Eddie Obeng

Last updated

Eddie Obeng
Eddie Obeng on ball.jpg
Born
Edward David Asihene Obeng

1959 (age 6364)
NationalityBritish
Education Cass Business School
University College London
Cranleigh School, Surrey, England
Occupation(s)Educator and author
Employer(s) Henley Business School
Ashridge Business School
Royal Dutch Shell
OrganizationPentacle (The Virtual Business School)

Edward David Asihene Obeng (born 1959) is a British organisational theorist, educator, and author, who serves as a professor at Henley Business School and Hult International Business School's Ashridge Executive Education. Obeng founded Pentacle (The Virtual Business School) and serves as its executive director. Obeng has been described variously as "a leading revolutionary" and "an agent provocateur" [1] by the Financial Times, and by Abbey National as their "secret weapon". [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Obeng was born in Ghana to the scientist Letitia Obeng. When his mother moved to Kenya, Obeng was sent to England, to complete his education, at Cranleigh School. [3] He progressed to University College London and the Cass Business School.[ citation needed ]

Career

Obeng's business career started as an engineer at Royal Dutch Shell before he became the youngest Executive Director of a European Business School when he moved to Ashridge Business School in 1987.[ citation needed ]

In 1994, he established Pentacle (The Virtual Business School) to teach this philosophy and ensure that there was a "continuous link between learning and implementation". [4]

Educational research

Obeng's research interest began in the field of Project Management, where he developed the concept of 'New World Management', also referred to as 'World After Midnight', as a response to the rapidly accelerating pace of change. He is inspired by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. [3] For example, Obeng's "bubble diagrams" are based on Goldratt's current reality tree, Obeng's "sticky steps planning" is an application of Goldratt's critical chain project management.

New World Management concept

Obeng's concept of the New World proposes that we have moved (as a world) from an age when we could learn faster than our local environment (the 'Old World'), to a new age where the local environment of individuals, organisations, and governments changes faster than we can learn (the 'New World'). He argues that, as a result of this shift, most of the concepts, best practices, and assumptions that we commonly used to plan, manage, lead, organise, and govern are obsolete and damaging to the lives of individuals, society, and organisations. Obeng describes this as smart failure for a fast changing world [5] and is perhaps best summarised by Eric Hoffer's reflection that "In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists". [6]

Virtual education

Obeng pioneered the use of bespoke business simulation games to help stimulate and embed learning. In 1995, together with Keith Still, pioneer in crowd dynamics, he created the now obsolete virtual reality game 'Columbus'. Programming required high powered SGI Indigo computers, although the simulation ran at 25 fps on a standard PC running Windows 95. In 2010, he launched 'The Cube' (later rebranded to QUBE). Obeng's innovation with QUBE was to focus on learning and application by integrating all the business models, frameworks, and tools into the virtual reality enabled environment.

Teaching approach

Obeng is notable for demystifying traditional business school teaching by removing unnecessary theory and focusing on practical tools that can be applied in the real world in "a continuous link between learning and implementation". [4] It uses teaching techniques that ensure that skills are learned and can be applied immediately. [7] [8] The approach has been published in the Gower Handbook of Management. [9]

Obeng's teaching approach is divided into five stages that are based around David A. Kolb's experiential learning styles.

  • Engage, to build trust with the client and understand their needs
  • Diagnose, to establish the key ‘levers’ the management team need to seize to make an opportunity work and/or to find the root cause/ barriers to turn-around.
  • Design, to work out how to re-align the management team's active or perhaps frenetic daily-life to ‘insert’ the learning required to transform it.
  • Implement, to deliver the learning and support its application around both hard (process) and soft (people) issues.
  • Embed, to remove the barriers to the new learning taking hold.

Learning content

Obeng's learning material is divided into five subject areas that are intended to reflect the broad challenges experienced by managers and executives in the New World: How do I invent the future? How do I deliver the future? How do I deliver today? How do I lead organised talent? How do I ensure results?

  • Inventing the Future; uses proprietary tools such as the SPARQS model and the RABBIT process help to develop new ideas and ensure that they are turned into successful innovation.
  • Delivering the Future; makes use of the four project types [10] developed by Pentacle to better manage complex projects. These are "Painting by Numbers, a "Quest", a "Film" and a "Foggy Project" each requiring a different management approach in order to ensure success.
  • Delivering Today; uses a number of tools such as the "Money Making Machine" to help to prioritise activity.
  • Leading Organised Talent; uses the principles of behavioural leadership to support managers to create and manage effective teams.
  • Ensuring Results makes use of assessed learning styles to make sure that implemented actions are sustained.

Awards and recognitions

In 2011, Obeng won the Sir Monty Finniston Award for lifetime achievement by The Association for Project Management for his contributions to the study and practice of Project Management. [11] [12]

Publications

Obeng is author of the following books:

He has also made significant contributions to: The Financial Times Handbook of Management and The Gower Handbook of Training and Development and has a regular column in Project Management Today.

Related Research Articles

Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, and budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliyahu M. Goldratt</span> Israeli business management author and thinker (1947-2011)

Eliyahu Moshe Goldratt was an Israeli business management guru. He was the originator of the Optimized Production Technique, the Theory of Constraints (TOC), the Thinking Processes, Drum-Buffer-Rope, Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and other TOC derived tools.

The theory of constraints (TOC) is a management paradigm that views any manageable system as being limited in achieving more of its goals by a very small number of constraints. There is always at least one constraint, and TOC uses a focusing process to identify the constraint and restructure the rest of the organization around it. TOC adopts the common idiom "a chain is no stronger than its weakest link". That means that organizations and processes are vulnerable because the weakest person or part can always damage or break them, or at least adversely affect the outcome.

Program management is the process of managing several related projects, often with the intention of improving an organization's performance. It is distinct from project management.

<i>The Goal</i> (novel) 1984 book by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

The Goal is a management-oriented novel by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a business consultant known for his theory of constraints, and Jeff Cox, the author of several management-oriented novels. The Goal was originally published in 1984 and has since been revised and republished. This describes a case study in operations management, focusing on the theory of constraints, and bottlenecks and how to alleviate them. In 2011, Time Magazine listed the book as one of "the 25 most influential business management books".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collaboration tool</span> Tool that helps people to collaborate

A collaboration tool helps people to collaborate. The purpose of a collaboration tool is to support a group of two or more individuals to accomplish a common goal or objective. Collaboration tools can be either of a non-technological nature such as paper, flipcharts, post-it notes or whiteboards. They can also include software tools and applications such as collaborative software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Throughput accounting</span> Principle of management accounting

Throughput accounting (TA) is a principle-based and simplified management accounting approach that provides managers with decision support information for enterprise profitability improvement. TA is relatively new in management accounting. It is an approach that identifies factors that limit an organization from reaching its goal, and then focuses on simple measures that drive behavior in key areas towards reaching organizational goals. TA was proposed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt as an alternative to traditional cost accounting. As such, Throughput Accounting is neither cost accounting nor costing because it is cash focused and does not allocate all costs to products and services sold or provided by an enterprise. Considering the laws of variation, only costs that vary totally with units of output e.g. raw materials, are allocated to products and services which are deducted from sales to determine Throughput. Throughput Accounting is a management accounting technique used as the performance measure in the Theory of Constraints (TOC). It is the business intelligence used for maximizing profits, however, unlike cost accounting that primarily focuses on 'cutting costs' and reducing expenses to make a profit, Throughput Accounting primarily focuses on generating more throughput. Conceptually, Throughput Accounting seeks to increase the speed or rate at which throughput is generated by products and services with respect to an organization's constraint, whether the constraint is internal or external to the organization. Throughput Accounting is the only management accounting methodology that considers constraints as factors limiting the performance of organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hult Ashridge</span>

Hult Ashridge is the executive education programme of Hult International Business School, housed in Hult's Ashridge Estate campus. Formerly an independent business school, known as Ashridge Business School, Ashridge completed an operational merger with Hult in 2015. Its activities include open and tailored executive education programmes, Master of Business Administration, Master of Science and diploma qualifications, as well as organisation consulting and applied research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business process re-engineering</span> Business management strategy

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a business management strategy originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and business processes within an organization. BPR aims to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors.

Business analysis is a professional discipline focused on identifying business needs and determining solutions to business problems. Solutions may include a software-systems development component, process improvements, or organizational changes, and may involve extensive analysis, strategic planning and policy development. A person dedicated to carrying out these tasks within an organization is called a business analyst or BA.

Capacity management's goal is to ensure that information technology resources are sufficient to meet upcoming business requirements cost-effectively. One common interpretation of capacity management is described in the ITIL framework. ITIL version 3 views capacity management as comprising three sub-processes: business capacity management, service capacity management, and component capacity management.

Business simulation or corporate simulation is simulation used for business training, education or analysis. It can be scenario-based or numeric-based.

In the fields of information technology and systems management, application performance management (APM) is the monitoring and management of the performance and availability of software applications. APM strives to detect and diagnose complex application performance problems to maintain an expected level of service. APM is "the translation of IT metrics into business meaning ."

<i>Critical Chain</i> (novel) Book by Eliyahu Goldratt

Critical Chain is a novel by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt using the critical chain theory of project management as the major theme. It is really a teaching method for the theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hult International Business School</span> Business school

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenQwaq</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Crainer</span> British management journalist and business theorist

Stuart Crainer is an author, editor, adviser and entrepreneur.

In IT operations, software performance management is the subset of tools and processes in IT Operations which deals with the collection, monitoring, and analysis of performance metrics. These metrics can indicate to IT staff whether a system component is up and running (available), or that the component is behaving in an abnormal way that would impact its ability to function correctly—much like how a doctor may measure pulse, respiration, and temperature to measure how the human body is "operating". This type of monitoring originated with computer network components, but has now expanded into monitoring other components such as servers and storage devices, as well as groups of components organized to deliver specific services and Business Service Management).

Nicholas Martin Limer Barnes was a British civil engineer and project manager noted for his role in the development of the New Engineering Contract (NEC), and a founding member and longest-serving president of the Association for Project Management (APM). He served also as the chair of the APM from 1986 to 1991, and was named an Honorary Fellow in 1995.

References

  1. Financial Times, Friday 12 July 1996
  2. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, Volume 16, Number 1, 2002 , pp. 4–6(3)
  3. 1 2 "Professor Eddie Obeng Entrepreneur & Business Guru - ReConnect Africa". www.reconnectafrica.com.
  4. 1 2 Finance and Management, July 2000
  5. Obeng, Eddie (15 October 2012). "Smart failure for a fast-changing world" via www.ted.com.
  6. Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition [32], 1973
  7. Roger Trapp, Financial Director 2 June 2004
  8. 布卢姆斯伯里出版公司 (2003). Business. ISBN   9787800736599.
  9. Landale, Anthony (1999). Gower Handbook of Training and Development. ISBN   9780566081224.
  10. Project Supply Chain Management: From Agile to Lean Bjørn Egil Asbjørnslett 4 July 2003 Page 3 of 9
  11. "Sir Monty Finniston Award | Association for Project Management". Archived from the original on 29 December 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  12. "APM - the chartered body for the project profession". www.apm.org.uk. 28 September 2015.