Measures of Success

With $8000 in my proverbial pocket, I started dialling some Wine Reps.

I had an idea in mind. The bottle shop needed to cater the 1-5 bottle market, the real convenience of the bottle shop is that a Member could grab a bottle or two on their way to the car. Mostly, people aren't carrying a case to the car, some will but not the core.

The other idea I had was that the primary objective of the bottle shop was to increase membership of the Officers' Mess.

My thoughts on achieving the latter is to expose as many people to the services and at each point offer them a reason to join. In the case of a bottle shop, offer great prices to everyone to increase exposure but at every turn a nagging discount that quickly makes it worthwhile.

But what are the measures of success?
Well we can talk about return on investment, but as a not for profit we really only need to cover the reorder cost of the wine. Maximising profit is actually contra to the core mission of the Mess Committee.

Mess Membership is a poor indicator as there are close to infinite influences.

So then what?

Well the irrational part of me suggests that as good a measurement as any is for it to stock particularly great wines, namely:
Penfolds Bin 407
Elderton Command
Samuel's Gorge Grenache
Teusner Joshua
St Hallett Old Block
Kellermeister Sable

But, even more importantly, to discover new great wines, but that is another tale...
What would your measures of success be? What would your wines of choice be?

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If you build it...

On the 28th of April 2o1o, the Officers' Mess Committee approved a proposal to take over the dilapidated and run down bottle shop facility. In all fairness it wasn't the bottle shop that was dilapidated or run down, but just the stock and the interest.

Without knowing the specifics of the history of bottle shop, I know that the management of it was contracted out. This not only included staffing it, but buying the stock and pricing it. It is difficult to expect a commercial entity to put its capital into Wine on the shelf with limited expectation of a return on investment. Thus begins a downward spiral (invest less money, offer worse deals, nobody comes etc etc)

In many ways it makes sense that the Committee owns the stock. The capital that they have belongs to the Members, the wines bought with it represents a provision of a service to those Members and if profit is only an enabling motive then the Committee makes different decision about investment. This is not a pure ROI problem...

The primary goal of the Committee is to service its Member's needs, a measure of success is the membership ratio (number of Members/number of potential Members). Profit simply acts as an enabler to this effect. Probably not worth pointing out that Lean and Six Sigma doesn't work here...

The Committee agreed to the proposal to relieve the Contractor of their contractual obligation to stock the bottle shop, and this was a mutually beneficial situation due to the unanticipated incentives discussed. The approved budget was $8000 to stock the bottle shop, now the challenging bit began

Into the Breach

The first of my events as the Wine Officer was the Capital Wines Tasting, well it wasn't the first thing I had done in the role. I had been to meetings, I had been to a Wine Appreciation Dinner (Clovely Estate), I had scheduled events with some of my friends (you will hear about them as they come to pass) and I had ended up hosting the De Bortoli Tasting, but nose to tail the first gig I had was the Capital Wines Tasting.

Now timing can be everything, the first cold weekend in Canberra, the weekend after ANZAC Day... Everyone goes to ground. Straight home, do not pass go, do not stop for free booze!

That told the story, the wines showed well (although the reds opened up with a little warmth) and while I am sure that Jen would've nearly overfilled the room with personality... it doesn't make for a good event if the people don't come...

Things didn't bode well for the Eden Road Wine Tasting

2010: A belated beginning

I started this post on 17 Jan 2010, but life got in the way... It went a little something like

In the week of heading back to work for 2010 after a generous 2 month holiday, I figure it is time to declare the goals of 2010. I realise this is a little premature given that I haven't reported back on 2009, but I will catch that up in the coming weeks.

This will be a series of posts as I explain the reasons for the goal and how I plan to achieve them, but for now the 2010 Goals:

Health: Waist circumference <= 100cm

Reading: The Bible

Cooking: Sauces and Beer

Finance: Improve my net position by 10%

Family: Spend Quality Time with Hayden and Julie

Study: Finish my 2nd and 3rd Masters Degrees and take my longest break from study since Pre School

I am sure I would've explained a little rationale behind the goals, instead I have drifted along a path. As always, I can't help but think I am exactly where I should be.

Early in the year, I became aware that there was a position on the Canberra Officers' Mess Committee as the Wine Officer. And given that wine is something that I am passionate about, I decided to take it on. The role of the Wine Officer is to nurture the appreciation of Wine among members and provide opportunities to access great drops.

Some of the ways that we this had previously been achieved is through a combination of tastings, Wine Appreciation Dinners and through a bottle shop service. Although only remnants of the Dinners and a shadow of a bottle shop remained.

I will aim to describe the Wine Officer's journey through this Blog over the coming weeks/months.

But before I sign off an update on the original goals:

Health: Start 115cm - Now 105cm

Reading: Not Started

Cooking: Not Started

Finance: Improved by 7.5%

Family: What does that mean?

Study: Two assignments and two subjects remaining in MSysEng

New Goals:

Health: Spend 45mins/day exercising averaged over the week

So What?

A piece of advice that I was once given asked me to develop an argument in light of the question "So What?" It is apparent to me that my last post did not develop the argument. So allow me to divert.

A favourite monthly read for me is Wired magazine. It was in the September edition that an article (Good Enough) caught my attention more than most. This article discusses the emergence of technology that is in a traditional sense inferior to what is offered in the market. ">Robert Capps cites Skype, Kindle, netbooks, text advertising, Google SketchUp and the Predator.

The sense of inferiority is something similar to "Keeping up with the Jones", some inspired efforts from a bygone era of consumerism and capitalism that exists today. The age of getting the latest incremental upgrade now featuring 1080p HDTV embedded into your washing machine. As a self-confessed geek, it is a hard argument to make that the latest tech doesn't need to be acquired but there is an element of needing the new extension or simply having the need defined to keep a marketing company in business (I think this may be a rabbit hole which incorporates Joss Whedon and my hatred of Reality TV).

The technological leaps that need to be followed and are advocated in the "Good Enough" article are those that enable accessibility, availability and are often "Like Free". This approach to a redefined quality is intuitive to the current generation (I would like to avoid citing Zs and Ys but I hope you take my meaning), they have seen and value the emergence of the technologies that are mentioned above. It is harder to break the old definitions of quality in generations (individuals?) who don't intuitively understand tech like Twitter.

Where this diversion refers back to the "So What?" is the MQ1 Predator, this is a product provided in a framework that is the antithesis of "good enough". Airworthiness and Military are frameworks that are inherently (and often for the best) conservative, but unmanned vehicles have found a gap in the frameworks. Put most simply, the airworthiness frameworks relax somewhat once the vehicle becomes light and reduces passengers to a minimum (i.e. 0). The military gets very excited when the platform can be available all the time.

Now the implementation of unmanned vehicles can be achieved by the old and bold methods (applying every standard required for Civil/Military aircraft) or an innovative approach can be applied by those who intuitively understand "Good Enough". To implement the former will continue trends of procurement overruns (schedule & cost) and allow others the opportunity to implement air power on a scale that can achieve greater mass for the same price.

There is a balance required, which ought to be achieved by an 'Up or Out' policy ensuring that fresh ideas and bodies are moving through the rigid structures to make sure it is the best and most innovative it can be

You Might Be In a Cult if...

• There are rituals that validate the hierarchy
• Everyone wears the same clothes
• There is one true way
• When the one true way fails, it is always due to a lack of faith
• Dissent is treated as a lack of faith
• Information is controlled

Sound familiar?

Time of the year

It is performance appraisal time... and boy do I not enjoy it! Now there is always the uncomfortableness (yes, that is now a word) with the difficult conversations but that is not what I dislike about it. I find that our system puts a lot of weight on the 'score' that the individuals get irrespective of the corresponding word picture that describes the mark.  Now the reason that the score matters is that the performance appraisal is the sole input to the promotion system, which is given the first allocation of ranking (hence if you aren't above the cutoff mark... no further consideration). So a tool that is meant to be a meaningful management tool becomes the hinge to an individuals career where they are assessed on a score (which ends up being a long way from a normal distribution) which isn't related to technical mastery...

Which is why I can probably relate to this ... 

The Exchange...

As mentioned in passing and inspired by a conversation with Iain today...

Selection for the Exchange is based on the submission of a project, I am thinking Engineering and Maintenance or Business Consulting (actually am preferring a combination)... So, I am looking for ideas...

Military Matters

Those of you who have not checked out Hollowmen yet, get there!

Wednesday's episode was a classic about Defence Recruiting

Hierarchy

I recall as a high school student being allowed to do work experience at the Gympie station of the Queensland Ambulance Service. The majority of the work was mundane but I did get to spend sometime with an early form of mentor. He and I had a discussion at one point about hierarchies and how people will go and look for a 'person in charge'. he observed a similar behaviour through his experience that went something like

'... we were out at a crash scene and this was after we had change our rank insignia to all look the same. It seemed that people would go up to the oldest looking member of the team to ask questions but in fact he was only qualified as a driver and not really able to help with the queries.'

I think that hierarchies are a natural thing that we rely on and are probably linked to our idea of family that in case of emergency head toward the grey hair. But there are always exceptions known experts (medicine men), known Confidence men (Charlatans), Dominant types (Alpha) and influencers (the King's Physician). I think that these roles tie into crews but I will await Dave's thoughts to fully emerge before I come back to my application. I think that these roles run deep... and can be used in many and varied ways

With all of this in mind, I was told by a friend that when I see anything to do with the Public Sector (particularly the Military) I just zone out thinking it is not relevant? I would really like to hear some thoughts on matrix organisations and hidden hierarchies formation?

Mind you I don't think that all of the archetypes are brought out in the open when the hierarchy is ritualised it just gives you a map.