Enterprise Decision making James Grealis, Senior Director, Operations 2 nd Oct 2008.

Some Quotations Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision. (Dean Hawkes) Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. (P. Drucker) In my life whenever I make a decision, I make it and forget about it. (H. Truman) 2

Symantecs Localisation model Localisation is a separate group –Own Budget –Central group, covering products and services –Includes i18n & L10n under same area Symantec is Acquisition Driven –Frequent new candidates for I18n and L10n investment –An M&S strategy plan of engagement from day one Budget management is a critical part of solution –Close relations opens doors for extra funding Close links to the Sales Organizations –A history of delivering on promises to Sales Close links to the Dev Groups –Historical record of working together 3

Symantecs usual type of requests Existing product offering, –Add a new language request –localise content (Regional Content Group) New Product, –Add a new language –Add content Decision to drop some existing products –Free up some room in the budget 4 No real need to build an overly complex decision making process.

Decisions need to be made 5

What Symantec Use Decision is based on a Business Case request –Country office work with local Localisation Group to complete a simple Business case document. Outline request State the factors in support of the request Clarify what exactly is being requested State the costs of implementation (direct or indirect costs) Calculate the ROI Check if funds are available to support the Business case –Execute if funds available –Pitch for funds if required –Park the proposal if necessary 6

Day to day reality we work with Usually there is a fixed budget to work from –A sizable part which goes to covering fixed costs There is usually an existing product offering to maintain There is a roadmap of products for next 6 to 12 months Content is a growing factor There are acquisitions to add into the spending plans At the end of the day the size of budget to allocate to new projects can be relatively small. 7

Business Case 8 The Business Case document forms a simple but formal step to legitimise and sanity check the request. It goes through a few levels of signoff.

Measuring the ROI Its important that you counter balance the model by measuring the ROI on a quarter or half year basis. –Keep visibility on your Poor performers –Maintain a record of investment/de-investment decisions –Keeping an eye on the shop – good management practice The ROI tracking can be simple enough, but needs to be consistent over time. –Revenue for last 4 Qtrs –Current best known Vendor costs –Loading for internal costs –ROI 9

Measuring the ROI 10 What detail you measure is not so important, as long as its consistent over time.

Alternative Execution Options Traditional Pay and play model –You pay for Vendor & other costs and you release the language offering –Controls over budgets & execution, Track ROIs Royalty Agreements –Symantec used these in the early days, can lead to complex arrangements and to disputes in future times. Licence Agreements –You let a 3 rd party pay the costs and own the product revenue, in return for a licence fee. Or A 3 rd party takes on some of the work and you sell the final product Community Collaboration –New, at pilot phase, limited on use, limitless on reach 11

The holistic picture 12

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some decision making models Pareto principle the idea that by doing 20% of work you can generate 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job. Force Field Analysis useful technique for looking at all the forces for and against a decision. Its a specialized method of weighing pros and cons. Cost Benefit Analysis add up the value of the benefits of a course of action, and subtract the costs associated with it. 14 source: