I love matrix organisations. I love seeing them done well and I take secret pleasure at seeing a group of intelligent people in an organisation occasionally tie themselves in knots with them.   more »

Part of the point of having portfolio management processes and, in particular, decision making criteria is to ensure that individual projects are not derailed   more »

If you want people to talk, you have to give them a fighting chance by putting them in relative proximity....There was some work done that showed that the probability of communication between two individuals was significantly lower if they were in different groups and decayed rapidly based on physical distance   more »

People are cynical animals. More so perhaps in Europe than in the United States. When someone starts in a new role, they will not just take what they are told about fresh starts, new ways or working or anything at face value. They probably don’t believe it’s going to happen and wait to pounce on the first outward sign that the person involved is not actually doing as they said they will do.   more »

The types of portfolio of innovation, development and innovatin project to manage vary between a vertically led (by area of activity, product type etc.) approach or a process one where the portfolios reflect the life cycle of an idea through to maturity.   more »

It’s actually a broader point but if you want to launch or support a top-priority initiative in an organisation, you have to put a top person on it.  If you just dig out someone because they are ‘available’ then you immediately send a signal to the rest of the personnel – it’s not really important!

 

Change hurts – so make it as quick and as clear as possible.

 

© Copyright 2005 Richard A D Jones

Relationships between companies have been changing for the last 10 years plus. Suppliers in car companies have moved from ‘Just In Time’ delivery of components (or Just In Trouble occasionally) to being made responsible for complete sub-systems of the cars. They no longer just   more »