#nirmalan

Learning is the fundamentals of change. Change stops when learning stops..!

There are many universities and education institutions in the world offering many different degrees. Millions of people graduate from these intuitions with various qualifications. Unfortunately, all these qualifications do not get evaluated, delivered or assessed the same, even if the title of these qualifications are the same, due to many factors.

Except for the famous universities, many other universities go unnoticed even though the content of those programs are good, since there are millions of universities and institutions are in existence, understanding or knowing these universities and their program coverage is impossible.

But a person who understands and has a sound knowledge of the technical and academic capability will be able to assess the suitability of these qualifications for the specific requirements. But this is a rare possibility.

This confusion of thousands of degrees offered by different institutions and their standards and credibility place corporate organizations in serious difficulty.

This is where the global certifications play a role. These are certifications which are developed, administrated and monitored by a common body globally or by professional institutions or organizations globally, and the qualification or certification sets a common expectation, standard and capability criteria for the qualified. As a result these certifications stands high, since they set a common minimum standard for all those qualified. 

As a result of its global presence and credibility, mostly these qualifications are well known in the industry and standout as credible criteria for filtering or hiring. This places the candidates with these qualifications to carry a passport to the job market around the globe.

Most importantly these certifications are updated frequently to reflect the updates required in the industry (which is an important requirement in Business and IT), and most of the top end certifications require experience to write the exam, as a pre-requirement or as knowledge and expertise.

At the same time, the certifications have different categories and levels, along with diversified positioning. Most of these certifications are categorized as product based and NON-product (non-vendor) based certifications. In addition, some exams are assessed based on MCQs, and some based on objective based case study or scenarios.

Again there are many certifications offered by many organizations at various levels. Other than the famous global certifications, there will be confusions in understanding the credibility and the level it is pitched, unless you have a very good knowledge and understanding of these certifications.

Therefore, one must choose the right certification to suit his carrier growth target, experience and knowledge, in gaining the maximum advantage out of these certifications.

Certifications play a significant role in gaining recognition in the global market, regardless of what you carry as other qualifications and experience, in the primary filtering process or in recognizing someone.

What are the different AREAs the vendor neutral certifications cover?

As per date there many areas covered, such as,

Business

Risk management, change management, service management, relationship management, marketing, digital marketing, Project management, Program management, Portfolio management, Business analysis, Standards & practices etc.

Information Technology

AI and related areas, Data Science and related areas, Block chain, Security, Governance, IT auditing, IT service management, Enterprise architecture, Agile practices, IT regulations, bills & law, IT Standards, Digital transformation, Software testing etc.

How would you expect the service cost to go down, when the capabilities contributing to the service cost keep going up?

(the capabilities contributing are skilled resources, products and services used by the service provider from internally or externally and many other factors)

While product cost going up is justified, service cost going up is questioned all the time, and bargained for low cost. Which only pushes the service providers to sacrifice quality to meet price competition.

At the same time, the expectation of the cost reduction on services are of no surprise for those organizations that do not meet the service quality expectations and give no regards to customer experience, or considering customer as the main focus.

This should be avoided by providing quality service to customers and coming up with proper SLAs without hidden conditions. Creating customer trust is an important factor in building a solid loyal customer base. This automatically happens when you provide consistency in the quality of service provided.

The customer contribution also plays a role in this, but for that to happen you need to build awareness and create maturity regarding your product and services. In the mean time you may also come across customers who are only focused on pricing, they are dealt differently using various strategies based on organizational focus and the markets they are in.

Technology can give you many flexible ways to reach the customers. But customers should feel, that they are being reached.

This happens only when you reach/touch their hearts, with true service and commitment. Satisfaction in service is a feeling of the heart.

Digitalisation or transforming digitally will not necessarily do this, unless organizations transform their service culture, in delivering real value to their customers and with committed customer service. Which is evident in the way they do service provisioning !

Value is always customer’s perspective, not service provider’s !

Strategy is a long-standing buzz word everyone uses in different contexts. It is also used to absorb many things, which is untold and to escape or hide behind.

Regardless of all big definitions given in books, if you look at this word, what does it really mean?

I would say STRATEGY means in simple, the APPROACH. Please note this word came from the war/battle environment.

Strategy is not a fixed plan !

Strategy keeps changing or should be changed based on the ground situation/context, if you have to succeed in your objectives, which can be for survival or to thrive.

Having said this, when we talk about strategy in the business context, it is interpreted differently most of the time by most people. They pitch strategy for long term! Eg 5years or 2years. Which is not true in all contexts. Strategy would have been for long term in the industrial era or years ago, when the reaction from the market is not instantaneous, but in the current business era, this is not practical.

if you consider business strategy which is for long term, the practicality of this is in question, when your strategy does not 100% depend on you or on your Organization.

You could accept this, if and only if the market (your customers, your competitors, and the market environment) that you are in is not going to react, or every attribute contributing to this is in your control.

Is this practical? NO, they will react (unless they are gone for a long sleep)

If they react, what will happen to your strategy? Are you not supposed to counter that, with a new or modified strategy?

Therefore, strategy will keep changing according to how your market environment, customer trends and competitors’ competitive strategies.

So, cant the strategy survive longer? Yes, it can, but depends on many factors. The possibility of a strategy surviving more longer term is where, it has considered all possible scenarios and their countermeasures that could occur, including the potential/possible reactions from its competitors and customers. This comes by having good understanding of your customers and market, your own capabilities, and your competitors’ capabilities. In addition to the, proactive monitoring of the market trends and competitors moves.

If strategy is so dynamic, then what are we confused with? Are we referring to road map? Yes, road map is long term, (for eg: it can be even for 5 years or 10 years) based on what you want to achieve, this can be for years, but how you achieve each milestone points in the road map can have different approach/strategy based on that context. Each strategy can have multiple plans in achieving it.

Plan is a devise method to achieve the objectives.

Strategy is an approach you take in any form to achieve your objectives based on the context.

Feb 5, 2021

Often clients ask to suggest one framework or methodology that they can follow, which will fit all their needs...!

Unfortunately, if there is one, which fit all purpose or most of it, then we will not have a need for multiple frameworks and methodologies.

Also people tend to think implementing process can improve performance of the organization magically..! and once done, this will take care of your organization for ever..!

Organization’s performance depends on many factors, including people, process and technology.

Process alone will not do the justice for the expectation, it needs the right people (capabilities) to execute, and the right technology to gain benefits out of it, along with the right culture and many other factors to support.

In addition, the processes need to be improved based on the changing requirements, the current state of the organization, and the feedback gained.

There is no best practice which stay as a best practice for ever... unless challenged and improved.

Also choosing the wrong practices will not do any justice. The right practices need to be selected, in right combination to make a success, this decision/direction needs to come from diversity of exposure /expertise of Global Best Practices and Frameworks. (single specialization or low level understanding may not give the right bigger picture or proper solution).

This can only be a success, provided that the organization has the right capabilities to execute…!

Why Global Best Practices emphasized more?  (May 17, 2021)

A person working in an organization for a long time in process role, will have a very good knowledge of the organizational processes, but there is no guarantee that the organization has followed the best practice in the industry, or that can fit for another organization.

This is where global best practices come in to play, they are best practices / experience captured from many organizations around the globe, tested and proven in multiple industries before put into books or promoted, and in addition they are feed backed in terms of performance and relevance..! 

Therefore the global best practices and frameworks are always the best guide for consideration.