Solar Concentrator News from Sunrgi

Sunrgi's technology for solar concentrators was touted today in by CNET (via CNET Twitter link for me). Interesting technology that has been rumbling for a while, but no product anouncements. Glad to see product announcements start. I hope that the developments are real and the $.05 per kW-hr are real also. Could be very interesting.

Develop an Action Plan for Opportunity or Problem Solution

As part of the continuing segment on Managing Opportunities or Problem Areas....

Every manager and executive appreciates a person who has thought through, clearly and concisely, how to proceed with solving the problem. They may not agree with, or desire modifications, to your plan, but having this plan together gives you tremendous credibility.

Characteristics of the action plan should be:

1. Your group or area should be affected. If you develop plans which only have other groups actions involved, your planning will appear self-serving.

2. Your plan should be positive and team-based. Plans which appear to be attack oriented will be much harder to implement.

3. Plans should highlight how they help the customer and company.

4. Plans should have a resolution to the problem, or at least bring clarity to what the final steps should be.

Success through Self-Efficacy

Entrepreneurial success comes through resiliency, high goals and self-awareness. This is the conclusion of a recent, interesting, WSJ article by Melinda Beck. The concept of self-efficacy, as different from self esteem, is well discussed.

I believe, though, that the article did not tie the need for self-awareness in success as strongly into the theme as needed. Self-awareness is required to truly understand where personal development is needed and what areas are truly possible to tackle, either technically or personally.

Wendy Bounds, in the Independent Street blog article, adds to the article, with a discussion of the addition of faith. Certainly personal and religious faith are a part of all success.

Self-efficacy, self-awareness, faith and some luck are all required for entrepreneurial success.

Summarize data to senior management

As part of the continuing segment on Managing Opportunities or Problem Areas....

Summarize data to senior management; do not give raw data unless asked.

In developing managers, especially new managers, this is one of the most crucial areas to teach. Senior managers do not have time to process all the data. This is your job; to apply your brainpower to sorting through the data and providing a story which makes sense from the data and from your own intuition. Senior managers, when faced with mounds of data that should have already been processed, will shut down and indicate that further work is needed. Part of telling the story is having pre-processed data which support you, legitimately, in telling the story.

Every opportunity has a story; tell the story

As part of the prescription on opportunity realization or problem solution...

When an employee or manager is dealing with an opportunity or solving a problem, you need to understand the story. When sharing the problem, with another person or a senior manager, you need to tell this story. The storyline also help you direct this person or manager to the solution which you desire (and feel is best for the customer and company).

The story consists of how the opportunity can enhance the company or customer experience, or how a problem is affecting the customer or company. The foundational underpinnings on generation of the problem or opportunity are also crucial to understand. The path toward resolution is the third component to the story. Knowledge of all three of these areas gives you the confidence that you are on the right path and gives the listener faith in your knowledge and direction.

This skill of story-telling takes practice to develop. Some managers like the entire story, some like a synopsis. Managers like the entire story when

1. either they have not fully developed the trust and the relationship with you
2. the decision is crucial to the company
3. The decision has high political overtones or effects.

The synopsis version is generally asked for, once a manager trusts that you have the drive and skills to dig into the story.

In practical examples, I have executed or seen too much time spent on the “How we got here”, with no action planning. How many meetings have you attended where the entire meeting was focused on the failure of a process or of the company to execute, with no energy spent on understanding why or where to next go. Balancing the opportunity or effects, the understanding of the issues behind, and how to proceed is crucial. Tell the story!

Managing Opportunities or Problem Areas

I believe there is a general tactical recipe for opportunity or problem solutions, which I am exploring. Most of the thoughts on this are generated from my management and executive work with CTI and Siemens (in a past life), with the attempt to generate the signposts part of current client work. The signposts are:

1. Every opportunity has a story; tell the story
2. Summarize data to senior management; do not give it raw (unless asked).
3. Develop action plans for problem solution.
4. Be willing to listen to the conflicting party.
5. Work to execute the plan. Take the first steps.
   
6. When halted, escalate with objectivity and data.
   
7. Always be thinking and planning next steps.
8. Conclusion.
   

I want to expand on each of these themes, as developed. Comments and debate welcome!

Cherokee Farms Information

I have peripherally kept up on the Cherokee Farms development, from News Sentinel reports and through knowing one of the key contributors. there did not seem to be one place for a lot of disparate information, so I collected it here.

Overall the development is a good idea, both for the region and the university. Key caveats in my mind are:

1. Maintain the beauty of the land
2. Integrate buildings into the natural settings
3. Keep the architecture interesting (more below)
4. Focus on actual results with the research
5. Truly incubate new businesses for the area.

The main UT website (promo) for the development has good marketing information for an overview. Some details from UT are here.

The latest KNS articles are here (Cherokee Farm Plan in Motion), here (Early Planning Report on the Project) and here (UT Dairy Operation Moving).

The initial press release from October 07.

Map of the area:

View Larger Map

Note that the area under development is to the west of Alcoa Hwy and across from Sequoya Hills.

Raising money for startups/ongoing business

I thought this a decent post on raising money for startup businesses. I particularly like to see someone emphasize thrift as part of the a new business owner. There are too many times where a person does not control spending on non-essentials, and the business is in trouble.

Article at Lendingclub.

Lessons from the Office

The Office is a great show, one which my kids are addicted to (I am not sure where that will lead in the future). There area lot of stupid actions taken by all the players, but too many times, there are clear threads related to real life. I saw this article on a Yahoo!Finance page titled "Seven Career Lessons from the Office", and I thought it was interesting.

Of particular note are lessons:

1. Managerial skills may not be what get you promoted.
2. "Boss" shouldn't be confused with "friend."
5. Make the tough decisions about your future.

I like the "promoted just above your level of competency" thought (in lesson 1), and have seen it in real life too often. People are often promoted this way, with the plan for them to grow into the job. Often, though, they are not helped in this endeavor, and often they are not capable of the required growth.

The Boss-Friend issue goes both ways. I have had to deal with that situation personally, when promoted and having to manage peers or long-time work colleagues.

You need to manage your own future. If you are passive, you can derail or find yourself stuck. At times like these, do not be afraid to make the right decision.

Anyway, enjoy the office.

Managing your people is not HR's job

I had a discussion with a former employee that caused me to flash-back to a former opinion battle. The battle related to the subject of the management of personnel. The person I was in a gentle but heated discussion held the view that HR should take an activist role in the management of the people in his group. Every answer to a personnel management question was "HR should do that....", "HR needs to handle that....", "HR has fallen down again.....".

I hold that the management of the personnel in your group is the direct and whole responsibility of the manager, not HR. HR performs many useful functions in a company, but they have to be viewed as a resource and partner in the management of personnel. The manager is responsible for direct answers to personnel issues, answers to career development, guidance on salary and bonus questions. In short, they are the manager's employees and the manager represents the company in these situations.

There are very clear and positive reasons why the manager should be the key interface here. First and foremost, the manager is the closest person to the employee, from a company authority position. Second, every interaction where the manager can interact with an employee on the sensitive issues, and come out with the best solution possible, is an opportunity to strengthen the relationship with the employee. Third, the employee can get the quickest and most direct responses and not feel put off with "check with HR on that".

I note that there are issues where the HR group needs to be the lead for legal or in-depth knowledge reasons (FMLA, detailed insurance questions, etc.), but when a manager abdicates all responsibility in these areas, the chance for forging a strong and more durable bond with a group is lost.

Interesting Article on Alzheimer's Drug

Alzheimer's Disease affects millions of people and is the most common of the neuro-dementia diseases. My interest in the disease stems from a past life associated with PET Scanning (as part of Siemens Medical Systems Molecular Imaging group, which bought a local company called CTI Molecular Imaging). While the major use of PET is for Oncology studies, the major growth market for the imaging modality was neurology, specifically for detecting the early onset of Alzheimer's Disease well before the onset of traditionally detectable symptoms.

One of the major hurdles, though, on the adoption of PET for Alzheimer's detection was the treatment regimen that would follow detection. The new drug development paths seem to answers this. One good article is here. It is mostly a financial focus, but gives good summary information.

Interesting take on digital music, at CNET

I saw this link from the CNET twitter posts, re: digital music. It is about time that the music labels have realized that their industry is/has radically changed. See story at CNET.

If what you are doing is not working, Do Something Different

This is one of my favorite maxims and I widely used it while a previous group I managed underwent business transformation. I find that most people simply want to execute and when the execution is not achieving the needed goals, they want to simply execute more....harder.....faster.....with different tools.....

I encouraged my employees to take a hard look at how they were attempting to achieve the goals. 9 times out of 10, this simple maxim would cause them to look oddly at me and smile, then bend their back toward making their work processes better.