(Guest post from Dawn Altnam Follow her on Twitter! @DawnAltnam )
Some analysts would argue that virtualization is either having, or getting ready to have its big moment in the data storage world. Companies in large numbers are starting to see the clear advantages of implementing sophisticated and basic virtualization technology into their data storage solutions.
Even with all the tools that virtualization provides – IT simplification, boosted computing power and increased server management efficiency – there are some key challenges that will keep virtualization from advancing into the next phase of technological advancement. In this post, we’ll uncover five of the biggest challenges facing virtualization for businesses in the years ahead.
The Top Five Challenges Facing Data Virtualization
1. Meeting the Demand of Virtualization Technology –
The hard reality of virtualized server management is that the environment itself is highly dynamic. This is a complicated technology, which will require an advanced IT team to be able to understand and manage the virtualization system. Since the technology is always evolving, individuals maintaining the systems must stay informed on developments and breakthroughs in the industry.
2. The Hard Reality of Server Management –
According to a recent white paper published by Morgan Stanley, contrary to popular belief, virtual server management isn’t any more timesaving than a physical server. In most cases, a company is dealing with several virtual servers at once, which can put a heavy burden on the IT staff.
3. Infrastructure Issues –
There are several selling points that make a virtual server environment attractive. Developing a virtual server is fairly easy, and deploying applications within this environment is even easier. The problem is that most organizations don’t have the proper infrastructure in place to keep up with the demands of the constantly evolving virtualized environment that runs their servers.
4. Economics –
It’s hard to argue with the fact that virtualization has significantly lowered IT costs associated with server management in recent years. The problem is that as much money as virtualization saves companies, there’s the reality that hypervisor and virtualization costs take up a large chunk of the IT budget on the datacenter level.
5. Virtualization Procrastination –
Finally, there are many companies that continue to drag their feet when it comes to virtualization adoption. A large chunk of these virtualization procrastinators are perpetually stuck in the test and development stage, and they never really make that next step to implement.
These companies are often afraid to make the switch because they feel that virtualization hasn’t “arrived” on the security and stability front. What they don’t realize is that virtualization adoption is more sophisticated and stable than ever.
While these are significant hurdles for many companies to get over, these are not debilitating for the virtualization industry as a whole. Companies can upgrade their infrastructure in a way that scales to meet the demand of their dynamic virtualized server solutions.
They can also overcome economical barriers by rearranging their IT budget in a way that balances out costs. More importantly, they can leap right out of the test and dev phase, and fully adopt virtualization as their server management solution of choice.
About the author: Dawn Altnam lives and works in the Midwest, and she enjoys following the business tech world. After furthering her education, she has spent some time researching her interests and blogging of her discoveries often. Follow her on Twitter! @DawnAltnam
When it rains, it pours. Just ask Carnival’s crisis management team.
In yet another blow to a Carnival Cruise Line’s barely-standing reputation, a CDC report detailing the failure of the ship “Fascination” to meet cleanliness and food service standards is making the media rounds.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave an “unsatisfactory” rating to the Carnival Fascination, essentially a failing grade on a health inspection. A satisfactory rating from the CDC is a score of 85 or higher. The Fascination scored an 84.
The report outlines violations ranging from not enough chlorine in the pool to flies and a “roach nymph” found at a juice dispenser. In one case, there was no “sneeze guard” over some items on the food line.
Would we be calling this revelation, from a report written February 21, mere days after the Triumph finally made port, a crisis if Carnival hadn’t been in the middle of a string of disasters? Honestly, probably not. Just missing a passing score on inspections really isn’t all that unusual for the food service industry, especially for buffet-style eating where food is served in such massive quantities, and typically the story wouldn’t even make the news.
The fact that Carnival’s reputation has already been put in question is the one reason why this story, and any single negative incident that occurs surrounding the company for at least the next couple of months, is going to be headline news.
Thing is, that’s the problem with allowing your reputation to slip. You have no cushion of goodwill to fall back on, no brand ambassadors to leap to your defense, and reporters know that any story where a tarnished brand is being heaped with more mud is an easy sell to both editors and readers.
Carnival is going to have to be, literally, flawless in its operations, as well as much more proactive in terms of its crisis management and reputation repair efforts, if it wants to swing the court of public opinion back its way. Unfortunately, right now the company is up a creek, and, from the looks of it, nobody’s paddling.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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…strategy will require vision, focus, direction and an action planning document.
Everyone who follows this blog knows that I tend to take a softer approach to training that at times may not seem as traditional or as typical of the training principles you are taught in school. I also don’t tend to weigh my page down with off-the-shelf products, although guest writers are more than welcome to do so as long as they write generically about all such products. This blog is not to promote, but to share training ideas and best practices.
Putting people first is a part of any training for me, but there is a business side to it as well that we cannot ignore. Our clients are profit-oriented unless they are non-profit, but they too are still looking at a bottom line.
Training and development in any organization requires a training strategy to achieve success, and a method to make it happen (or implementation). We agree our leaders (as well as our trainers must have vision, focus, direction, and it only makes sense to put it in an action planning document.
Does that mean it is written in stone? I don’t think so, but it will remind us all of where we started and where we should be at all times. Should that change at any time, should we can change that statement to conform with our new vision, direction, focus, etc. immediately? Of course not. Changes to the plan shouldn’t happen whimsically, but only with great thought and discussion.
Without a training strategy or an action plan we do not have a mechanism that establishes for all our means to achieve these grandiose goals, which is what they are if they are not formalized in some way Therefore, the strategy will require vision, focus, direction and an action planning document.
A Training and Development Strategy is a mechanism that establishes what competencies an organization requires in the future and a means to achieve it.
Having it in writing somehow makes it an indelible ink for the corporate culture letter and a motif for the corporate culture in general.
Still another good reason is that a plan is always good. It may be a trite saying but it says it best: anything worth achieving, is worth planning for!
To know how your product or service will be used and how it will affect others before you develop it–that’s planning for the future.
Studies have shown that with a training strategy your productivity improves when just about any corporate spending had a plan.
Many points can be put forward in favor of why you need a training strategy as long as it is related to that plan–even morale.
As part of an effective Strategic Training and Development Plan, you will need detailed versions of the following:
I would argue to keep personal development plans in the forefront…
Corporate/Organizational Vision
Executive Mentoring
Team Development and Team Building
Management and Leadership Development, (not all agree with management as a part of this, but not all management are leaders)
Competency Requirements and Skills Profiling,
Objectives and Action Plans,
Employee Training and Train-the-Trainer needs.
How do these items fit with the Big Five: Equity and Diversity, Organization (and Personnel) Values, Business Process (and Personal) Improvement, Change Management (and Personnel Adjustment), and Organizational Design and Structure?
Traditional approaches identify the customer’s training needs in terms of their organizational strategic plan, compare it with Human Resources’ strategic plan, focus on comprehensive interviews or focus groups, and see how it all meshes with personal development plans.
I would argue to keep personal development plans in the forefront rather than last because personnel matters like personal development plans tend to get lost or given short shrift in favor of the bottom line. People are an invaluable resource–more important than most managers and leaders seem to know when it comes to helping the company get behind productivity. Don’t forget, these are the same people who may be on the ground floor hearing what you are not. Ignore them or treat them like dogs and they may bark and bite instead of being your best friend.
Now back to business.
So how do you keep an eye on things? More planning. This is actually your Strategic Plan for Training and Development. It is the bigger picture. As on the battlefield, a strategic battle includes many tactical units like those below that help implement or make happen the bigger plan happen.
Establish corporate/organizational development needs, present and future,
Set organizational training objectives,
Examine your personnel records with an eye for additional or missed talent to be part of your new training plan, (I find it useful to interview people who expressed an interest in training to become a part of the group during this time; their insight can be amazing.)
Create a training action plan to make sure that you have the necessary systems in place, that you can access resources, other sources deemed appropriate or design training and position it in time for use.
Deliver the training by any number of appropriate methods determined by value and cost effectiveness.
Monitor the training value as well as employee need and satisfaction,
Evaluate the training by assessment and sustainability overtime, and
Revise training and/or training plan if needed, with a plan for making immediate changes to the training itself.
Don’t develop any plan, especially a Strategic Plan for Training and Development, if you aren’t going to use it.
Naturally, training is only as good as your corporate or organizational leadership is willing to support it. Get their buy in first. Make sure you have it worked out to the fullest and it is a win-win. Know what kind of leader your boss is. Some are more impressed by numbers, so find them and give them to him or her. Find other companies where this kind of program has made a difference and give him its statistics. If he or she craves love of his or her people demonstrate how this plan will make everyone one big happy family. Obviously if the boss is a very ordered kind of person he or she will love this plan. I think you get the idea.
As for marketing this for company support, make sure you have done your homework, i.e., products and services will benefit how? How much? By when? What this plan going to cost? In the long term? What about outsourcing trainers? I don’t like that idea. Where is the money going to come from? Not my budget! Be ready to anticipate and answer all the questions. Be ready to adjust. Most of the officers will want to make adjustments. Just keep your customers in mind, cost for value received, establish roles and responsibilities, (you don’t want people pointing fingers in a time of crisis so plan early), and give your training plan a slogan–something related to the company vision; it’ll help keep everyone on the same page. And with any luck, you’ll have an up and running plan that works.
At the 2012 APMP (Association of Proposal Management Professionals) national conference, participants were treated to a lively address … about proposal professionals as warriors, by Eric Gregory, Vice President for Business Development at CACI, Inc.
I do not agree with his metaphor or with everything that he said, but Gregory is a thoughtful person, a very successful proposal professional, and someone who has contributed a great deal to the proposal profession. For these reasons, his remarks should be taken seriously.
Although Gregory was addressing proposal professionals who work in companies submitting proposals primarily to federal agencies, his remarks also apply to proposal professionals working in nonprofit organizations who apply for grants from federal agencies.
Gregory wondered whether successful proposal professionals have a certain personality or perspective on their work? He concluded that there are ten attributes to a proposal warrior – as follows:
1. Courageous – a proposal professional performs well under difficult conditions, often by enduring criticisms, doubts, anger, disappointment, long hours of work, and difficult assignments.
2. Committed – to working on a team and winning bids.
3. Leader – leads by example and works at least as hard as anyone else on the team. As a leader, a proposal professional is an optimist and believes that his or her proposals can be improved.
4. Decisive – thoughtful but always action-oriented.
5. Agile –embraces change and reacts quickly when changes can improve a proposal.
6. Creative – capable of developing new solutions to problems and finding new ways to win bids.
7. Disciplined – very focused on winning bids and is relentless in taking action to achieve this goal.
8. Compassionate – works hard to defend his or her work and the team along with the best interests of the organization.
9. Intelligent – uses his or her intelligence to become more successful and create better proposals.
10. Resilient – works well under stressful and difficult conditions.
Gregory concluded his presentation by pointing out that proposal professionals often are underappreciated by their organizations. They must find ways to convey their value to senior management and make a strong case for their importance to their nonprofit’s success.
What do you think about Gregory’s approach? Is he accurate? Are there any traits you would omit or add? Are you a grant proposal warrior?
According to Dr. Heidi Grant Stevenson, a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of an intriguing new book, Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (2011), even very bright people often do not understand why they succeed or fail. Recent research on achievement shows that successful people reach their goals not because of any inborn traits or unusual intelligence but because of what they do inside and outside the workplace.
Like Dr. Stevenson, Gregory believes that a certain set of attitude and behaviors are likely to lead to success. Although Dr. Stevenson’s list of successful traits does not exactly match Gregory’s list, there is a plenty of overlap.
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Dr. Jayme Sokolow, founder and president of The Development Source, Inc.,
helps nonprofit organizations develop successful proposals to government agencies. Contact Jayme Sokolow.
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Look for Jayme’s ebook on Finding & Getting Federal Government Grants. It’s part of The Fundraising Series of ebooks
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Every business has to attract revenues from selling products and services, and every business plan has to describe how that will happen. Trying to figure out how to do that for your business idea?
One way to approach that problem is to look at common models other companies have used, and see which ones fit best. It’s all too common for a business to get latched on too strongly on one revenue model, too early, so take a look at a bunch of them before you decide. And be ready to go back to this list and make some changes if after your first few months or a year you discover things didn’t quite turn out as had planned. Continue reading “Typical Revenue Models”
As a consumer, how much confidence would you lose in a company if they couldn’t tell you where they picked up 50,000 tons of meat? The Dutch suppliers being questioned in the latest horsemeat development may as well be saying, “hey, we’re either lying to you or horribly incompetent, your call!”
After disappearing briefly from public view, the scandal over horse meat sold as beef re-emerged on Wednesday with an alert over 50,000 tons of meat sold across Europe and an earlier recall of a product in Britain containing a veterinary drug banned from the human food chain.
The Dutch food safety authority said it was trying to trace meat sold to 130 companies in the Netherlands and 370 in 15 other countries, including France, Germany and Spain. The Dutch suppliers of the meat were unable to say where the 50,000 tons in question originated, said Tjitte Mastenbroek, spokesman for the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.
While there was much talk of simplifying the supply chain and keeping better track of exactly where shipments of meat come from, and go to, the wheels of big business move slowly, and there has been little done in that regard as a result of either apathy, or, for some, perhaps the thought that the more complicated things are, the harder it is for anyone to take the blame.
The reality is that when the industry has to do major public crisis management for meat mix-ups over, and over, and over again, the reputation of every organization involved is at risk. The way to ensure that your reputation stays strong is to embrace Crisis Management 101, increasing transparency in operations and reaching out to consumers to share as much information as possible. Of course, you can always try the old ostrich approach, but while your head’s buried in the sand, remember what’s sticking straight up in the air.
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Often we don’t pursue our passion or dreams because we don’t think it’s possible or practical to achieve them. How many times have you heard some one squelch a dream or aspiration with the words, “That’s not very realistic”.
When some one thought to put a computer on every desk, Tom Watson, then president of IBM, scoffed at the idea. He notably remarked that only a handful of people would ever need a computer. Luckily we have entrepreneurs, artists, social advocates, and expansive thinkers who don’t just look at what Is and think that’s all that can ever be.
The Edges are Where Magic Happens
Are you feeling the nudges of your heart calling you to expand how you show up in the world? If you want to be a conscious co-creator, you need to move past what is – what is already showing up in your life – to what can be. Focus on the next best expression of your life.
If you want to live bigger, express yourself more, dance with delight that you have an amazing life, you’ll likely push against the boundaries of social convention. At some point you’ll feel the boundaries of your own mind.
Most people aren’t even aware of their self-limiting beliefs of “I can’t” or “That will never happen”. These mental boundaries are often so deeply engrained we don’t see them.
Yet if you want to Show Up and Step Up to the fullest potential of Who You Are- you’ll need to recognize and push beyond the borders of What Is. Don’t simply accept boundaries given to you by your parents, boss, Vice President, peer group. You choose your comfort zone intentionally or not.
Below is a passage from my first book, “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service” where I share a story of a mental boundary I had in college. It was only years later that I recognized the boundary that perhaps changed the course of my life by limiting career options I considered.
… From a very early age, we are taught what we can or cannot do. These messages can be so deeply engrained that we aren’t even aware that they influence us. Perhaps only years later, when we have a chance to try something new, do we invoke these messages from deep withing our mental storage.
I was interested in juvenile justice work in college but gave up the idea after taking a course in it. My sociology professor said that to really make a difference in the life of juveniles we needed to be a juvenile judge or a lawmaker to enact broad-based changes. The real lesson here is this: it never occurred to me that I could be either a judge or a lawmaker. In part that was because I didn’t think women could be judges or lawmakers, but also I didn’t believe I had the gifts necessary to excel in these careers….” (pg 44)
Regardless of where or when the boundaries of your mind were set, you have a chance every day to exceed it. If you have a desire to live bigger, work bigger, play bigger, notice what messages and thoughts arise about the possibility of achieving your dream.
You get to decide which boundaries you want to explore and move past. Halleluiah!
Figuring out what your people want can feel like an intricate puzzle especially when different employees require different things.
However, there are basic things that most employees want from their boss.
At a recent workshop, I asked people: “What makes a great boss – someone who can lead and motivate you”? Here’s what they said about how to encourage everyone to do their best work:
1.Tell me my role and your expectations. This is not micro-managing. It’s called clear direction. It gives people focus and accountability
2. Give me some autonomy. Give them something interesting to work on and trust them with this opportunity.That doesn’t mean you give a brand new person the most difficult account; rather something that will stretch her and not cause major problems.
3. Discipline those who are out of line. I often hear this: “I wish my boss would tell James that this is just unacceptable.” Letting a “star” employee do whatever he wants really hurts the morale of the team.
4. Recognize and praise what I do. Everyone wants to be recognized when they’ve done something right. You can motivate employees by highlighting their strengths and not harping on their weaknesses.
5. Don’t lose your temper. It’s generally not productive and it’s not good leadership. It sets up “kill the messenger” syndrome which means your people will be afraid to tell you critical information.
6. Tell me when I make a mistake. Give employees clear and constructive feedback on areas they need to improve or when they go off track. Don’t wait until you are about to fire them. It’s not right and it may not be legal.
7. Get me excited. Indecisive leaders, or those who keep changing direction, frustrate and make people feel uninspired. Tell them where we’re going, how we’re going to get there and how important they are for success.
Management Success Tip:
It’s very easy to get swamped with your daily activities and forget to execute the basic fundamentals of leading others. The results will be a less productive team and more work for you. It’s worth reviewing these seven tips weekly to make sure you are a great motivating boss.
Have you ever worked on a project where you asked “what’s the point”, or felt that you shouldn’t be wasting any more effort on it? I have, and it makes you wonder who is really in control and whether they really understand why a Business Case is essential. I’ll give you an example.
Some time ago, I was asked to take over the management of a project 4 months in because the previous project manager was moving on. The project would deliver an I.T. system which would interface with a data feed containing financial trade data, do some calculations and then dump out the results into some reports and files.
Pretty simple really, although for reasons I won’t go into the developers had chosen a solution which was way over-engineered. The end result was that the system was beset by quality problems. This was coupled with the fact that the data feed which was being developed by another project wouldn’t be ready for another 6 months.
I raised this with my boss who was in overall charge of the development and he said it didn’t matter if it didn’t work – in fact it had failed all tests until that point – but what was important was that it was delivered into the data centre on time. So, I dutifully obliged, and ensured the server was delivered on time, even though it was just a useless box sitting there doing nothing because there was no data to process, and no ability to process it anyway.
So why had my boss insisted on wasting time and effort installing a useless box with unusable software? Simply because his bonus depended upon him showing he had met his targets. The project was for a very large and very successful international business which just goes to show even in huge successful organizations there can be an alarming lack of understanding about project governance and business justification.
On this particular project there wasn’t a Business Case which described why we were doing it, or quantifying the benefits which would result from it. In other words, there was no justification for the investment of time and money which would be required. As it turned out, after a year the project was eventually cancelled, primarily because of the ongoing quality problems associated with an overly complex technological solution.
In retrospect the organization could have saved itself a whole load of money by not proceeding in the first place. This decision would have been made easier had a Business Case containing a thorough cost benefit analysis been developed by the organization at the start.
Can any lessons be learned? Yes, firstly never start a project without a Business Case and secondly, educate more senior decision-makers in the necessity of project governance. Whilst the first is much easier than the second, both are essential to ensure your organization doesn’t waste even more time and money.
Have you worked on projects which were a waste of time and/or money? Do your projects always have a Business Case?
“What’s the standard thought on nonprofit annual employee appeals (a.k.a. asking your employees to donate back to the organization)? Is this standard practice? Is it a good/bad idea?”
Like almost everything else in fundraising, there is no “standard” thought about annual employee appeals. There is, however, standard thinking that questions whether you can (or should) run an effective fundraising program if an organization’s insiders don’t/won’t support it.
• It’s always good to be able to say to (potential) donors that all of the members of your “family” give … to the best of their ability !!
• How can you ask outsiders to give to your organization if the board and staff don’t?
• Now, to be able to leverage “family” giving effectively, it would be best if all “family members” made a gift early in the year, i.e., early January. That way, you’ll be able to say to potential donors (individual, foundation and corporate) that every board and staff member is also a donor.
• Should it become known that your family members don’t support your organization, you can be sure that there’d be a drop-off in contributions from outsiders. And, by the way, many foundations ask about staff giving … and consider that information when deciding on grants.
• I have a problem with the concept/reality of asking staff to “give back.” Unless a staff member (or one of their family members) has benefitted from your services, the question of giving back is moot. Asking staff to contribute money to your organization is not “giving back.” One must assume that they are being paid for the work that they perform – that there has been an even exchange of value.
• Staff should support the organization they work for because they believe in the mission and get satisfaction from seeing what is accomplished on a day-to-day basis.
“I’ve had conversations internally and with acquaintances in other nonprofits about this topic. There seems to be two primary thoughts (as you say, no standard). One is exactly what you’ve stated…. The other goes something like: nonprofits pay so little to begin with (compared to the corporate world) that it’s an insult to ask employees to give back to the organization they’re already working so hard for.”
• That “insult” excuse is what people say when they’re afraid to ask, and/or when there is lousy employee morale. It’s never a question of whether an employee can afford to make a gift – even the poorest person can afford a dollar. It is a question of whether an employee feels good enough about the organization/mission to want to give.
The reality should be that employees (and board members) give to the best of their ability. And, being able to say that that is the case can only strengthen your position when asking others to give.
Caveat: Staff members should not be required to give. Giving is their decision to make, and must not be coerced.
One last thought: A nonprofit organization should never have an annual appeal … either for “family” or outsiders. Donors should be allowed/encouraged to give as often as is comfortable for them – not just once each year !!
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have you heard about The Fundraising Series of ebooks.
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If you’re reading this on-line and you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting. If you’ve received this posting as an email, click on the email link (above) to communicate with the author.
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