#eavoices

5Di – Our Operating Model

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or how we aim to grow our trees together.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/rod_waddington/14070411621
Up until recently, 5Di Ltd. was the commercial vehicle for my Change Design and Advisory services. This is changing as I write; 5Di will become a ‘Team’ within the next few weeks. I’m not sure how exactly all the pieces will fall into place, but I am eating my own dog food; experiment, include, listen to feedback, and evolve.


Before I explain the specifics, I’d ask that you watch a few of the videos here to see and hear where much of the inspiration for our operating model comes from:


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 Chuck Blakeman Crankset:


Katz Kiely: – BBC Radio 4 interview (audio only).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082j0gj

Dan Ward – all of his series are great, but if you’re short on time, just watch the first and last for now:


The full set:


 Back to 5Di, we have a ‘T’ shape service portfolio; The T-bar is the Change Design journey described in the Found In Design un-book and the T-column are technology services focused on Cloud-Native architectures and integration.

Our principles are:
  • Keep things simple as possible
  • Work on interesting projects
  • Deliver value for money
  • Share rewards
  • Be clear, concise and transparent.


We can deliver Value-for-Money.
All 5Di consultants have tons of real-world experience and many have worked for Big-Five or similar – so we know how much they charge for this type of service and,  the other tricks they pull which we will avoid (like land-and-expand etc.). As a rough estimate, I’d say we will come in at less that 30% of large traditional consulting firms.


Why?
Because our fees are at least 40% cheaper for the same level of skill/expertise and we deliver value faster (fewer charged days) because we’re not motivated to drag-things-out with large teams. We have no ‘bench’ to sell.


How?
5Di’s business model is simple:
  • We make sure all in the 5Di team get a good day-rate compared to them going to market individually ‘contracting’.
  • We make a reasonable markup on the fee, but then everybody gets a slice of 5Di’s year-end profits.
  • We are like-minds who *want* to work with each other (most of us have in the past).
  • We are all motivated to do a great job for the client – all our work is through referral.
  • As a team we attract other great talents through our collective personal network – I’m getting requests to join the 5Di family weekly.

All this will be explained (using our principles!) on the 5Di website soon. The current site is now horribly out-of-date, rather messy, and way too wordy – we promise a much better one!


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Consolidations in Data Governance Tooling Are Emphasizing DG importance for future Data Usages

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While data governance has been a business need for years, it is becoming more visible as a center stage business concern. Driving this shift are new regulations and new requirements addressing consumer data ownership, privacy and business interest data monetization. Two of the most important regulations are GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation), and BCBS 239 (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision regulation 239). Forrester recognized this change three years ago when described the evolution of data governance from ‘data input quality’ to ‘data usage’ – which we call Data Governance 2.0. Some emerging data governance solution vendors, like Collibra and GDE, moved aggressively to address the new requirements of data governance 2.0. But the larger established vendors – IBM, Informatica, SAS or SAP, were moving more slowly as they prioritized investments in developing a platform supporting Systems of Insight.

Two just announced acquisitions demonstrate that larger established vendors now recognize the need for renewed data governance offerings:

· Informatica purchase of Diaku Axon platform. The acquisition announced on the 22nd February of the Diaku Axon platform adds to Informatica’s current Data Governance execution capabilities (DQ, MDM, security/masking) more business oriented capabilities like vertical knowledge (finance,) and support of regulations such as GDPR and BCBS239.

Read more

Go-to People Considered Harmful

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Okay, so the title’s a little derivative, but it’s both accurate and it fits in with the “organizations as systems” theme of recent posts. Just as dependency management is important for software systems, it’s likewise just as critical for social systems. Failures anywhere along the chain of execution can potentially bring the whole system to […]

The life force robing nature of deadwood

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If you are like me you will want to deliver something early in a project mainly to prove yourself to yourself that you have not become deadwood. Deadwood has a tendency to get in all areas of projects or work without clear processes. Usually consultants that are representing the deadwood make some really good suggestions, … Continue reading The life force robing nature of deadwood →

First Trial of the VPEC-T Navigation Map

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This week’s update: We ran the 2nd two-hour session last week and have the 3rd and last iteration scheduled for the coming week. Continuing to get positive feedback on the map. It does seem to help provoke richer discussion and stimulate thoughts.  The client is feeling increasingly confident that we’ve captured the main aspects of the change programme ahead of them, and specifically, that we will find & explore all:

  • Material risks
  • The Major Transition States – with objective/outcomes at each
  • Core principles for the transition
  • Programme work streams
  • Critical cross-project dependencies
  • Crucial trust relationships
  • End-state clarity.


    Next week will move the focus towards the JOIN and SLICE cycles. I expect greater involvement with the PMO and the Business Analysts working on the detailed/costed Business Case, over the next two weeks, will move the focus to ARRANGE by the end of March. To quote Dan Ward: we will have then completed “Start before we start” (recommend watch his Simplicity Cycle videos).

    Keeping things simple, pragmatic & easy-to-understand has been key. The antithesis of a Big-Five approach, or a traditional bloated “methodology/framework” #EntArch style: Fast, simple, relevant, and at a fraction of the cost!

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    On Thursday last, I ran a VPEC-T workshop using the new VPEC-T Navigation Map. The workshop lasted 4 hours, and the client now wants another two 4 hour sessions. The new map received positive feedback. According to one participant:

    “The map really helped us explore each area and triggered useful thoughts”.


    This is in the 2nd iteration of FIND, JOIN, SLICE. We will complete 3 iterations of all Four Focus Areas  (including ARRANGE) within the next 2-3 weeks. This session was part of the design of a circa $4M change programme over next 18 months. We will be using many of the FiD toolset including (but not limited to):
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    The map: