Ian, I will just go ahead and jump in here and say that I like your proposal. I think it would be well worth it to pursue an update of the strategic marketing plan (it is the first item on the to do list and should remain there). I believe I've noted elsewhere (and others as well I think) that the SMP could use a little more refinement to ensure alignment throughout it and to take it to the next level of creating some actionable objectives and goals.
Likewise, that should then flow into the communications and work of the volunteers. For example, there has been some discussion about the organization of the wiki. I would suggest that the areas/topics should align with what is in the SMP (whether it is updated/reviewed as proposed or not). Most, if not everything done by the MP, should be able to trace its way back to something in the SMP. One objection might be, what about volunteers who want to do something not in the SMP. I think they can be accomodated as well, e.g the incubator section or something similar. But for those that want to work the plan, it needs to be clear what that is, what needs to be done, and the status of the items. Thanks for reading, Jeff Causey On Wednesday February 08 2006 11:10, Ian Lynch wrote: > The recent EE thread highlights some difficulties we have on the list so > a bit of background rationale and then a proposal. > > My area of expertise - what I get paid to do professionally is to > evaluate management in education organisations, write development plans > for them - and their funding is dependent on the quality of them - and > to help turn round organisations deemed by government inspections to be > failing. I do this on a free-lance basis and I guess if I was no good at > it no-one would pay me. I'm no good at graphics, haven't the time to > code these days and I'm constantly pressed for time. My wife thinks I'm > quite mad spending time on this list - you might of course agree :-) > > Apart from paid work I am the only native English speaker in the > EuroLinux project so do a lot of editing, I am the main point of contact > for the Open Source community with UK Government for education with > regular formal meetings and a founder member founder of SchoolforgeUK. I > want this project to work but feel that if I say anything about > improvement its likely to be taken as some sort of attack on someone. > Please take the stuff below in the spirit its intended. Its supposed to > be helpful, not a criticism of anyone. Its my area of professional > knowledge, the way I feel I can make a contribution. If you thnk its > worthless, I can live with it and we can resume the status quo. > > What are the strategic priorities of the Marketing Project and does > everyone know them? I just looked at the Exec summary of the Marketing > Plan and the To do list and I can't easily find say the 3/4 most > important things that must happen if the plan is to work. Steven is new > and from a marketing background. Is it easy for him to know what the > overarching goals are? Is every Marcon aware of what it says in the > Marketing Plan about them? Ok, easy to identify problems but what to do > about them? > > 1. Agree the central strategic goals > 2. Communicate them regularly and clearly > 3. Lower the barriers to contribution > > (There is a good start on 3 now with the wiki) > > So what do I mean by central strategic goals? > > Things like: > Achieving X% market share by 2010 > Raising money to finance key aspects of the project > Establishing good communications with developers to ensure market > considerations affect the development output > Increasing the quantity and quality of the contributions from volunteers > > Ok, other people might have different ideas those are just examples, but > key strategy issues is to me what the list should be discussing and not > detail that can be just implemented in the Wiki. Discussions need to > come to clear conclusions and decisions recorded and implemented. Anyone > starting a new thread should be prepared to moderate it and summarise it > with the actions to be taken. > > At the moment there is a big long list of To Dos without any real > connection between most of them, so many its difficult to see the wood > for the trees and looks like too big a mountain to climb. That will put > off prospective volunteers. > > Let me anticipate an objection. "This is an Open Source Project we don't > do strategic managment in that way". I don't know any successful > organisations of any size that do not have key strategies backed by > SMART targets (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, > Time-Constrained) assigned to individuals. > > There are some broad SMART targets buried deep in the marketing plan > associated with overall market share but that's about it. We need > process targets in order to get to the final objectives. Process targets > that underpin the outcome but without someone taking responsibility for > them nothing will happen. > > Another objection: We are doing fine as we are we have lots of > successes. > > I agree, OOo has penetrated global markets quite well and a lot of hard > work has gone into it - there are many heros in the project but does > that mean we can't improve or do things better? There are no gaurantees > that anything will work, but some methods generally do work better than > others which is why companies put such great store on investing money on > improving management through training etc. > > My suggestion is that the Marketing Leads Lead a thread on strategic > management to make clear the central strategic goals and that in any > debate they actively "Chair" the meeting to keep it on topic, away from > emotional personal outbursts or deviations into detail not directly > under-pinning strategy. They then summarise the outcomes and a > manageable number of tasks that underpin these asking Marcons and > specific people to take responsibility for them. This then becomes the > headline for the front page of the Wiki. > > Regards, -- Jeffrey G. Causey, CPA, CAPM President Strategic Innovations, Inc. 336-675-1652 www.strategic-innovations-inc.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
