August 2004   Volume III

   Strategic Advantage! 
 focused on strategic approaches to solve your business problems. 
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                                                      IN THIS ISSUE:
              1.  Who We Are
              2.  Actually heard at the Office
              3.  Software Requirements Gathering Saves Money
              4.  Meet AL's Team
              5.  Catch us in public 
                                                     WHO WE ARE
     Advantage Leadership, Inc helps you:
       *  Grow your businesses and improve your bottom line results
       *  Improve team and business process performance
       *  Increase IT integration with the business and software quality. 
                 Visit our website, www.advantageleadership.com.
    Download our FREE new business building resource  
        www.advantageleadership.com/articles         

                           ACTUALLY HEARD AT THE OFFICE
                              Busyness is not good business!

  CRM:  I have 2 poor performers, Barry and Mary.
  AL: How are you handling them?
  CRM:  Well, all of our big customers are assigned to our good people and we handle all their calls.  We route the calls from the small customers to Barry and Mary.
  AL:  What’s the reason for doing that?  (Thought: They can’t do too much damage.)
  CRM:  Oh!  So they’ll stay busy!  I want them to stay busy.
  AL:  Let me understand this.  Small customer issues are all handled by two poor performers so they can keep busy.
  CRM: (beaming) That’s right!

     Sorry, Charlie!  Busyness is NOT good business…or related to productivity or quality…or a way to deal with customers…or a way to improve poor performance!
     It’s not uncommon to find people measuring activity instead of results.  It follows from a pronounced tendency to focus on tactics rather than strategy.  This tactical approach obscures results until it is too late and failure is upon you.
     Busyness obscures the results from a poor performer.  Barry and Mary have no idea that their performance is unacceptable since they are so busy they can’t image doing more.
     More importantly, small customers don’t get the attention they need.  Some have drifted away and others refuse to increase the size or diversity of their orders since customer service is so weak.
     The prescription is simple.  The Customer Relationship Manager must first work with Barry and Mary to set clear expectations, train them and create an improvement plan.  The CRM will need to help them learn to monitor their own results using clear measurements.  When the CRM is satisfied that all that can be done to improve each individual’s performance has been done, it’s decision time.  Has performance improved enough?  Does a new plan need to be implemented?  Is this a situation where the person is not a good match for the job and needs to move on?
     The expectations and plan for improvement must be based on the customers’ needs and satisfaction.   So stop tracking activity (busyness) and start looking at employee performance and customer satisfaction strategically based on results.     

Want to learn more about planning for great performance and achieving improved bottom line results?  Use the strategic planning techniques in our popular workbook, Success Planning: a ‘how-to’ guide for strategic planning.  Visit our website: www.advantageleadership.com/book.html.

            SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS GATHERING SAVES TIME & MONEY!

     We've been citing studies for years that show 56% of all defects arise in requirements gathering when developing, maintaining or purchasing software.  Most are not discovered until much later when they’re very expensive to correct.  While visiting a client last month they presented us with the following facts for a recent large, high profile project:
        Requirements: Over "budget/schedule" =   30 hours (15%)
        Coding:       UNDER "budget/schedule" = 300 hours (50%)
     Is this an ROI that makes sense to you?  The investment of time and resources up front, using Requirements gathering best practices reduces defects and rework to fix them dramatically.  This is similar to the 1:10 ratio of investment in Requirements to savings in coding that others have reported.

     Use proven Best Practices.  Avoid costly errors.  Improve your efficiency and customer satisfaction.   Find out how. Order now.  
                  Pre-Publication Offer! 
  Requirements Gathering Resource Bonanza
Special Package Price – Half Off  (Regularly $91) 
                Your investment:  $45
www.advantageleadership.com/resources.html
                        You Get:
  ** Requirements – the Ultimate Reality Show E-Book
            Detailed guide to using proven best practices
  ** Requirements – the Ultimate Reality Show CD 
            90 minute unedited Keynote CD
            Overview of best practices, information for management support
            Delivered at Quality Assurance Institute’s International IT 
               Software Quality & Testing Conference, May 20, 2004
  ** 30 Days to better Requirements Gathering  
            Email Mini-Course - 30 day subscription
            Receive 30 practical techniques in 30 days designed to
              make you successful
Subscribe today at our website: www.advantageleadership.com/resources.html

               Resources and Investment
               when purchased separately
 ** Requirements – the Ultimate Reality Show 
            E-Book    $ 37
 ** Requirements – the Ultimate Reality Show CD 
            90 minute unedited Keynote CD    $ 17
 ** 30 Days to better Requirements Gathering  
            E-mail Mini-Course -- 
            30 day subscription     $ 37
 ** Success Planning: a ‘how-to’ guide for 
            strategic planning    $ 27

Visit our website www.advantageleadership.com/resources.html to invest today.

                         MEET AL’S TEAM
     Advantage Leadership, Inc.'s team members are experienced professionals and business owners, who have excellent track records in sales effectiveness, strategic planning, Six Sigma business process and software quality improvement .  
                           BARB PATTERSON
 *  Over 20 years experience in Information Technology creating customer value: 
     *  Systems and business analysis
     *  User Acceptance Testing
     *  Manager Quality Assurance
     *  Developer, Change Management system recognized by 
        Quality Assurance Institute as a “Best Practice”
     *  Director LAN Management and Support 
     *  Managed long-term, high dollar IT/Business projects
 *  Independent consultant since 1998 specializing in systems analysis, 
     requirements specification writing, user acceptance testing, business
     practice redesign
 *  In alliance with Advantage Leadership, Inc., Barb delivers training and consulting services for large corporations, Hong Kong Productivity Council, International Institute of Software Testing and Data  
Kinetics Systems in Canada.

            Have a question for AL?  Send it to: rebecca@advantageleadership.com

                      CATCH US IN PUBLIC

Attend our public seminars on IT or quality management.  Call for the latest topics, dates and sign up information.     
  **  Keynote: “Requirements – the ultimate reality show” 
            Toronto, September 23
             Minneapolis, October 25 
  **  Public Seminars:
           * Managing a world-class IT department  
               Dallas, Texas, Oct. 18 - 20 
               Brussels, Nov. 22 - 24
           * Leading IT successfully in a changing world
               Cyprus, Nov. 29 - 30    
   **  Tutorials: 
           * Inspections for improved software
              Las Vegas Oct 1 (Barb Patterson)
           * Project Management for QA
              Las Vegas Sept 30 (Barb Patterson)

  Call us for all details 305-652-3466.

 Visit our website, www.advantageleadership.com for our resources and services.
     
              Our Mission is Your Success! 
                  Have joy in YOUR work.

             Our team is ready to serve you.

          Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, President
              Advantage Leadership, Inc.
           633 NE 167th Street, Suite 1015
             North Miami Beach, FL 33162
        Phone: 305-652-3466     Fax: 305-652-3866  
            rebecca@advantageleadership.com
              www.advantageleadership.com
(c) Advantage Leadership, Inc.