Henry Ford once commented that if he’d asked his customers what they wanted they would have replied “Give me a faster horse”.
Sometimes in New Product Development we have to take a Quantum leap in imagination so that we can develop products which no one else has imagined.
“Brainstorming” is one techniques to help that process:-
1) Form a team of maximum 10 people drawn from all levels of the organization.
2) The “Chairperson” should be mid level with no obvious authority.
3) Provide some drinks and snacks to create a relaxed atmosphere.
4) Go round the table asking each one in turn what products they think the Company should be developing.
5) Don’t reject anything at this stage.
6) Don’t criticize anyone else’s contribution.
7) Get someone to list all the contributions on a whiteboard.
8 ) When all contributions are exhausted arrange them into different categories.
9) Vote on the top 5.
In the next post we will explore how to take these ideas forward.
chris@projectsguru.co.uk
Whilst the football may not have lived up to the hype so far we have still seen a couple of excellent team performances. So what is it that makes for a 
According to the PMI definition :- ‘Project Manager – The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objective’
Project Managers don’t do the work of the project; that is the function of the team members. That doesn’t mean that Project Managers don’t work !
Sometimes, despite best efforts at Risk Management, we drift off plan. In the worst case this means we won’t be able to meet our customer commitments.
As Project Manager you will have primary contact with the customer but should you take team members with you on customer visits ?
It is essential, when starting a project, that the team fully understands what the Objective is. This might sound obvious but is also something which is often overlooked. Sometimes the team is formed and the project kicked off without any clear statement about the Objective of the project. Consequently different Team members have different views on what the Objective is and this inevitably leads to unnecessary conflict and wasted effort.
Directing from the bunker……
Saturday, July 17th, 2010Have you seen “Undercover Bosses” on Channel 4 ? (9pm Thursdays)
In the series a number of company Executives go “undercover” to see how their business really works.
Last week it was David Clarke’s turn. David is the C.E.O of Hotel chain “Best Western” which doesn’t actually own any hotels but acts as an “umbrella brand” and booking agent.
David explained to his rather bemused board that he was going undercover for 5 days and would report his findings on his return.
David grew a beard and assumed an alternate identity.
He needn’t have bothered really because, despite a 1 million pounds marketing campaign, none of the staff had any clue what Best Western did or who they were.
David met a number of staff most of whom were extremely dedicated despite having to work extra hours unpaid and generally receiving just above minimum wage.
The funniest was the maintenance guy who clearly didn’t give a sh*t !
“Aren’t we going to fix that properly” asked David. “Nahh we’ll just move it to another room” – so that when the Best Western Inspector returned and checked the same room the offending item would be elsewhere and replaced by one from another room. Other shenanigans involved changing the room numbers on the Inspector’s report to confuse him on his return.
David, quite understandably, was not amused.
David returned to the boardroom to announce his findings – The Marketing Director was visibly shocked to hear that the advertising campaign had been particularly ineffective.
At the end of the show David anounced (in Secret Millionaire style) his true identify to the staff he had met during the show.
One Lady had worked for Best Western for 20 years. She earned around 6 pound per hour as a Cleaning Team Leader and regularly worked well over her standard shift for no extra recompense. During the show it transpired that her Son had spent some considerable time in Great Ormond Street Childrens hospital. Consequently David, in best philanthropist style, got out his chequebook. The Cleaner’s lip trembled and a loose tear rolled down her face as he wrote out a cheque for…….two and a half thousand pounds.
Best Western is part of the Interchange & Consort Hotels Group Ltd which is a private limited company and as such its accounts are not readily available in the public sphere in the same way that a PLC’s are. It is however one of the largest hotel chains in the Western world. One would have thought that a more generous donation would have been in order from such a “prestigious” organization rather than this rather tawdry sum.
The program highlighted a number of issues prevalent in many companies today:-
There is an old Management technique called “Management by walking around” which is exactly what it says on the tin.
Executives need to extract their heads from their own orifices and get out there on the shop floor and find out what the hell’s going on in their own organizations. Get out there and talk but more importantly listen to your own workers.
chris@projectsguru.co.uk
www.projectsguru.co.uk
Tags: #pmot, business, leadership, social commentary, teams
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