Currently on my mind

Being a great entrepreneur and leader is not about starting a new company, nor it's a one-man-show. It's about believing in something and then engage in the challenge. It's about finding the right people to create together with and to grow talent together with. There are no shortcuts, only hard work - but it's so much fun and I love it! If you succeed, if you find the right thing to believe in, if you find the right people to create together with and if you really engage, then you can become a part of something great, be part af a great piece of art, like a monument. Or as Steve Jobs would have put it " make your dent in the Universe and start not just a business, but an entirely new way of life". Here is a great post and some examples to become inspired by. They have all found something to believe in, found the right people to work with and grown talent together. They all have built "life is great" organisations around them that believe in w...

When our (Netlight’s) CEO Erik Ringertz (@ringertz) win the Swedish national nomination of “boss of the year”. Doesn’t it have to mean that all we stand for and fight for is appreciated also by the “outside” world? http://chef.se/erik-ringertz-vd-netlight-ar-arets-chef-2014/ When it’s proven again again that working and creating together for real provides so much more value and fun for all. Spring is here (in Sweden) – if only for a day or two When you feel your garden wakes to life after the very long winter sleep When you find three newly laid eggs in your hen house When your hen can walk around freely in the garden and after several tries manages to scare away the neighbour cat by themselves (yet again by working together) When you can start with all the wonderful work and projects you have in front of you in your garden together with your family - to get a rest from work and to get new inspiration. When you finally get to prune your young hedge of privet (liguster) to l...

What an exciting year we have in front of us. My list of top trends of 2014 is based on the buzz across industries where IT is business critical. It’s based on what we, Netlight, are involved within. Netlight is a Genuine Consulting firm, which means we are totally independent, we work and create together for real (to make sure the gathered competence and experience of all consultants are utilized) and we totally focus our work based on the true need of our clients. What we do on a daily basis is totally ruled by the challenges and opportunities of the companies we’re helping. So what we work on is really what is hot currently - and if not we’re doing something wrong. ·          Streaming and VOD (Video On Demand, Music On Demand, Radio On Demand…) ·          Cloud hosting ·          O rganisations and teams – increased productivity ·    ...

The past year I’ve met numerous organisations suffering from outdated outsourcing strategies. Either very business critical areas or the entire IT has been outsourced. The typical symptom one meet from this are lacking support of new business strategies, a general lack of control of IT decisions, frustration due to differentiation of incentives and drivers between buyer and supplier. Also the vendor lock-in situation is common, leading to lack of gain of a healthy multi-vendor competition in terms of cost, skills and innovation management. In other words your business is getting hurt.  As a consultant in different roles such as strategic advisor, manager (Manager/Team Manager/Project Manager) or Enterprise Architect, I meet many organisations and people in many different situations; different cultures, different levels of maturity and different industries. However one thing they all have in common, they are all working with business where IT is business critical. ...

Article in Computer Sweden -  "Ännu ett fiasko för Accenture" (free translation goes "Another flop by Accenture") http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.546751/annu-ett-fiasko-for-accenture?queryText=accenture How tragic. Of course anyone can fail, but haven’t we learned to avoid those huge big-bang-programs trying to change too big bite of an organisation or business segments at once? I see the typical mistakes over and over again -          It’s never a monolith with all the same sets of preconditions and requirements. Hence forcing too big of bite into the same model will make big violence on your business. However in most of the times the projects will never even be completed since stakeholders will not be able to agree or likely not even understand each other, due to their different contexts and needs. This will lead to frustration and all but an inspiring working climate. Instead we have to be more percipient to differ...

For the modern high-end company providing some kind of professional service or product – to have an inspiring working climate is one of your most important and valuable investment.  Ok, but how to do it?  There are million of ways and the sky is the limit. But firstly you must understand that this is important, and see investing in your inspiring working climate as a company success factor. Within Netlight we work with this a lot . The people, our competence and our experience, are our most valuable assets. A nd Edge Academy, is just one initiative we run. (for the record, our Edge Academy initiative provides value in many other areas as well) . In addition we have our grandiose Edge Conference during our Edge Summit, our day-to-day competence sharing events, our Edge comptence communities and our Edge competence activity cells. (see a pattern?) What is Edge Academy? Edge Academy is the Netlight intimate technology festival run yearly, by consultants for consultants. ...

In the life as a consultant it’s very natural to talk about delivery, because simply put that’s what you do for your clients. But I know many companies and organisations would gain a lot by focusing more on the topic. Unfortunately delivery is often mistaken as something you do at the end of an initiative; when you turn in the report, delivery the codebase, delivery an architecture or deliver a project. But delivery is so much more. Delivery is something you do every day. It’s how you walk and how you talk. It’s how you take control and responsibility over challenges and opportunities, and how you drive them to come forward. It’s about never delivering any surprises but always be on top of things and clearly bring to attention if things start to get out of tack and not seem to end up as expected.  Unfortunately delivery is not as easy as doing exactly what your boss, stakeholder or client say, but neither about not doing what they’re saying, of course. No it’s about really u...