Sales leads volume has increased lately.  As such I am considering on possible modifications to the current operating process within the company to cater for a bottle neck that exist within this current business model of mine. Currently, I am doing all the architectural work as well as some parts of the programming work. The programming work I engage in mainly revolves around the creation of programmatic structure so as to impose a boundary on the areas of the codes an incoming programmer could modify.

My effort engaged in the establishing of such boundaries is hogging up resources that could be better spent else where.

Our recent adoption of workflow modeling coupled with hand drawn illustrations has proven extremely successful in providing the required level of clarity between us and potential clients prior to the commissioning of any project to ensure against any complications during the software development cycle.

Turn around time for projects handled via such a process and methodology is even shorter compared to the turn around time for projects handled via the original methodology employed by the company at the start of the year. Development cycle has thus been shortened from a one month period to a two week period.

Recently while further digging into the methodology employed by Bosh, my brother’s company, I realized Bosh has been employing the use of UML extensively.

Just a moment ago while sitting in front of my computer and watching the first episode of Karei-naru Ichizoku (a drama about Japanese Conglomerates in the post WWII era) I had a sudden stroke of inspiration. For my next project, I will attempt to do an experiment. Around half of the UML document set has to do with the business modelling, while the other half of the UML document set has to do with technical modelling. I will attempt to tap on the analytical abilities on my counterparts overseas by just sending them the business modelling part of the UML document and ask instead they send me the technical document part of the UML document. I will be able to check and correct any problems in their programming architecture before they proceed to implement those documented changes in the systems to be worked on. Should this newly conceived methodology work as hoped, I will have thus relieved myself of one major bottleneck in our company’s operating process.

This would also imply that the company would be able to further expand its through put volume. This would also mean a clear cut separation of system architectural work from software development work. This should make possible the kind configuration I have in mind for the eventual full time employees in the company, a team that does not involve its resources with programming – commodity.

It was afternoon, I was sitting at the beach waiting for my only set of clothes to dry off after my impromptu swimming session along the East Coast.

It felt great to be feeling stinging pain for once from the parts of my skin afflicted recently with this strange bout of rashes instead of the unbearable itch that occurs at night and during some parts of the day. I am still attempting to find out the cause for this rash which started more than 2 weeks ago on my way home from West Coast beach. There are two possible causes I could think of.

1. Skin allergy resulting from the recent hot and humid weather condition
2. Skin allergy resulting from a high level of accumulated toxin in the system due to past three months of excessive alcohol consumption and late night supper

Nevertheless, the cause should become more apparent as I reduce my social drinking.

While enjoying the pain, my mind happened in the direction of work, or rather the quality of work. It occurred to me there might be a contradiction somewhere in the equation.

Profitability in the short run has a negative correlation to the quality of work produced, while continued survival in the long run has a positive correlation to the quality of work produced.

Examined in terms of the IT field, a solution is proposed to fix a short term problem without much regard to its long term implications on future business growth. Evolution of the solution to cater to the needs of future business growth would thus be more expensive than otherwise.

Such a situation could actually be the effects of an inevitable cost transfer across time. The client has limited budget but attempts to accomplish a lot during the initial phase. The vendor attempts to fulfill the current requirements but bounded by the law of scarcity cannot build a solution that caters well to both current requirements and possible future expansion. The difference between the cost charged and the actual cost of the required system is thereby transfered down the pipeline. The client is charged for the structural modification required to the existing solution to cater to the new requirements the client has in mind.

There is a contrast between profitability and survival. Being profitable is a subset of surviving, but surviving does not equate by default to being profitable. A company that makes enough profit to break even and continue operation within an industry is a survivor, however such a company cannot be said to be a profitable company.

So a professional company might not be in fact a profitable company, while a profitable company might not be a professional company. A company that has been surviving for ample number of years might have been providing professional services during those years. A newly started company that focuses on profitability might not have been providing the most professional of service. However a company that consistently focuses on profitability instead of providing professional service, might have problems surviving in the long run due to the negative sentiments accrued to it.

Ironically, my attempts to save cost for clients by consulting with them and thereafter mapping their requirements to existing open source components seems to have the opposite effect occasionally.

The notion of cost savings they acquire during the consultant sessions inevitably leads to stimulation of their imagination. This is often followed by increase in proposed project scope which ultimately causes project costing to blow out of their budget range.

What needs follow thereafter is a process of reining their over stimulated imagination tying their infinite wants back to the resources they have available.

The morale of the story: Humans tend to have infinite wants however the law of scarcity inevitably rules.

If scaling up of operations results in a corresponding drop in the quality of work, then it will be unwise to scale up. The key thus to a successful scaling up of operations level is in creating an operating process within the company that fulfills three requirements:

If scaling up of operations results in a corresponding drop in the quality of work, then it will be unwise to scale up. The key thus to a successful scaling up of operations level is in creating an operating process within the company that fulfills three requirements:

1. Maintain, if not increase, quality of output

2. Increase volume of output

3. Maintain, if not increase, profit margin levels without corresponding increase in sales unit price of service.

The upper bound in terms of operating volume is  function of the barrier to entry against new competitors. This factor in the equation has a negative coefficient.

Efficiency and effectiveness of the operating process that will need to come into existence has a positive coefficient.

The chief executive’s ability in terms of leadership, salesmanship and analytical abilities has a positive coefficient.

Explained in layman terms, for factors with a positive coefficient, the greater is the value of the factor, the greater is the output of the function. Vice versa, the greater the value of the factor with a negative coefficient, the lesser is the output of the function.

Examined using this abstract framework brings to light one of the major weakness in this current situation. The chief executive has had no corporate experience.

Major effort needs to be put into the following if better results are to be visible.

1. More research into operating processes being used by the market leaders in this industry
2. More effort into building up the leadership qualities of the chief executive
3. More effort into building up the salesmanship qualities of the chief executive

If one subscribes to the Darwinian theory of evolution, further efforts towards building up the analytical abilities of the chief executive will be futile. Analytical abilities is a function of the Intellectual Quotient (IQ). IQ is an external manifestation of genes that has been predetermined from birth.

Salesmanship and leadership are thus important qualities that a leader will need to cultivate in order to attract the cooperation of talents to the company mission. Talents is defined as people with specific innate abilities or skill sets that the chief executive has not, or should not expend further resources cultivating within himself.

An extensive research into all public companies listed on the SGX and Dow Jones and Nasdaq might shed some light unto the market leaders in different industrial sectors providing more clues as to future directions.