IT management tips

Managing in a different culture Part 4

As I continue on with my last article on, Managing in a different culture, I need to mention that not every solution that has been introduced so far is working flawlessly, there are still many improvements that need to be made, but after all that what management is all about, “ the continues struggle for perfection.”

The last two items on my to-do list were:

• No company policy: there was no policy regarding (hiring, firing, compensation, vacation, sick leave, tardiness, etc.)
This is one of the most difficult areas to work with when you are managing in a different culture. I am having a hard time understanding the excuses I hear when someone is late or doesn’t show up for work. The norms here in Saudi Arabia with the company I am working for is that when someone is late or doesn’t show up for work is that the company has to call the employee and find out why he didn’t show up for work and than the employee may or may not answer the phone and the answering machines are not widely used. I had to come up with quick fix for this important issue, so I decided to have a quick meeting with the two managers that I work with who I can depend on and we decided to have each of the two managers to handle the work of any late or an absent employee until we find a permanent fix with for issue is we develop more concrete company policy. I realized that developing a policy is a long term process and it can not be done in a short period of time.

• No accounting system: the company had no accounting system, only an excel sheet with expenses and income.

When I started to work on this issue, I was told by the general manger of an accounting software that the company purchased but has not been used since no one had time to learn the software and implement it.
The software is excellent and the interface is both in Arabic and in English and it was developed for the local market.

The software features include:

1-inventory management
2-fixed asset management
3-sales management
4-budgeting
5-account receivable
6-account payable
7-employee’s salary management

The software is very comprehensive and it includes more features than mentioned above.

We already put the software in use.

As I conclude my series of articles of Managing in a different culture, I will continue targeting this issue since it present a unique challenge of management and learning a new culture.

Managing in a different culture part 3

As I continue with my journey of reshaping this IT firm, I gain more understanding of the difficult management issues that faces small firms, which are good materials for another article.

Here I continue with my pervious posts on the changes that I am working on.

• No tracking system: there was no adequate tracking system of the work done by the employees or the type of service delivered to the clients.
• No follow ups: clients would wait extended periods of time waiting to hear back from the staff regarding technical help or a service that was not delivered on time.
• No follow ups on completed work orders: there was an excessive build up of fixed systems that needed to be returned to the clients.

I resolved the above issues by hiring a programmer to design new tracking system for every work delivered by our technicians, completed work orders, and not completed work orders.
The new system covers:

1-Name of the technician
2-Type of service the technician working on
3-Type of service requested
4-Time the repair order came in and the time the service was delivered
5-Service fees
6-Full client contact information
7-The system must enable the management to run queries based on client data or based on technician work performance.
8-Completed work orders
9-Open work orders

The new system will:

1-Will give management bird eye view over daily activities
2-Will help in future marketing and client retention efforts
3-Will help in measuring technicians performance
4-Will contain a database of clients data, work completed, and type of services requested

Although they may be many software programs in the market that will deliver the above needed services, we had to design our own software because when I came to the company we were not able to find any software in the local market that would fit our needs, or we couldn’t fine software in the Arabic language.

Now we are at the implementation stage of this software.

Managing in a different culture

As I get more and more involved in the daily management activities of a foreign IT firm, I feel the constant need to change my plans. At my first meeting with the staff, I made it very clear that things will have to change and our current operation is not even at 20% of what we could achieve.
Everyone at the meeting agreed about the need for a change and the need to move ahead with a new plan and a new attitude. The major issues we discussed in the meeting were:
• Absence of general management: there was no general manager in charge of day to day operation of the company, couple of staff members were acting as part time managers which created good deal of confusion for both the staff and the clients.
• The compensation system was not adequate: the staff members had no clear idea of the compensation system, the pay worked on standards that would change frequently.
• No tracking system: there was no adequate tracking system of the work done by the employees or the type of service delivered to the clients
• No follow ups: clients would wait extended periods of time waiting to hear back from the staff regarding technical help or a service that was not delivered on time.
• No follow ups on completed work orders: there was an excessive build up of fixed systems that needed to be returned to the clients.
• No company policy: there was no policy regarding (hiring, firing, compensation, vacation, sick leave, tardiness, etc.)
• No accounting system: the company had no accounting system, only an excel sheet with expenses and income.
For a moment, you would think “how in the world a company could run with all the above mentioned deficiencies”, will surprisingly enough, the company is doing well business wise, but thing can not run like this if the company want to really stand in the market.
In my next blog, I will go into more details about how to fix the above mentioned points. I will try to incorporate readers’ feedback into my solution

Skills….skills…skills, how to keep them?

This article was first posted 2 years ago….

One of the challenges faced as a manager in any firm is how to find and
retain employees with the right combination of skills.
The global demand for manpower is overwhelming. Countries such as the US,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union are competing for the
same combination of skills. One of the major providers of manpower, India, is
facing its own shortage of skills in certain areas and many Indians are
opting to remain at home where they are now receiving greater salaries than
previously.
Gone are the days when a manager or a firm has the final word in an
employee’s career. Today, an employee with the right skill mix, can compete
for positions at a global scale, where the demand is high and the
remuneration is competitive, as in today’s climate of employment suggests
that people can now map and forecast their own career path.
Countries who fail to retain their work force will face the challenge of
sustaining its growth.
As managers, you need to learn how to retain your top performers. These are
some of the areas you could focus upon, to give your employee a sense of job
security:
1- continuous job training
2- continuous job performance review
3- immediate pay raise for good performance
4- if you have any foreign employees within your team, ensure that you action
any legal matters in a speedy manner, as one of the top reasons for a high
worker turn-over, is that the employee does not feel secure about their
future in a new country
5- we are living in a world where borders are disappearing and we now discuss
manpower on a global market rather than a local one. The world employment
market awaits the talent you are willing to forego, it is in your best
financial and technical competitiveness to cultivate and educate your
existing employees in the culture of your firm, as you have already invested
in their future. It makes good business sense to hold on to the talent you
have created.

Project Management, far away from home 2 years later

I have written this article 2 years ago.
I have been giving a job as a project manager of a small IT firm; the firm is located outside the United State, in Saudi Arabia. My main responsibility will be to prepare the firm to play a bigger role in the local and regional IT market. When I started my work, the firm had about three employees and part time manager, their main work consisted of:
1- Desktop and laptop repairs
2- Small computer parts shop
3- Wireless and wired network setup onsite work
Although the firm size may sound small, they have big ambitions to play a bigger role in the market. The regional IT market is very promising and there is a good opportunity for growth for everyone.
As a global project manager, my job took me to India and than to Saudi Arabia, in my traveling I always noticed two things:
1-from the IT point of view, the world seems to be one small place, all the troubleshooting methods, solutions, network infrastructure, security setup, etc, seem to be identical.
2- from the management point of view, things are a bit different, and each country has its own style of project management methods, although we are moving more and more toward standardized project management, we are still far away from one school of thoughts in project management.
As a consultant, I feel privileged to have an American education and work experience. If your work involves global project management or global management in general, your American management experience should come handy.
If your work takes you around the world than keep these things in mind:
Nothing happens on time or within budget: Managers in the US often complain about projects running out of schedule or over budget, well when you are working at global level, the problem may even get worse so always keep that clear in your project management plan.
Expect the unexpected: working with staff that has value system different than yours may create a lot of frustration and misunderstanding, so always be prepared to expect less than what you have planned for.
People in General are open for change: you will find people in your staff who are eager to move up and willing to learn, invest your time in them, they will be your best helpers.
Be very patient: in some countries bureaucracy is well rooted in the system and things move at slower rate than what you accustomed to.
Enjoy the ride: management is all about people skill, so if you find you self working thousands of miles away from home, size the opportunity and enjoy the ride.
Theses are small tips I thought would be helpful for new manager in global scene, they are not meant to be universal, your experience will differ from country to country and from company to company, try to be open for new cultures and new ideas, it will make your experience more enjoyable.

Managing During Disasters Part 2

Although this disaster was not hard to over come, it really alerted me to have a good communication system in place under a bigger disaster recovery plan. I already have a plan to make a solid “disaster recovery plan”, but I never felt the urgency to include a plan on how to keep work flowing while our phone system and internet were out.

We discussed an alternate phone system or internet connection, we can use mobile internet as a back up for our wired LAN. We need to keep good call back numbers for all our clients in case we have to initiate the contact. We will also consider including a mobile phone number in our company contact numbers in the instance of our land line malfunctioning. Also, we designated another location for our technicians if everything else fails.

This was a fast resolution for an unexpected problem; a fully detailed disaster recovery plan is a must for any organization. Many people may think “oh I am sure they have a good back up plan”, but you will be surprised by how many, large and small organizations, who don’t have a solid disaster recovery or back up plan in place.

Managing During Disasters Part 1

You may have the best staff in world, you may have the best technology money can buy, you may have an unlimited budget, but when a disaster strikes, you better be prepared.

I learned a hard lesson when, our phone system and the internet went down, and we were not reachable. Imagine being in the customer service business and your customers can’t reach you, what effect does an issue like this have on your customers and your business reputation.

I wasn’t at all prepared do deal with such a disaster. We called the phone company but more than 24 hours passed and we were still without phones. I thought something like this would be rare in today’s technologically advanced world, but I know now that I have to deal with facts and never assume anything.

We don’t have a disaster recovery plan, so what do we do to get back to our normal operation?

I had to act fast and my staff made huge efforts to keep things in running order.

This incident made me come up with some quick resolutions and put the “disaster recovery plan” on top of my “things to do” list.

We were able to manage by:

1- Making an extensive use of cell phones: although you can never use cell phones to run a business, not yet at least, we had to resort to our cell phones to stay in touch with our customers. We contacted out main clients and informed them about the situation. I asked the site manager to start to call all customers who have pending issues, to inform them about our status and assure them that we are on top of things.
2- One of our managers has a relative who holds a high position with the phone company so we asked him to get his contact involved and try to expedite a fix for our phone system.
3- I made sure all the staff was on location each day with a cell phone.
4- We hired our own electrician to check the phone lines, as we were waiting for the phone company technician to arrive.
5- I was on hand for any extra help.

Managing in an ever changing technical world

*** I first posted this article almost 2 years ago***
In my daily work, I am faced with the same question everyday, what next? Interaction with my staff, our clients, and reading the news, lead me to ask more questions. What new technology that I have to watch for? What skills my staff will need to develop over the next few months in order for them to remain technically competitive? How long the demand for our current skill set will will last?

As a manager, I must always be prepared for the next big technical trend and shift in demand. From my daily observation, I can see which skills will be in demand for few years to come and which skills will be in low demand.

Networking skills will be in high demand for few years to come, demands will include:

1-Network engineers of various skill levels from home networking to large corporate networks
2- Network equipments of various size and functionality from small routers which support few computers to fiber optic cables that span the globe.

Data back up will be in high demand too. I have seen the disasters that were caused by date lose; I have seen it at small firms as well as big corporations. The demand will be more noticeable with small businesses. Since much of the world is going digital, the traditional archiving using paper folders and steel cabinets is giving way to the more convenient digital archiving. Many small business need to be educated on the advantages of having their data backed up digitally, since sooner or later most of their business transactions will be done online 100%

I believe most small business owners will good potential clients for data backup technology if:

1- They were presented with easy to use and understand back up solutions
2- The solution is within their budget, which is possible since the price for backup equipment is dropping rapidly

VOIP is growing rapidly and eventually all phone communication will be done using Voice over IP technology. VOIP will lower the cost of long distance calls to almost nothing. Worrying about your long distance phone bill will be a thing of the past.

In my daily work, I have noticed the momentum the above three technologies is gaining, of course there are many other technical advances that are being achieved in other areas which also worth observing.

As I notice technologies that are gaining momentum, I see the demand is dropping or will soon drop for other technologies or equipments.

The prices of desktops dropped scientifically over the past two to three years. Today you could find a used brand name P4 computer in very good working condition with less than $100. These drops in prices will very soon lead to a drop in demands for desktop PC technicians. It will be cheaper for a customer to buy a new Desktop PC than to repair the not functioning one.

I haven’t used any official statistics in this article; I only reported my daily observations and my feeling about the future in my field.

Management with cultural barriers

Working with a group of people with diverse cultural backgrounds is both exiting and challenging. In my job as manager with international company, I interact and manage people from different parts of the world and each group of people from specific geographical region has their own unique characters that a manger must be aware of.

There are People who are reluctant to accept leadership positions, they brought up in societies where they always told what to do and not use their own judgments, with this group, I have to always monitor them closely and give them clear guidance on what is expected of them. The good thing about this group is that they listen and follow instructions.

There are People who seek leadership positions and willing to make judgments and take risks, with this group a manager has to be a bit careful, since he may end up with people in leadership positions without adequate experience, this group of people can be trained gradually to assume higher positions plus the manager can use them as to fill in on his absence since they require little supervision. These groups of people come from societies where men usually have to assume leadership positions and it expected of them to rise quickly in the corporate ladder.

The last group is of people is those who want to only excel in what they do, they are experts in their professions and willing to learn and advance as long as they remain focused on what they can do best. These groups of people come from societies where “excellent work and professionalism” is expected from every member of the society, they trained to excel in certain fields and remain focused on what they do best.

Of course this is my personal experience and it applies to this part of the world, the Arab world.

In a corporate environment, keep a close eye on your Intellectual property

Many of us would love to see our innovative ideas and business process improvements implemented in our work place; any honest and hard working manager would do his best to improve the business he manages. But this enthusiasm not always appreciated by corporate management.

I have faced many incidents where I saw my own ideas and improvements been claimed by the management, I was not giving credits for my own ideas. This may happen to you and it is a certainty in a corporate environment.

What to do? You have one of two options:

1- Keep your ideas to yourself unless you are 100% sure you will be credited for them or;
2- Share your ideas if your goal is to show improvements in your department rather then to be individually credited for them

If you think, sometimes down the road, you will be able to have your own business and use your intellectual property to benefit you, then wait for that moment, it may come faster then you may think.