CONSULT

Helping clients to brainstorm is one of our specialties. Often, consultants will tell clients what to do. We have found that this does not work because senior managers need to fully understand a strategy before they can embrace it.

The best way to help managers and directors to understand and take ownership for new ideas is to assist them to come up with the ideas themselves. Through brainstorming sessions, we can bring the best out of your senior management team, either collectively or individually. Naturally, this only works when the CEO is genuinely trying to carve a new path to excellence.

This service is unique to Logictivity. Our Chairman, Jonar Nader, devised the Corporate Cannibalism program in response to the emerging difficulties that large organisations are facing. The advent of ‘vulture’ capitalists and takeovers, as well as increasing attacks by fierce competitors, has meant that large organisations can be toppled.

Corporate Cannibalism is mostly suitable for clients whose turnover exceeds $150 million. It is done in two parts, each lasting approximately three months. The program requires a taskforce to be formed that meets regularly to try to takeover the company either on a financial basis or through marketing initiatives. This internal raiding process is equivalent to ethical hacking (whereby White Knights are employed to secretly hack into an organisation’s computer system). The premise is that one would rather find out one’s weakness via one’s own infiltration, rather than wait for an enemy to penetrate and reveal the weaknesses — by which time it would be too late to secure the fortress.

The purpose of Corporate Cannibalism is to assist the CEO to construct a bullet-proof organisation whose corporate memory does not evaporate every time an executive leaves (as they so often do). It develops teams who work together to construct the best company possible. It focuses the organisation on the very important aspects that lead to success and market domination.

This program could cost millions of dollars to implement if external consultants were hired to undertake the study. However, Logictivity facilitates this process via the incumbent management team, saving the company several million dollars in consulting fees, and more importantly, opening the managers’ eyes to where the real opportunities exist. It creates a sense of excitement about what can be achieved when people put their minds together with a sincere determination to excel in an industry.

Thereafter, success can’t be avoided because once managers ‘see the light’, they can’t ignore it. Once they see the dangers, they can’t hide from them. Our Corporate Cannibalism program is like a double-edged sword, in that it reveals an organisation’s vulnerability while simultaneously pointing the way to a brighter future. This is a most potent formula that reveals dangers and opportunities and weaknesses and strengths.

We know of no other program that can do this in simultaneous ways. It enables executives to be logical while creative; to be cautious while courageous; to be humble while audacious. These intangible feelings cannot be generated through traditional consulting processes. No amount of lectures or reports can penetrate the hearts and minds of the decision makers in this powerful and purposeful way.

When internal troubles brew, and CEOs are genuine in their desire to create harmony in the workplace, there is nowhere for staff members to fully challenge the trouble-makers.

For example, how can a just police officer complain about a corrupt sergeant when the chief-of-police could be the corrupt gang leader?

In the work environment, people are afraid to speak up. Those who do stick their neck out, hardly know who they can trust. So it is likely that they will suffer in silence, work to rule, lose enthusiasm, feel let down, and eventually leave, while the power-hungry manipulators move on to infest other areas of the organisation.

Corporate cancer can spread quietly and thoroughly, to the point where no-one can challenge the beasts who obstruct progress and promote injustice.

Logictivity works with organisations to assist them to set-up internal and/or external Corporate Courts whose independence is similar to our civil court system. This gives employees an avenue to seek justice for their sake, and for the sake of others who are less likely to speak-up for fear of retribution. It also strikes at the heart of the perpetrators who inflict misery on the rest of the staff, thinking that they have clever ways to conceal their evil manipulative habits.

Evildoers will always win if left to fight within their own domain. That’s because in the networked world, evil triumphs over good. The worst elements will surface and smother the wholesome. This is partly due to the laws of tangibles and intangibles, and partly due to the fact that manipulators are prepared to stoop to levels that decent, ethical folk would never contemplate.

Complex organisations that do not have a Corporate Court are like cities that do not have civil courts. If you truly desire corporate peace and harmony, and more importantly, you want your corrupt evildoers to be ousted, then this method provides an avenue to do something about the corporate cancer before it infests everything in sight.

The reference to corruption not only relates to corruption in the ‘legal’ sense, but also to intimidation and harassment. The Corporate Court enables good corporate citizens to challenge those who are destroying the corporate culture.

Where do CEOs and senior managers go to have a healthy, unthreatening debate about their work? Senior managers often crave the company of peers with whom they can explore ideas and discuss challenges.

Logictivity teams clients with Corporate Confidants who act as professional sounding boards. They are third parties who do not have a conflict of interest, and who can maintain strict confidentiality.

This service is popular with entrepreneurs who need experts around them to discuss certain aspects of their projects, such as legal, marketing, sales, staffing, and social issues, as well as matters pertaining to personal drive and personal success.

When business leaders (from small and large organisations) need someone to assist them to analyse a strategy, Logictivity can help by delving into the business plans. Our biggest strength is our ability to help managers ‘ask the right questions’. Consulting and advice is useless if the recipients do not truly understand the questions at hand.

Some of our clients ask us to act as silent observers in their strategy meetings. This is especially useful when they are receiving presentations from external organisations. Some senior managers might feel more comfortable with an independent adviser who has no pecuniary interest or hidden agenda.

What can CEOs do when they are being pressured to sign-off on a substantial technology purchase? Often they are not completely conversant with the technology being discussed, and are uncomfortable about committing huge funds, yet they feel that they have no sound basis on which to challenge the assumptions.

Our consultants can assist senior managers, board members, and CEOs to understand what is being proposed. We take a look at the broader picture and explain the scenarios without using industry jargon.

Many of our clients come to us in complete confidence. They do not want anyone to know about their concerns. So much so that they prefer to pay us using their credit card because they do not want to raise a purchase-order for fear of alerting too many people to the confidential and private advice that they are receiving.

With our help, they can walk into important meetings fully armed with the facts, and fully aware of the social and business implications of a technology-driven decision. On occasions, we accompany CEOs into meetings and act as silent observers. At other times, we make presentations to the Board to bring everyone up to speed.

E-business has nothing to do with electronics in business. It has nothing to do with technology in business. E-business describes the framework for a business to succeed in the electronic, digital, networked world.

Our consultants can assist you to understand how your business can play to win in the networked world.

Beware the hype merchants who would have you invest in all sorts of new technologies, when in fact, most of that technology is useless because it does not deliver on its promise. That’s not to say that the technology is deficient, but that the ultimate responsibility for a successful organisation rests with its people, not its technology. It rests with how technology is used. If either the timing or the infrastructure is not right, then disaster is imminent. All too often the technology is then blamed, while the CEO is none the wiser.

Logictivity can assist organisations who want to survive and prosper in the networked world, by ensuring that all the key decision-makers are left in no doubt about the networked world from a social and political, as well as the technological perspective.

Many organisations do not have a clue about what e-business really means. Their first thought is to assume that e-business is all about the Internet. They fumble their way through the maze, and often falter. They blame the economy, or the competitor, or the global environment, when in fact their success and failure rests with them.

E-business has nothing to do with electronics in business. It has nothing to do with technology in business. E-business describes the framework for a business to succeed in the electronic, digital, networked world.

Our consultants can assist you to understand how your business can play to win in the networked world.

Beware the hype merchants who would have you invest in all sorts of new technologies, when in fact, most of that technology is useless because it does not deliver on its promise. That’s not to say that the technology is deficient, but that the ultimate responsibility for a successful organisation rests with its people, not its technology. It rests with how technology is used. If either the timing or the infrastructure is not right, then disaster is imminent. All too often the technology is then blamed, while the CEO is none the wiser.

Logictivity can assist organisations who want to survive and prosper in the networked world, by ensuring that all the key decision-makers are left in no doubt about the networked world from a social and political, as well as the technological perspective.

Many organisations do not have a clue about what e-business really means. Their first thought is to assume that e-business is all about the Internet. They fumble their way through the maze, and often falter. They blame the economy, or the competitor, or the global environment, when in fact their success and failure rests with them.

Logictivity works closely with the legal fraternity to provide expert witnesses in the areas of information technology.

We can assist with strategy work, briefing programs, and education programs, as well as prepare reports and/or appear in court.

We have worked on large multi-million dollar cases, as well as patent and marketing-related disputes for high-tech firms, telecommunications organisations, publishing houses, and Internet companies.

If futurists do a good job, the masses will doubt them. If they do a great job, the masses will heckle them. If they do an excellent job, the masses will hang them.

Everyone applauds innovation after it succeeds, but who has the perceptivity and foresight to discern between fleeting change and lasting change?

Innovation is a respected and revered concept. The word sits alongside ‘leadership’ and ‘customer-service’. If innovation were a brand, it would be an undisputed market leader. All managers desire innovation with the same intensity they hanker after profitability. Everyone wants it, yet few know how to generate it.

Some experts say that those who innovate will be able to ride the challenges. However, we disagree. We contend that innovation is not something that can be applied selectively. Managers cannot turn to innovation for survival. Jonar says, ‘Innovation is not a project or a program. It is a way of life. Boards cannot turn to managers and ask for innovation, no more than they can turn to them for honesty and ethics. We do not have an occasional honesty-drive. If it is to exist, honesty must be all-encompassing, all-consuming, and totally invisible, yet ever-present. Similarly, innovation must be engrained in the culture.
Unfortunately, even with intense desire, innovation is difficult to attain because it requires both intent and skill.’

By working with us, you will see why organisations do not know how to innovate. We will spell-out the obstacles and the limitations. More importantly, we will share the solutions and demonstrate how, like everything else in life, it’s easy… if you know how. Jonar adds, ‘Some people brazenly admit to not being in the business of innovation. Alas, every enterprise must learn how to innovate. Without innovation, we cannot grow. Unfortunately, many organisations confuse ‘growth’ with ‘expansion’. Growth points to infrastructural soundness, while expansion is like an inflating balloon: sooner or later… kaboom!’