Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

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This e-book was referenced as a teaser for the “Business of Software 2009” conference.

We had been thinking about attending this year, enroute to Toronto (to pay our clients there an overdue visit).  However, we did not go in the end (still not sufficient capability for delivery – one of the triggers of us starting Autopsy 2).

Hopefully next year!

1)  Binary Review

The Book	What we thought
“Don’t just roll the dice” by Neil Davidson	Wish I had been able to read this 10 years ago, when starting down this path…

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For those who have been regular readers of the blog, you will realise, by now, that I am a keen advocate of life-long-learning, and improvement (both for individuals within our company, and for the company as a whole).

Given we are fast approaching our 10th birthday, and that we have disappointed ourselves in terms of a number of key initiatives, it has been timely to spend some focused time on introspection.

1)  What was Autopsy 1?

Back on Tuesday 28th July 2009 we held Autopsy 1, which was a one-day planning session in our offices in Milton.

During the day we dissected the company (as best we were able in the single day) and drew out of this a number of changes that were required.

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I’ve recently posted about what some are calling the rise of the “Age of Analytics”, and also posted several times on innovation (such as this note about 5 “discovery skills”).

Not sure how I stumbled upon this article in Business Week – it’s titled “The Design of Business” and is written by Roger Martin (of Rotman School of Management) to coincide with the launch of his new book (which we have duly added to our Amazon cart and will review in due course). read more »

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Back on 29th July, I had the good fortune of attending an event provided by the IIB entitled “Building the Resilient Company”.  I posted some comments about this at the time here.

During this event, I heard a presentation by Evan Fortune (one of the founders of Vision 6) and was impressed with his story.

In his presentation, Evan mentioned a couple of consultants/coaches they had utilised to work through some of the muddle in which they had found themselves as a result of the growth they had experienced over several years.

I met with Evan on a couple of occasions following from this, and learned more of his story.  I learned of the small firm, Sound Reasoning, that had been involved with Evan since the early days of the company and were no-nonsense coaches.

Based on what Evan told us of their successes with his firm, we opted to give Sound Reasoning a try – calling them in as one of several external resources during the Autopsy 2 process.

Stay tuned to this blog for more details about how much value we gain from Sound Reasoning!

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Back on 29th July, I had the good fortune of attending an event provided by the IIB entitled “Building the Resilient Company”.  I posted some comments about this at the time here.

During this event, I heard a presentation by Evan Fortune (one of the founders of Vision 6) and was impressed with his story.

In his presentation, Evan mentioned a couple of consultants/coaches they had utilised to work through some of the muddle in which they had found themselves as a result of the growth they had experienced over several years.  One of these was Shirlaws.

I met with Evan on a couple of occasions following from this, and (based on what Evan told us of their successes with his firm) opted to give Shirlaws a try – calling them in as one of several external resources during the Autopsy 2 process.

Stay tuned to this blog for more details about how much value we gain from Shirlaws!

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Having read, and enjoyed, “The Discipline of Market Leaders” by Treacy and Wiersema many years ago, I was anticipating some more useful insights in his latest book.

1)  Binary Review

However, I would have to admit to being underwhelmed with this one.

The Book	What we thought
“The New Market Leaders”by Fred Wiersema	. Underwhelming (especially considering the previous book)!

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That’s not to say that the book was a total waste of time – just that, the time spent reading this book could be much more productively spent reading a number of other books written in the same manner – particularly “Good to Great” and “Built to Last”, and (as noted above) the author’s earlier work.

In the interests of providing you some value in this post, here’s a couple of observations I made from the book .

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Ironically, I read this book back in September up in the Whitsundays (yes, home to the lucky bugger who’s got the best job in the world – at least for 6 months).

You see - in the book, Richard regales the reader of his prized Necker Island (in the Caribbean) and of the value it has represented to him and the group.  Might be a few more years, yet, before we can splurge on our own island!

1)  Binary Review

This book was a quick easy read.

The Book	What we thought
“Screw it, Let’s do it”by Richard Branson	.Upbeat, entertaining stories, with some good lessons

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As you would probably expect (the title’s a bit of a give-away) the book is all about such “simple” concepts as:

1)  Don’t plan to the nth degree – just get started and learn as you go (for me, this resonated with what I have been learning about Agile Software Development)

2)  Have fun along the way.

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Following Stephen’s review of the presentation made by Phillip Di Bella, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had also bought us a copy of Phil’s new book “Roasted Passion”.

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Binary Review

The book was a quick read (over and done with in 4 hours flying time to and from Melbourne this week).

The Book	What we thought
“Roasted Passion” by Robert Norton	. . Not a classic, but gets a gong as it has a few good points, and is a quick read

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