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Consumerisation vs. Corporate IT: 1-0

Recently the company I work for introduced Tibbr as an internal Social Network. It is a nice product suite with functionality you would expect in such a platform. We can now chat, blog, set up communities, and exchange ideas online via Tibbr.…
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Sourcing Strategy: a necessary prequel?

Recently I engaged in a number of Sourcing Strategy projects for clients in a broad range of industries. In these type of projects we (it's almost always a team effort) supported clients in being specific about their requirements, add relevant…
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Utility based pricing: not the holy grail in price models

The price model is an important factor in outsourcing contracts. The overall trend in price models is towards utility based pricing where standardized services have a fixed price. Then the total price of a set of services is calculated by P(rice)…

If you only have a hammer…

When you want to sell your house you obviously want to get the right price for it. So you start asking around how you could make it more valuable or at least more attractive. Suggestions are easily found and they will be quantified with the…
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Get personal: attention improves performance

In the early days of industrial revolution scientists conducted many tests to better understand what impacts productivity. A well known experiment was to differentiate the level of illumination in otherwise comparable factory halls. Before and…
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Better is the enemy of good enough…

The Management Consultant as any professional strives for the best result. Whether she/he drafts a proposal, makes a presentation or creates a final report, there is continuously room for further improvement and putting in more effort is always…
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A dog called Outlook?!

Sometimes when you see a dog-owner walking in the park, the question arises who is in the lead. Especially children and elderly people can find themselves in challenging situations. Despite the fact that they hold the leash they have only limited…
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Collaborative writing: a skill or an art form?

Sometimes it seems that all communication today is in sound-bites, 140 character tweets or blog posts. Anything beyond 500 words seems to be in the exclusive domain of poets, novelists and other professional writers. Not so for the Management…
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Conference call etiquette

Every trade or industry has its tools. And apart from the IT stuff like spreadsheets, word-processors and a variety of presentation apps, today's Management Consultant cannot work without conference calls. Communication is among our primary…

Fact free consultancy? You deserve better than that…

The phrase "fact free politics" was made popular in 2010 by Bill Clinton when referring to the performance of Sarah Palin, then running for office as the Republican candidate for vice-president. To be precise, he warned not to underestimate…
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The “Baby on board!” sign illustrates that not all information is useful…

In today's traffic you can regularly see cars with a sign stating "Baby on board!". It puzzles me greatly what moves parents to share this type of information with their fellow drivers. I do not intend to discuss whether this information is…
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Are governments the driving force behind innovation?

A friend of mine from India recently forwarded me the story of the successful launching of Mangalyaan. This initiative is part of the Mars Orbiter Mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The ISRO is the Indian equivalent of…