Transformation Strategies

Many companies have invested much in replacing their legacy platforms or enhancing their existing platforms. However, the impetus decision to put more investments in platforms are mainly due to the following :-
a) Existing system reaching its capacity
b) Existing system not able to cater for new products
c) Forced vendor upgrades

Instinctly, most companies will review their business processes as part of their project management requirements when changing or enhancing their system platforms. As a result of tight schedules, user and business impacts are not thoroughly reviewed. Users of new/enhanced platforms are to accomodate and change to redundant steps to complete a task.

There is a strong need now to develop a culture of continuous improvement in business processes. It is through a culture of continuous business process improvement where end-users and management are able to identify critical platform enhancements to meet the business needs.

Global versus Regional priorities

If you are working for a company with a global headquarters not in your country or region, chances are that you will face some dilemma in prioritising between global and regional strategies. Your regional CEO wants you to help drive the business performances while your functional manager sitting comfortably in HQ wants you to execute his instructions asap. One good example is rolling out a strategic system to your region or country driven out from the global headquarters.



The benefits are clear. Senior management buy-ins have been obtained. They want to roll the system out in 6 months time. Yet, resources have not been freed up by other projects.; business in this region are demanding something else.



On the surface, it looks like a classic project management failure. However, it is usually a failure in the execution of a business strategy. The strategic priorities in a country and region needs to be aligned together with both business and the support functions.



One of the main causes of the strategic dilemmas faced by management is the organization structure. The organization structure holds the key to unlocking the conflicting priorities. In a typical regional organization structure, the regional CEO is in-charge of the support and the business functions. All the support department heads report directly to the regional CEO while having a dotted reporting line to their global functional bosses.

I noticed in some organizations, the direct reporting lines of the support department heads are to their global functional bosses while having a dotted line to the regional CEO. Only the business heads have a direct reporting line to the regional CEO.

Consequently, from a project priority perspective, the regional CEO priorities will be second fiddle because the delivery of global project has been accorded a higher one.

These competing priorities result in low staff morale and average turnover.

It is critical that management identifies the root cause and not address the symptons of staff morale and turnover.

New Beginning - Blogging

I have been hearing from news, magazines about people blogging. Politicians do it for their own propaganda. Entrepreneurs blog to gain visibility. My friends blog to share their personal life happenings with me and I post my comments to them. What a wonderful invention!


So here I am, creating a blog for myself thinking what should I do in this blog. I do not think I have so many life stories to share with everyone but I know I am passionate about helping companies to solve their business problems. Many of them, especially in Asia, cannot afford the expensive consultancy fees charged by the likes of the BCGs, the Bains or the Mckinseys to strategise and grow their businesses.


Therefore, I decide to create a blog where I can share my views on topics that matters to business and exchange ideas with anyone who share the same passion as me.


I shall keep my first posting short. Stay tune for more!