IT managers

Major Management awards

As managers, we strive for excellence in our work, we look for the best ways to deliver the final product and our daily struggle to come up with new ways to manage keeps our job exciting and challenging.

With my daily routine to browse the net looking for new methods and ideas to supplement my experience in management, I came across few management awards which are awarded for excellence in management.

I believe it’s a good practice tool to pick on one of these awards and go into more details about the criteria of achieving such award and compare your company readiness for such award.

1-MALCOLM BALDRIGE NATIONAL QUALITY AWARD.

This is the only award that I had time to visit their website and look closely at the idea behind the award and the requirements to qualify to enter to win the award.

I am thinking about implementing their quality management review at the small firm where I work, no intentions about wining any prize but use the award site as learning tool.

You can visit their website at: http://www.quality.nist.gov/

2-THE EUROPEAN QUALITY AWARDS.
You can visit their website at: http://www.deming.org/demingprize/index….

4- THE CANADA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE.
You can visit their website at:
 http://www.nqi.ca/caeawards/

5- AKAO PRIZE.
You can visit their website at:
http://www.qfdi.org/akaoprize.htm

For more information about these awards and many more, you can read the full article at: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/mana…

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.

Management Information Systems, Skills needed by IT Managers

What is the difference between Management Information Systems (MIS) and Computer Information Systems (CIS)? MIS is a business major based on IT curriculum deigned to equip students with the latest skills in programming and networking coupled with business skills to manage modern work place.

CIS is 100% technical; it’s designed to give students the necessary programming, networking, hardware designing and troubleshooting skills.

Most CIS graduates spend their careers working on technical fields and never advanced to management positions, while most MIS graduates move quickly to management positions.

In general, MIS majors start with a higher salary than CIS majors and that because of the lack of management training for CIS majors.

In today’s corporate environment, IT managers must have the necessary management skills to run their department; MIS is the way to go for those who want to make it to the leadership positions in IT industry.

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.

Change in Management must be done carefully

Every time there is a presidential election somewhere, we hear contestants call for change, they talk about the change they will bring to the government once they are elected, but change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes years of planning.

We may have read stories about how new management in some large organizations such as (GM, Chrysler, and Nissan), brought sweeping changes to management style and created success in short years, but these are only few success stories otherwise change takes time and years of planning.

In a small business world where I work, making changes is not that difficult since there are only few people are affected, but convincing people to accept the change and embrace is not always easy.

Also changes must be classified into categories, for example, changes in working conditions and better work environment can take place immediately where changes in business process or employee-management interactions must happen gradually over time.

In my current work environment in the Arab world, I came from American education and work background, it is hard and tedious process to convince upper management of the needed change in the organization, in addition, the society is still not ready to accept many changes in the work place.

Change is inevitable and it is part of life and those who try to stop it will be overwhelmed, but change must be managed and steered carefully to get the desired results.

How long an employer must keep your records?

Few days ago, I have contacted few previous employers for reference letters; I needed them as a record of my whereabouts for the last 10 years.

One employer said “they don’t have any records of my employment with them and wanted me to send them pay-stubs as to show my employment period with them and any benefits that I may have received.” I found that to be really odd and I felt strongly against sending them anything.

I was under the impression that companies must keep records of their employees for a period of 10 years or so.

I am not sure what the labor law in the US says about this, but any feedback on this matter would be appreciated.

Thanks

The CEO who refuses to go on-line

Ever seen those TV ads where they show the CEO of the company struggling with his IPOD or his Internet? In these TV ads they usually show a middle age CEO struggling with Technology and is usually rescued by young techi.

At my current job, I am struggling with a CEO who refuses to do things online, it took my a great deal of office politics to convince him to have a domain name registered under our company name. His idea of online collaboration is to have all e-mails sent to our company read by everyone, please don’t laugh.

I am still trying to convince him to pay all his bills and companies bills online.

Can we survive without e-mails even for one day?

I am sure the answer will be “NO”, e-mails became the most vital and important communications mean for the modern organizations.

What brought this subject up is the current economic crisis in the US and the rest of the world. Many fear for their jobs, we still don’t know how things will turn out but for many there will be jobs cut.

IT and the other related services are not the property of the elite anymore; many IT services became integral part of the modern work place, IT services are must for the business world today.

I believe that the current financial crisis will not, significantly, affect IT services. Simple e-mail down for one day my halt the operation for many companies, so just think what would happen if some other IT services went down.

What I am trying to say is “IT is not a thing to have, its a MUST have and the world will need IT services regardless of the financial situation.”