How do executives work with
John Levy Consulting?
What can you expect when I work with you?
You’ll want to know something about how I work before you decide whether ask me to help you. On this page I describe the kind of approach I use, what my guiding principles are, how I work with my clients, and what makes me unique.
How I approach various challenges you may be facing
Here are the situations mentioned on the Who I Work With page, and some of the steps we’ll take when we work on them together.
A. Your company has merged with or acquired a new business entity.
I’ll help you explore the relative priorities of business initiatives related to IT. Then, using the priorities, we’ll focus on ways to integrate the two organizations and combine projects to reduce the total overall spending.
The first priority is making short-term adjustments to guard against interruptions in operations. Then I will help you with a process that identifies where the synergies and the conflicts are.
Finally, I will help you with forming and facilitating cross-organizational teams to implement the new business vision and IT support of that vision.
B. You just became CFO, COO or CIO and inherited an IT project that is behind schedule and over budget.
It’s painful to realize you’ve already spent significant funds on a project that just isn’t producing results. I’ll do a quick assessment of the likelihood that the project can be saved. If it can be saved, then we’ll work together on a plan to rescue it, and I’ll help you implement the plan. Then you won’t have to worry about having a bottomless pit that is stealing money from other key initiatives.
C. You have just decided to shift focus in the business.
Cutting spending is always painful, but that is not an excuse for avoiding making the decisions based on priorities. I’ll help you make a quick check to be sure you’re not cutting off any key process needed by ongoing operations. Then you can launch the new initiatives with a clear conscience and with confidence that the priorities are right.
D. You are aware of widespread dissatisfaction with existing IT business support.
You know you need better systems, because everyone is complaining. It’s time to launch the replacement system project and you want the best possible development process. I’ll help you sell and launch Agile processes, form the cross-functional team to guide the development, and create measures that will tell you how it’s going. I’ll also offer you the tools and knowledge you need to decide between in-house and outsourced development, between private and public cloud support, and between packaged solutions and custom development.
E. You are responsible for on-line support of multiple lines of business but you can’t get new features and content added fast enough.
Slow delivery of web projects can result from many different causes. You need to understand what’s really going on (or not going on) in your department and in IT. You also need to know whether IT could do things differently and whether your own project managers are aware of the bottlenecks. I’ll do an assessment and give you the straight scoop on the situation as it is, with no holds barred. Then we’ll work out a fix-it plan together.
Guiding beliefs or values
Computer technology offers wonderful leverage in business, but too often business managers are sold on the latest technology when something simpler would do. I never recommend using technology for technology’s sake. Instead, we’ll look at the options and choose the most pragmatic solution.
I feel that the promise of computer technology has not been realized fully in business. The reasons have mostly to do with how technology people and business people interact with each other. My passion is for overcoming the gap between business and IT. I believe business people and IT people can learn to trust each other and work together to define, implement, deploy and manage the best solutions to business problems.
Business is an honorable activity when it is run with integrity and honesty. I support your business growth and prosperity when it is run this way, and I will point out any deviations from the ideals that I come across.
I believe that every individual has great potential. Our task as managers is to create an environment where our people can realize their potential while contributing their best to the enterprise.
How I work with my clients
The best information and solutions come from interaction between people. You and I will interact to discover the right questions and the answers to those questions. There is no substitute for live interaction, so I assess the effectiveness of teams and departments by having in-person interactions.
Departments and teams may need facilitation to learn interaction skills. I use facilitation opportunities to demonstrate by example how to have productive sessions together, as well as to learn about the members and to evaluate the teams.
Having had the interactions, I write things down. You will receive written reports from me that summarize what I have learned and pose the questions that define the next phase of our work.
We will develop a working relationship in which you trust me to tell you exactly what I see and how it may impact your business. While I may be diplomatic, I never short-change you by leaving out significant details that could be critical to finding the right solutions. Likewise, I will never tell you that I understand something that in fact I don’t. If we need additional experts to be brought in, I will let you know.
I expect you to use me as a sounding board to try out ideas and directions that you may not have thought out completely yet. Exploration like this is exciting and productive after we have established trust.
My goal is to arm you with the knowledge and the language you need to ask IT the right questions, and to understand their responses. I also intend to prepare you to answer IT’s questions in a way that satisfies their needs, so you are more likely to get what you need.
Since I speak the language of IT specialists as well as the language of business, I can act as an interpreter and mediator for you while you develop your own capabilities as a collaborator with IT.
What makes me unique
I have a Ph.D. in computer science and I hold 7 U.S. patents related to computer design. I have spent over 25 years in computer and software development, including 15 years as a consultant in managing high tech projects and product development. In the past 12 years, I have moved my focus as a consultant to helping business people get what they need from technology.
I teach technology to older adults in an annual course at the University of San Francisco. Explaining technology in a way that intelligent non-technical people can understand is a favorite activity of mine.
Since the launch of the Agile software development movement in 2001, I have become an advocate for Agile methods because they address many of the problems that lead to IT project failure. My specialty is explaining to business leaders why they should adopt Agile development and how it changes the way developers interact with their business counterparts.
I believe management is a critically important art in business. My book on managing high tech people was published in 2010. It emphasizes the people skills and strategic thinking skills that many technologists are lacking.
I’m an enduring optimist about the future. I believe we can always find a way to overcome problems and obstacles by working interactively and thinking clearly.
Where to go next
Now that you know how I work, I invite you to read more about Results for Clients.