Dan Feliciano -Candidate for Governor of Vermont, Strategy & Change Consultant

Vote for an Improvement and Cost Reduction Expert

2010-11-01T10:07:00.000-04:00

Most candidates running for office are saying they will improve the efficiency and productivity of the state. As professional in this area, I know that more than 50% of these "improvement efforts" actually make things worst.

"All improvement requires change, most changes don't result in improvement"

Vote for me, an experienced, expert improvement and cost reduction professional.

National Guard

2010-10-31T15:57:00.003-04:00

I was recently asked my position about our National Guard troops.

This is part of my answer.

The National Guard have a hugely important role in protecting our freedoms. During the past 2 years, I have worked as a consultant in DC, helping them the Department of Defense improve their efficiencies and effectiveness. The one message I hear repeatedly is that no one is sure how to define success in Afghanistan or Iraq. Subsequently, our fathers, uncles, brothers, and sons are dying without understanding what victory looks like.

Additionally, believe it or not we have 1.4 million active duty military personal of those, 560,000 (40%) have never been deployed to battle. Interestingly, I have many National Guard friends, who are not full time active soldiers, who have been deployed more than twice. Its my opinion, our guard forces have done enough especially considering that 560,000 (40%) have never been deployed. Its time to bring our heroes home.

Challenges for Change

2010-10-30T17:11:00.000-04:00

I was recently asked about my opinion on Challenges for Change and its affect on the school systems. First, The Challenges for Change Bill specifies the broad areas from which savings must come and identifies those outcomes which agencies and programs must achieve. The Bill states the following about the bill itself;

“Not Traditional Cost-Cutting

Although the initial impetus for the Challenges was a need for constructive ways to address part of our anticipated $154 million fiscal year 2011 budget gap, this is not a traditional cost-cutting exercise. In cutting, one starts with the way we do things today and asks: How can we reduce the cost? There is usually no consideration of the outcomes involved. The focus is on trimming inputs, e.g., the number of people involved, office equipment, travel, or other such expenses.

By contrast, this reform package starts with the desired outcomes and the amount of money Vermont can afford to spend and then asks: If we rethink how we do things, how could we improve our outcomes with this amount of money?”

In a nutshell, the bill actually demands school districts to achieve draconian cost savings targets without the support and coaching about how to achieve the cost savings.

Hence, this bill is one big boon dongle. First boon dongle mistake, the state didn’t help the school districts to define standard outcomes or how to accurately and precisely measure the outcomes. Subsequently, each school district probably had to struggle to define their own outcome measures. Not to be disparaging but, let’s be honesty here people, how many of our school board members are skilled and experienced at creating and defining “outcome” measures? That’s not what board members are typically elected to do. The odds are that most school districts have uniquely identified and unique measures for each outcome, if they have them at all.

Second boon dongle mistake (in a long list of many), the state didn’t provide the districts with the assistance or coaching about how to identify cost savings opportunities. Therefore, many school districts, using the state’s wonderful example, assumes that they have to lay off teachers and cancel programs. However, there are literally thousands of ways to cut costs besides having to lay off teachers, cancel programs, and etcetera but once again, not to be disparaging, how many of our school board members are skilled and experienced at identifying and cutting costs?

If the state is so hell bent on forcing the local school districts to cut their education costs, to compensate for the state’s inability to manage their own costs, they should minimally provide the school with standardized defined outcomes and the outcomes measures. Also, the state should provide the school districts with coaching on how to analyze, identify, and achieve cost savings without compromising that stated outcome measures. Or, at least that is what I would have done.

Dan Feliciano for Governor of Vermont

2010-10-27T21:24:00.000-04:00

As election day nears, Vermonters, you and I, need to decide who they will vote for as their next Governor.
However, before doing so, you should reflect on the past ten years. Are you more financially secure? Do you have more career options? Are you children’s education getting better? Are your children safer? Is your healthcare better? Are your parents safer and healthier?

If you can honestly answer yes to each question, go ahead vote for one of the two leading career candidates. However, if the answer to any question is, “No!” Its time to vote for a change. Time to vote for someone with a different perspective. Someone, who like you, answered, no, to most of the questions listed above.
I, like you, am frustrated paying higher taxes as each year passes. I, like you, am gravely concerned about my children's eduction. I, like you, am worried about the financial impact of skyrocketing costs of healthcare. I, like you, am worried about my parents ability to live on their current retirement incomes. Its time to vote for me, Dan Feliciano. I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I’m a Vermonter.

Now for the good news, over the years as a Strategy & Change consultant and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, I've developed a deep expertise in helping struggling organizations private and public sector (some much larger than our lovely state), decrease their costs, improve their productivity, improve their customer satisfaction and significantly increase their revenue. I know I can do the same for the Green Mountain state.

No more crazy “cost savings” antics like Challenge for Change. Where local school districts were given draconian cost savings targets without the support and coaching about how to achieve the cost savings without having to let go of teachers or compromising educational standards.

My primary goals and laser like focus as Governor will be on doing what I do best.

Cutting spending and improving productivity
Retaining and growing business
Developing a cost conscience culture
Cutting taxes
Equal rights and equal freedom for all Vermonters, all Vermonters

As Governor of Vermont, I can immediately set the wheels in motion on these goals. I will not only provide the leadership and motivation to accomplish the goals I set forth, but I also have the expertise and experience to coach and mentor our state employees through this transformation process.
More specifically, I will;

Cut spending and waste while improving productivity – No, this doesn’t necessarily mean laying off more state employees. There are thousands of other ways to cut costs without laying off people. However, before we can cut taxes, we need to get our cost structure under control.

We will reduce the cost of government including in healthcare and costly services. I’ve worked in Healthcare, specifically for the Medical College of Virginia, CIGNA Healthcare, AETNA Healthcare and & GE Healtcare. I know how healthcare operates and I know we can drive down these costs.
We will improve the productivity of our State’s services so we can handle the expected growth in jobs and businesses without adding costs or additional employees. Doing so, will enable us to cut taxes in the near future without creating a nearer-term state deficit.
Also, I will dehassel government! No more going to DMV and being treated like a buffoon. We will simplify our state operates.
We will identify and remove nonsensical barriers that the state has imposed on businesses that limit entrepreneurship and businesses growth.
However, we WILL not compromise our environment to do so nor will we compromise our spectacular quality of life.

Retain and grow our businesses by creating an infrastructure that enables businesses to grow and thrive –

We will use our existing state resources, including the Department of Economic Development, to provide or subsidize training for Vermont businesses, especially the small businesses. The businesses will can expect to receive training that will enable them to grow and thrive in financial management (especially cash flow & cost management), strategy creation, and operations management (improving quality and productivity).
And of course, they can expect a tax relief as direct result of our cost savings plan.

Develop a cost-conscious culture –

Immediately, all managers who manage a budget will be taught how to use data to develop realistic budgets, manage their budgets with an emphasis on identifying productivity improvements that will reduce costs, improve the quality and delivery speed of their operations. The managers will be held accountable for driving down the costs of their services WHILE improving their services quality, timeliness and customer satisfaction. Every state agency will have publicly monitored measurable goals that include doing their jobs better, faster, cheaper & greener.

Cut Taxes -

After we understand the true costs of running the state, right sized the budget, and decreased costs, we will cut taxes without compromising our quality of life, our financial position, our education system or our environment.

Equal rights and equal freedom for all Vermonters, all Vermonters

All Vermonters will have the right to marry!

Before you cast your hugely important vote on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, reflect upon the past ten years. Are you more financially secure? Do you have more career options? Are your children getting a better education? Is your healthcare better? Are your parents safer?
If you are significantly better off than you were ten years ago, cast your vote for one of the two leading candidates. However, if your not better off today than you were 10 years ago, if your future doesn’t look brighter, then vote for me, Dan Feliciano, Independent candidate for Governor of Vermont.

After debate comments

2010-10-05T00:25:00.002-04:00

Some people at the debate were surprised by comments that most strategies are poorly executed and unsustainable. Others couldn't understand my maniacal focus on cost reduction and execution. Our problems stem from spending. Spending drives the need for taxes. High taxes stifle economic growth.

"If we don't control the State's spending, the State's spending will Control us."

I can't immediately cut taxes and "hope" that businesses will in turn hire employees and crank up production. Also, by cutting taxes and holding all else constant, increases the nearer term deficit. A better option is to provide business coaching and mentoring to businesses to improve their longer term probability of success and growth.

Independents need not apply (Dogs and Sailors, Keep off the grass)

2010-08-20T09:01:00.001-04:00

Once again, it’s election time and guess what? The major media outlets are mostly reporting the platforms of the major party candidates. Surprise, surprise, surprise! More recently, the AARP disclosed (I like the word disclosed because it conveys a sense of secrecy, sneakiness or exclusion) they will be hosting the first gubernatorial debate and guess what? You’re absolutely right! The criteria established to be in the debate favors only well financed, special interest funded (or bought, depending on your perspective), major party candidates. No surprise here. I guess AARP only wants Vermonters to hear from the individuals who are culpable for the mess we face. Do we need to hear anymore from the candidates that allowed the mess to occur that we find ourselves in, budget deficits despite increasingly higher and higher taxes?

How will we ever get out of the mess we’re in if we continue to rely on the same candidates and same political parties that got us into the mess? When will we learn that we need to hear the ideas and solutions of other candidates and parties, especially ones who were not responsible for the mess yet who are willing to step up and offer ideas and solutions to clean up the mess.

I know from my many years of experience as a strategy & change and business improvement consultant that the best solutions are derived from listening to many people not fewer.

During the debate, I think the candidates should be asked to wear bowling shirts that have patches representing their major financial contributors. Moreover, the size of the patch should be indicative of the amount of money the contributor donated. That way we will have a better idea of who the candidate is actually representing. I’m willing to do so.

More about my platform as Governor of Vermont

2010-05-23T19:23:00.003-04:00

As many other states have experienced a sharp decline on tax revenues and sharp increases in costs, so has Vermont. To make matters worse, every candidate running, except me, has had a hand in allowing costs to increase while tax revenues decreased. Every candidate is running on their leadership skills that have led to this mess. Lt. Governor Brian Dubie has the audacity to run on this message on his web site, “Forbes magazine recently ranked the states from one to fifty based on favorable business climate.
They ranked Vermont third from the bottom.” Hello? Where have you been? Where is the leadership? Why should we trust you now? A true leader is measured by his ability to skillfully influence others while not having the formal authority over the other person.

I believe among Vermont’s greatest attributes are its quality of life and its environment. Vermonters (of all races, religions, genders, class, and sexual orientations), businesses, and tourists are drawn to Vermont as result of our quality of life and spectacular environment.

I’m proposing a realistic strategy that will lead to long term growth that will further enhance our quality of life without compromising our environment.

My primary focus as an Independent Governor is to;

Cut state waste and spending while improving productivity – before we can cut taxes, we need to get our cost structure under control. We will reduce the cost of government and healthcare. We will improve the productivity of our State’s services so we can handle the expected growth in jobs and businesses without adding costs. This will ensure that when we can responsible cut taxes.
Retain our businesses and create an infrastructure that enables businesses to grow – by improving the productivity of the State’s services will provide better service to our citizens and businesses. We will identify and remove nonsensical barriers that the state has imposed on businesses that limit businesses growth. However, we WILL not compromise our environment to do so nor will we compromise our spectacular quality of life.
Develop a cost-conscious culture – immediately, all managers who manage a budget will be taught how to manage their budgets with an emphasis on identifying productivity improvements that will reduce the cost of their operations. The managers will be held accountable for driving down the costs of their services WHILE improving their services quality, timeliness and customer satisfaction.
Cut Taxes - cut taxes without compromising our quality of life, without compromising our education system, without compromising the environment.

Over the years, I've honed my deep expertise in helping organizations, private and public sector, decrease costs, improve productivity, improve customer satisfaction and yes drive growth.
I can do the same for the Green Mountain state.
My prior experience and expertise includes doing the following; (as a matter of fact, I'm probably the only candidate who has actual experience doing the following with the exception of cutting taxes but neither do the other candidates. LOL)

I need your help getting on the ballot. Please download my signature petition to help me get signatures, asap. You can download this petition here www.tinyurl.com/Dan4VTGovernor . Contact me to pick up the petitions

Why cost consciousness and productivity?

2010-05-17T22:22:00.002-04:00

Why cost consciousness and productivity?
First, I don’t believe that we, as a state, will see a substantial increase in state revenues anytime soon. Additionally, I DO believe that we’re likely to see an increase in costs, especially healthcare costs.
Therefore, we have no choice but to improve the state’s productivity… raising taxes is not an option.

Let me define and explain productivity first. Simply put, it’s doing more with fewer resources (e.g., money) or more with the same resources. Productivity measures the efficiency of an organization. So why am I hung up on productivity? Well, if the state’s revenues remain flat and costs increase, we have no choice but to increase our productivity, doing more with less (raising taxes is not an option), so that we can continue to provide the state’s essential services. Unfortunately, productivity improvements themselves will not be sufficient to solve the state’s budget woes, we will also have to make some tough calls and reduce and or eliminate some services. Just being truthful... folks.

Okay, what about developing cost consciousness. For starters, I will require managers to measure and track productivity of their products and service rather than how well they’re blowing their entire budget. State employees need to start thinking about how they will improve their productivity and held accountable to do so. Managers need to do more than merely manage their budgets; they will be responsible to improve their operations productivity, quality, cycle time and yes, customer satisfaction.

As governor, I will ensure that the state develops a solid strategy to maintain its current budget levels. I will ensure that the state has a strategy map and balanced scorecard that includes productivity measures and targets for everyone. And I will provide quarterly updates on our productivity improvements to the citizens of Vermont. After all, its your money and you’re the customer.

I have many years of experience developing and executing strategies, driving productivity improvements to drive down costs.

Dan for Governor, why all the hullabaloo about productivity?

2010-05-14T16:40:00.001-04:00

Dan for Governor, why all the hullabaloo about productivity?

Well, let’s face it, with the recent, and dare I say arbitrary, state budget cuts, there are bound to be a few, very few, critical State functions that are now underfunded, at capacity, and unstable and thereby, are in no position to handle growth of any kind.

Also, we all know, it’s only a matter of time, hopefully a short amount of time, before the economy rebounds. By streamlining, improving the capacity, removing the waste and improving the quality of our state functions and operations we will ensure that when the economy does rebound, the state will be prepared to handle the growth and provide the superior services, that I know it can, for a fraction of the cost of other states and with much less hassle to Vermonters and businesses alike.

We need to get back to management and leadership basics.

Cut waste and spending while improving productivity

2010-05-12T16:50:00.003-04:00

Cut waste and spending while improving productivity - Doing more with less and with higher quality

As Governor and in response to the State’s significant reduction in Tax Revenues, the State of Vermont must dramatically reduce its wasteful spending. Like many other public and private sector companies, Vermont’s spending irresponsibly increased as the economy “boomed” and its now time to right-size our state and federal government budgets.

Unfortunately as budgets are cut, false assumptions are made that quantity and quality of services will naturally be compromised. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Operations and processes across the state are riddled with wasteful, bureaucratic activities and tasks that have no value. Costing us, the tax payers and customers, time and money.
Operations and processes across the state are lacking clearly defined goals, objectives, and measures. Resulting in competing “priorities” and worst yet, individuals, who don’t know or understand the state’s priorities, determining the priority of the work they will do.
Operations and processes are managed to a “budget” and not based on measurable performance standards. Ask a state employee what would happen if the demand for their services increased 15%, they will likely respond one of three bureaucratic ways. 1. We will need more people, 2. People will have to wait, or 3. I will have to reduce the services I provide. I don’t anyone will or is expected to answer, I will find a way to make our service more productive to accommodate the demand.

Even after the “so called” tough budgets cuts are made, there will still be plenty of money to provide essential, needed services. If and only if, we have a leader in place who is experienced in boosting productivity and performance while significantly driving down costs.

If you go to our state's web site, you will find a laundry list of unprioritized "priorities" without measures of success. As Governor, I will use my deep expertise to develop a relevant, practical and pragmatic measureable strategy that includes, yes, prioritized goals, objectives, and yes specific, actionable, relevant and time bound measures that everyone can rally around and drive towards. Doing so, will immediately surface a tremendous amount waste in government. Waste that is costing us money and time which subsequently results in Vermont, people and business, dissatisfaction.

I'm running for Governor of Vermont

2010-05-10T10:38:00.002-04:00

As many other states have experienced a sharp decline on tax revenues and sharp increases in costs, so has Vermont.
Over the years, I've honed my deep expertise in helping organizations, private and public sector, decrease costs, improve productivity, customer satisfaction and revenue.
I can do the same for the Green Mountain state.
My prior experience and expertise includes doing the following; (as a matter of fact, I'm probably the only candidate who has actual experience doing the following with the exception of cutting taxes but neither do the other candidates. LOL)
1. Cut state waste and spending while improving productivity
2. Retain our businesses and create an infrastructure that enables businesses to grow
3. Develop a cost-conscious culture
4. Cut Taxes

Too my Lean and Six Sigma friends the first item looks familiar.
In the coming days, I will actually outline the game plan that translates these "words" into an action plan with measurable outcomes.

Would you sign a document you havn't read?

2010-03-15T14:55:00.001-04:00

How the heck can congress vote on a bill they havn't read? Would you sign a document you havn't read? Would you?
If you wouldn't, and if your congress person does, is he or she really representing you?
Are you okay with being signed up for something that you don't understand or never agreed to? You're accountable for your congress person's errors! Your congress person doesn't have to live by this vote. He has totally different from you! Much better than you!

We the people

2010-02-23T11:58:00.001-05:00

"We the people" are some of the most beautiful words penned! Think about how profound, "We the people" is. "We the people" are free to make our own decisions, except for having to buy a healthcare plan. We the people can are empowered to make our own decisions in our lives while increasingly becoming less accountable for any negative outcomes that may have stemmed from our poor decisions. "We the people" with our purchasing power have the ability to abandon of neighbors businesses and destroy their livlihood to shop at Walmart, so we can buy extra junk for our overweight or obese children. "We the people" have access to great daycare facilities, also known as schools. "We the people" can go to any emergency room for services regardless of our ability to pay. "We the people" have the right to incessantly complain about our government and personal situations yet do nothing to improve the situation. "We the people" can continually demand more services and protection from the government at someone else's expense. "We the people" are free to abandon our neighbors, towns, counties, and states by shopping online to avoid paying taxes on our purchases. "We the people" can complain about the price of healthcare and demand lower prices while fully understanding that "We the people" being overweight or obese are one of the top drivers of healthcare costs."We the people" want to be empowered and yet unaccountable for our selvesWe the people ... [please add on]

How about a more common sense approach to healthcare reform?

2009-12-21T23:40:00.001-05:00

First, I don't believe the government can reduce the cost of anything. We all know that government employees are encouraged to squander their budgeted money rather than return it to the government or more correctly the taxpayers. I wish you could see the wasteful spending that I uncover each week. The same will occur with the "healthcare" money generated from new taxes. It will be squandered on crap that has little to do with healthcare.
Here's an idea. If the government is so concerned about healthcare costs, why don't they first identify the drivers of healthacare cost and attempt to reduce those costs? Makes sense to me.
Next, if the government is actually successful in reducing healthcare costs and sustaining those savings for a period time, like a couple of years, provide insurance for our children. No one win fight this. If the government is still able to sustain the cost savings and insure the children without bankrupting us, then we should explore the idea of rolling coverage out to everyone else. Makes sense to me. Does it make sense to you?
My plan is the best I have seen. If you agree share this blog with your family, friends, and colleagues. If you have a better plan share it.

P90X is taking off

2009-12-20T11:04:00.001-05:00

Holy cow!! I can't believe how many of my friends have bought and started using P90X. Game on! Folks. I look forward to seeing your before and after photos. That is, if you stick with it. Are you game for the X

http://www.tinyurl.com/Felicianofitness

Thinking Outside the Box

2009-12-07T10:44:00.001-05:00

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
- Terry Pratchett

Make it so

2009-11-25T17:58:00.002-05:00

To many people are drifting through life accepting whatever comes their way rather than creating a plan to get what they really want.

This Thanksgiving take the time to identify and prioritize the things you want out of life rather accepting crap.
You can achieve your wishes by falling these 4 simple steps, Lock on, Act, Manage, and Persist.
1. Step One: Lock On

Decide what you want to wish for.

2. Step Two: Act

When you take action, you make a giant leap from thinking to living

3. Step Three: Manage Your Progress

Track the causes you've set in motion to make sure they are producing the effects you want.

4. Step Four: Persist

Finish what you start.
(From The Magic Lamp, Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals by Keith Ellis)

It's your life. You can be on the field or be in the bleachers the choice is yours.

Are you a "Satisficer"?

2009-11-18T17:29:00.001-05:00

Are you misliving your life by being a satisficer? Taking the easy way out of things. Doing the bare minimum?
Satisficing - A solution to a problem is a satisficing solution if it works, barely works, but there is no particular reason to think it either the best solution, or the one that maximizes expected utility (because you can't be botherd or don't have the gumption to do something that may be slightly more demanding. Satisficing strategies put up with what does the job (barely does the job), without expending effort on searching for possibly better solutions.

Can you transcend Mediocrity?

2009-11-16T23:20:00.001-05:00

Most post people succumb to the ease, lure of, mediocrity that surrounds them and subsequently live a marginalized life of convenience (and stagnation), rather than a life of ever growing passion and excitement.

Making Time to Work Out

2009-10-12T23:23:00.008-04:00

Not having enough time to work out is often a reason why many people can't/don't/won't workout. However, there are some relatively simple things you can do immediately to create pockets of time to squeeze a workout routine into, especially in the morning. The tips listed below are assuming you're going to work out in the morning.

Some things you can do to save to or create time to work out in the morning are:

Write your daily goals for the day the night before (you do create a prioritized list of daily goals...don't you?). This will save you the time about having to try to organize your day in the morning and I guarantee you sleep better.
Make a morning "to do" list for your children. Help them help themselves. You will be surprised how much they can accomplish on their own if they know exactly what is expected of them and how to do it.
Stop hitting snooze. Who are you kidding? You're not really getting a few extra winks... you're just lying there wasting time when you could be working out.
Use your coffee timer to automatically brew your morning coffee.
Have your breakfast ready to go the night before (consider making a Shakeology drink the night before for breakfast).
Prepare your lunch and your children's the night before. For yourself, you may consider having something like Shakeology or P90X protein bars for lunch.
Lay out your work clothes and your children's the night before.
Lay out your workout clothes the night before.
Have your workout DVD, workout log, etc ready the night before.
Lay out your weights or resistance bands the night before in the order that you will use them. This will reduce the time you spend looking for weights between routines. You may even consider buying a set of Bowflex Select dumbbells. Changing the weight of the dumbbells is easy and fast.
Choose a spot to put your car keys or cell phone each night after work. This will save you the time of scrambling around looking for stuff. Choose a spot and make it a habit.
Reduce TV Time and use that time to organize for the next day. Only watch the stuff you love. And never, ever turn the TV on in the morning. It will only distract you.

Individually, these tips may not appear to save you significant amounts of time. However, cumulatively they will save you at least 15 minutes and that's plenty of time to get a small workout completed and that's better than nothing.

Six Sigma will fade as a brand

2009-09-23T13:43:00.001-04:00

Interesting snippet from John Sall on Six Sigma.
http://tinyurl.com/SixSigmaWillFadeAsABrand

Are you too busy drowning to save yourself?

2009-08-14T11:24:00.001-04:00

Whoever admits that he is too busy to improve his methods has acknowledged himself to be at the end of his rope. And that is always the "saddest" predicament which anyone can get into.

J. Ogden Armou

Life is self-service

2009-08-13T09:44:00.002-04:00

"Life is like a self-service gas station. You can sit in your car and honk, or you can fill your tank yourself. No one honks longer, louder, or with less effect than a victim. "
Keith Ellis

Are you in Hell?

2009-08-12T18:02:00.002-04:00

“Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do."

Gian Carlo Menotti

Movers & Shakers

2009-08-12T10:50:00.003-04:00

Any idiot can tell you what's wrong with the world. The movers and shakers do something about it.

Keith Ellis "The Magic Lamp"

Danz Law of Human Inertia

2009-08-11T22:18:00.001-04:00

Each time a body in motion stops, that body requires exponentially more force to set it back in motion.

Human Entropy

2009-08-11T22:14:00.000-04:00

Entropy means that we can putter away our days, which turn into months, which turn into years, and before we know it we find ourselves at the end of our lives without having accomplished anything more important than our own survival. -Keith Ellis "The Magic Lamp"

XM SIRIUS Lousy Service Costs them a customer

2009-06-22T16:34:00.003-04:00

I recently experienced such poor service from XM SIRIUS, I had no option but to cancel my service. Sadly, no one there gave a crap. A manager was supposedly was calling me back within 48 hours and that hasn't happened in 14 days.
The worst thing about this, for the cash strapped and customer losing XM, is that they owe me a refund, money they already had in the bank.

Why would a company not listen to a customer who has already paid for the company's services.

Go figure

Stop telling me Lean Six Sigma is a strategic initiative

2009-06-06T09:55:00.003-04:00

I'm sick and tired of hearing how Lean Six Sigma is a strategic initiative. What a bunch of crap! You and I know that most people have no idea of their organization's strategy. The executives of the organization have no clue.
I believe the following quotes from Gary Harpst's Six Disciplines for Excellence (and I believe the quotes actually are Kaplan and Norton's) are truer today than they have ever been.
“An astounding 90% of well formulated strategies fail due to poor execution.”
“Only 5% of employees understand their (firm’s) corporate strategy.”
“Only 3% of executives think their company is very successful at executing its strategies.”
Nearly 80% of C-level executives say their strategies are critical to success, yet are “nearly impossible to achieve.”
Approximately “75% of business improvement initiatives to solve these problems fail due to lack of sustainability.” (Refer to “Doom Loop” of Good to Great by Jim Collins.)
“The biggest problem in business is poorly executed strategies and plans” … Gary Harpst.

Give me a break, there is nothing strategic about your Lean Six Sigma initiative or projects for the vast majority of you.

Steps to realign an organization around key goals and objectives and avoid the deleterious effects of a recession

2008-06-24T20:41:00.001-04:00

I have been preaching since the beginning of the year that you need to have a well documented strategy with well thought-out supporting goals and objectives to ensure your employees are doing the right things to move your organization forward. I even wrote a blog articulating the difference between a goal and an objective. I was surprised by the number of emails I received from readers stating that they never really understood the difference between the two.

Having well documented goals and objectives are especially important now, especially if you think we're heading into a recession. Well documented goals and objectives ensure your employees are not being distracted by insignificant, trivial activities and tasks. More importantly, the documented goals and objectives ensures that your employees know exactly what you're trying to accomplish, how it be accomplished, and how success will be measured.

Many organizations make the common mistake of stating their "goals and objectives" as ambiguous written themes. Such as, "be vendor of choice", "improve employee engagement", "provide unparalleled service", and blah, blah, blah. To make matters worst, the organization then allows mangers to define how they will comply with the goal and communicate it their subordinates. Its also not uncommon for managers to rewrite the company's goals in their own terms that may or may not have the same meaning of the originally poorly written organizational goals. Consequently, as goals are cascaded through the organization the meaning and intent is lost in the various translations and rewrites.

Unfortunately and too frequently, I have seen managers write goals that directly opposed goals of another department or team. Talk about zero sum gain.

Here is what I what you to do in order to be successful even during recessionary times.

* Revisit your current goals and objectives, if they exist. Ensure they are clear and measurable. You can’t drive change using written unmeasuraable themes, however, you can drive towards a clear, well-defined measure. If each objective doesn’t have a measure, establish one, now, and its baseline.

* Make a list of all current initiatives that are underway and or planned within the organization. All initiatives, you will be surprised or more accurately disappointed by what your people are working on or think is important.

* Map every initiative to the organization’s goals and objectives. This will be difficult and frustrating because you will immediately get a sense and magnitude of how much effort and time has been squandered by your employees.

* Review each initiative to determine if it’s strategic or urgent. If the initiative is neither strategic nor urgent, consider canceling the initiative. Don't make the mistake of allowing trivial projects to continue simply because they approaching completion. Kill them now! Develop new initiatives that may have been overlooked and or urgent.

* Prioritize the new list of initiatives and determine how to resource and fund the initiative.

* Re -communicate goals, objectives, measures, and key strategic initiatives.

Good luck!
In the future, I will be blogging about other techniques to recession proof your organization.

Customer Loyalty and Retention

2008-06-17T19:40:00.001-04:00

In the book titled, Double Digit Growth author Michael Treacy identifies a handful of factors that have been associated with double digit growth. One of the factors is customer retention. Probably, not a surprise to most of you. However, the question is how do you retain customers and which customers do you retain?

I, for example, tend to be brand loyal. For some unknown reason to me, I believe that if I purchase products of the same brand the products will be compatible with one another. Moreover, it’s my ridiculous belief that if I were to have a support issue, somewhere in the company’s CRM, I will be noted as a brand loyal customer thereby entitling me to preferential treatment or dispensation. Silly me!

In the past few months, I bought a HP Widescreen laptop model 9700 with all the bells and whistles. Recently, I noticed one the little rubber a foot on the bottom of the laptop is missing. I promptly called HP for a replacement little rubber foot. Go ahead and flip your laptop over and take look. All laptops have these little rubber feet.

Guess how much HP charged me for the replacement rubber feet. Go ahead… I want you to guess.

HP wanted $99.00 US dollars to replace those little rubber feet. Not the bottom of the computer. Just the little rubber feet.

Do you think I will ever buy another HP product? No way! Knowing myself, I now harbor the belief that HP couldn’t care one bit about customer retention. Gas is a deal at $4.25 US a gallon compared to the price of little rubber feet replacements.

What are you thoughts? Been gouged lately!

Dan Feliciano - Lean Six Sigma Rock Star

M (802) 316-4063
www.DanFeliciano.com
Dan@DanFeliciano.com
www.linkedin.com/in/danfeliciano
http://danfeliciano.blogspot.com/
Skype: dan.feliciano

You don’t need Change Acceleration Process (CAP) training… you need organizationally defined measured communicated, aligned goals and objectives!

2008-04-09T14:41:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine mentioned that his organization was engaging a consulting group to do CAP training for all it’s employees. Please!!

Listed below are some commonly accepted definitions / explanations of CAP;

Change Acceleration Process (CAP) – CAP is a change management strategy and set of tools that ensures effectiveness of change through cultural acceptance. The skills and tools contained in CAP guide co-workers through the process of accepting change, from creating a shared need, shaping a vision and mobilizing commitment, to teaching them how to make change last, monitor processes, and change systems and structures to ensure the process can move from its current state to an improved state.
Change Acceleration Process (CAP) participants will learn the tools and techniques to become CAP facilitators and help fellow employees accept and accelerate these rapid changes.

Course Objectives: By the end of the CAP workshop, students will:
Be able to explain the “CAP Model”
Have practiced using and facilitating various CAP tools
Have applied some CAP tools to your department/organization
Have coached other participants in effective tool use, delivery, and facilitation
Share best practices

Change acceleration process (CAP) is a set of principles designed to increase the success and accelerate the implementation of organizational change efforts.

create a shared need for the change
understand and deal with resistance from key stakeholders
build an effective influence strategy and communication plan for the change
Drives fast, yet sustainable organizational change.
Promotes a positive environment for driving change in human behaviors, eliminates resistance and engages all those affected by the change.
Complements the technical strategy with the human strategy.

All this CAP stuff is very interesting to me. However, if only 5% of organizations employees understand the organization’s strategy, what are the chances that the person asking you to change really understands what needs to be changed and why? It’s not that people don’t like change… they don’t like ambiguity and punishment.

Organizations need to focus on creating and communicating strategies to the employees. Done correctly, creating goals, objectives, measures, targets, and identifying and resourcing key initiatives, organizations face less resistance to change. Especially, if the organization cascades the highest level goals, objectives, and measures to all the people within the organization.

If you want to accelerate change, it can be done easily by creating goals, objectives, measures, targets, and identifying and resourcing key initiatives for your organization and then cascading the measure and initiatives to every person throughout the organization.

Why are Goals and Objectives Important?

2008-04-09T11:16:00.002-04:00

You see it, hear it, read it, and often repeat it, “…the economy is doing down the drain, … competition is fiercer than ever and cutting into our profits, … lay offs are eminent, … you need to do more with less, and blah, blah, blah!”

So what are you doing to ensure your organization’s survival! Are you just complaining about the situation you got yourself into or have you decided to take a logical rational approach to improve your survival?

Why previous post about productivity resulted a flurry of emails to me asking me, “why I felt understanding productivity and goals and objectives are so important?” You have to be kidding me.

A frequently referred to set of statistics from Kaplan and Norton state;

9 of 10 companies fail to execute strategy
Only 25% of managers have incentives linked to strategy
Only 5% of the work force understand the strategy
85% of executive teams spend less than one hour/ month discussing strategy
60% of organization don’t link budgets to strategy

If these facts are remotely representative of most organizations, what the hell is everyone in your organization working on? You don’t need more resources, you just need to have them stop working on unimportant, non strategic activities and start working on the tasks that support your strategy.

According to Barney and Griffin, organizational goals serve four basic functions;

they provide guidance and direction,
facilitate planning,
motivate and inspire employees,
and help organizations evaluate and control performance.

Organizational goals inform employees where the organization is going and how it plans to get there. When employees need to make difficult decisions, they can refer to the organization's goals for guidance.

Goals promote planning to determine how goals will be achieved. Employees often set goals in order to satisfy a need; thus, goals can be motivational and increase performance.

Evaluation and control allows an organization to compare its actual performance to its goals and then make any necessary adjustments.

How many of you honestly know your organization’s goals and objectives? How many of you know where to find the organization’s goals and objectives? What criteria are you using to ensure you’re making the right decision and subsequently, optimally allocating your scarce resources?

For organizations, managers, and employees to be successful more emphasis needs to be placed on making sure every employee and every manager knows what he or she needs to accomplish in the present and future. When employees understand needs to be done to succeed, it's much easier for them to contribute. It's also tremendously easier for managers to do their jobs, to improve productivity, and to manage proactively, rather than waste their time stamping out small fires after the fact. Clear purpose helps everyone succeed and, bottom line, that's what we all want.

Organizations need to coordinate the work of individual employees and work units, ensuring that everyone is pulling in the same direction. Individual performance goals provide the fabric that allows this kind of coordination to occur.

According to Locke and Latham, goals affect individual performance through four mechanisms;

goals direct action and effort toward goal-related activities and away from unrelated activities.
goals energize employees. Challenging goals lead to higher employee effort than easy goals.
goals affect persistence. Employees exert more effort to achieve high goals.
goals motivate employees to use their existing knowledge to attain a goal or to acquire the knowledge needed to do so.

Setting individual performance goals provides a framework for translating the goals of the organization into smaller chunks that are then assigned or delegated to individual employees. This needs to be done for an organization achieve their overall goals to the extent that each employee does his or her part in completing the right job tasks in effective ways.

When an employee knows what needs to accomplished and what is expected, it's a lot easier for that employee to work without constant supervision. Also, by helping employees understand how their individual work contributes to the overall goals of the organization, we enable them to make their own decisions about how to spend their work time so that their work is consistent with the priorities of the organization. The consequences are employees know what they must do, how well they must do it, and why they are doing it. Resulting in a team that is knowledgeable and therefore empowered, to do the right things with much less supervision/oversight. The teams can make decisions relevant to their work without having to consult the manager on every little question.

Clear goals and objectives allow employees to monitor their own progress all year 'round and correct their efforts as necessary. If employees know what they need to accomplish, they can look at their results as they go and identify barriers to achieving those goals.

Believe it or not, most employees want and need to know four things about their work so they can contribute and feel comfortable about where they are in the organization:

· What do I need to accomplish?

· Why am I doing what I'm doing?

· How well must I do it?

· How am I doing?

If you want to know how to get started, give me a buzz.

Do you know the difference between a goal and an objective?

2008-03-30T21:50:00.008-04:00

As a consultant, I have the fortunate opportunity, or misfortune depending on your perspective, to review many organizations’ goals, objectives, and supporting initiatives. Despite the size of the organization, it’s obvious that most organizations large and small, public or private don’t understand the difference between a goal and an objective.

For some reason, unknown to me, this drives me crazy. I expect most business people, especially senior level executives to use the terms goal and objective correctly. Perhaps it’s my deeply held belief that in order for organizations to achieve success they have to be able to effectively communicate their goals and objectives and that these goals and objectives will be cascaded down through the organization. Silly me.

A goal is a brief, clear statement of an outcome to be reached within a timeframe such as 3-5 years. A goal is a broad, general, tangible, and descriptive statement. It does not say how to do something, but rather what the results will look like. It is measurable both in terms of quality and quantity. It is time based. It is achievable. It is a stretch from where we are now. Above all, it is singular.

Goals can be described or defined as “Outcome statements that define what an organization is trying to accomplish both programmatically and organizationally.”

As an illustration, some common business goals are, grow profitability, maximize net income, improve customer loyalty and etc. Notice the brevity of these statements.

In comparison, an objective is a specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound condition that must be attained in order to accomplish a particular goal. Objectives define the actions must be taken within a year to reach the strategic goals. For example, if an organization has a goal to “grow revenues”. An objective to achieve the goal may be “introduce 2 new products by 20XX Q3.” Other examples of common objectives are, increase revenue by x% in 20XX, reduce overhead costs by X% by 20XX, and etc. In contrast to a goal, notice how the objectives are more specific and provide more detail.

A goal is where you want to be and objectives are the steps taken to reach the goal.

As I write this blog, 2008 Q1 has come to end and I bet many of you don't have any idea of your organization's goals and objectives. If don't know them, how do you know if you have been working on the right projects/things?

What the heck does "Productivity" mean?

2008-03-21T23:53:00.008-04:00

I'm often asked to define productivity and its algorithm. Also, I often hear productivity, production, and capacity used interchangeable. For some reason this drives me nuts because they all have different meanings.
I hope my write up below helps you understand what productivity means.

What is productivity?
Productivity is the ratio of outputs (goods and services) divided by one or more inputs (labor hours, FTEs, capital, expenses).

Improvements in productivity can be achieved by either increasing output without increasing the inputs, decreasing inputs without decreasing output, or increasing output and decreasing inputs.

Output implies production (quantity) of goods and services while input means land, labor, capital, management etc. Productivity measures the efficiency of the production system. Higher productivity means producing more from a given amount of input or producing a given amount with minimum level of inputs.
In other words, the more the output from one worker, one machine, or a piece of equipment per day per shift, the higher is the productivity (producing more output with the same resources).

In strategic operations management, productivity and production are two different terms. Productivity is the ratio between total output and the total inputs used in the production process. Production is an absolute; it refers to the volume (quantity) of output. Production volume may increase but productivity may decline as a result of inefficient use of resources. More efficient use of inputs may increase productivity but the volume of production may not increase. Production refers to the end result of production system whereas productivity reflects its efficiency.

Some of the potential benefits derived from higher productivity are as follows:
1. It helps to cut down cost per unit and thereby improve the profits.
2. Gains from productivity can be transferred to the consumers in from of lower priced products or better quality products.
3. These gains can also be shared with workers or employees by paying them at higher rate.

Cost for Six Sigma program for Erie County climbs to more than $1 million

2008-03-19T20:51:00.002-04:00

The Buffalo News is reporting that "The price of Erie County’s efficiency effort — the much-touted Lean Six Sigma program — is mushrooming to more than $1 million."
Come on, you don't have to spend a million bucks to get a good Lean Six Sigma program up and running.
Alfred Hammonds Jr., Six Sigma Director, wants train hundreds of employees over the next two and a half years. Come on, you don't need to train hundreds of people to have a successful six sigma program. I would start with a few well trained, coached, and mentored Black Belts to see if the culture can sustain and accept the discipline of six sigma. Six Sigma isn't for everyone.

Achieving Double-Digit Growth

2008-03-19T20:28:00.003-04:00

In his blockbuster book "Double-Digit Growth How Great Companies Achieve It – No Matter What", Michael Treacy claims companies can achieve double-digit growth by applying the following five disciplines.
• The first discipline - keep your existing customer base
• The second discipline is - take customers away from your competitors
• The third discipline is - establish a position in growth markets or segments
• The fourth discipline is - enter adjacent markets
• The fifth discipline is - invest in unrelated businesses

What have you done to keep your existing customers, especially the profitable ones? Do you even know who are your profitable customers?

What have you done to differentiate yourself from your competitors? Hopefully you haven't commoditized your products by competing on price.

80 percent of the organizations that regularly use the ‘Balanced Scorecard’ (BSC) reported improvements in operating performance

2008-03-19T20:19:00.003-04:00

Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com recently ran a story indicating, "According to recent survey of more than 1,000 organizations, 80 percent of the organizations that regularly use the ‘Balanced Scorecard’ (BSC) reported improvements in operating performance and 66 percent of them also reported an increase in profits. Correspondingly, a significant majority, 61 percent, reported improvements in bottom-line financial results."

My question to you is, how many of you have a balanced scorecard for 2008? Probably not many.

More importantly, now that we're a quarter into the fiscal year, how many of you still don't have goals and objectives. Once again, probably most of you.

American Society for Quality Vermont Section Earns Top Honors

2008-02-27T10:08:00.004-05:00

As you know, I'm the chair of Vermont Section 0012 of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). We recently received the following notice:
The Vermont Section 0012 of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) has earned the 2006-07 Section Management Process Total Quality Award, one of the highest honors a section can earn in the Society. 90 of 255 ASQ sections earned this award for the 2006-07 year.
Read the press release

Creating a Balanced Scorecard Recent Program Comments

2008-01-18T17:23:00.000-05:00

You missed a great presentation on the Balanced Scorecard that I recently gave to over 30 people at a recent Vermont ASQ event.

Here are some of the comments;
"It’s always a pleasure to hear you speak. I continue to learn volumes from you, and enjoy your special flavor of humor" - Mike

"It was great to see you yesterday and hear your enthusiasm again! I had forgotten how charged up you get about quality and just plain good business practice! ;-)" -

Click here for the presentation

If you're interested in great Strategy Mapping and Balanced Scorecard software click here. If you have problems with the software or need assistance setting it up contact me.

Reduce your transactional backlogs and transactional cycle times by 50% each in 45 days! Step 2

2008-01-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

Get a list of all open backlogged (open transactions).
For each transaction calculate its age.
Sort the transactions in descending calculated age order.
Find someone, anyone, who can help you get this report everyday, if not, in real time.

More to come!
What do you think the next step is?

Read this article on Little's law.

Danz Next Event - Building a Balanced Scorecard: "Identifying Key Performance Variables"

2008-01-08T18:15:00.001-05:00

Date 1/17/08
Building a Balanced Scorecard: "Identifying Key Performance Variables"
Balanced Scorecard methodologies have emerged as a proven and effective tool to capture, describe, and translate organizations' strategic goals, into meaningful objectives at corporate, divisional, and individual employee levels, thereby allowing for the strategies to be successfully implemented. During this exciting event, you will learn how to create a draft scorecard for your function or process, and learn more as we discuss:
* Basic concepts of balanced scorecards and how it can be used to improve organization performance
* Key concepts behind an effective Strategy Map
* How the Balanced Scorecard methodology can be used to drive Operational Excellence and Organizational Alignment

For more information contact slick1122@comcast.net

When: Thursday, January 17^th 2008

Time: 5:30pm Registration

Place: Windjammer in South Burlington

Cost: $20 ASQ and TPC Members); $30 for non-members Buffet Dinner will be provided!

Has anyone completed Step 1?

2008-01-08T18:03:00.000-05:00

Come on! Someone has to send me an email or a post about what they learned in step 1. After I hear from someone, I will post Step 2.

Reduce your transactional backlogs and transactional cycle times by 50% each in 45 days! Step 1

2008-01-05T16:40:00.000-05:00

Ok, you want to want to be a Lean Six Sigma Rock Star. This is the first step in reducing your transactional backlogs and transactional cycle times by 50% each in 45 days.
Have your employees who resolve your customer issues, cases, complaints, bugs or whatever, document all the tasks they do in a month and how much time is spent doing each task. To make it easy, create a spreadsheet for them to populate.
Examples of tasks are; answering email, training, meetings, special projects and so on.
After they have done so, review the document to understand how much time they spend doing other things rather than the primary activities and tasks they were hired to do.
What are thoughts? What have you learned? What percentage of their total time is doing things they weren't hired to do?

Simplified Strategy Planning for outrageous success

2007-12-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

Do you want to have a fabulous year? Do the following and your organization will have more success this year than in any previous year!

Step 1: Review and refine your organization’s vision

Step 2: Create meaningful and strategically essential organizational objectives (a vital few) that align to your vision

Step 3: Align your organization’s performance metrics to the organization’s vital few objectives listed in step 2 (cascade these measures to every function, team and person throughout the organization)

Step 4: Identify strategic initiatives that are required to achieve your organization’s vital few objectives

Step 5: Assign ownership and accountability of each of the vital few objectives and associated initiatives to an executive that reports to you (do not allow the executives to delegate ownership of the objectives)

Step 6: Let the fun begin!!!!

Communicate, communicate and communicate the status of the vital few objectives in every communication produced. Don’t let the organization confuse other non-critical activities with your vital few objectives.

Need help, with a strategic planning methodology, tools, or software, give me buzz!

Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it.
- Elias Schwartz

So you want to be a Lean Six Sigma Rock Star

2007-12-24T08:28:00.000-05:00

I will be publishing some steps you can to take to reduce your transactional backlogs and transactional cycle times by 50% each in 45 days. I know this can be done my team team has done it many, many times. Believe it or not, you don't need a lot of fancy tools or training to do so.

But first, you have to be believe.

Second, do you have the courage to face and address the bias in your facts.

Stayed tuned for more.

Sustaining the Gain

2007-07-23T07:42:00.000-04:00

At a recent ASQ meeting we were brainstorming training programs to offer during the coming year. We got your typical training ides; Lean, Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Six Sigma Green Belt, and other standard ASQ certification primer classes. I was hoping for newer and more exciting programs.

I then asked the group this question, what issues are our members and their businesses facing? From meetings with other members and local organizations, I believed that many organizations were having difficulty sustaining the results from the projects that had been completed. I believed that we should be offering classes around sustaining gains.

I asked the team to brainstorm ideas on why some project results were not sustained. We then affinitized the results into 3 themes; Leadership commitment, Culture, and lack of process / operations acumen. No surprises here.
In the coming weeks, I will dissect each of these themes into further actionable themes.

However, at a high level, I believe leadership commitment is a result of a couple things, the leadership merry go round (leaders are in their current assignments for short periods of time and are not considering the long term implications of their short term draconian policies. The next leadership issue, is the lack of strategic planning and communication of the plan. How many of you can name the top 3 strategic imperatives for your organization and the metrics being used to monitor the progress towards the strategic imperatives.

Culture is the organizations coping mechanism to the constant change in leadership
and lack of a clear organization strategy.

Lack of process / operations acumen, I believe that they're many people in the roles of process / operations managers or leaders who don't have formal training in managing their process or operations, I believe this to be especially true in transactional functions.

What are you thoughts?

Are the stars aligned?

2007-07-20T17:55:00.000-04:00

I have a challenge for you.
Can you name your companies top 5 Strategic Goals?
If so, you're most likely one of the few people who can. But I doubt you know them.
Most people don't have a clue what their company's strategy is or it's key goals.

Why is that?

If you don't know your companies most critical strategic imperatives, how do you know if your work isn't counteracting / damaging the companies strategy?
Hmmm....

You need to immediately go and find out what your companies key strategic imperatives are and determine how you can help the company achieve its goals.
So, where do you start?
Find the companies strategy document. Every company should have one. Yeah right! If one doesn't exist, post your resume on Monster.com immediately.

The strategy document should contain, ha ha ha, goals, objectives, measures (yes, measures that should be tracked), targets, and key initiatives that your company will supposedly execute to achieve its goals.
Once you have researched the strategy, align your work with the companies key initiatives.
Got it.
If you don't, give me a buzz. We can work through this together.

Sony Service Stinks

2006-11-20T13:43:00.000-05:00

Google
I have been trying to install Sony's Sonicstage software that came with my MP3 Walkman for 3 days. What a fiasco. I can't get the software to run I get an error message. I tried chatting with Sony techs and they gave me the same script each time and no one gave a damn about correcting my problem.
Buyers beware. If I can't get Sony help before the winter holidays I doubt you will get help after the holidays.

I would never recommend a Sony product to a friend, family, or collegue.

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

2006-07-28T23:38:00.000-04:00

I recently had an "oh $hit" moment.
A friend of mine with a prominent consulting firm asked me if I could recommend a Master Black Belt as a strategic management consultant. After all, I know at least a 100 MBBs. Guess what, I could think of a few and that's stretch.
Could you?
Unfortunately, many MBBs are clueless and neglectly incapable of assisting executives in clarifying their strategy. So how is it these MBBs are responsible for selecting strategicly important projects. They're not and they can't.
Why is that?