Controlling Interest

In my recent discussions with PAPA (the Pan African Productivity Association), the topic of the Ebola virus came up.  Just as Africa seems to have recovered from the great HIV/Aids crisis (having largely got the 'epidemic' under control), the continent is hit by another great health problem - likely to have severe implications for those economies where the virus is rampant.

The developed world is only just starting to see this as a global concern rather than as a 'local' African problem - and we might now start to see real resources going into research into both containment and cure.

Situations where we lack control are real drains on productivity.  We have to do what we can to help Africa take control of this situation or the whole continent - and then the rest of us - will suffer.

Balanced Reporting

Well, I’m here in Mauritius and I’ve been having an interesting time.

I spent a few days with the Board of PAPA (the Pan African Productivity Association) discussing the productivity status and opportunities in Africa.  Many of the productivity centres and champions are working under a range of funding, cultural and political constraints but there was consensus about some of the big challenges and around some of the necessary infrastructure elements that need to be put in place to underpin productivity development.  

This is something we should all watch with interest  - Africa’s productivity is important to us all in terms of helping the world solve the 3 great problems of food security, energy availability and universal access to fresh, clean water.

I was then fortunate enough to attend a session led by the great Robert Kaplan, one of the creators of the Balanced Scorecard concept and model.  Amongst other things, it was interesting to see the development of the model from measurement scorecard to strategic planning catalyst. Robert gave several examples of companies that have deployed Balanced Scorecard and used it to transform their understanding of the business and shape its future.  Importantly he cited the use of the Scorecard to support strategy execution and evaluation as key to longer-term success.  My biggest, single ‘takeaway’ message was that ”Strategy is important, but execution is what delivers.”

Tomorrow, I am flying home - to more mundane (but no less important) issues, concerns, projects and activities.

Something in the air

The 'something in the air' i refer to in the blog title is ... ME.  As you are reading this, I should be in the air (if I'm not waiting at an airport terminal) en route to Mauritius.

Those of you who follow this blog know that I make this trip regularly - I have been advising Mauritius on its national productivity strategy, working with the lovely people at the National Productivity & Competitiveness Council (NPCC).

This one is a 'special' visit for two reasons.

First, I shall be giving a keynote presentation to a meeting of the Pan African Productivity Association and I am keen to hear their views on Africa's productivity future - and see how well they chime with my own.

Secondly, while I am there, NPCC have invited the great Robert Kaplan (of Balanced Scorecard fame) to give one of their occasional productivity days with a world-class 'guru'.  I shall get to listen to Robert - and meet him subsequently.

Its not often you get a chance to meet one of your 'heroes'  - so this is quite exciting for me.

And, of course, to do all of this in Mauritius makes it all even more special.  Sometimes you just have to say, "Lucky Me!".

If I wake up from this dream, I'll give you a report next week.

Big data - is it useful?

Big Data in 'in' - its a fashionable topic, its 'cool' and exciting.  But is it useful?

What are the applications where it will 'make a difference' - on a global level.

Well, I've been doing some work in Agri-business recently.... and one useful trend has been to make data available (on yields, prices and so on to farmers so they can take better-informed decisions about when and how to harvest and sell what they produce.

now, however, big data is moving up that value chain - by offering information to farmers - on soil condition, on weather patterns, on past production, on competitors' production.

How do we get the data?  Well, farmers give it to us - it is anonymised - so they can share the data pool ... and experiments are starting to send out drones to observe directly what is happening.  It starts out being small data but soon grow - especially when you do this over several regions.

So, big data can be useful - like most other fields, it just needs someone to work out how to exploit it for commercial gain.  When that gain has social benefits (in terms of giving farmers information which helps them negotiate better with the 'middlemen' taking produce for processing.... so much the better.

Do the measures matter?

I have been doing a little work recently in relation to productivity and performance measures.  The thought struck me after trying to construct appropriate measures for a particular organisation in a particular situation that the measures we use are not as important as the fact that we use measures to track progress against strategy and ensure we remain 'on mission'.

Of course the measures must demonstrate progress in the right direction for our key success factors - but remember the Pareto effect - we can probably get 80% of the effectiveness of a measurement regime with 20% of the effort.

i am not advocating 'abdication' - just careful use of resources and broad targeting rather than surgical precision.  Get people moving against plans - in broadly the right directions and with some momentum and motivation - and the detailed results will look after themselves.

Communicate

I was looking at a PowerPoint presentation the other day (not one of mine) and I thought "What a great job this person has done of making a complex issue understandable."  

It reminded me that we often have two important, overlapping roles - acting as technical experts to solve problems and make improvements ... and acting as teachers and mentors to persuade others that our technical assessment is sound and offers real benefits.  Where we have different groups of stakeholders with different viewpoints and concerns, this can be the more challenging role.

So, take a break from developing those technical skills and concentrate on your communication skills - both listening and teaching. It might be of more benefit in the longer-term.

The Mystery is not yet unravelled - but it doesn't matter

A number of you sent me comments to try and unpick the (UK) productivity mystery I referred to in last week's post.  Some of these were backed up by serious analysis.

Yet, after reading them all (which i did - gladly) I remain confused - and the mystery remains unresolved.

It just made me glad I can dip in and out of these sets of national statistics; I would hate to be responsible for creating them - or validating them.

My admiration is immense for the guys (and gals, I assume) who beaver away to give us these benchmarks.

And I am reminded why we benchmark performance anyway - it is to create dialogue and discussion which can lead to improvement.

So, last week's mystery is not a problem - as long as the great and the good don't spend too long attempting to unravel the mystery when they should be focused on creating a better, more productive future.