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The Monopoly of Agile By no means is agile a new concept in the business world. It has been introduced more than a decade ago and has since changed the way people around the world approach work and project management. However, while agile is still spreading over to new areas, a natural question rises - what is next? Have we now reached a point in time where agile itself will be innovated upon? Or will agile become a monopoly practice? Let us explore. Over the years, agile has grown from a small movement in the developer community into a mass trend that brings results and productivity to every team it touches. Various applications of agile methods exist today and as the idea spreads further more are coming about. At this point there is really no questioning of the possibilities and value that agile approaches bring to the right teams and because of that most are starting to consider agile as one of the traditional project management approaches instead of a novelty. Due to this a...

The 5 Scopes of Agile Planning The concept of planning within the agile methodology has often been misunderstood. Due to the commonly known statement "We value responding to change over following a plan" most of teams starting agile think that they will no longer need to plan for the future. Contrary to this popular opinion, planning plays just as big of a part in agile as it does in any other project management approach it is simply a little different. In its essence agile is built to cater the environments with constantly changing requirements and goals. Which means that the traditional planning model, of just setting something in motion at the beginning of the project, is no longer viable. Instead, the planning needs to cater to the changing circumstances and help the team navigate them in the best possible way. To achieve this, the agile planning is organized in different scopes, where each of them are equally important and carry value towards the end goal.   Fir...

Why Every Company Should Invest in Time Tracking Software In today's modern business world, time tracking is utilized, not only to determine employee time and attendance, but can also help improve the business in other areas. Combined with an effective time tracking software program, businesses are now able to use this data to create reports in order to analyze further information about their business. Reducing errors and time theft By utilizing time tracking software, organizations and businesses are able to cut down on employees claiming incorrect time and hours worked. This may be an innocent act done on the part of the employee, but the company will still pick up the bill, which can lead to a large amount over time. There are always going to be employees who will try to deliberately claim for time that they knowingly did not work, but with the detailed and reliable reports generated by time tracking software, organizations are able to be provided with a clear pictu...

How Do Product Managers Prepare For A Marketing Disaster? As product managers we generally spend our time trying to find ways to update our product development definition in order to make our product be more appealing to potential customers. Our goal is to convince them that we make a good product that will solve whatever their problems happen to be. The one thing that we never seem to spend any time worrying about is what to do if there is a marketing disaster. Do you even know what one of those looks like? What Is A Marketing Disaster? The first thing that a product manager needs to understand is just exactly what a marketing catastrophe is. If we don't know what they look like, then there is no way that we're going to be able to recognize it if it happens and that won't look good on our product manager resume. A marketing catastrophe is any event that could negatively impact the profitability or reputation of either your product or your company. The world that ...

When the Business Negotiations is Over. What to Do? The negotiation is over and done with (or at least this meeting that is a part of the negotiations is done with) and the negotiation styles and negotiating techniques have all been put away. Now you can go home, put your feet up, and relax until the next meeting. Hold on - it turns out that things really don't work that way. Reaching the end in a negotiation is when the work really starts. Do you know what you need to be doing now? What Was Achieved? The most important thing to realize is that you need to get together with your negotiating team as quickly as possible after the negotiation is over. Our memory of what happened starts to slip very quickly so speed is of the essence. One of the most important things to discuss is a review of whether or not you got what you wanted. If you had taken the time to define your objectives before the negotiations started, then you'll be well positioned to evaluate the outcome. ...

The Eagle's Dynamic Strategy Business strategy is important as it can give you a competitive edge in securing clients over other companies who are pursuing the same business model. In order to develop that edge, you need to identify a competitive advantage and develop your business strategy around it. Once you have done that, you need to sustain that advantage. Simply put: Business strategy is the process that allows you to leverage, develop and sustain a competitive advantage over other companies targeting a similar market. The problem is sustaining that competitive advantage over time. Can you sustain your advantage? The problem is that we no longer do business in a bubble. Therefore, your competitive advantage can be enjoyed only for a short period of time. Modern business strategy must be a continuous process evolving with new competitive advantages. One must build their business on the basis of moving from one competitive advantage to another as smoothly as possib...

Should You Cut Marketing Expenses During the Recession? If you read marketing journals and blogs these days, you likely have come across the advice that you should spend more on marketing in a recession. The typical logic is that your competitors are spending less and so it's a good time to pick up market share. Note that most of these recommendations come from people who have a vested interest in you spending more on marketing (e.g., advertising agencies). I dislike basing marketing expenditures on what competitors are spending. It's not relevant for budget decisions during "normal" economic conditions and it shouldn't matter in a recession. You should increase or decrease your marketing budget solely on the basis of what maximizes operating income - based on your own measurement systems. Certainly, if your competitors are dramatically reducing spending and therefore giving up sales opportunities that you can exploit, then you should go after those sales...

Business Strategy Lessons From Apollo 13 Here are three lessons from the Apollo 13 mission that you can use to improve your strategic plan. If you've seen the movie Apollo 13, you might remember that early in the crisis, Gene Kranz, the flight director, gives assignments to his engineers.  He cautions them to rely on data, telling everyone to "work the problem," and not make things worse by guessing. Throughout the crisis, the astronauts and the team in Houston study the data, perform calculations, conduct simulations, observe the results and then calculate again.  They never guess when they don't have to - they obsess over data to ensure they understand the whole problem and the entire range of possible solutions. Creating a great business strategy requires the same obsessive attention to data.  You have to base your solutions on statistically valid and comprehensive information about your company, your customers, your competitors and your indust...

The Five Components of a Business Strategy Can you define exactly what makes up a business strategy? Some people say no, but we think you can. In fact, we believe a valid business strategy has five components: Your company's current or desired core competencies A description of how you will differentiate vs. competitors The industry or industries in which you intend to compete The initiatives you plan to implement in the areas of marketing, operations, information technology, finance and organizational development A financial forecast that shows how your plans will meet stakeholder requirements over the next three to five years. Let's look at each of these components . The first component of a valid business strategy is a clear description of your company's current or desired core competencies. You may be thinking, "Great, but what's a 'core competency?'" While there are many definitions. Here's a good one from Wikipedia: " A cor...

3 Ways to Improve Your Company's Security As a business owner, you need your business to be secure. An attack against your business can not only lead you to lose significant profits, but customers' private information as well. When you think of security threats, you likely think of thieves and vandals who would break into your business and steal products, cash, or documents. However, there can be internal security risks too. You must try to address all potential security risks in order to ensure that your business and your customers' information are safe. Here are a few ways you can improve your company's security and protect your business. Surveillance System Installing a business surveillance system can help protect you from both internal and external threats to security. When thieves are choosing a business to target, they are looking for buildings that don't have a security system of any kind, and most especially ones that don't have cameras; being ...

Supply Chain Management in Retail Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. Previously, individual activities of the SCM process were warehousing, distribution, transportation etc. done separately. Later, the process moved on to logistics where every activity was carried out in a logical sequence following a specific timetable. Now, an information backbone supporting the SCM process has helped retailers in greatly reducing cycle times and attaining efficiency. SCM MANAGEMENT DECISIONS There are three levels of decisions-strategic, tactical   and operational. The strategic level decisions are long-term decisions about location, production, inventory and transportation. Location decisions include size, number geographic location of supply chain entities. Production decisions determine what to produce, where to produce, w...

Impacts Of E-Commerce On Business E-commerce has made a profound impact on society. People can now shop online in the privacy of their own homes without ever having to leave. This can force larger brick and mortar retailers to open an online division. In some cases, it can also force smaller businesses to shut their doors, or change to being completely online. It also changes the way people look at making purchases and spending money. E-commerce has changed the face of retail, services, and other things that make our economy work. Undoubtedly, it will continue to influence how companies sell and market their products, as well as how people choose to make purchases for many years to come. The following are the impact of e-commerce on the global economy. Impacts on Direct Marketing Product promotion E-commerce enhances promotion of products and services through direct, information-rich, and interactive contact with customers. New sales channel E-commerce creates a new distribut...

Supply Chain Maturity Managing the supply chain and finances are the core factors that determine the success of any organization. For ages, executives keep on experimenting with different approaches to optimize their supply chain and cash flow. Supply chain management is one of the most important strategic aspects of any business enterprise. Decisions must be made about how to coordinate the production of goods and services, how and where to store inventory, whom to buy materials from and how to distribute them in the most cost-effective, timely manner. What are those Critical Dimensions or Key Performance Indicators that drive the agility and maturity of a supply chain? Most of them are quite obvious and most of the organizations keep a religious watch on this but even then those companies make only the 10% of all those organizations that can benefit much more if they streamline their processes, capabilities and compliance related stuff connected with SCM. Let us look at some of...

Basic Small Business Marketing Principles What is marketing? Marketing is defined in many different ways according to who you ask, but all responses usually are part of the same answer: marketing is a combination of all of the activities you implement or participate in which help promote, brand, and sell you product, service, or business. Why is marketing important? Many small business owners feel sales is the most vital part of their business. Sales are very important, but your brand, image, and, ultimately, marketing determines your customer loyalty and growth of your business. Marketing establishes the basis for your sales strategy and how you will close sales. What does marketing cost? Small business owners are confronted ever day with sales pitches for various costly marketing activities. Most small business owners see marketing as an expensive business component they just can't afford. This is not true. In fact, small businesses can't afford to overlook marke...

Business Etiquette "Your manners are always under examination, and by committees little suspected, awarding or denying you very high prizes when you least think of it", Ralph Waldo Emerson. When a person gets into employment for the first time he gets confused with the corporate culture and finds it very difficult to learn the corporate etiquette which is otherwise also known as business etiquette. There will be vast cultural gaps from the background from where the individual has come and that of the organization he enters. He finds it very difficult to get along with new cultures, customs, norms and rules. There would certainly be a gap. It takes certain time to get adjusted and adapted to the corporate culture and learn the etiquette. Every one knows the meaning of etiquette. Etiquette is nothing but manners to be followed in a given cultural environment. Every culture has its own etiquette. But overall the etiquette is universal with certain characteristics and qua...