LEADERSHIP

 

Good leadership takes advantage of people's uniqueness to provide a competitive edge:

 

Optimizing a Plan:

How to optimize your project plan in a day?

Go to .. Optimize

 

Leadership Style:

Is your leadership style hindering you?

Go to .. Advantage

 

Direction for Leaders:

How to determine leadership quality?

Go to .. Compass

How on earth can you do this analysis with only 6 questions?

• We take your six responses and through the simulation, extrapolate them into thousands of variables and millions of pieces of data which are analyzed to specifically discover bottlenecks associated with increasing profit margin, reducing time-to-market or winning more contracts.
• The 6 questions, each building upon the next, gives our simulation the essential information to do a 3-D interpretation, based on over 900 business principles (using Artificial Intelligence heuristics) described by over 40 of the leading management consultants and executive coaches in the world. Their best practices discussions of achieving greater levels of customer focus, establishing effective business structures, catalyzing team dynamics, and capitalizing on employee strengths are the foundation of this analysis and the design of the 6 questions.
• The analysis results are still conditioned on “filling in the blanks” accurately. There will be assumptions that are made associated with the analysis. The saying, “garbage in, garbage out” still applies. However, we will allow you to review our assumptions before we run the simulation.
• This is a time consuming, rigorous computer analysis. The responses you send us are entered in layers within the simulation. Each layer is correlated with the next, creating exponentially greater detail and analytic accuracy. Our goal is that you are so impressed with the results that you decide to take the simulation to the next level in terms of personal value by reviewing the assumptions, making any adjustments, and validating the quality of your own 6 answers.
• Contact us to receive your 6 key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!

Who is best to answer the 6 Questions within the organization and can it be a team effort?

• Managers and their staff would find great value in answering the questions together. It’s revealing and valuable to compare different points of views regarding these various customer-focused questions. Additionally, it could significantly add to the quality and accuracy of each answer.
• The best person (or group) to answer the questionnaire is based on the “success” goals. If the goal is to increase profits, logically managers with P&L responsibility would have the most to gain in answering the six questions and discovering the “ah-ha’s” in the analysis. If reducing time-to-market is the goal, then someone who manages a team working on a product release would find the results of the simulation extremely valuable. And if winning more contracts is important, then we recommend having that person responsible for bid submission answer the questions and reap the rewards.
• In all cases, the ideal people to answer the six questions are those that (1) understand their success criteria, (2) the challenges associated with managing people to achieve that criteria, and (3) want to discover any “low hanging fruit” that will give them more opportunities to succeed.
• Contact us to receive your 6 key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!

Why hasn’t my organization found these answers already?

• SOUL gives an unique perspective to your organizational dynamics versus your current problem solving approach. It knows how to precisely translate business goals associated with time and money into people factors, like capability and motivation. When you combine these proprietary SOUL translation algorithms with the power of a Monte Carlo statistical approach using Average Performance Range and Index (APRI) mathematics, we are able to uniquely and accurately model hundreds of variations of your organization's dynamics to discover missed issues that are eating into your profits, adding extra time to your schedule or limiting your bid from being more competitive.
• Because of SOUL, the simulation analysis can correlate all three dimensions, investigating all aspects of your organization, from customer focus to employee productivity, leaving no variations untouched, With this type of rigor, detail and repetition,  "ah-has" emerge and and "low hanging fruit" become easily identified. This type of rigor is why computers were made and is what the SOUL problem solving methodology was designed to accomplish.
• Using SOUL, the simulation is able to take on an added dimension of modeling people's decisions and reactions to situations that focus around each customer deliverable. By viewing these variables with a SOUL perspective, “low hanging fruit” associated with issues affecting financial bottlenecks, schedule delays or process efficiencies sometimes become very apparent - almost obvious. The simulation specializes in managing all 3-dimensions and their related variables, along with all the variations that are possible given the parameter defined from the responses to the 6 questions and the assumptions made.
• Contact us to receive your 6 key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!

How can I reduce my cost-to-produce, thereby increase my profit margin by using this analysis?

• This analysis will identify “low hanging fruit” associated with your team's problem solving capability that can affect the production cost for that deliverable you’ve listed. Yet, it’s really up to you to know how, if the cost of delivering that product or service were reduced, your business would benefit in terms of increased profit.
• The Monte Carlo simulation puts your people in the center of the equation to identify “low hanging fruit.” It’s your people that are best at determining how to reduce the cost of a deliverable. The simulation will determine if there is an opportunity for your people to make this determination, and what leadership approach you might consider to make it happen.
• There are three keys to ensuring your cost-to-produce is at its lowest, and it doesn’t directly deal with being more efficient. Efficiency could be a result, but it’s certainly not the cause in this case. The simulation, based on the results, could highlight three areas to support a lower cost-to-product:

1. Whether the team assigned to the product or service is prepared,
2. Whether the team can handle the unexpected (a certainty when new processes are rolled out)
3. Whether a team, when faced with a challenge, can they lead themselves as peers.

• The result of the simulation will show whether these three areas have any effect on reducing the cost-to-produce and time-to-market, and specifically how much Return of Investment (ROI) they will yield.
• Contact us to receive your 6 key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!

How can I improve my time-to-market or increase sales by using this analysis?

• There are two ways to increase time-to-market, and they need to be addressed in this order.

1. First, it’s important that when you set a release delivery or release date, that the date is achieved reliably.
2. The second method, once a reliable date can be achieved, is by challenging your staff to determine how to reliably reduce your time-to-market process.

• Most skip the first issue of reliability and go straight to time reduction. Yet, the second method deals with reliably. Why reduce or cut anything from an unstable process (stability as equated to reliability). The Monte Carlo simulation provides a what-if analysis for both approaches. You get to decide which approach gets analyzed based on your answers to the six questions.
• The key to steadfast reliability is having a staff that is experienced, skilled and motivated. A reliable time-to-market date gives a sales team an advantage with promising their customers value, as does a “first to the market” capability. The Monte Carlo simulation will identify the “low hanging fruit” that might be limiting a team’s reliability in meeting a deadline reliably.
• In the simulation, there will be an assumption made by the Catalyst Technologies team regarding Average Performance Range and Index (APRI) that you might want to review as a precondition. APRI Lambda levels are always set to 3 when first analyzing an organization. If you want special considerations, please let us know.
• Contact us to receive your 6 key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!

How can I win more bids by using this analysis?

• Cost and quality are big factors in any bid review and award. The simulation can show how to “do more with less” which wins contracts. The best part of this simulation approach, since it incorporates people/leadership dynamics, is that it shows you how to “do more with less” while increasing the engagement of employees and staff. But, there’s the trick. To win contracts, it is people being creative, working together to figure out how to “do more with less” and then translating that value to the customer.
• The Monte Carlo simulation is about catalyzing those people focused attributes through discovering the “low hanging fruit” that will propel you company to the next level of success, winning more contracts and completing them more profitably.
• Contact us to receive your 6 key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!

How successful has this approach been with other companies?

• The analysis, methodology and metrics have been used successfully for the last three decades. Please see our testimonials and case studies for more detail. Incorporating this approach and metrics into a Monte Carlo simulation is something we were able to accomplish over the last year.
• Our company lead the statistical benefits analysis, which included a Monte Carlo simulation review, for a very large DoD government installation of an SAP/ERP system being implemented throughout the country. We were the principle contractor, representing this government organization, to analyze the use of a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate Full Time Equivalent (FTE) savings and schedule reduction. We were commended for our work and this inspired us to do a customer simulation specific to profit, time-to-market and contract award.
• The results of the simulation can be quite revealing, leaving many people wanting to dig deeper. All simulation results can be easily traced back to your answers so you understand how, based on your success criteria, you can reliably achieve increased profits, reduced time-to-market and be able to win more contracts.
• Contact us to receive your six key questions - it's straightforward and eye-opening!