4D Business Consulting 4DBC.net case to solve: Starting up a company, how companies grow and how they sustain?

Starting up a company, how companies grow and how they sustain?

New high-growth companies are entrepreneurial ventures with the ambition of achieving substantial sales of, for example, Dfl. 50 million or employing, say, 100 staff within five years of their foundation. During this period, what began as a start-up should have become an established enterprise. This is a significant distinction compared to less ambitious company foundations. New high-growth companies are rarely in a position to finance themselves; they can only be realized with the assistance of powerful professional investors. Thus, for anyone setting up a high-growth company, finance is the existential issue. This means that, right from the start, the concept must be regarded from the perspective of future investors

Key Points to this case:

-The essential factors in starting up a successful company

-How professional investors look at new companies

-The typical process for starting up a high-growth business

Case: 4D Business Consulting 4DBC

www.4dbc.net

4D Business Consulting 4DBC case to review: Approaching to Start an IT Consulting Business??

Approaching to Start an IT Consulting Business,are you ready for such move??

Starting an IT consulting business is an excellent path for those who are interested in becoming an entrepreneur. Here's how to open an IT consulting firm.
Starting an IT consulting firm is relatively easy if you have strong IT skills that are in high demand.
The good news is that there is a labor shortage right now for talented IT workers. Companies simply cannot find enough resources to accomplish their IT objectives, so they are turning to external IT consultants for help.
As such, if you open an IT consulting firm today, you may find that you immediately are busy and you are profitable right away.
If you play your cards right, you can grow your IT consulting firm to be big and profitable.
But, before starting an IT consulting company, you should think things through. Here are some important considerations for those of you who want to open an IT consulting business.

• Do you have a first client? If possible, it's best to start your business with a core client. The alternative is to simply start an IT business and begin selling work but it's much better to have that first client in hand before you quit your day job.
• What IT problems will you solve? Position your business based on what pain points you will address for your clients. It's important to narrow your focus at least to the point where you know prospective clients will be interested in your offerings. Just saying you are an IT consultant is too broad. Saying you are an IT consultant specializing in SAP outsourcing is much better. If you can narrow it even further, that's good. Perhaps saying that you are an IT consultant specializing in SAP outsourcing with strong skills in supply chain logistics would be even better positioning. That's very specific and differentiates you from competitors. You get the idea.
• Don't define yourself too narrowly. It's good to offer more than one thing. In a meeting with a prospective client, you'll hear all sorts of pain points. You don't want to not be able to generate business from one of those pain points simply because you've micro-niched your site too narrowly.
• Form a legal entity. If you don't form a legal entity and simply act as a sole proprietor, you are effectively just an independent contractor. That doesn't really count as far as starting an IT consultancy goes. To be a real company, you need to be a corporation or an LLC. As a bonus, setting up a corporate entity of some kind will also shield you from personal liability.
• Build a website. No IT consulting company worth its salt doesn't have a website. Plus, people who are buying technology services generally search for firms via the web. As such, you should not only have a website, but you should also search engine optimize that website so you do well when prospective customers are searching for your services via popular search engines.
• Try to get long-term contracts. Be willing to offer a lower rate if you can get a longer project. Having too many small projects that start and stop can be a deathblow to new IT consulting companies. It's much better to get bigger, longer projects.
• Never stop selling. A common mistake when opening up an IT consulting company is to sell your first project, do the work and then find you have nothing to do when the project ends. You should always be selling new work to ensure that you never have long periods of time when revenues are not flowing into your bank account.
• Build a network of freelancers. Given the ebb and flow of consulting work, don't get stuck with employees who are on the bench between projects but consuming payroll dollars. Instead, leverage independent subcontractors on a just-in-time basis. It may be more expensive on an hourly basis, but it can be more profitable over the long term.
• Track utilization and use good professional services automation software. An IT consultant that doesn't use good software tools to help them manage the work will soon find themselves in trouble, both in terms of customer service and financial stability. Whenever you can afford it, invest in tools that will make it easier to manage your consulting business and provide great service to your clients.
• Consider your car. Will your current automobile work as a service truck? Can it haul five PCs and monitors at a time, along with 100-feet of category five cable? With gasoline at three-dollars a gallon, is it the best bet as a fleet vehicle? Take a look at your options. Once you make your decision, take your branding information to a local sign company and prepare to pony up $200 to $500 or more per auto to extend your brand properly.
• Get a new phone. You want a cell phone that’s masterful at e-mail. You’ll constantly require access to vendor, client and partner e-mails between service calls in the field. I prefer a Treo, with its simple and intuitive access to POP3 e-mail, while others recommend Blackberries or Windows-based Smartphones. Whatever you choose, be sure to purchase a vehicle charger and a Bluetooth headset. You’ll need both.

 4D Business Consulting 4DBC

4dbc.net

4D Business Consulting 4DBC case to review: Project Management Training Approach in Middle East

  

Project Management Training Approach in Middle East

Abstract

Improving project management training in Middle East is the most essential part in the near future. This white paper (study) demonstrates the approach of project management training in Middle East and a short definition for the role of project management training. The paper supported with real numbers and suggested methodology to improve project management training.  

Introduction

Project Management Professional certificate (from Project Management Institute or accredited consulting firms), Prince2, Primavera and Online training courses are increasingly popular but they miss the human dimension of project management and should be considered only as a complement.

Modern project management training methodology moves beyond the classroom environment of set guidelines and promotes a climate of adaptability and the crucial habit of applying the lessons learnt from past experience, comparing with traditional Project management training revolved around the benefits of a set framework of principles and  best practices that are a part of effective project management In either form, but moving again to modern theory in teaching project management we conclude that the value of such training cannot be underestimated, as investments in project training make measurable improvements to an organization’s bottom line.

  

Define a Role with Project Management Training

“There are many reasons projects fail, but at the root of most failures is resources not knowing what their roles are, or lack of education about how to fulfill their roles.”, Rick Cusolito Says, Project management training expert at Boston University.

Many people who are planning to go for PMP Certification in Middle East for instance; they have no idea that PMP examination requires experience in real life as PM first.

One of the first things to keep in mind when preparing to take the PMP exam is that knowing everything is not possible. The second fact is that you cannot pass the PMP exam if you only study the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

There is a middle ground in which proper study plus real-life experience equal the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques necessary to pass the exam. The PMP certification exam is based on an ideal project organization. I would say using this phrase as starting point for preparation then everything else will make sense.

Improving Project Management training in Middle East require flexibility in dealing with candidates, the following points explain in my opinion the way to make Project Management training in Middle East more essential to attract candidates:

• Providing real-world Project Managers with skills to design and provides the valuable expertise for candidates to help them do their job through PM training.
• Industry leaders to teach and implement every project management training class/material, this will guide us to guarantee expert instruction and quality curriculum.
• Expand online and instructor-led project management courses, with day and evening availability — this will fit the candidates classes needed into their busy schedule.

Figure (1) Basic 3 points to improve PM training in Middle East

Customizing Project Management online courses in Middle East will lead us to learn more about companies who are interesting in Project Management courses through cooperating with the company project management requirements by training project managers on the company’s terms and focusing on the skill sets as the most crucial to their bottom line.

Facts and Numbers

Technical skills, based on global project management measuring are no longer enough. Project managers need strong business and leadership skills, the ability to speak at the executive level and communicate project status, how projects are aligned to the goals of the organization, and the ability to assist in determining which projects should be part of the project portfolio.

The most common facts seen in Middle East project managers who are holding PMP certification for instant, that they do depending on their technical skills more than leadership and business skills. In fact this will drive us that in the near future, hiring project managers with a PMP certificate will become no longer sufficient, nor a guarantee that the project manager hired is capable of moving the organization forward.

On the other hand, sharing knowledge in Middle East between project managers community is almost the missing part. It's no fun to solve a tricky problem only to discover that another division already solved it last month. Best practices companies go beyond innovating and improving practices. They also share them so all can benefit from learning.

 I would suggest regarding this matter that sharing expertise in Middle East between project managers and especially PMP holders (for instant) will guide us to manipulate the existing project management classes to reach further improvements within future PMP holders.

Globally, project managers as a professional activity listed in third position based on salary average world wide. The following table demonstrates the average salary for professional activity.

Professional Activity	Average Salary US$ PA
Property Asset Management	111,590
Development / Investment / Finance	107,274
Project Management	85,319
General Practice	84,324
Corporate Property Consultancy	77,524
Building Surveying	70,359
Facilities Management	68,811
Valuation	62,642
Quantity Surveyor	57,883

Table (1) Average Salary for Processional Activity

Figure (2) Average Salary for Processional Activity

Conclusion

Provide much skill practice in planning project management courses and programs plus dealing with real project management problems will help this role to be effective by identifying problem solving style through project management workshops. We can probably expect to see a strengthened link between project management programs/ courses along with initiatives and organizational strategy in both the public and private sector. No competitive organization wants to miss this train!

References

1-     The RICS & Macdonald Company, “ASIA Salary and benefits survey 2006”

2-     Gulf project management magazine, September 2007

3-     KPMG, “Global IT project management survey”

4-     Method 123,”Project management guide book”, I.S.B.N 0-473-10455-8

List of Figures and Tables

Figure (1) Basic 3 points to improve PM training in Middle East.

Figure (2) Average Salary for Processional Activity

Table (1) Average Salary for Processional Activity

Dr. Mohamed S. Kayyali

Ceo, 4D Business Consultin

IEEE, BCS Fellow

www.4dbc.net

4D Business Consulting 4DBC case to review: Evaluate Business Performance through Knowledge and Training Skills

Evaluate Business Performance through Knowledge and Training Skills

      When any business has invested in some training, how we would know if it has been a success? This article explains the way of evaluate any business performance involved in training.

I would summarize the basic questions for this article in the following How’s!!

• How to identify training gaps and future training needs?
• How to inform future training plans and strategy?
• How to ensure training continuously improves?

      Answering these questions will guide us to the right path to evaluate any business performance involve in training. The main process to deal with efficiency in training is to make sure the business reach three points:

• The efficiency of a particular process
• The number of returning customers
• Staff motivation

      Measuring the efficiency of training skills is very simple by evaluating the reaction of the provided training method, by asking: What are the participants’ feedbacks on the training? This is typically measured through a survey and usually covers such items as program methodology, group and individual exercises, quality of materials and media, facilitator capabilities, facilities, etc.

     This will drive us to the process of collecting; analyzing and reporting information to assist us understanding how much participants learned and applied what they have learned in the learning environment. Measure these results at the group level by summing monitoring results up to the group level we will be able to better determine if the overall training is the issue versus individual ability.

    Unfortunately so many organizations do not measure training effectiveness. Training evaluation is always a challenging area, especially when training new recruits because it is necessary to have a clear understanding of their baseline before the training starts; otherwise we can not be sure how far they have progressed as a result of their participation in training and these facts face those who deal in training through business side. In my opinion before we go for measuring and monitoring the efficiency, we need to decide which training programs we are going to measure and consider?

     It may be that we want to check that a training program is meeting its objectives, or identify how a training program can be further improved. Deciding this should help us consider which information we need to collect and how we will collect it.

     For second part in evaluation, we need to make sure that our evaluation methods are appropriate to the training program we are measuring and to our time and budgetary constraints. Organizations typically use such things as observation in the workplace, surveys or questionnaires, focus groups, interviews, performance monitoring and collection of financial data.

     Last part in evaluation training program is the timing of evaluation. Timing is also key- best practice suggests that a two-part approach should be taken. In the first place, trainees' reactions and learning during the training program should be considered. Secondly, we should take into account how training is applied in the job and what the benefits are afterwards.

Dr. Kayyali Mohamed,

CEO 4D Business Consulting

www.4dbc.net

BCS Chartered Scientist & Fellow

FBCS CITP

4D Business Consulting 4DBC case to review: The Focus of Technology Management in Sight

The Focus of Technology Management in Sight

For Business Technology leadership success, usually CTOs separate those in their organizations who focus on business enablement from those responsible for IT’s delivery of operational excellence. Directors get involved into business organizations’ key roles which find and take a place only within the IT organization—like business analysis, project management and solution configuration, there is a challenge in business technology and business analysis in parallel With the economy showing recovery, directors and executives are faced with a dilemma (believe so) - if they invest too aggressively in building infrastructure, they could get too far ahead of the curve and waste precious capital dollars, this is from one side, on the other side if they take a conservative approach,

they could risk falling behind. Business technology should not become a bottleneck, but instead enable taking advantage of the opportunities.

Talking about achieving monitoring system, in order to be successful, IT departments must optimize, protect and promote their legacy IT investments with good management. Where business technology departments are being pushed by vendors to buy IT monitoring software with the belief it will save them costs-for instance- and without significant investment, customization and testing - a monitoring solution ‘out of the box’ will never deliver great value.

The need to cut costs has led to the cancellation of exciting technology transformation projects—the ones most business technology staff want to work on. With resources also being reduced, the majority of staff members’ time is spent keeping systems up and running, which can be a real grind—involving constant firefighting of system management issues.

Well-trained staff and keeping them always well-motivated along becoming difficult and increasingly difficult to motivate, retain and build IT skills internally. IT departments need to embrace innovative approaches for the management and deployment of new, sustainable technology.

Dr.Kayyali Mohamed

BCS CSci,FBCS ELITE

CEO, 4D Business Consulting

www.4dbc.net

4D Business Consulting 4DBC case to review: Est-ce votre entreprise est adaptée à la croissance?

Est-ce votre entreprise est adaptée à la croissance?

Est-ce votre entreprise est adaptée à la croissance? Beaucoup d'entreprises aujourd'hui ne le sont pas. La façon dont elles gèrent les coûts et déploient leurs ressources les plus stratégiques empêche l'expansion dont elles ont besoin. Mais elles ne le savent pas - du moins pas encore.

Cependant, comment faire face à la crise économique mondiale en général est la question à laquelle chaque dirigeant ou patron de moyenne ou grande entreprise cherche des solutions. Penser à répondre à cette question commencerait par lire les lignes énoncées dans le présent article.

Pour en être sûr, sachez qu’un grand nombre d’entreprises se retrouvent en  meilleure condition financière aujourd'hui qu'elles ne l'ont été auparavant. Après avoir appliqué les programmes de réduction des coûts d'austérité pendant la période de récession, elles présentent actuellement des bilans relativement sains et des réserves confortables de fonds de roulement.

Ces entreprises ont renforcé leur capacité à s'adapter et ont amélioré leur productivité sur plusieurs années. Toutes ces mesures de restructuration ont été nécessaires pour leur survie pendant la période 2008 - 2011.

D’autres sociétés, par contre, ont préféré porté leur attention sur les revenus, délaissant le côté coûts et cherchant des moyens pour passer au-delà de la réduction des coûts comme par exemple pénétrer de nouveaux marchés, commercialiser des produits et services innovants, offrir des propositions plus attrayantes aux clients. Ces sociétés sont bien entendu hors course stratégiquement et financièrement.

Comment pouvez-vous savoir si votre entreprise est dans une démarche de croissance?  Voici  trois questions simples de diagnostic:

•      Avez-vous des priorités claires, axées sur une croissance stratégique, qui animent vos investissements?

•      Est-ce que vos coûts s'alignent sur ces priorités? En d'autres termes, déployez-vous vos ressources vers ces priorités de manière efficace et efficiente?

•      Votre organisme est-il structuré de façon à vous permettre d'atteindre ces priorités?

Un programme de croissance réussi comporte trois éléments principaux:

1.   Définition de priorités stratégiques claires, et investissement dans les moyens qui permettent de les atteindre.

2.   Optimisation des coûts, développement de pratiques austères et délibérées pour déployer les ressources de manière plus appropriée et efficace.

3.   Réorganisation orienté vers la croissance, élaboration de procédures subtiles, bien alignées sur l’application des nouvelles priorités stratégiques et l’exécution des objectifs fixés.

Ces éléments se renforcent mutuellement lorsqu'ils sont lancés en même temps et fournissent les moyens pour la croissance, même pour les entreprises confrontées aux défis macro-économiques d'aujourd'hui.

Pour créer plus d'espace pour les nouvelles priorités, nous devons examiner nos investissements antérieurs et limiter ou même éliminer nombre de systèmes et processus dépassés. Nous redirigeons l'investissement dans les nouvelles plates-formes et les nouvelles capacités dont nous avons besoin.

Pour la plupart des entreprises, la réduction des coûts dans une économie en récession signifie des coupes qui "propagent la  douleur" des compressions budgétaires dans plusieurs départements.

Cette façon de procéder est la meilleure approche pour obtenir des résultats critiques rapidement et pour limiter les querelles politiques au sein de l’entreprise. Ne pas l’appliquer est une erreur qui entraînerait votre entreprise vers de grandes difficultés.

Les entreprises qui, par contre,  ont décidé de réduire les coûts, devraient considérer ce défi comme une occasion d'identifier et de renforcer leurs capacités clés, tout en se départissant des activités qui ne reflètent pas vraiment les points forts de l'entreprise ou les objectifs à long terme.

Cette approche plus stratégique rendra votre entreprise plus résistante si les périodes difficiles se prolongent et plus robuste quand  la reprise redémarre.

Dr. Kayyali Mohamed,

CEO 4D Business Consulting

www.4dbc.net

BCS Chartered Scientist & Fellow

FBCS CITP

4D Business Consulting 4DBC case to study:Business Technology Innovation and the Orientation of Research Quality in Southern Mediterranean Countries “The BIG 5”

Business Technology Innovation and the Orientation of Research Quality in Southern Mediterranean Countries “The BIG 5”

Abstract

The art of managing business technology innovation is the key factor for issues and strategy for developing countries as part of overall quality improvement for research & development, Stating the BIG FIVE ( Big 5 Major Problems) the working knowledge and lack of world-class research universities, which lead to a characterized poor business technology model, political instability and governance conditions & constrains. Focusing on relationship between technology innovation and research & development, and addressing the question of how it should be adapted to the realities of southern Mediterranean nations

Today, most of the innovations are limited with developed countries like USA, Japan and Europe while developing countries are still behind in the field of innovation and management of technology.

But it is also becoming a subject for rapid progress and development in developing countries.

Innovation and technology environment in developing countries are by nature, problematic, characterized by poor business models, political  instability and governance conditions, low education level and lack of world-class research universities

Issues in Developing Countries

The innovation process and technology management is emerging field in the developing-world companies. Innovation and technology environment in developing

countries are by nature,

ü Poor business model

ü Government conditions

ü Low education level

ü Poor management of technology

ü Poor condition of infrastructure

The world ranking of top 500 universities , only 3% universities belong to developing countries and remaining 97% world top ranking universities belong to developed countries (North America: 44%, Europe: 34%, Asia: 19%).

The academies of these top ranked universities have also strong affiliations with entrepreneurs and most of the academies are also entrepreneurs by themselves.

Graduated from the U.S or European universities on returning to their countries approach their  responsibilities in their own country seeking to transfer what they have learned to their own home environment.

Innovation and technology at grass root level in developing countries is a new emerging attention. These innovations may not be commercialized at global level but these can be new sources of innovation at national level.

The real problem is to:

ü Identify

ü Objectify 

ü Patent these innovations

ü Commercialize it at national level

Research in developing countries is limited to :

ü Publications

ü Develop link with industries

ü Business modeling

ü Proposed Solution

Proposed Solution

The government should also take initiatives for improvement of existence infrastructure and development of new infrastructure.

ü To facilitate the proper exploitation of such knowledge in innovation process

ü Researchers to be trained toward meeting specific developing countries

ü Eliminate country’s policies and constrains towards R&D processes

ü Develop Quality research result by  maximizing number of publications  among word notable journals

ü Empower the business technology model for future expansion among  world market

How to measure quality across Industries and Businesses

•      Creating transparency

•      Enabling experimentation to discover needs, expose variability, and improve performance

•      Segmenting populations to customize actions

•      Replacing/supporting human decision making

•      Innovating new business models, products, and services

The missing  QUALLITY of Business & Research

Creative industries as a whole tend to have difficulty marketing outside of their region, because of a lack of general business skills. They tend to rely on their local shops, publishers and advertisers to find customers.

Innovation Idea + Tools + Validation = Success Business Trip

Dr. Kayyali Mohamed,

CEO 4D Business Consulting

www.4dbc.net

BCS Chartered Scientist & Fellow

FBCS CITP