July’s thought leadership webinar was led by Timothy Bosco, Senior Vice President of Investor Services at Brown Brothers Harriman.
Read more FinTech insights from Bosco here.
Register for our next thought leadership webinar, The State of FinTech, here.
Access other GPS thought leadership webinars here.
The following blog post was written by Timothy Bosco, Senior Vice President of Investor Services at Brown Brothers Harriman. Tim will be hosting a webinar on this topic on Thursday, July 28 at 2 p.m. EDT (rsvp here).
It’s that dexterity large organizations envy most. In fact, there probably isn’t a corporate innovation team out there that hasn’t, at some point, incorporated the “fail fast” mantra into their lexicon.
Large companies also recognize that many of the same factors that threaten a startup’s success can impact their own product strategies to the same degree – technology can evolve overnight, customer preferences are fickle, funding is always limited, and new competition can spring up from anywhere at any time.
The difference for startups, though, is that they have the most to lose by ignoring signals to fail fast. In most cases, it is their survival instincts that draw out the entrepreneurial resiliency needed to bootstrap success even if that means setting aside their original ambitions.
Pinterest is one of many great examples of a startup that was forced to abandon its initial plan only to architect an even bigger opportunity. In 2009, the founders of Pinterest initially attempted to launch the very first mobile-enabled shopping application called Tote. Despite strong customer demand, retailer support, and adequate seed funding, the idea never took off because of the relative immaturity of mobile payment technologies. Instead of doubling down and waiting for payment technologies catch up, Tote switched gears and relaunched a much simpler application that kick started a new visual social network phenomenon. It turns out that Pinterest is among the most likely IPO candidates in 2016 with an anticipated $11 billion valuation.2
While large companies can’t necessarily manufacture the competitive environments that shape actual startup behaviors, there is still a lot they can learn from successful entrepreneurs about staying lean, focused, and in control of new product innovation. The following table outlines a few key success factors commonly found among startups that reinvented themselves early in their lifecycles.
Adopting Successful Startup Strategies
Within the corporate context, these startup strategies also suggest an ideal investment profile for mitigating risk. The minimum and maximum ranges depicted below illustrate the relative levels of investment in terms of both time and money throughout the product development cycle.
Creating the Right New Product Investment Profile
It clearly takes both practical decision making and an unconditional commitment to make it big as a startup. The people who run them are responsible for every detail, every success, and every failure. It is that entrepreneurial perspective that guides startups to fail fast. For that reason, established companies must understand the importance of empowering their product teams to own their decisions about how to incorporate failure before it gets expensive or even worse… before it becomes destructive.
1 Forbes, 90% of Startups Fail: Here’s What You Need to Know About the 10%, January 2015.
2 Nasdaq, Is Pinterest a Top IPO Candidate for 2016?, December 2015.
This blog post was originally published on Brown Brothers Harriman’s Insights blog on May 6, 2016. RSVP to Tim’s webinar, What Can Established Companies Really Learn from FinTech Startups, here.
SPOTLIGHT ON JOBS
Members of the Brandeis GPS Community may submit job postings from within their industries to advertise exclusively to our community. This is a great way to further connect and seek out opportunities as they come up. If you are interested in posting an opportunity, please complete the following form found here.
Where: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Membership Operations in Arlington, VA
About: HIMSS is a global, cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on better health through information technology (IT). HIMSS leads efforts to optimize health engagements and care outcomes using information technology. HIMSS produces health IT thought leadership, education, events, market research and media services around the world. Founded in 1961, HIMSS encompasses more than 61,000 individuals, of which 79% work in healthcare provider, governmental and not-for-profit organizations across the globe, plus over 640 corporations and 400 not-for-profit partner organizations, that share this cause. HIMSS, headquartered in Chicago, serves the global health IT community with additional offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Position: Manager, Membership Operations
Consider joining the talented staff at HIMSS as Manager, Membership Operations as we transform health through information technology. In this newly-created position, you will provide management of the day-to-day operations of Continua and Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHA) programs. This position works in concert with the Executive Director of Continua to ensure that members derive value from their memberships and that the duties of the organization are fulfilled. Responsibilities include direct member contact to resolve day-to-day and complex issues, development of membership retention strategies, planning and execution of events, support for the PCHA Board of Directors, general operations, and assistance with budgets and strategic planning.
Requirements:
Interested candidates should apply using the HIMSS careers site here.
Make sure to reference seeing this position through the Brandeis GPS job spotlight post.
Not subscribed to our blog?
SPOTLIGHT ON JOBS
Members of the Brandeis GPS Community may submit job postings from within their industries to advertise exclusively to our community. This is a great way to further connect and seek out opportunities as they come up. If you are interested in posting an opportunity, please complete the following form found here.
Where: Mathworks, 3 Apple Hill Drive, Natick, MA 01760
About: Founded in 1984 and privately held, Mathworks is the leading developer of mathematical computing software. Engineers and scientists worldwide rely on its products to accelerate the pace of discovery, innovation, and development.
MATLAB and Simulink, two products developed by Mathworks, are used throughout the automotive, aerospace, communications, electronics, and industrial automation industries as fundamental tools for research and development. They are also used for modeling and simulation in increasingly technical fields, such as financial services and computational biology. MATLAB and Simulink enable the design and development of a wide range of advanced products, including automotive systems, aerospace flight control and avionics, telecommunications and other electronics equipment, industrial machinery, and medical devices. More than 5000 colleges and universities around the world use MATLAB and Simulink for teaching and research in a broad range of technical disciplines.
Mathworks employs over 3000 people, with 30% located outside of the US.
Position: Senior Software Program Manager
As a Sr. Software Program Manager on the MATLAB Team, you will be part of a highly skilled, dedicated team focused on delivering challenging, high value programs. You will join a growing team that nurtures individual growth, appreciates diversity, encourages initiative, values teamwork, shares success, and rewards excellence.
Responsibilities
The Software Program Manager is a member of the software development management team and supports the planning and execution of multiple projects or programs in support of the continuing evolution of our flagship product, MATLAB. Responsibilities include:
•Partnering with extended software development teams to help them plan, track and execute complex, cross organizational programs while maintaining focus on building the right things at the highest levels of quality.
•Performing program analysis, manage risk, identify and influence necessary course corrections, creatively solve problems, and communicate program status and activities across multiple levels of management.
•Continuously assessing and improving the processes that comprise the software development lifecycle and mentor/coach other members of the Program Management and Product Development Teams.
Position Qualifications:
Minimum
•A bachelor’s degree and 3 years of professional work experience (or a master’s degree) is required.
Additional
•Experience in developing commercial software products
•Outgoing, highly organized, persistent, and tenacious; able to deal with uncertainty and change
•Ability to influence others in order to get things done, even when you have no direct line of authority over them.
•Expertise in providing cross-organizational management of software development programs from initiation through delivery
•Hands-on experience with developing and reporting on metrics for engineering development, test development and execution, bugs, issues, risks, and other aspects of project and program management
•Experience with MATLAB Products
If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume and CV to:
Erin Seiden
erin.seiden@mathworks.com
508-647-2280
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
By Ariel Garber
Brandeis Graduate Professional Studies hosted the Analytics 360 Symposium on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at Brandeis University. The symposium took a look at using analytics to guide strategic, operational and tactical decisions specifically in the areas of education, healthcare and business.
The sessions covered a wide range perspectives within the analytics field, from The Open Data Analytics Initiative, to 10 Steps to Tracking Engagement and Influence Online, to A Holistic Approach to Being Data Science Driven.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Robert Carver, award-winning Professor of Business Administration at Stonehill College as well as Adjunct Professor at the International
Business School at Brandeis University.
Other sessions included The Application of Analytics in the Student’s Academic Lifecycle session led by Leanne Bateman, Faculty Chair for Strategic Analytics at Brandeis University and Principal Consultant for Beacon Strategy Group, a Boston-based management firm specializing in project management services.
Other speakers, including professors, leading executives, and researchers, focused on topics such as publicity, e-learning, and big data. Alan Girelli spoke on The Open Data Analytics Initiative, with a comparative discussion of Learning Analytics (a link to his presentation is available here). Girelli is the Director of the Center for Innovation and Excellence in eLearning (CIEE) and has taught online, on-ground, and blended writing and instructional design courses at the graduate and undergraduate level for UMass Boston, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and ITT Technologies.
We want to extend a big thank you to our panelists, Rob Carver, Leanne Bateman, David Dietrich, Shlomi Dinoor, Alan Girelli, Haijing Hao, and John McDougall. The event was sponsored by Basho, Soft10, Brandeis International Business School, EMC and E-Learning Innovation.
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
by Ariel Garber
The development of learning analytics will help shape a new model for teaching and learning, creating a system that provides insight and information to support student success. The field of learning analytics, defined by EDUCAUSE, is “deciphering trends and patterns from educational big data, or huge sets of student-related data, to further the advancement of a personalized, supportive system of higher education.” Learning analytics evaluates student behavior in order to determine learning efficiency, creating conversations with students about learning strategies and how well they feel learning has occurred. Technology allows us to study learning experiences through the capture and analysis of learning and performance data.
“Analytics provides a new model for college and university leaders to improve teaching, learning, organizational efficiency, and decision making and, as a consequence, serve as a foundation for systemic change,” said George Siemens and Phil Long in their article about learning analytics.
A key feature of learning analytics is its learning-centric focus, analyzing student performance outside of the classroom in order to gain a new understanding of the efficiency of students, teachers and the curriculum. Beyond basic retention and completion, learning analytics produces students with both inquiry and analysis focus and critical and creative thinking skills.
The implementation of learning analytics requires restructuring academic institutions, to include re-evaluating the flow of data between departments, increasing personal student support, reshaping course design, delivery and more. These changes will be felt by the faculty, students and the institution as a whole. Collaborative and creative leadership is essential in fostering an academic environment that can support and utilize learning analytics.
The Online Instructional Design & Technology program at Brandeis GPS offers foundational skills through the study of instructional design principles, educational technology, and adult learning theories. Students gain the experience needed to solve a variety of instructional challenges and, ultimately, create and deliver high-quality online programs and interactive courseware.
In large part because of the continuous growth in online programs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data demonstrates that jobs in instructional design and technology have grown 20.8% since 2004, and project above average growth as high as 20% for instructional design jobs between 2010 and 2020. In the next four years alone, the bureau projects over 36,000 new jobs will become available in instructional design and technology.
This reveals the growing forum for learning analytics and Strategic Analytics, also offered at Brandeis Graduate Professional Studies. Brandeis GPS is hosting an Analytics 360 Symposium on Wednesday, April 8, 2015 from 9am-4:30pm at Hassenfeld Conference Center of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
The day-long symposium will focus on promoting a discussion of the growing field of analytics and how organizations can leverage big data to make more strategic decisions. Panelists will engage in a conversation that places analytics in the context of big data, education, health, marketing and business.
Register here for the Analytics 360 Symposium on April 8, 2015 at Brandeis University. The cost for NERCOMP members is $135 and the cost for non-members is $265. Submit this form to learn more about special pricing available to members of the Brandeis community. For more information, email analytics360@brandeis.edu or call 781-736-8786. You can also find us on Twitter using #GPSAnalytics.
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
by: Johanna Rothman
I bet you have some problems that have been problems for a while. Or, you want to influence other people to change. You need an environment of leadership, because you can’t do it alone.
Here are three tips to creating an environment where everyone can lead:
Tip #1: Share the problem.
When I work with technical and managerial leaders, I find that they have this idea that they are not supposed to share problems. They may have a boss who believes that once he or she delegates the problem, that unique individual must solve it alone. Or, they might 
feel as if it’s not fair to share the problem–that somehow people will take time from their work to help with “my” problem. Or, they have never considered that much transparency.
You can’t ask for help on all problems. Sometimes, when you are a manager, you need to keep HR-type problems private. Maybe you have a fiduciary responsibility to the company, and you can’t share that data.
But, here’s an idea: if you have this problem, chances are quite good other people know about the effects of the problem. You are not the only one living with this problem.
Kim, a program manager, could not understand how to help her teams. They could not discover their interdependencies in time to know when to develop which features. She wrestled with this problem for a couple of weeks.
At our coaching appointment, I suggested she raise the issue to the team leads. She could say, “I see this problem, and here is the effect it’s having on me. Can we solve this together?”
She did. The team leads also felt the pain. They decided to reduce their planning scope, planning for no longer than a month at a time. They used stickies on the wall to see their interdependencies and create interim milestones. As a side benefit, they had to reduce their story size to meet their milestones.
Tip #2: Ask for multiple solutions.
Notice that the team leads helped solve the problem in several ways:
If they had implemented just one of these solutions, they might not have solved the problem.
Tip #3: Ask for help assessing solutions.
Some of the leads wanted to implement their solutions right away. Adam, one of the leads said, “Hold on. I want to see if this is going to work with my team. I’m not sure we can reduce our story size. Let’s involve more people.”
When he shared the proposals with his team, sure enough they were concerned about story size. One of the team members said, “We need to work with our product owner to 
understand how to split our stories better. We can’t do this alone.”
It took them several iterations to learn how to split stories small enough that they could commit to their interdependencies. The team might have resented the solution if Adam had not checked with the team first.
Share your leadership. You will create an environment where everyone leads.
If you liked these leadership tips, learn more at The Influential Agile Leader. Gil Broza and I create a safe learning environment where you can experiment. We teach experientially, so you have a chance to practice and reflect on what you learn. Please join us at The Influential Agile Leader. The early bird price expires Feb 15.
I’ll be at the Booster Conference March 9-13. I have several workshops and talks:
See my calendar page for all my workshops and speaking dates.
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
The need for talented software engineers is clear.
“I think if you talk to just about any company around here that has an engineering organization, they’re going to talk about howdifficult it is to hire good software engineers,” said Kevin Murray, director of talent acquisition at soon-to-IPO e-commerce giant Wayfair, in a previous interview with BostInno.
A key to becoming one of those good software engineers, however, is to be on the pulse of emerging trends, and the software space is no stranger to change.
Take Cambridge-based distributed database technology company NuoD
B, which recently raised$14.2 million to help legacy 3D modeling software leader Dassault Systèmes transfer to the cloud. The 33-year-old company — creator of everything from sustainable wind turbines to an Airbus — has started shifting its focus to software as a service, meaning the need to shift to the cloud was necessary if they wanted to keep up with manufacturing demands.
NuoDB is now assisting Dassault Systèmes in making that move, and is expected to start helping several other companies do the same. As Barry Morris, NuoDB founder and CEO, explained to BostInno, “Thousands of companies are in a similar situation to Dassault Systèmes in that they historically would have sold software. But that software needs to be able to run on the cloud.” To Morris, the move is a no-brainer, particularly because it boasts “economic benefits to the vendor and to the user.” After all, gone are the days of needing hardware and data center space, or shelling out cash for up-front costs. Instead, software can be integrated to the cloud with a few simple clicks at a relatively low price point. Once it’s there, Morris added, applications can start integrating with other cloud-based applications, thereby adding value and sparking more business.
Customer Relationship Management software provider Salesforce forced itself to move to the cloud, and is allegedly succeeding.
All-in-one inbound marketing software giant HubSpot is forging a forward-thinking path, as well. The local leader is currently beginning its IPO process, and saw a 50 percent jump in revenues in 2013.
That achievement stated, who better to ask for emerging trends than HubSpot’s VP of Engineers Elias Torres? He gave BostInno the inside scoop on where software engineers should focus their attention, as well as helpfully highlighted how HubSpot is innovating around those trends.
Per Torres:
- JavaScript and single-page web applications using Backbone.js, Ember.js or Angular.js. At HubSpot, we’ve completely shifted all client-side development from Python/Django to Backbone.js and are gearing up for the future to make sure we can keep using JavaScript on the server-side to create isomorphic applications using node.js.
- PaaS and the shift from virtual machines to containerized applications. The cost of managing static server allocations will force companies to look at containers and cluster management services such as Docker, Apache Mesos or CoreOS. HubSpot deploys 300 times a day on a minimal number of server instances by using Apache Mesos.
- DevOps is empowering engineering organizations to balance speed and product reliability. HubSpot does not differentiate between engineers and operators. We have created a release practice that minimizes roadblocks to customer satisfaction through better release and configuration management.
At the end of the day, customer satisfaction is key. One way to ensure customers are satisfied, however, is by repeatedly innovating and ensuring the product being delivered reflects the best of what’s happening in the ever-evolving field. Aspiring software engineers, take note.
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
James Curtiss | @JamesCurtiss2
This post originally appeared on the Sales section of Inbound Hub. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.
Leadership can be a difficult characteristic to understand. Which qualities make someone a good leader? Do those same qualities translate to all aspects of life, or can a person successfully lead a sports team but fail in the boardroom? Are people born leaders, or can anyone inspire others to follow them?
I won’t pretend to know the answers to these questions, and I doubt that many people do.
But when I think about what it takes to be an effective leader, I am invariably reminded of late summer conversations with my grandfather on the deck of his home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. We talked about anything and everything together — from the current state of Red Sox Nation to the most effective technique for shucking the cherrystone clams we collected earlier that day. But, on occasion, the discussion would drift towards more business-oriented topics and I got a free lesson in leadership studies from one of the very best.
To provide a little background, Don Davis, my grandfather, left a distinguished career in corporate America in 1988 to pursue his “retirement” as a professor at MIT’s Leaders for Global Operations program. During his 22-year tenure at the school, he shared the lessons he learned from his time in business and inspired more than a few of today’s most influential leaders.
As I am sure any of his former students will tell you, it would be nearly impossible to boil down all of his lessons into a single blog post. Fortunately, those same students were kind enough to compile a Memory Book after he passed away in order to share some of his most important teachings, namely the 20 leadership mantras that were core to his curriculum.
Here are those 20 mantras, along with some insight from our Martha’s Vineyard discussions. (For a more personal explanation of how these mantras helped various students succeed in business, you can find the Memory Book in its entirety here.)
One cannot simply choose to lead a group of people. You may be a leader in title, but you’re not a legitimate leader if your followers do not believe in you and your vision.
If you don’t have the trust and respect of your followers, how are you supposed to make the connection necessary to inspire them to achieve great things?
There is no scientific formula for what makes a good leader, only a belief in your own ability as well as the ability of your followers to be successful.
Needless to say, effective leadership requires a certain amount of authority. Like most forms of capital, that power is finite. Use it sparingly and only when necessary.
Anyone can have a vision. Leaders have the ability to persuade others to believe in their vision.
As a leader, you set the example. Don’t do anything that you wouldn’t want printed on the cover of the New York Times. Your followers are avid readers.
Unethical behavior is a slippery slope. Avoid the slope at all costs because everyone slips.
A true leader cares more about the success of his/her followers than their own success.
If you’re going to praise someone, do it big. If you’re going to reprimand, make sure it is warranted and do so in a respectful manner.
As a leader, your job is to inspire the entire group. No single person is bigger than the group, not even the leader.
How can you inspire someone if you don’t know what motivates them?
It may be a bit cliché, but at the end of the day, followers are human beings. Don’t lose sight of that reality.
Every problem, obstacle, or issue has a different solution. Different perspectives make it much easier to identify the right solution.
Leader and teacher are synonyms, even if the Thesaurus tool in Microsoft Word doesn’t agree.
Procrastination isn’t always a negative tendency. Don’t jump to conclusions. Sometimes you just have to give the problem time to work itself out.
Believe in your ability to identify the right talent. It’s your vision, so you should be able to recognize when a person embodies that vision.
This goes back to the mutual respect and trust that must exist between a leader and follower. Don’t undermine that mutual respect via manipulation. You’ll lose followers.
You may be a leader, but you’re not omniscient. Don’t pretend to be.
Don’t try to jam a square peg in a circular hole. Work with your team to figure out a way to round the edges of the peg so it fits properly.
Potential is limitless and everyone has the ability to contribute to the success of a particular vision. It all depends on how strongly they believe in that vision.
There is no recipe for what makes a good leader, but these mantras can provide valuable guidelines. I wouldn’t trade those talks on the deck for anything.
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
By: Phil Holberton, Adjunct Faculty at Brandeis Graduate Professional Studies, and President & CEO of Speaking of Leadership®
As team leaders, we evaluate our team members and expect them to do the job up to our standards. Sometimes our standards are out of sync with their ability or training. After all, 
these individuals have not traveled in the same shoes as we have and may not have the skills or cognitive preparation to achieve what we expect. Therefore coaching becomes an integral part of helping teams grow to the next level.
In my experience, the most effective leaders shine when they are helping others day in and day out. This is where coaching enters the picture. Those team leaders who are really performing up to their capability (in a leadership capacity) are consistently coaching their colleagues (and not trying to micro-manage their activities). Individuals don’t appreciate being managed. But, they are more open to coaching if the coach immediately establishes his or her desire to help the individual meet their established goals.
The first and most important coaching skill is to be in the moment, not distracted by six different things on your mind. Coaching is about respect for each other. There is no more predictable way to show lack of respect as not being “present” or “engaged” during a conversation. I once had a boss whose eyes would become “fish eyes” during our conversations. Do you think I was being heard? Do you think I respected him?
Secondly, a good coach (team leader) will seek to understand by asking open-ended, empowering questions. It is very difficult to understand what is going on in someone else’s head if we ask simple yes/no questions. Questions need to be open-ended so we fully understand the complexity of an individual’s state of mind.
A third critical skill is the need for the coach to suspend judgment and remain reflective and objective. Being contemplative shows that you understand the thoughts or feelings in 
the conversation. These first three skills will help develop understanding, balance, and respect—all very important ingredients in a successful coaching relationship.
The fourth critical skill is affirming the conversation. This action brings into focus the individual’s desire to move ahead, whether it’s an improvement in performance or learning new skills and growing as a professional or human being. These skills, when practiced and used daily, will help you become the most effective leader imaginable.
Help your team grow. Be a coach not a just a team leader or boss.
Reblogged from: http://holberton.com/helping-your-teams-grow-through-coaching/
Click here to subscribe to our blog!
© 2023 Brandeis GPS Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Brandeis University | Blogs @ Brandeis | Write a Blog
Welcome Guest | Login (Brandeis Members Only)
