2019

2018 a trecut și el în amintire. Să avem un 2019 cu bucurii, sănătate, zile senine și realizări frumoase!

Cum a fost 2018:

Doamna Procedură și domnul Regulament Intern Într-o cușcă cu tot confortul (confort în captivitate!?) și cu mâncare din belșug, opt maimuțe. În vârful unei scări, un ciorchine imens de banane...	Pisica și hiena Darwin spunea că în evoluţia naturii n-a supravieţuit nici cea mai rapidă, frumoasă, mare sau feroce specie, ci cea care a reuşit să se (re)adapteze cel mai repede. Superioritatea spirituală a pisicii...	Multi-cultural Environment Working in multi-cultural environments requires the project leader to appreciate that things will be done, seen and understood differently. Project leaders need to...
Echipa Suntem unici şi motivarea pentru acțiune a fiecăruia este … personală. A separa complet activitatea de la serviciu de viața familială este doar un mit. Oamenii cu ...	Succes Ce înseamnă succes? DEX-ul ne dă o explicație simplă: rezultat favorabil, pozitiv (al unei acțiuni); reușită, izbândă. Deci, dacă reușesc în ceea ce mi-am propus...	Destroying the past We are talking about new technologies, digital life, virtual reality and augmentation, and so on. Changes are drastically. But what about our parents as they are used with the real world, face-to-face...
5 Steps for Process Optimization In theory it is simple...	Prin standardizare spre mediocritate Odată ca niciodată, animalele au hotărât că trebuie să facă ceva pentru se adapta la problemele lumii noi. Așa că au înființat o școală și ...	Does size matter? What is better for a project: a small team or a big one...
Just start! Being an entrepreneur does not mean you have more free time and more money. Being an entrepreneur does not mean you have more free time and more money. There are more responsibilities, more problems, but ...

Just start!

Being an entrepreneur does not mean you have more free time and more money. There are more responsibilities, more problems, but the satisfaction of your work is greater.

The earlier you start, the better! Maybe you lack the experience, but the enthusiasm is bigger. Also, family obligations are probably lower and you do not have too much worries for your future. An eventual failure can be more easily managed.

To start your own business is a jump from being not responsible for the daily time management to be responsible for it. You are alone looking for your work, not knowing (at least at the beginning) of what will happen the next day. Finding the first client is the most difficult task. Try to focus on an industry that you have connections in. It will shorten the time to get an order.

You have to consider about 30% of your time as overhead marketing: you have to show yourself at conferences, lectures, give a lecture here and there, meeting many people, mingling at business parties, making useless phone calls just to let people remember you exists and so on. If you enjoy it, it is OK. If not, you still should do it.

You have only one question to answer yourself before starting: what is the main goal? (It does not have to be a single one, but one must be the ONE.) Possible ones:

• make a lot of money in X years
• make a successful professional career
• see the world
• be able to choose only the work you enjoy
• others (sky is the limit!)

Decide your main goal (and put it as the opening statement in your business plan)!

Do not forget also the first set of starting questions (you need to give as detail answers as possible):

• What step I can do NOW? (For example: create a blog, or a Facebook page, where to write, at least weekly, an article on the topic of the business.)
• When do I want to start? What do I need to start?
• How much am I willing to lose? When I will decide that the business does not work?
• Is there competition? Who is the strongest competitor? Explore it!
• What platforms/media are frequented by potential customers? Did they have a web page? Subscribe to their newsletter!
• How do I attract my first client? Make an attempt to attract the first customer (check if the assumption is correct).
• Where do I want to be in the first year? What do I need to get there?
• What ads channels are most business-friendly?
• Can I spend for my dream at least 4 hours a week, every week?

Start your journey with courage and optimism. Do not be afraid about unknown: if you trust your vision, you will learn on the road how things work.

Does size matter?

What is better for a project: a small team or a big one? There are pros and cons for both.

For a small team:

• Pros:
• High exposure of team members to several methodologies, tools, tasks, resulting in a rapid increase of experience
• Not a complex task management required, project tracking is more accurate and easy to manage
• Work with a bigger variety of people can bring some benefit in developing communication skills
• Cons:
• Difficult ramp-up: Always there is an extra-time needed to understand the required methodology, tools availability, what could be reused. The deadlines for such shorter projects are usually very strict and may be more difficult to fulfill the initial learning
• High mental cost as people need to adapt to work environment very fast
• Despite the fact that small projects may not involve high complexity, they have a short development and verification time and there is sometimes no room for task management, which can result in stressful deadlines
• Small visibility on overall project - tasks are usually punctual, well targeted, with limited understanding on how the entire system is working
• Difficult to integrate into client teams, establish close work connections, trust and confidence
• Difficult to manage vacations
• Changing often projects and teams can lead to people burnout
• Needs rather experienced people, which some times are hard to find
• Instability after project end

A big project can be:

• Long – a long period of time working in the same project, usually covering many releases
• Complex – larger team working on the same project. In this case, higher level of experience is required inside the team; the interactions between team members and client are more frequent. The management of such a project is more complex, but offers more space for tasks planning and people management in order to avoid stressful deadlines.

For a big team:

• Pros:
• It's easier to place juniors on side tasks
• Sharing knowledge is easier (you can consult with more members and share the knowledge)
• It creates necessary conditions for specializing on a specific domain
• More training can be planned and followed within the project
• Cons:
• Team members may become bored from doing the same repetitive task for a long time
• If not properly planned and tracked, projects are easier to slip, due high complexity and far deadlines
• Communication is more difficult

Irrespective of the project, without specific managerial skills and proper planning and tracking, as big as team is, the individual output and quality are decreasing and average costs (per active team member) is increasing.

So, what is you preference?

Prin standardizare spre mediocritate

Odată ca niciodată, animalele au hotărât că trebuie să facă ceva semnificativ pentru a se adapta la problemele lumii noi. Așa că au lansat, cu surle și rețele de socializare, programul NOUL TU MULTIDIMENSIONAL. Au ales activități variate: alergatul, cățăratul, înotul și zborul. Pentru a fi mai ușor de aplicat, toate animalele au fost obligate să participe la toate cursurile.

Rața era foarte bună la înot (chiar mai bună decât instructorul ei). Lua însă note mici la zbor și se descurca foarte prost la alergat. A fost nevoită să renunțe la înot și să facă ore suplimentare de fugă. Tot exersând, și-a rănit labele și a devenit aproape mediocră la înot. Dar nimeni nu și-a făcut probleme (în afară de rață).

Iepurele era primul la alergat, dar, din cauza cârceilor (datorați efortului de la înot), a ajuns ultimul.

Veverița era foarte bună la cățărat, dar întâmpina tot timpul neplăceri la ora de zbor, deoarece profesorul o punea să înceapă de la sol, nu din vârful copacului. A început să sufere și ea de cârcei din cauza epuizării și n-a mai câștigat niciun concurs de cățărat.

Vulturul a devenit repede un elev problemă. A fost sever admonestat pentru nerespectarea procedurilor: la orele de cățărat, ajungea primul în vârf, dar o făcea zburând. Ca pedeapsă (pentru a se dezobișnui de prostul obicei) i sa interzis participarea la concursurile de zbor.

Tu cum îți înțelegi echipa? Știi numele fiecărui membru, sau sunt doar resurse supravegheate sever de doamna Procedură și domnul Regulament Intern?

5 Steps for Process Optimization

In theory it is simple:

1. Identify - Once you determine which business process needs an overhaul, the first step is to list out all the key components of the process. These should be fundamental, unchangeable aspects of the process.
• Create the question list to identify the business process and distribute it to the study group
• Collect the answers and create the business process map (BPM)
• Review the BPM
2. Rethink - Use brainstorming technique to redesign the process and to define the KPIs (key performance indicators).
• Define the scope for the process improvement
• Brainstorming session for process redesign
• Brainstorming session to define the KPIs
• Create the new process business map
• Review the new BPM
• Review and update the operational procedures for the redesign process
3. Implement 
• Put in place the modified process (if possible, as a pilot process)
• Start collecting the KPIs data
4. Measure results
• Compare the expected results with the actual ones
• Decide on necessary adjustments (if needed)
5. Decide for final implementation of the redesign process

But what about practice?

Destroying the past

We are talking about new technologies, digital life, virtual reality and augmentation, and so on. Changes are drastically. But what about our parents as they are used with the real world, face-to-face dates and no digital life? We are here due to them. While changing, we need to keep the future in sync with the past. Digital disruption should not become the destroyer of yesterday (and, after this, of the tomorrow too)! At the end, we are living in a real world and not in a digital one.

Succes

Ce înseamnă succes? DEX-ul ne dă o explicație simplă: rezultat favorabil, pozitiv (al unei acțiuni); reușită, izbândă. Deci, dacă reușesc în ceea ce mi-am propus, am succes. Simplu: un om de succes este un om fericit, are ceea ce şi-a dorit şi se bucură de ceea ce are.

Cu câțiva ani în urmă am dat un răspuns care a șocat pe multi dintre participanții la o discuţie pe tema succesului: „Nu-mi măsor succesul unei zile după aprecierea șefului, ci după zâmbetul pe care-l primesc când îi spun fetiței la culcare Noapte bună!” Succesul este personal şi doar eu trebuie să fiu cel care decide. Dar de foarte multe ori căutăm aprecierea celor din jur şi, în loc să ne mulțumim cu ce am realizat, vrem să-i mulțumim pe ceilalți. Ba mai mult, ne comparăm cu cei din jur şi nu ne bucurăm de ceea ce suntem.

Ca să ajungi pe vârful dorit trebuie muncă, multă muncă, perseverență. Și mult mai multă muncă dacă ai pornit la start cu oameni care au avantajul banilor sau al pilelor. Trebuie să fii cel mai bun ca să reușești (căci e nevoie să recuperezi mai întâi handicapul startului ca apoi să-i poți întrece pe cei din cursă). Rămâne însă să răspunzi sincer la câteva întrebări simple: Merită să ajung acolo? Trebuie neapărat să fiu primul? De ce?

Succes!