Cost vs. Income Activities

I like to divide activities within a company into two opposing sides – cost & income. Mind you, these activities work together to create value for the end customer. So they aren’t really “opposing”. At least they shouldn’t be.

An example of an income activity is sales. Or the work of business consultants. Activities which don’t impact income directly, on the other hand, are those tackled by back office staff – e.g. accounting or tech / IT support.

“Income activities” can be easily priced. Especially those sales-related. And I’m not talking about calculating workload here (as in Project Management). I’m talking about the direct impact a specific activity has on your money. Sales is probably the best example. Oversimplifying, the more a salesman sells, the more money your company gets.

“Costs’ activities” don’t generate income directly. Those are usually support tasks. As business owners, we’d usually be happy to keep their costs low, and monitor them (it’s difficult to create self-improving mechanisms here).

Here’s the point… I know companies which have hardly more then a sales department. The rest is outsourced (though nobody calls it that way). On the other hand, I don’t remember companies which have oursourced sales or activities related to their core businesses and thrive doing support. Supporting themselves, that is.

In corporations, there don’t seem to be many attempts to outsource “the costs’ side”. If anything, customer support is thrown away to some external call center (which I find quite insane, BTW). What’s even worse, I recall examples where support activities are allowed to govern the whole business. And that’s a sad sight to see…

Yet Another Lesson on Reliability

A general rule for making new businesses recently came to my mind. It is pretty simple on conceptual level. Think about something others do not like to do and build a product or service around it.

This is a far-fetched entry point to a lesson on leadership I’d like to remember: leaders are willing to take jobs no one else is willing to do.

“Leaders perform tasks that are not their job.” – John C. Maxwell, The 360 Degree Leader.

Of course, they do so without complaining. But that’s another story.

If I were to name the qualities of a good co-worker or subordinate, “reliability” would be definitely among them. I’d like to be able to count on that person. Oftentimes, this would require getting out of their comfort zone, doing something boring or particularly difficult.

Doing Things Right

Here’s something disputable:

A project manager shouldn’t be interested in the project’s business objectives too much.

This fuzzy statement comes from a recent discussion with a friend of mine. When dealing with projects we often hear about business cases. Project Managers are obliged to update business cases. However, from the PRINCE 2 methodology’s point of view (for example), business cases are owned by Sponsors. And that’s good.

A Project Manager is not responsible for the business results specified in the business case; he or she is responsible for developing the agreed product, preferably within standard time, budget & scope constraints.

The project manager’s goal is the deliverable. The what, not the why.

Once again the quote comes to my mind:

“Management is doing things right, Leadership is doing the right things!” – Peter F. Drucker

Choose.

Transitions

On a recent business trip I met an ex-consultant with more than 10 years of work experience in that field. By that time he was an entrepreneur already, employing a number of people himself. He had a family – a wife and a little girl.

What clearly distinguished him from the people I met for a longer while, was the passion in his eyes. A passion for his work. He manifested conviction and confidence. He seemed naturally optymistic – a smile never left his face. It was interesting to see how much others clinged to him. To them he was a source of energy.

When late night came and everyone else was already fast asleep, one could see him working on a notebook beside the bar or outside in the garden.

One day, I asked him about his family and work-life balance. I knew that his business required him to leave home for several weeks each month or so. He confirmed it wasn’t easy, but then he made a promise to himself to spend at least a week with his family after each period of separation. Still, even during those family days he challenged himself to work for at least an hour. Every day. According to him, transitions were much easier that way.

Returning to work after a leave is often a difficult task. To some, vacation is perhaps even more difficult to bare. There is something about our ability to switch from one to the other. Contrary to the obvious – mixing work and private life slightly more might be the solution.

Downhill All the Way

After maintaining a one-post-per-day schedule for one month (I challenged myself), I want to extend the intervals between subsequent entries on The Progress Blog. Days spent [almost] one-on-one with my little son are slowly coming to an end. From Thursday on, I’m obliged to return to my daytime work (I was on a longer leave). It will be more of a struggle to keep the regularity up. However, there are benefits. To me work is a playground – new ideas & thoughts spawn crazily there.

BTW. Work is meant to be fun (for various reasons). Very often it isn’t. At the end of day, it depends what we make of it. Sometimes it’s good to fake it a bit. After a while, it’s downhill all the way.

Early Communication

Off-topic. It’s all kids for me these days – I’m a father of two after all.

Yesterday, I had a discussion on early communication. Picture this – whenever you find yourself in an elevator with a newborn, a toddler or simply a child who doesn’t speak well [yet], most likely he or she will be staring right in your face. Early communication. With age, we feel uncomfortable if someone looks deep into our eyes – unless we are on intimate terms with that person.

Animals use their eyes to communicate as well. In fact, you can teach a dog to carry out orders based on such “eye language”. Both little children and the majority of animals have something in common here – they don’t know spoken language.

What’s the point? It’s a tool one ought to be conscious of – “eyes are the window to the soul” for a reason.