In the first half of 2021 alone, Corporate Venture Capital funds (CVCs) around the world inked more than 2,000 deals worth more than $70 billion. It’s an increasingly prevalent alternative to traditional funding options such as VCs and angel investors — but how can entrepreneurs determine whether a CVC is a right fit for their startup? To build a successful partnership, founders must determine the CVC’s relationship with its parent company, the structure and expectations that will guide its decision-making, along with a cultural and strategic alignment with the key people involved.

The Right Angel Investor

Traditionally, startups have looked to three primary sources for funding: venture capital firms (VCs), angel investors, and family offices. But in recent years, a fourth option has grown increasingly popular: corporate venture capital funds, or CVCs. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of CVCs grew more than six times to over 4,000, and these CVCs inked more than 2,000 deals worth $79 billion in the first half of 2021, surpassing all previous annual tallies.

The Rise Of CVCs

In <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/organizational-structure-decision-making-corporate-venture-capital">a survey of global CVC executives</a>, 61% reported that they didn’t feel like the senior executives of their corporate parent understood industry norms. In addition, because of their parent companies’ business imperatives, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOStnEM8wBOZhBEWbiDc_iMAiFY3EY2p9">many CVCs</a> may also be more impatient for quick returns than traditional VCs, potentially hindering their ability to provide long-term support to the startups in which they invest. Moreover, even a patient, veteran CVC can pose problems if other existing investors aren’t on board.

The Stats

A strategic CVC prioritizes investments that directly support the growth of the parent. For example, Henkel Ventures is upfront about its focus on strategic rather than financial investments.This approach works well for startups that require a longer-term perspective.

Four Kinds of CVCs: 1. Strategic CVCs

Financial CVCs are explicitly driven by maximizing the returns on their investments. These funds typically operate much more independently from their parent companies, and their investment decisions prioritize financial returns rather than strategic alignment. Financial CVCs still offer some connection to the parent company, but strategic collaboration and resource sharing are much more limited. A financial CVC is generally a good fit for startups that have less in common with the mission of the parent company, and/or less to gain from the resources it has to offer.

2. Financial CVCs

The third type of CVC takes a hybrid approach, prioritizing financial returns while still adding substantial strategic value to their portfolio companies. Hybrid CVCs often maintain looser connections with their parent companies to enable faster, financially-driven decision-making, but they still make sure to provide resources and support from the parent as needed.

3. Hybrid CVCs

Finally, some CVCs are in transition between a strategic, financial, and/or a hybrid approach. As the entire investor landscape continues to grow and evolve, it’s important for entrepreneurs to be on the lookout for these in-transition CVCs and ensure that they’re aware of how the potential investor they’re talking to today may transform tomorrow. For example, in 2021 Boeing <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/05/boeing-to-spin-off-venture-capital-arm-horizonx.html">announced</a> that in a bid to attract more external investors, it would spin off its strategic CVC arm into a more independent, financially-focused fund.

4. Transition CVCs

Entrepreneurs should start by speaking with employees at the parent company to learn more about the CVC’s internal reputation, its connectedness within the parent organization, and the KPIs or expectations that the parent has for its venture arm. An outfit with KPIs that demand frequent knowledge transfer between the CVC and parent company might not be the best match for a founder looking for no-strings-attached capital — but it could be perfect for a startup in search of a hands-on corporate sponsor.

Explore the Relationship Between the CVC and Its Parent Company

Once you’ve determined the CVC’s place within its larger organization, it’s important to delve into the unique structure and expectations of the CVC itself. Is it independent in its decision-making, or tightly linked to the corporate parent, perhaps operating under the umbrella of a corporate strategy or development department? If the latter, what are the strategic objectives that the CVC is meant to support? What are its decision-making processes, not just for selecting investments, but for giving portfolio companies access to internal networks and resources?

Determine the CVC’s Structure and Expectations

Ultimately, the people are the most important component of any potential deal. Before moving forward with a CVC investor, make sure you have a chance to speak with key executives from both the CVC and the parent company, in order to understand their vision and culture. It can also be helpful to chat with the CEOs of one or two of the CVC’s existing portfolio companies, to get an inside scoop on issues you might not otherwise uncover.

Talk to Everyone You Can

As CVCs become more and more prevalent, entrepreneurs are likely to be faced with a growing number of corporate funding opportunities alongside traditional options. These investors can bring substantial value in the form of resources and support — but not every CVC will be the right fit for every startup. To build a successful partnership, founders must determine the CVC’s relationship with its parent company, the structure and expectations that will guide its decision-making, and most importantly, their cultural and strategic alignment with the key people involved.

The Bottom Line

In the first half of 2021 alone, Corporate Venture Capital funds (CVCs) around the world inked more than 2,000 deals worth more than $70 billion. It’s an increasingly prevalent alternative to traditional funding options such as VCs and angel investors — but how can entrepreneurs determine whether a CVC is the right fit for their startup? The authors discuss the results of a series of quantitative analyses and qualitative interviews exploring the CVC landscape, identifying four common types of CVCs and three recommendations for founders considering a CVC investment: To build a successful partnership, founders must determine the CVC’s relationship to its parent company, the structure and expectations that will guide its decision-making, and most importantly, their cultural and strategic alignment with the key people involved.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

Is Corporate Venture Capital Right for Your Startup?

Eggs contain over 40 different proteins, which hold the key to their culinary success. <ul><li>Heat or whisking causes irreversible coagulation and transforms eggs into semi-solid or solid states.</li><li>When egg whites are whisked, it unravels proteins and adds air bubbles. The proteins collect at the surface of the bubbles, preventing the air bubbles from popping, even during cooking.</li><li>Egg yolk contains an emulsifier called lecithin that keeps oil droplets dispersed in water, preventing them from separating.</li></ul>

Eggs 

It is difficult to find a complete substitute for eggs. Egg emulsifiers are the easiest to replace, such as soy lecithin as a substitute. Flax or chia seeds, bananas or mustard can also be used to stabilise emulsion droplets.  Eggs as thickeners are harder to replace, although ground flax or chia seed can work well in cookies or muffins.

Egg substitutes

Aquafaba is a temperature-resistant foamer made from the water in which legumes such as chickpeas have been cooked. The liquid contains protein, starch and fibre useful for egg-free meringues.

Replacing eggs’ foaming ability

Aquafaba is made from the viscous leftover from cooking (or soaking) chickpeas, and it's a vegan substitute for eggs.

food

Food

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

What are the best egg substitutes for baking? | BBC Science Focus Magazine

First, keep in mind that your primary focus should be profit. To increase return, you need to work on three major pillars: culture, costs, and sales.The primary concern of any business must be lucrative: a profitable company has the money to reward employees, offer exciting careers, and invest in new products, companies, and technologies.Less profitable companies inevitably sink into mediocrity in every way – regarding morality, product quality, etc. Doubling profits requires focused, consistent, firm and fair management, willing to become different and better than most other companies.

Let's Talk About Profits

It is important to rely on meritocracy and use the philosophy of continuous improvement to increase your profits. This philosophy should be part of the company’s culture, creating and encouraging a culture of excellence among all stakeholders.To create a winning culture, employees must have the opportunity to reach the top, but only the best should be able to get there and be rewarded for it.

Creating A Lucrative Culture

<ul><li>Focus on what is important, the results of the enterprise: Beautiful names for areas and positions will not make a difference in productivity.</li><li>Do not build new processes unless necessary.</li><li>Define the mission of the company and make it clear and straightforward for all employees.</li><li>Never be sorry for thinking about profits.</li><li>Only quantify what is essential.</li><li>Give urgency to important things: You must assign importance to the most vital. </li><li>Maintain a shortage of resources.</li></ul>

Disseminate a Culture of Success in Your Company

Cutting costs should be taken very seriously. You have to be among the best in the world to make businesses run better at a lower cost.Costs should be categorized between strategic and non-strategic. Strategic costs are spending on things that apparently add to the business and improve in areas of business, marketing, and R&D (Research and Development).Non-strategic costs are the costs necessary to run the business but do not directly bring improvements or profits. An example of a strategic cost is sales investments.

Reducing Costs To Profit

The company needs to follow two main rules for managing its costs: overcoming competitors about strategic costs during good and bad times and not pulling any punches when it comes to cutting non-strategic costs.It is important to analyze costs to succeed in reducing non-strategic ones. It is crucial to think that all non-strategic costs are unnecessary and must be justified. There are no “off-limit-costs, ” and the manager needs to assume that all other expenses can be discontinued unless proven otherwise.

Double Your Profits

Managers make the mistake of being cautious in cutting costs. Cut first and ask later. An advantage of reducing costs is that if you make a mistake, someone will be ready to tell you almost immediately, and you’ll be able to fix it.Another important point of attention is the decision-making: decisions must be made without delay. If you do not need data, do not spend your time analyzing them, make a wise decision quickly.

Decision Making

<ul><li>Set deadlines for stakeholders to meet. Not wasting time is essential for cutting costs and increasing the profitability of the company.</li><li>Superiors must authorize extra costs. Items such as material purchases, the hiring of employees and others should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. This discretion will help eliminate useless costs and decrease unnecessary spending in the company.</li><li>Also, suppliers should not be overlooked. It is important to reduce these costs as well. </li></ul>

360 Degree Control

It is imperative to be someone in a higher position because suppliers are already used to dealing with buyers and know how to negotiate with them. Have a director or a manager analyze the costs of each provider thoroughly.Also be concerned with research and development. Often, executives leave control in the hands of researchers because they do not have the knowledge to do so. You should look for a suitable manager who can measure the company’s R&D return, increasing your chances of profitability.

Cost Analysis

The first step in reducing costs is to see all values as, at best, a necessary evil. Every cost is something that must be ruthlessly and as far as possible banned from any firm. There are no off-limit costs, and they are obstacles to the company. Ask yourself: if you eliminated an individual cost, what would you lose regarding revenue and profit? How and where? If you do not know, then you do not need this expenditure. Only maintain costs that are extremely necessary; you do not have to think twice to eliminate them. Eliminate first and think later!

Know that It Is Always Possible to Reduce Costs

Firmness and ability generate respect, not resentment. It is the combination of toughness, incompetence, and mediocrity that engenders resentment. Therefore, if you demonstrate competence, your firmness will be accepted.

Demonstrate Competence

There is an almost immediate way to increase profits. Send a circular to all vendors, saying that times are bad and that from now on (or in the next twelve or eighteen months) you will not accept price increases, so there is no use in insisting.

Inform Your Suppliers of Their Cuts and Freezes

An easy method to favour your company’s balance sheet this year, although it only works once is to delay your payments. Most vendors prefer to wait to receive it to permanently losing you as a customer. Never pay a bill until the supplier covers your company at least twice. Some providers may take up to two years to claim payment for a bill. Whenever there is a price increase tell the suppliers that you are going to research the competition.

Delay Payments

Plan a saving of 15% in product purchases and 30% in contracting services. If you cut too much, some people will complain. Let them complain and wait. If they complain too much, rethink that particular cost.

Make a Plan to Save

It is impossible to convince them that you believe in a meritocracy if those whose performance is small can keep on the job and receive the salary. Firing a bad employee encourages others to produce more for the benefit of the company, and that is a meritocracy. It is possible to reduce up to 25% of staff in most companies without anything happening – without any loss of value.

If Required, Fire People

A busy employee is forced to set priorities and does what is important. When it comes to staff, micromanagement or lack of oversight may inevitably lead to slow and ineffective employees. The only way to promote efficiency and eliminate unnecessary work is to keep human resources scarce.

Staff Control

Pay good salaries and only offer benefits that your people value. Any bonus, any perk that becomes “automatic” no longer has value as motivation and becomes an instrument of maladministration, not good management. Bonuses, rewards, and punishments are significant, with bonuses being more effective when granted on a case-by-case basis and at irregular intervals. Grant raises whenever they are earned and never otherwise.

Benefits And Bonuses

The most difficult part of cost reduction is resistance to stakeholder change. Often, the people involved do not see the importance of the process.Therefore, it is vital that the company’s culture be responsible for showing the importance of reducing costs for the company; make it a part of the firm’s routine. It is also important to value employees who strive to make this happen in the best way.

The Stakeholders

You should understand that when selling, you should not see the customer from a company’s point of view. You should see the client as a person and, as such, emotions are critical when closing a deal. Whenever you make a sale, be sure to ask why the customer is interested in the product.Also, keep in mind that depending on your type of business and your field, customer loyalty is essential. It is much easier to sell to a loyal customer than to win over a new client; so seek satisfaction and rapport with your customers first.

The Sales Strategy

<ul><li>Show your competence;</li><li>Demonstrate empathy;</li><li>Be loyal;</li><li>Play hard to get;</li><li>Use the customer problem to turn your interest in them into an obligation from them towards you.</li></ul>

Five Ingredients for A Successful Sale

<ul><li>To make a deal, you need to have confidence in yourself and your product. </li><li>Attract your buyer: We do not buy anything we do not like.</li><li>Set your price the right way.</li><li>Ask how much the customer is willing to pay.</li><li>Target your customers to offer more customized products.</li><li>Offer more than one product to the customer, so it will be more difficult for him to refuse the sale.</li><li>When you lose a sale, review what happened..</li><li>Regardless of your sales process, respond quickly and professionally and do whatever it takes to meet your customer’s needs.</li><li>Maintain a good relationship with the client in the after-sale. </li></ul>

Tips To Increase Your Sales

Which entrepreneur does not dream of multiplying profits? It sounds like a distant dream, doesn’t it? Bob Fifer, a leading financial advisor, says that this is possible and brings us a clear plan to get there.

"An excellent primer for anyone struggling to keep profits ahead of costs. . . . Double Your Profits' 'take no prisoners' approach is refreshing." - William Byham, bestselling coauthor of Zapp! One of the nation's foremost management consultants shares seventy-eight proven ways to cut costs dramatically, send sales through the roof, and double profits in just six months. This timeless profit-boosting guide, considered a top management resource by business powerhouse Jack Welch, presents insights that are notable for their aggressive approach and contrarian perspective. Bob Fifer, former chairman and CEO of Kaiser Associates, shows us how to turn the tables on hardball-playing suppliers and competitors. He also challenges outmoded assumptions and explains why: arbitrary budgets are sometimes the best budgets bosses are frequently underpaid customers can often be persuaded to pay more suppliers can often be persuaded to charge less Whether you're a mid-level manager, senior executive, or Fortune 500 CEO, you'll find this book is required reading for growing your company and improving your bottom line.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

books

Books

"An excellent primer for anyone struggling to keep profits ahead of costs. . . . Double Your Profits' 'take no prisoners' approach is refreshing." - William Byham, bestselling coauthor of Zapp!One of the nation's foremost management consultants shares seventy-eight proven ways to cut costs dramatically, send sales through the roof, and double profits in just six months.This timeless profit-boosting guide, considered a top management resource by business powerhouse Jack Welch, presents insights that are notable for their aggressive approach and contrarian perspective. Bob Fifer, former chairman and CEO of Kaiser Associates, shows us how to turn the tables on hardball-playing suppliers and competitors. He also challenges outmoded assumptions and explains why:<ul><li>arbitrary budgets are sometimes the best budgets</li><li>bosses are frequently underpaid</li><li>customers can often be persuaded to pay more</li><li>suppliers can often be persuaded to charge less</li></ul>Whether you're a mid-level manager, senior executive, or Fortune 500 CEO, you'll find this book is required reading for growing your company and improving your bottom line.

Bob Fifer

Do Coke Zero and Diet Coke have the same ingredients and same flavor? You might be surprised by the results of our research. <ul><li>The ingredient lists are similar</li><li>Both consist of carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate, aspartame, natural flavors, and caffeine</li><li>Coke Zero has two ingredients Diet Coke lacks: potassium citrate and acesulfame potassium</li><li>Diet Coke has one ingredient not found in Coke Zero: citric acid</li><li>Coca-Cola Zero Sugar looks and tastes more like Coke-Cola Classic</li></ul>

The Two Cokes

<ul>
<li>Diet Coke: Smooth and sweet, enjoyable, bubbly, goes well with a meal, refreshing by itself.</li>
<li>Coke Zero: Smooth, sweeter, and more bubbly.</li>
</ul>

Coke Zero vs. Diet Coke

'80s expert and diet soda fan Gael Fashingbauer Cooper conducted a taste test to compare Coke Zero and Diet Coke. Here's what she discovered.

Coke Zero vs. Diet Coke: What’s the Difference?

Fast food and ready-to-eat dinners may have freed up a significant amount of our time, but they also started an epidemic of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and a slew of other chronic health issues which make it harder to enjoy those extra hours. Convenience is slowly killing us. The less time we spend cooking at home, the worse our diets become. We can intermittent fast and count calories, but if we want to eat healthier we can’t escape the fact that we have to make time for cooking.

The Bad Side Of Convenience

You will eat something. The question is whether it’s going to be something you intentionally planned to eat, or the closest, easiest option.Repeat often. You don’t get bonus points for complexity or variety. The goal isn’t to be Martha Stewart. Don’t be afraid to repeat meals often, especially when you’re just getting into the habit of home-cooking.

Make a plan and keep it simple

The more you make a recipe, the easier it will become and the less mental resistance you’ll feel when you think about making it. Identify 3-5 recipes that are fast to make (30 min or less), relatively healthy, and reasonably edible. Fall back on these recipes as often as you need.

Have 3-5 go-to recipes

When taking on new endeavors we often skip a critical first step: figuring out how we’ll make time for them. To make room for cooking, you’ll need to say no to other things. Time block meal prep on your calendar and keep that appointment with yourself.

Schedule it so it happens

You can motivate yourself to start cooking by putting on your favorite podcast or an audiobook.Psychologists call this strategy temptation bundling – pairing a thing you like to do with a thing you don’t like to do. It can be a powerful way to jump-start any habit.

Motivate yourself with temptation bundling

A sharp chef’s knife will save you time, frustration, and possibly even fingers.You don’t need a lot of gadgets to cook at home, but investing in a few basics will go a long way in making cooking easier and far more pleasant.

Invest in the right tools

A cluttered fridge filled with foodstuffs in various stages of rot makes it harder to find what you need which in turn makes it harder to start cooking.Just set a timer for ten minutes, go through your fridge, get rid of anything that’s going bad, tidy up what’s left, and remind yourself what you need to use up soon.

Declutter your fridge weekly

You don’t have to go from getting takeaway for 90% of your meals to cooking 90% of your meals at home. It’s ok to start by committing to cooking just once a week. If you find you can handle one night, maybe add a second. The routine you’ll actually maintain beats the perfect routine every time.

Be realistic

If it’s your goal to cook more at home, here are the key things that helped me build and stick with a cook-at-home routine for ~85% of my weekly meals.

Hate Cooking at Home? Practical Tips for Doing It Anyway

They were invented in Germany in 1922 by Hans Riegel, the founder of Haribo. It took ~60 years for gummy bears to take off in the US, but once they did, competition arose quickly:<ul><li>Jelly Belly introduced the 1st American-made gummy bear in 1981.</li><li>Haribo opened its 1st distribution center in the US in 1982.</li><li>Albanese released its own gummy bears in 1983.</li></ul>In time, rival candy companies invented other gummies options, like Trolli’s sour gummy worms and Mondelez’s Sour Patch Kids.

Inventing The Gummy Bears

In 1997, Hero Nutritionals introduced the Yummi Bear, the 1st gummy vitamin. The invention kicked off a booming market that’s still thriving. This showed that gummies can be used to deliver more than just a sugar high, leading to a wide range of products, including:<ul><li>Gummy supplements, from caffeine to fish oil</li><li>Sleep gummies, usually featuring melatonin and other ingredients</li><li>Weed gummies, including both CBD and THC varieties.</li></ul>Estimates peg the global CBD gummy market as high as ~$14B by 2028. Add that to the global market for gummy and jelly candy, which is estimated to reach $40B by 2024.

Giving A New Purpose To The Gummies

In 100 years, we’ve gone from gummy bears to gummy everything.

health

Health

The evolution of gummy bears - The Hustle

<ul><li>Buy yourself a pair of kitchen scissors. You will use them to snip herbs, chop canned tomatoes, and snip spinach.</li><li>Don’t make recipes (or trust cookbooks) with overly cutesy recipe titles like “Struttin’ Chicken.” A simple Roast Chicken has more staying power.</li><li>Do everything you can in advance when you have people over for dinner.</li><li>Figure out the correct way to slice and dice an avocado.</li><li> Ice in the cocktails. Fill that glass up as nothing is worse than a lukewarm gin and tonic.</li><li>Compliment the cook. Someone took the time to put a meal together. Be exceedingly grateful.</li></ul>

General cooking tips

<ul><li>Learn how to make a handful of healthy dinners without using a recipe.</li><li>Brushing dough with a quick egg wash to put that shiny glow on your pies and breads.</li><li>Meat will never brown properly if you add it to the pan when it’s freezing cold and wet.</li><li>Add acid.  A drizzle of vinegar or lemon juice or a spoonful of buttermilk or plain yoghurt will add brightness to a flat dish.</li><li>A salad needs some crunch, be it cucumber, a radish, a nut or a crouton.</li><li>You won’t get arrested if you leave out an ingredient or replace it with something not called for.</li></ul>

Useful cooking tips

Fifteen hard-earned kitchen tips and tricks.

15 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Started Cooking | Cup of Jo

As a thought experiment, imagine you are leaving on a week-long trip to a remote destination without internet access. Would your business survive the week without you? The majority will answer no, but it doesn't have to be that way. Another approach is to find the right team of self-sufficient, capable individuals to help you grow and scale your company. For example, Charlie Feng, the co-founder of Clearco specialises in building teams into self-sustaining entities and shares his thoughts.

Knowing how to find your dream team and when to scale

It's often vital to hire yourself out of a job in order to scale and grow your startup. If you're unable to step back and let go of some control, your startup will not be scalable or sustainable. You need to find people who can help take your business to the next level.

Make yourself redundant

<ul><li>Find people who complement your skills and weaknesses in the early stages. Find individuals who share your vision.</li><li>Don't disregard similarities. Hire people who complement your skill set, but are similar to you from a worldview perspective.</li><li>Hire the people you'd want to work for if roles were reversed. Chances are they have the same goals and aspirations as you.</li><li>Prioritize diversity. A team with a variety of perspectives can come up with better solutions and be more successful in the long run.</li></ul>

Strategic team building

Ensure they are the best of the best. Look for people who share the mission. To ensure your first hires are rock stars:<ul><li>Cast a wide net. Reach out to friends, family, and alumni networks.</li><li>Use social media wisely. It's easy to come across as spammy if you reach out to someone without taking the time to learn more about them first. </li><li>Get personal. Introduce yourself and explain why you think the candidate would be a good fit for your team.</li><li>Follow up. Don't just wait for candidates to come to you after sending a job listing. After you've interviewed someone, follow up and see how they're doing</li></ul>

Focus on your first 10 hires

You are ready for scaling when you’re satisfied that the foundations of your team are strong, meaning that your team can confidently run itself. Success indicators to look for:<ol><li>Your team has all of the key roles filled</li><li>The team is functioning well and meeting or exceeding goals</li><li>Your team has the bandwidth to take on new members without sacrificing quality.</li><li>You feel confident enough in the team to take a step back.</li></ol>

When to begin scaling

teamwork

Teamwork

startup

Startups

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

How and When to Find Your Dream Team

When we talk about breakthrough portfolio-wide improvements, we mean selecting much higher-impact projects, at least doubling the number of them that your organization can complete, and being able to deliver over 90 percent of them within plan—all within existing resource constraints.

The Premise: Breakthrough Portfolio-Wide Improvements

The three most important objectives for any project portfolio are:
<ul>
<li>Selecting the right projects.</li>
<li>Maximizing the portfolio’s throughput of project completions.</li>
<li>Optimizing the portfolio’s reliability of project completions.</li>
</ul>

The Project Portfolio

<ul>
<li>CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) focuses on improving the underlying processes required for successful IT project delivery.</li>
<li>PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) provides a set of foundational and “generally recognized good practices” that it reinforces via its certifications.</li>
</ul>
There is significant emphasis on what we would consider “input metrics”—such as repeatable processes and practices—without corresponding outcome metrics to assess whether this repeatability actually helps improve throughput or reliability.

CMMI And PMBOK

The Theory Of Constraints (TOC) says that in any system, there is one function, resource, process area, or process step that constrains the entire system’s ability to deliver on its mission.
Once an organization has identified its system constraint, it knows that any improvement anywhere other than at the constraint will have little or no impact on overall organizational effectiveness. Putting this concept into practice helps provide much-needed clarity on where to focus improvement efforts.

The Theory Of Constraints

One way to think of Throughput per Constraint Unit (T/CU) is in terms of “effective throughput,” as it represents what is actually expected to achieve, given what is known about how the system constraint limits throughput.
One simply needs to get defensible estimates of T/CU for each project candidate and fund the highest-scoring ones for which one has a budget and available CUs to support.

Effective Throughput

A somewhat improved project-selection metric is called “Effective ROI,” as it calculates the actual ROI expected when taking into account the system constraint: Throughput per Constraint Unit, per Investment (T/CU/I).
At some point, however, most or all of this hidden capacity will get used up, such that any further projects delivering new capabilities into operation will only serve to overload the constraint, degrading throughput. As a result, the only projects that make sense at that point are those that can actually expand capacity at the constraint.

Effective ROI

If you can find a way to get more projects done without adding resources, you will have a greater ability both to expand capacity at the constraint, and to use that additional capacity to drive up throughput.

More Projects With Minimum Resources

We can boost highway throughput in a number of ways—here are some common ones: 
<ul>
<li>We can keep the road free of impediments and in good working order. </li>
<li>We can increase traffic density (e.g., carpooling). </li>
<li>We can meter the on-ramps whenever their inflow slows the main flow of traffic. </li>
<li>We can recruit underutilized resources elsewhere. </li>
<li>We can try and make the cars go faster. </li>
<li>We can build an additional lane or two.</li>
</ul>
PPM works in the same way, but we tend to be concerned only with the speed.

Managing Traffic

In PPM, we tend to focus mostly on trying to make the cars go faster—even when the highway is all jammed up, sometimes causing accidents, and usually frustrating everyone on the highway who can’t get where they want to go. We also tend to jump right to trying to add a lane or two—which is rarely quick, easy, or inexpensive, if it’s a feasible option at all.
While speed is important and adding capacity may well be in order, let’s start by getting traffic to flow.

Project Management As Traffic Management

For CIOs, IT Project Portfolio Managers, and other senior executives looking for a more practical, hybrid approach for improving the throughput of project completions, project staggering is the first step.
It is important to note that task switching is slowing us down a lot—by a whopping 40 percent, according to many studies. If all we do is stagger our projects and execute them with a single-task focus, we can more than double portfolio throughput.

Project Staggering

It turns out that this is higher than normal, but not by much—seasoned process engineers will tell you that the typical business process contains 70-90 percent bloat. The challenge is to devote time, energy, and the right talent into improving processes before software-enabling them.
By combining project staggering, single-task execution, and elimination of task/sprint-level commitments, we see that we can now more than triple portfolio throughput—and none of these techniques is complex or difficult to learn and apply.

Too Much Bloat

Assuming that most or all of our projects suffer from pervasive task-switching, we would expect an average productivity benefit of 40 percent from focused, single-task execution, with results satisfying three conditions:
<ul>
<li>Change the object being moved through the process.</li>
<li>Deliver a result that’s done right the first time.</li>
<li>Deliver value—as defined by the customer of that process.</li>
</ul>

The Three Conditions

The goal here is to make sure that the developers always have something to work on. Everything is steered by the volume of planned tasks in the task buffer. So if there are just two tasks left, then one of the developers takes the next story from the product backlog and breaks it into tasks.
If buffer holes persist, then keep increasing the buffer size by one, until no buffer holes occur anymore. If your buffer rises to the point at which you have more than one task in the buffer for every two developers, the problem most likely lies in how long it takes you to break stories into tasks.

Top Productivity: Project Buffering

Ask all team members to block six hours every day on their calendars for focused task work, leaving the rest of the time to respond to messages etc.
Effective ROI is essential for selecting high-impact projects.
<ul>
<li>At the task level, Single Tasking and Elimination of Task-level Commitments are essential for maximizing improvements in speed and reliability.</li>
<li>At the project level, Project Staggering is indispensable for maximizing the throughput of project completions.</li>
<li>At the portfolio level, Buffer Balancing using the Buffer Protection Index (BPI) is required for optimizing reliability.</li>
</ul>

Focussed Work

If we can set up our task-execution environments to more closely resemble a relay race, the behaviours will follow—as will the speed and reliability benefits.
The logical progression can be:
<ul>
<li>Project Staggering</li>
<li>Project Buffering</li>
<li>Portfolio Buffer Balancing</li>
<li>Project Selection Using Effective ROI</li>
<li>Eliminating Task-level Commitments</li>
<li>Single-Tasking</li>
<li>Ultimate Scrum</li>
<li>Showing all Buffers as Time-Based</li>
<li>Lean Process VSAs.</li>
</ul>

Task-Execution Environment

A fantastic productivity resource on how to get more done when you’re managing multiple projects

This book is for senior executives who are on a mission to jack up the performance of their information-technology (IT) project portfolios, and who are no longer satisfied that established "best practices" are sufficient to achieve their organizations' business objectives. The authors cut through the confusion and zealotry of leading improvement approaches, and distill them down to a practical set of specific techniques you can apply for maximum benefit to your IT project portfolio.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

product

Product & Design

Michael Hannan

Wolfram Muller

Hilbert Robinson

The CIO's Guide to Breakthrough Project Portfolio Performance

<ul><li>Use small plates: When money comes into your main operating account, immediately dispense it into different accounts in predetermined percentages for profit, owner pay, taxes and, consistently operating expenses</li><li>Serve sequentially: Always move your money to the profit account first, then to your owner pay account, then to your tax account, with what remains to expenses</li><li>Remove temptations: Move your profits account and other accounts out of arm’s reach to make it difficult for you to access your money</li><li>Enforce a rhythm: Do your payables and pay your bills twice monthly.</li></ul>

The Profit First Diet

A great business is one that has healthy profits. And as business gets healthier, taxes will increase.Profitability isn’t an event. It’s a habit. Profitable habits practiced consistently cause a company to be financially healthy. Forming the right business habits from scratch prevents you from forming bad habits that can be difficult to break in the long run.

The Health of a Business

<ul><li>Paying yourself should always be your priority even if you’re in debt.</li><li>Practice the one more day technique. Hold off on purchasing something and test how much you need it. You’ll feel rewarded when you see yourself saving more by going without certain items.</li><li>Modern-day success is not about earning the most revenue, hiring more employees, and having the biggest office spaces. It is about generating the most profit through the fewest employees with the least expensive office space.</li><li>You cannot add new debt as you pay the old debt off. Pay your smallest debt off first.</li></ul>

Tackling Debt

<ul><li>95% of your company’s profitability depends on what goes on beneath the surface (after the sales), and not the sales themselves.</li><li>Serve your clients with the same or very similar problems, using your one consistent solution to solve the problems.</li><li>The key to being efficient is repeatedly serving a consistent core customer need.</li><li>The more you focus on improving efficiency, the closer you’ll get to achieving double the results in half the time.</li><li>Focus on one area of your business that benefits your best customers and challenge yourself to figure out how to get twice the results for half the effort.</li></ul>

Money and Efficiency

The benefits of accountability groups:<ul><li>Having accountability partners can make a potentially challenging experience bearable</li><li>Enforcing a plan or a system with others ensures that you are more likely to do your part</li><li>When you regularly meet with an accountability group, you get into a rhythm that makes it easier for you to stay the course ad achieve your goal</li><li>Keep the accountability groups honest! Let your accountability partner(s) not be your friends.</li><li>You must be accountable for the process by any means necessary.</li></ul>

Accountability Groups

Innovation in business and efficiency comes from big, bold questions.

Author of cult classics The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability. Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales - Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren't always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses. Just as the most effective weight loss strategy is to limit portions by using smaller plates, Michalowicz shows that by taking profit first and apportioning only what remains for expenses, entrepreneurs will transform their businesses from cash-eating monsters to profitable cash cows. Using Michalowicz's Profit First system, readers will learn that: · Following 4 simple principles can simplify accounting and make it easier to manage a profitable business by looking at bank account balances. · A small, profitable business can be worth much more than a large business surviving on its top line. · Businesses that attain early and sustained profitability have a better shot at achieving long-term growth. With dozens of case studies, practical, step-by-step advice, and his signature sense of humor, Michalowicz has the game-changing roadmap for any entrepreneur to make money they always dreamed of.

Author of cult classics The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability. Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales - Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren't always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses. Just as the most effective weight loss strategy is to limit portions by using smaller plates, Michalowicz shows that by taking profit first and apportioning only what remains for expenses, entrepreneurs will transform their businesses from cash-eating monsters to profitable cash cows. Using Michalowicz's Profit First system, readers will learn that: · Following 4 simple principles can simplify accounting and make it easier to manage a profitable business by looking at bank account balances. · A small, profitable business can be worth much more than a large business surviving on its top line. · Businesses that attain early and sustained profitability have a better shot at achieving long-term growth. With dozens of case studies, practical, step-by-step advice, and his signature sense of humor, Michalowicz has the game-changing roadmap for any entrepreneur to make money they always dreamed of.

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