Monday, December 9, 2019

Is the Internet of Things (IoT) Bad for the Environment?

IoT is about bringing sensors, devices, and appliances on-line, where they can be controlled remotely, and feed data to the cloud.

But will this create environmental issues?  Will appliances and machinery with long life spans (10-20 years) end up in land fills sooner, since technology becomes obsolete every 18 months?


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Add So Much Value To Others


"Add so much value to others that they fight to have you on their team."

- Dorie Clark, Stand Out


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Success and Failure


“Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm”

― Winston Churchill



© 2019 Praveen Puri

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Build Tests Into Your Plans and Strategies


In the world of software, especially when using agile methods, programmers design tests at the same time they code, so they can make sure their software works.

This same idea can be applied to management (strategy, planning) and government (laws): As you create the strategy, plan, or law, also design tests that will let you know if you are experiencing success, or if you need to change something.

The test will probably be a KPI, with a pre-determined value that signifies success or failure.

For example, a plan could be: "to address our current sales slump, we will change our commission structure".

We could add, "if we do not see at least a 5% increase in sales six months after the training, we will try to find an additional solution.  If sales drop more than 2%, then we will immediately revert back to the old commission structure".

© 2019 Praveen Puri

Thursday, October 17, 2019

4 Ways Organizations Can Encourage Innovation


(because innovation frequently happens at the intersections between groups, instead of just inside one department): 1. Organize internal seminars or lunch-n-learns where one group can present on what they are currently working on. 2. Have small social events between one or two groups (i.e manufacturing and IT), so they will mix and can discuss ideas informally. 3. If members of multiple departments have an innovative idea, give them a certain number of hours per week to work together on their idea, as well as possible seed money.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Three Most Common Reasons Employees Aren't More Productive:

1. Not paying attention - this is getting worse as meetings become more virtual. People are multi-tasking and not fully engaging with the person talking. This results in information needing to be repeated. 2. Not admitting they don't understand - this problem particularly affects workers in other countries, so it is partially cultural. The employee does not want to admit that they do not understand what they have to do, so they are reluctant to ask clarifying questions. The result is an unpleasant surprise down the road, and the company having to invest in re-doing failure work. 3. Not being able to communicate issues clearly - employees need to be able to succinctly summarize an issue, and then be able to drill down into details, depending on the type of audience. hashtagproductivity hashtagCommunication



© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Friday, October 11, 2019

Chicago Ideas Week - My Latest Chicago Business Journal Column is Out

My latest article for the Chicago Business Journal, on Chicago Ideas Week, has been published.

© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Workplace Productivity Tips

As a former start-up CEO, bank executive, and now management consultant, here are some tips for workplace productivity:

1. Streamline the on-boarding process, so new members added to a team can get assigned hardware, systems access, etc. quickly, with a minimum of paper work.

2. Build simple, localized shared spaces (such as wikis) that allow teams to quickly share information between members.

3. Eliminate long, unproductive meetings.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity® expert who drives innovation and revenue growth. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Productivity Tip for Entrepreneurs

Remove tasks from your "to do" list, and schedule them as appointments on your calendar. I learned this from my mentor, Alan Weiss. This way, when the time slot arrives, you are motivated to treat the assignment as if it were a meeting, and work on it.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity® expert who drives innovation and revenue growth. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

First Impressions Don't Matter




The conventional advice is that making a great first impression is critical. But is it?

In a Harvard Business Review article, networking expert Rich Stromback says “Everyone gets this wrong. They try to look right and sound right and end up being completely forgettable...I do not care about first impressions. I’d almost rather make a bad first impression and let people discover me over time than go for an immediate positive response."

Hotels go out of their way to make a great first impression, with attentive doormen, friendly receptionists, and chocolates on the pillow.  But, hotel executive Jeremy McCarthy says that research shows people are more influenced by peak experiences and the last impression.




© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity® expert who drives innovation and revenue growth. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Forever 21, Over Expansion, Strategic Simplicity®


One of the reasons given for hashtagforever21 's bankruptcy is over expansion.  

This, again, is an example of Strategic Simplicity® (or lack of it).  

I like to use the example of a Middle Eastern chain, based in the Chicago-area, that expanded from 2 locations to 30 by first eliminating 80% of their menu.  

Logistics, supply chains, and staffing/training become problems if you don't clean up/simplify your processes before trying to scale.

hashtagscaling hashtagretailapocalypse hashtaglogisticsmanagement


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Monday, September 30, 2019

Formula for Success


Break down problems and identify the simple, elegant solution.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Friday, September 27, 2019

Bruce Lee Quote on Limits

"If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them."



© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Should Companies Force Employees to Take A Lunch Break?

I don't think companies should force employees to take a lunch break.

As a former corporate executive, and now as a consultant, I know that workers are different, and maximum productivity occurs when they they have control over their schedule.  All employees should have the option of taking a lunch break away from their desk—without being forced to.  Some will welcome the break, while others would actually prefer to work during lunch, so that they can work at a more leisurely pace in the morning or afternoon.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

How and Why Corporations Should Team With Startups to Drive Innovation

1.  By collaborating with startups, corporations get access to cutting edge talent, fresh ideas, and an entrepreneurial environment.  The corporations themselves can never recreate this because:

   A. Their bureaucratic structure is designed for risk avoidance and delivery on a large scale, not innovation, experimentation, and quick, iterative cycles of test, fail, and succeed.

   B. Because of this structure, cutting edge talent is not attracted to corporations.


2. A lot of times, corporations are failing to engage with startups because they act as if the startup is another corporation.  For example, I know a true story of a corporation that, a couple of years ago, tried to collaborate with a hot, innovative startup in Silicone Valley.  The product would have really helped the corporation, which was losing market share to an innovative, new disruptor.  However, just before they sealed the deal, the corporation's legal department dumped a huge legal document with hundreds of pages onto the startup.  The startup neither had the resources nor the patience to deal with that, so they killed the deal.


3. A good example of a successful partnership is Coca-Cola's collaboration with startup Wonolo (an on-demand, technology-driven flexible staffing company). Coke actually helped fund them.  The secret to their success together is that:

     1. The startup had skills that Coke did not possess.  Coke's corporate structure is designed to create beverages, not run a staffing company.  However, they had a big problem because they distribute to so many outlets, many of them small.  If some of these retail points run out of product, their existing structure wasn't flexible enough to quickly provide more product.  As a result, they lost money.  Now, with Wonolo, Coke's local manager can use the app to hire flexible workers to rush Coca cola products to the retail outlet.

     2. For Wonolo, they gained funding from Coke, a large customer, and access to advisors inside the company.  What's also important is what they didn't get—micro-managed with oppressive rules and contracts.


In conclusion, the key to making collaborations work between corporations and startups is space.  The corporation can fund them and offer resources, but they need to take a hands-off approach to startups, otherwise they will eliminate the flexible, entrepreneurial, cutting-edge environment that made them attractive in the first place.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Cloud, Change Management, and ERP


As a former start-up CEO, bank executive, and now consultant, I've worked on many ERP and digital transformation projects.  In every case, I've found that most of the issues have resulted from miscommunication (on both sides) and over-complexity.  User-focused change management and on boarding was an after-thought, with user training and orientation done in one overwhelming swoop at delivery time. Developers and designers failed to fully understand the users' current work-flow in order to design critical tasks to be familiar.

Today, the cloud can make change management much more effective.  Since the cloud handles infrastructure, designers and developers are freed up to focus more on the business logic, and customization of work-flow to match the users' current method of work.  Secondly, the ease of deployment in the cloud means that mock-ups and limited-functionality demo instances can be set up during the deployment phase, so that users can be trained in phases, and provide feedback to designers while development is still taking place.


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

What’s your "Moby Dick"?

Captain Ahab was obsessed with the white whale to point of losing his ship, crew, and life. Do you have a strong obsession or passion? Can you channel it positively instead of destructively? 

hashtagstrategy hashtagdreams hashtagplanning


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Three Factors For New Product Success



Click on image to enhance.



© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Disruptive Innovation = Simplicity


Disruptive innovation = simplicity Because progress occurs by making things faster, cheaper, and easier. hashtaginnovation hashtagdisruptiveinnovation hashtagsimplicity hashtagstrategicsimplicity


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Simplicity: 21st Century Super Power

Simplicity is a super power, and the future of the 21st century's Attention scarcity age. Our creativity is sapped by complexity and having to make decisions. The amount of info in the world is increasing. To scale, we need to be able to quickly train employees and educate our customers about our products/services. Simplicity allows us to do this. hashtagsuccess hashtagsimplicity hashtagstrategicsimplicity hashtagbusiness



© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Happiness and Doing


Nothing I do makes me happy. I am just happy, and I bring that happiness to the things I do. hashtagtruth


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Data Science: Pipes and Straws


Data Management: Organizations need both fat pipes and narrow straws hashtagDataAnalytics hashtagdatascience

© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

How to Have a Fulfilling Career


Having a fulfilling career: It's 20% choosing the right field and 80% finding the right company / boss. #business #hr #careermanagement


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Apps and User Settings: Use Groups

When you design an application, it is an audit and security risk to give all users access to every function.

But, there are two ways to set user access—and one of them is much better.

1. Direct user settings - For each user, you enable system settings, such as limits and access.

2. User Groups - Settings are done at the group level, and users are assigned to a group.

In my 30 years of experience, I have seen both types of applications.  From both an administrative and a security/audit point of view, the group option is always best.

Apps should be designed so that new groups can be created/modified/deleted, and users are never directly assigned any settings.

As the number of settings becomes complex, the group model is even more important.  It is easier to track one group for each user, then having to track multiple settings per user.

For example, if you have 30+ different settings and, for a user, you need to temporarily give them a higher level of permission for one function, it is easy to forget to set the value back, and hard for auditing to catch it.

However, if you create a new group, with "temp until XX/XX/XXXX" in the name,  set the permission here, and change the user's group to this new group, it is much easier to track.

© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Disney is the Master of Synergy


They have perfected the system of transforming their intellectual property (such as Marvel, Star Wars, or Disney Princesses) into multiple products and services, and using them to cross-promote each other. Their main engines are the Disney Channel and their theme parks. Whenever they acquire a new franchise (such as Marvel), they can create movies, merchandise, rides, TV specials, etc. and they can promote them to viewers of the Disney Channel and visitors to the theme parks. Every product and service strengthens the brand, and makes it more likely that a customer will consume another product. hashtagsynergy hashtagdisney hashtagstrategy


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

"net" = "not entirely true"

'Let’s start with this warning: The acronym "net" stands for not entirely true. Anyone on the human side of the web can say anything at any time for any reason.' 

- Don Lancaster, back in 1997 (even more true today)


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

ALL Companies Are Now Tech Companies...and Need A High-Level IT Strategy

As a former start-up CEO, bank executive, and now strategy consultant, I know that ALL companies are now tech companies. While there are plenty of vendors who provide app design and cloud services, I find that the one thing that companies need, above all else, is a high level IT strategy. Too often, I have seen that companies, and their vendors, focus on tactics (the How?), like apps or website design, without thinking about strategy (the Why? and What?). To really grow your business with technology, you need alignment between the business and the technology. Unfortunately, many consultants in IT strategy work for, or are aligned, with vendors, so they focus on fitting the strategy to their pet technology. However, there are independent consultants out there, such as myself, who don't align with vendors or specific technologies, and stay unbiased. hashtagcloudservices hashtagitstrategy hashtagconsulting hashtagerp


© 2019 Praveen Puri

Strategic Simplicity®: Praveen Puri helps clients identify the key changes that result in dramatic improvement. Visit PuriConsulting.com