Life of a Business Principal in Consulting

In my previous post, we discussed principles that can be used for designing Anti-fragile systems. There were some feedback that the case study was not easy to relate and understand the principles better. With the spirit of making it easier for all of us - including me - to understand, I am taking a very recent and relevant case study to understand Anti-fragile systems.

I have had my regular dose of information, knowledge and awareness on events around me for more than 25 years now from the newspapers. The form has changed now - earlier it used to be newsprint and now it is digital.

For the last 25 years, IT systems - be it COTS (Commercial Off the shelf) or custom built - are started with trying to understand how they can accomplish a business process. However, it ends up with business stake-holders having to make compromises to the business process to use an IT system. For some time now, the focus has shifted on the users - finding their pain points and trying to design with the users in mind. This change has done a lot of good. However, that is not enough

What started as a simple thought has now taken the shape of an idea in my mind now. Instead of just trying to keep it hidden, I want to understand what do people think of this idea and would it make sense. If it does make sense, what are the factors that are good in this idea? Are there any ideas that can be used to extend this concept further. More details on the concept here: Product Barter Marketplace from Prashanth Madhavan Narasimhan

The other day I was working on a strategy document for one of my consulting assignments. What was strange was that I had access to all information but I was not sure how to present it in a clear way that would mean action from the stake holders. As consultants, the reason we present the strategy and tactical plans is because we hope the stake holders can gain value. However, we always have impediments in terms of selecting the right information to present, providing the right context and suggesting the right set of next level activities. Frameworks for Decision Making Let me start with a simple decision framework that I used to get the strategy document presented.