Turning ideas into Actions

Rosy dreams are nice
Talk is easy, but to turn rosy dreams and easy talk into action requires some "structure" that we need to put in a broad  "master plan" that may include the following elements : -

1. "Name of initiative" 
2. "Overall descriptors of the initiative"; purpose, goals, time horizon, ...
3. "Initiative Owner/executive sponsor" 
4. "Initiative manager/coordinator"
5. "Initiative team members" from within and outside  the organization
6. "Roles, engagement levels, and commitments for each and every team member throughout the lifetime of the initiative from start to completion
7. "What is to be achieved ( use action verbs at the beginning of each item)
   
8. "Target/due dates for start and completion of each item above
9. "Owner/initiator of the item
10. "Doer(s)/implementer(s) of the item from within the team, organization  and/or from or external entities involved/committed to this initiative
11. "Requirements for each item to make it happen, and where they come from, and in what shape and by what times/dates
12. "Critical success factors (CSFs) per item to ensure its success
13. "Current Status of the item (submitted, approved, active, pending, completed)
14. "Issues/risks/concerns raised about the item
15. "Separate Issues/Risks register" for these items which have them and what actions are taken on the issues and what resolutions are reached for them 
    

I hope this will put the carriage on the rails for this initiative to proceed smoothly on well thought guidelines to move forward to the overall objective/goals of the initiative.

Bridging the supply-demand gap for successful partnering, investing and funding

Bridging the supply-demand gap for successful partnering, investing and funding

Dear all

While there is a noticeable gap between the continuous flow of "demand" for investments/funds through this group and the "supply" - if any - of such funds/investments, there seems to be a much bigger gap that is holding such process from taking place.

I have been studying this phenomenon for a while, and I have been present and active in this field in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other GCC/MENA countries for over 30 years now. Accordingly and in light of my personal observation/articulation, I can confirm there is a much bigger gap and this is the "gap of trust" that is holding such transactions from taking place.

I know the level of demand for partnership/investment/funding coming through is huge, but I also know that there are investors all around looking for "good" investment opportunities that they can trust and put their money into. The show stopper has been so far a mix of 

1. Lack of awareness of these "good" opportunities
2. Poor, incomplete and/or inaccurate details of such opportunities
3. Lack of confidence/trust in the credentials (capabilities and sincerity) of the sequesters of such funds/investments

I have been briefly in discussion about this situation with few colleagues  who maintained their  position that they are not in a position to supply such investment/fund/partnership and insisted on their own "comfort zone" being out of this mess. While this is could be an "accurate" and "safe" description of the situation, it is still a "passive" position that falls short of the expectations of many colleagues facing this situation and expecting help from us.

I have also come across other colleagues who share my view that we could do something about this situation and make something out of it.  Let me explain.

What I am proposing here is that we can spin off a special entity that can take specific situations and work on them actively to bridge the gap and ensure better processing between the "demand" side and "supply" side of the equation.

I do not want to raise "false" hopes, this model if approved and executed, will work on specific cases that we can "qualify" for such process on case-by-case basis. There will be costs involved and a payback that both sides of the equation have to be prepared to pay for such involvement. This could be a fixed fee, a range of applicable fees depending on the specifics and/or a percentage of the total value of the deal.

Such fee structure will cater for 

1. The efforts involved in this process
2. Actual expenses that could involve travel, meetings, hotels, ... etc
3. Business case preparation in professional way
4. Getting accurate information from both sides to enable execution of the deal
5. Business risk & liability factors involved in this process.

If there is enough consensus/appreciation of this model, I would invite members who can contribute in this proposed entity to come forward and share the 'proposed' role(s) they can take in this process.

and let us go from here and see if this idea can work out or not

The essence of LEADERSHIP

I have a fundamental understanding of "leadership" as an "indicator" of the "acceptance" of the "followers" towards a specific leader/leadership based on the "value" real or perceived that the followers expect to receive from such leader/leadership.

In other words, I see leadership is something that is well-received, welcomed and appreciated by the followers based on the value this leadership can potentially deliver to these followers.

This is dramatically different from "enforced" leadership by "position" and/or "authority" of the claimed leader(s).  

You see, I believe "successful/effective" leadership as the "art and "science" of influencing people and convincing them" rather than "pushing" things down their throat  as lousy and miserable leaders tend to do.

Choosing a company name .. what does it take? and what does it mean ?

Here are some recommendations/suggestions when you want to choose a name for your new start-up company

1. Do not rush in selecting the name, take the time it takes to decide it. Once you choose the name, it sticks to you and you stick to it.
2.  You can change the name of course later down the road, but you will lose a track history associated with the old name, and you may reset the counter in your efforts to establish the new name
3. Think of the name in association of your future branding efforts towards the company name as well as its products/service
4. Think of the name in terms of the industry/business line you have chosen for it. It would be good to have a self-indicative/self-explanatory name
5.  If you cannot find a short and sleek name that you are happy with like "PaySmart" and you opt for the long self-explanatory names, then you may consider abbreviated names as OPPMS 
6. Think of the name in association with the "logo" that you may choose also for the company and think of the corporate identity of the company within the same context down the road.
7. Think of the company name in relation to "marketing/promotional materials" that you will produce for the company including business cards, stationary, web site, presentations, logo animation, ... etc.
8. Think of legal/regulatory considerations associated with the company name registration in the country where you will start your company 
9.  Think of language/culture implications of the name you choose in other countries/territories where you may wish to extend your market in the future

I hope these hints will further help you select a good name for your company
All the best!

MV-TCS : The Business Engine

MV-TCS is the core of the Millennia-Vision business model.  It takes "market/technology trends" and converts them to "structured and categorized offerings"  that we can take to the market to serve customer needs and expectations.

MV-TCS is short for Millennia-Vision's

• Training offerings
• Consultancy offerings
• Solutions (Products & services) offerings

We can visualize TCS as a 1X3 business engine that we feed with "special/focus areas" and get as output three categories of offerings (1) training offerings (2) consultancy offerings and (3) solutions (products and services) offerings

Focus areas could change and may (over time) incorporate "hot" and "emerging" topics that come along as result of ongoing developments in the "technology" and "market" dimensions

So, we may take information security or business continuity/disaster recovery as focus areas, we will feed them into the TCS engine and produce training, consultancy and solutions offerings accordingly.  The same can go for other focus areas

• Project/program management
• Business intelligence
• Strategic planning
• IT service management
• ...

Furthermore, we may take our TCS outputs as inputs to separate and distinguished business lines within the Millennia-Vision initiative 

• Millennia-Vision Academy that deals with the training business
• Millennia-Vision Consulting that deals with the consultancy services  business
• Millennia-Vision Solutions which can be taken independently from the other two lines to avoid conflict of interest and to preserve the necessary "segregation of duties" between this line and the previous two