Consulting in Information Management and Strategy

David A. Borgelt is a business consulting practice focused on helping firms to better manage, market and develop technology-based businesses. Whether the technology is in the products or services they sell or in their internal systems -- understanding and managing this technology effectively is essential.

Our work is built around cross-functional knowledge and integrated expertise -- and the ability to communicate and collaborate with and across the various business functions.

Cross-functional Experience and Expertise:
Integration is Essential

Too often business organizations suffer from a disconnection between the various organizations – 'silos' are a natural result of functional separation and career specialization. Communication styles, jargon, operating assumptions and goals are quite varied between the senior management team, marketing, engineering, finance, customer service and operations. Strategic planners, even those from the outside, are too often focused on a single specialization — industry expertise or systems integration or technology evolution or …

Truly long-term strategic planning must integrate all of these and more. Cross-functional thinking is essential – but can be difficult for managers who have spent most of their careers in one or two business functions. Subject matter experts are essential to running a business but are sometimes not the best leaders of fundamental change in organization, industry, market or product-line.

Design Philosophy

The design philosophy behind this consulting is somewhat contrary to much of the accepted industry wisdom. Some of the core issues are a set of concepts called Design for Change.

The idea that any product, service or process can be almost perfectly designed once and for all is flawed in its conception and bound to fail. Senior management, marketing and engineering must all be involved in an intimate and fundamental way from the first conception of any technology based product, process or service. Interdependence, adaptability and flexibility are key. This is true, and essential, in both the organizations involved and the solutions produced.

For more background, see the design philosophy section.

Clients

The clients vary considerably, as do their needs, but the goal is to understand the problems to be solved in market/user terms, to evaluate the tools available for creating the solutions, and to build the teams, processes and technology base to define and create the needed solutions.

Some sample projects will help explain the scope of this practice and the solutions provided.