8 minute read
Productivity
Rehan Khan, principal consultant for BT and a novelist
achieved this through a structured approach in which we undertake a piece of knowledge work. The key thing here I have found is that consultants must be committed to single tasking, doing one thing at a time, without distraction.
TRACKING THE PROCESS
The process starts with defining the customer’s problem and agreeing on this with executive sponsors. This is followed by undertaking a scoping exercise, in which we understand the business and operating challenges facing the organisation, as well as understanding how they conduct business operations today.
Throughout this process, we upload our findings into a shared online site, such as Teams, or Trello, in which the raw information resides, consultants’ comments exist, the status of the work and any attachments related to this particular unit within the process are stored. As we move towards completion of a particular stage, we change the status from underway to review required, before finally to complete.
This then kicks off the next stage. We need to do things one at a time, because the first part of the process, scoping, then feeds into the second part, choices. We can’t make strategic choices, until we have a solid sense of the requirements and the current state. As a result, when we mobilise technical resources for the choices phase, in which we produce design blueprints, there is no ambiguity in what they are working on. The scoping outputs have been clearly defined and so the techies can get to work, within the same shared online site where there are boards in which they can see their progress against the overall process. As they complete their design blueprints, and upload them into the boards, this will then be reviewed by the consultants who managed the first phase, to ensure they meet the requirements of the customer. If these are aligned, then a number of scenarios are modelled and each one is then prioritised with the customer based on strategic fit.
THE FINAL STAGE
The final part of the process then moves the choices made into a financial model. Here, the cost inputs are obtained from a commercial team, scenarios forecast, a cash flow produced and finally, a set of recommendations made for the customer. All of the inputs can be loaded onto a shared MS Excel folder which is centrally hosted. We just need to ensure people input the data they own into the right fields. This can at times cause some difficulty, which is why we sometimes lock the sheet and then when an owner is ready to provide the data, we work with them to input it.
Throughout the process, we would not have sent anything via email or IM. Our time is dedicated to actually doing the work we have been trained to do. As we often work with stakeholders from different parts of the business, we either provide them with access to our production process, or we use the oldfashioned email and IM to communicate and work with them. But for the core consulting team which owns the knowledge production process there is absolutely no need to resort to email or IM.
CREATING VALUE
I have always encouraged members of my team to finish their day at the appointed hour or before if they get their work done. If it’s taking them longer to get things done, then its either one of two things: I am giving them too much to do, which I need to curtail; or they are working inefficiently, which is most likely down to how they process work. Very rarely have I isolated the problem as being one where a team member didn’t know how to do the work, it was more often related to how they processed work. Value for knowledge workers is created by doing work, not processing work or talking about it.
“IF WE USE THE LANGUAGE OF MANUFACTURING, THEN WE ARE TALKING ABOUT AN OUTPUT OF PRODUCTION – FOR A CONSULTING FIRM THIS MIGHT BE ADVICE AND REPORTS FOR EXECUTIVES; FOR A HR TEAM, A LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME; FOR A MARKETING FIRM, A COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN FOR A CLIENT; AND FOR A BUSINESS SCHOOL, COURSES FOR STUDENTS”
Calev’s Newsroom
Calev Ben-David, anchor of the nightly news programme, The Rundown, on i24NEWS
How Israel and the Gulf are cooperating on defence
The growing level of cooperation has been set in motion by the Abraham Accords
When US President Joe Biden arrived in Israel on July 13th, the fi rst thing he did was visit a display arranged by the Defence Ministry of its multitiered air-defence systems – the Arrow, David’s Sling, Iron Dome and still experimental laser-powered Iron Beam – designed to counter aerial threats ranging from ballistic missiles to low-fl ying drones. The event looked like a sales exhibition, and in a sense it was; but the intended client wasn’t the US, which has partnered with Israel in the development of many of these systems.
WHEN IT COMES TO DEFENCE COOPERATION ON BOTH THE GOVERNMENTAL AND COMMERCIAL LEVEL, THE SKIES ARE LITERALLY THE LIMIT
The customer in mind that day was the Arab World – particularly the nine countries whose leaders greeted Biden two days later in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at the gathering of what’s been dubbed the ‘GCC +3’: the six nations that constitute the Gulf Cooperation Council, along with Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Going into that summit, the US hoped to join these nations into a regional air-defence alliance that would in some way utilise Israel’s expertise in the fi eld, thus helping to further integrate it into the region and expand the diplomatic developments set in motion by the Abraham Accords.
Nothing like that came out of the Jeddah summit. Although the concluding statement declared the US would accelerate its “cooperation with Saudi Arabia and other partners in the region to counter unmanned aerial systems and missiles that threaten peace and security in the region,’’ and that it remains “committed to advancing a more integrated and regionally-networked air and missile defense architecture,’’ Saudi Arabia explicitly rejected the idea of an “Arab NATO” and any Israeli component to those plans.
Israeli defence technology, in particular that relating to air defence is fi ltering into the Arab world, with a potentially profound impact. This is especially so concerning its two Gulf partners in the Abraham Accords, the UAE and Bahrain.
According to Israel’s Defence Ministry, seven percent of all the country’s arms sales in 2021, which rose to a record $11.3bn, went to the Gulf. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said just prior to Biden’s visit that the total fi gures of Israel’s arms exports to the Gulf since the signing of the Abraham Accords amounted to roughly $3bn.
Though much of that work will continue to remain out of the public eye for the time being, the expanding market for Israel’s defence industries in the region is certainly no secret. The unprecedented participation of such Israeli defence fi rms as Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Rafael, Elbit Systems, Nir-Or, UVision and Tomer, in last November’s Dubai Air Show provided those companies with a highly visible platform to display their wares.
The Biden visit is likely to boost those prospects. His administration came into o ce seemingly hesitant to provide the Gulf states with the kind of advanced defence technology it needs to counter regional challenges; for example, initially declaring a pause and review of the $23bn sale of US F-35 jets to the UAE, seen as a corollary arrangement accompanying the Abraham Accords.
But there has been a clear shi t in Washington as the aerial threat to its allies in the Gulf has become
more pronounced, such as the drone attacks launched at the UAE by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The growing need for increased oil production by Gulf States in the wake of the Ukraine confl ict and cut-o of Russian energy exports to the West, has also made the Biden administration more accommodating towards meeting the defence needs of its partners in the region.
The change in tone from Washington towards military exports to the Gulf has another e ect, an Israeli defence industry executive told me; it will likely also make Israel’s Ministry of Defence, which in some cases, has been hesitant to sign o on
SEVEN PER CENT OF ALL THE COUNTRY’S ARMS SALES IN 2021, WHICH ROSE TO A RECORD $11.3bn
WENT TO THE GULF sending some sensitive technology to even friendly Arab states, more pliable in this regard. This works in the other direction as well, he notes, pointing out that Israeli defence fi rms are eager to set up joint initiatives with UAE partners, benefi tting by both its substantial technological investment, and position as a gateway opportunity to other nations in the region and beyond. While political considerations may hold back more of Israel’s Arab neighbours from taking steps toward normalisation, the executive believes commercial ties, especially in the military realm, will continue to develop unimpeded, both in under-the-radar sales, and Israeli participation in regional defence-and-security exhibitions.
It’s an old axiom that in the Middle East, diplomacy moves with the speed of a glacier. The Abraham Accords proved that it is possible for a dramatic breaking of the ice. Security concerns in the Gulf were a driving force in that process – and one can now say, without exaggeration, when it comes to defence cooperation on both the governmental and commercial level, the skies are literally the limit.
