Stanford University to study engineering with the hope of obtaining his degree and developing policy for the Third World country at the World Bank.
  • Before he completed his studies he received a call from his mother, Gulbanoo Premji in India with the news that his father had passed of a heart attack and that he was needed to come back and run the family business. 
Books

PSGS 016: Book Review: Translating Strategy Into Action

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Premise:

The premise of "Translating Strategy Into Action" is that understanding one's organizations strategic objectives and cascading those objectives throughout the organization into departmental and individual action plans can be a challenging task as the demand for limited resources continues to increase. Translating strategy must be communicated up and down the organization from the board room to the mail room as well as across the value chain to partners and suppliers. Contained in this book are practical tools and techniques for the translation and execution of an organization's strategic objectives into actions that produce measurable results. Topics covered in the book focus on the principles of:

  1. Be a student.
  2. Create meaning.
  3. Be honest.
  4. Think capabilities.
  5. Get comfortable with change.
Books

PofE 050: Book Review – Habits of the Mind

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Habits of the Mind

Premise:

Charles Reade said it best in his most quoted maxim, “Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” The premise of "Habits of the Mind" is that you are what you think about. All of your thoughts shape and create whom you are, they mold you into the person you have become and whom you will be in the future. What we think shapes and determines our character and the outcome of our life.

Books

PSGS 015: Book Review: Strategic Project Portfolio Management

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Premise:

"Strategic Project Portfolio Management" fills a gap in the literature of project, program and portfolio management books by providing a comprehensive approach to managing IT investments based on Simon Moore’s experience as a Financial Portfolio Manager for Putman Investments and as a Charter Financial Analyst. The book is targeted at an executive audience, with the goal of enabling them to understand how project portfolio management empowers organizations to better map project investments to the overall strategy and goals of the organization.

The premise of the book is that portfolio management is key to enabling an organization to execute by improving the proposal submission and project ideation process. Investment Portfolio Workflow is a key component of portfolio management and should be at the center of an organization’s project portfolio management capability design. Many organizations approach project selection in an ad hoc manner, but high performing organizations achieve results by utilizing portfolio management to select the right projects based on data driven modeling that optimizes the cost of accomplishing their strategic initiatives.

Books

PSGS 014: Book Review: IT Governance

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Premise:

The premise of "IT Governance" is that top-performing organizations have a systematic decision-making framework that enables them to achieve greater bottom-line results to their business goals, value and growth over their competition. Organizations that have implemented an IT governance framework have better clarity around their strategy and the part that IT plays in the implementation of those strategies. They also have better processes for more efficient and effective change management procedures and organizational accountability for tracking project benefits.

The book "IT Governance" has been a valuable resource in my personal growth as an IT Governance practitioner and portfolio management consultant. Having led IT Governance boards for a number of years at a large international law firm, I’ve found the processes and procedures outlined in the book extremely valuable. 

Books

PSGS 013: Book Review: IT Portfolio Management Step-By-Step

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Premise:

"IT Portfolio Management Step-by-Step" is a must-have for portfolio management practitioners. The book is grouped into four parts: an overview and background of what’s included in the material, the foundational elements of portfolio management, building a step-by-step plan and implementation guide, and PPM best practices. In the pages of this book, you will find information on the best practice approach for aligning, rationalizing, prioritizing, selecting, optimizing, tracking, monitoring and managing your organization's IT portfolio investments. The book also covers the three primary areas of IT portfolio management which are the development of processes and frameworks, the implications of tools for data collection, costs, risks, benefits, requirement analysis, and business drivers alignment. You will also discover information on corporate investments and a common taxonomy and governance approach for communicating principles, policies, and guidelines to enable a consistent cadence for your portfolio process.

What I learned:

The need for IT Portfolio Management can be understood against the backdrop of the following statistics:

  • 84% of companies do not use a business case for their IT project investments
  • 83% of companies only adjust their budgets once or twice a year
  • 67% of IT organizations are not able to adjust to market trends when needed
  • 57% of companies believe they have a balanced IT budget