There was a big splash in the Enterprise Architecture tool market a few weeks ago - BizzDesign announced that they will merge with Mega and an unnamed third party (which we will learn about in Q4 soon, but cannot name here at this time). But why these two (three) players and why now?

Since we know some people in the industry, I reached out to Luca de Risi from Mega and we quickly came up with the idea of doing a show about Mergers & Acquisitions and not only talk about the current example, but also more generally about ownership models, how M&A comes together, and what that means for the involved organizations.

Our first guest doesn't need an introduction since he has been on the show already: Luca de Risi. Luca is Mega’s Chief Executive Officer and he held various leadership positions at the firm before that, like, being the country manager for the APAC business while being located in Singapore, or as Business Development Executive in the United States. He started his career as an internal auditor for a major French car maker before joining Mega.

Our second guest is Nick Reed, the Chief Strategy Officer of BizzDesign. He is a senior software and services leader with a successful track record of building and leading teams in high growth software technology companies. Strategy development and execution, M&A, value proposition development, strategic partnerships and analyst relations. Nick builds long term relationships with customers, with a relentless focus on business value and customer success and is a strong cross-functional team player, connecting the dots across sales, marketing, product, services and customer success for strategic initiatives.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Luca’s and Nick’s backgrounds
• Forms of ownership and the impact on an organization’s strategy
• What are the reasons (and timing) to acquire another organization
• Criteria to check if you are a match
• Impact of a merger on customers and products
• What is the process of mergers and acquisitions
• What is the impact on the organization(s)?
• How is the product strategy affected?

Luca and Nick can be reached on LinkedIn. More detailed information about the merger is available here: https://bizzdesign.com/bizzdesign-merger-enterprise-transformation/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

Oh, why do I need a special EA/BPM tool? I am managing my apps in a spreadsheet just fine. That is one of the misconceptions that I have heard over the last twenty-something years of me helping clients to stand up practices and increase their EA/BPM maturity. And there are tons more of those ...

Well, our first guest doesn't need an introduction since he has been on the show already: Caspar Jans. But for those of you who don't know him, he is not only working in the BPM space for decades but is also the co-host of the BPM360 Podcast, being recognized as a Top 50 voice in operational excellence by the PEX / Process Excellence Network in 2023, and he writes a newsletter on LinkedIn.

Our second guest is Russell Gomersall, who is the other co-host of the BPM360 Podcast and is a Senior Partner at bpExperts GmbH. His expertise lies in developing and applying the BusinessFlows-MetamodeI, bpExperts proprietary method for process-centric business transformations, and leading the TechLab, their competence center for technology-driven process optimization. Russell also act as the Chief Cheerleader and Value Owner of Passion, one of his core values, and fosters a culture of enthusiasm, engagement, and collaboration among bpExpert's team and customers.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about (and I am not sure if we used all of the misconceptions below, but so be it):

• Russell's and Caspar's backgrounds
• Architecture Usage
• Projects
• What is all the fuzz about this stuff?
• How to use the tools / the discipline
• Skills

Caspar is easy to reach on LinkedIn and also has a website that contains his writings (and his newsletter "Process Extraordinaire Weekly" on LinkedIn here). Russel can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russellgomersall/.

You can find their podcast BPM360 wherever you get your podcasts or on their website: https://www.bpm360podcast.com/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

Do you need Business Architects when creating a new product? Isn't that a bit redundant when you have highly-paid Product Managers already? Or is there an overlap between the two that will create a better product for the end users, but also for the organization because they can better support it and it is aligned with the underlying process.

Our guest this week is Mike DeCamp, who has over 15 years of professional experience in business analysis, project management, and process improvement. He is a Senior Product Manager at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), one of the world's leading cancer research and treatment centers.

Mike has earned multiple certifications in Business Benefits Realization, Change Management, Business & Enterprise Architecture, and Financial Literacy, and is a proficient thought leader in areas of strategy development and cross functional leadership.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Mike's background
• Business Architecture - how the BA Guild defines it and how it relates to other frameworks and concepts
• Business architecture artifacts as the value contribution to make the connection to the strategy/business model
• How Mike applied BA to a new product in his day job at MSKCC
• How BA provides the context when defining new projects or programs (for products, but also otherwise)
• How to keep structures up-to-date when everything is a project

To reach out to Mike via LinkedIn have a look here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-decamp-cba%C2%AE-02bb6b2/

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

A lot of folks who are beginning with Process Mining see this as a technical or academic exercise and just want to know “how things works”.
But what is that worth? You need to be able to implement changes based on your analysis. Otherwise, the exercise has no value IMHO (besides if it is a Proof-of-Concept in a sales situation, but even then you should choose a process that you get some actionable insights from).

We are speaking with Olaf Geyer about this topic. Olaf is a very experienced BPM consultant and held multiple leadership roles in the past, such as Consulting Director, Customer Success Director, or leading the Consulting Team for the Americas at one BPM software vendor.

These days he is working in the professional services organization at Software AG and is focussing on Process Mining and the consulting methodology that his team uses when working with clients. The Process Mining Readiness Assessment is one of the “products” that came out of that work.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Olaf’s background (and the long history we are sharing at two employers)
• Why doing a Process Mining Readiness activity – what are the experiences that Olaf has made in the past that led to the development of the offering?
• Criteria for picking the right process as the first Process Mining project
• Objectives for the first project and how it fits into the “bigger picture”
• Data readiness as critical factor supporting a goal-oriented Process Mining
• What is goal-based / hypothesis-based Process Mining?
• What is the result of the Process Mining Readiness Assessment and what do you do with it?

Olaf can be reached on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ogeyer/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

Some organizations seem to perform better, create results faster, and the people in those organizations seem to have fun on top if this? But how can that be when you are currently stretched in all directions and don't know how to get stuff done?

In this episode we are talking with Amy Levine, who is an expert in neuroscience and how it impacts high-performance teams and the leaders (and their leadership style). Science to the rescue!

After a decade leading global productivity for Fortune 100 companies, Amy ventured on her own to help even more high-potential organizations improve performance and profitability. It's been a fascinating ride.

She partners with leaders and organizations to build high-performing cultures and achieve accelerated growth. With a focus on science-based strategies and proven methodologies, Amy helps clients improve stakeholder collaboration, optimize processes, and drive award-winning results. As a seasoned facilitator and coach, she creates inclusive environments for open dialogue and peer exchange, ensuring effective communication and goal achievement.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Amy’s background and her focus in building high-performance teams
• What is the problem for (new) leaders
• The need for strategy, aligned communication, selection of the right people, gamification/”competition”
• Impact of high-performance organization on leadership and outcomes
• Neurotransmitters as potential influence for culture (wow, science!)
• How to apply this knowledge to organizations
• Behavior as a leader and questions to ask yourself and your team members for adapting

Amy can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyllevine

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

Hey J-M, what do think when you hear the word “seven”?

Well, maybe the seven wonders of the world? Seven rings? Seven deadly sins? My favourite song by Ariana Grande?

Hmm, these are all good ideas, but how about a Season 7 of the What’s Your Baseline podcast?

No way, what do we have in store for this season?

A mix of interviews and topic shows, just as in all of the last seasons. But we also will mix up some things - we will do video podcasts in addition to the audio podcasts now, And we’ll keep it short and sweet!

But what stays the same is the high-quality content that you expect from us and brought us to over 35,000 downloads. So, hang on a bit and we will be back with Season 7 next Monday August 26!

See you then!

Some organizations are like a ticking time bomb when it comes to their processes and (IT) architecture.
"The old guard" is about to leave the organization in masses (and sometimes not voluntarily) and a lot of knowledge about how things are wired up - which is what architecture is all about, right? - will leave as well. And not too many organizations are prepared for this, and rather pretend that the young kid fresh from college can fill the hole. Note to those orgs: they won't.

Our guest in this episode is Peggy McCann - she is a veteran business professional who has specialized working in areas that transform business operations. Peggy worked extensively in process mapping and process improvement utilizing new and emerging technologies. She developed workflows for companies that installed new ERP systems that necessitated corporate culture and process change, and worked on multi-national implementations advising and working to meld program roll out to national standards and diverse cultures both internal and external.

Peggy is a project leader covering process engineering; functional/system integration; process controls and system security, and does business advisement for entrepreneurs; financial tracking, marketing, web presence, and ecommerce. She is an advisor for game development firm dealing with internet safety for children, multi user controls and guidelines - community work establishing and defining arts in action.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Peggy's background
• The impact of (forced) retirement for the individuals and what organizations do wrong in that situation. And challenges for the people who shall replace them
• Benefits of keeping older employees around (the pendulum that swings)
• Risks for organizations - IT architecture, lack of interest on old technology, data lakes, etc. Orgs don't know what is running!
• What can companies (HR) do? How does the conversation between the org and the individual change? How shall roles change?
• Steps going forward: HR assessment, structured knowledge management capture plan, mentoring, flexible transition models into retirement

Peggy can be found on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggy-mccann-147b564/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.

How do I get started? What is the first thing that I look at? Who will be my allies? What do I need to put in place? When you are tasked to build a brand new Business Architecture practice in an organization that has not had one before is a challenging task. When you have to do this in a 60-year old organization in a field that is relatively unique on the market, that might be even more challenging.

Our guest in this episode is Breanne Casteel, a catalyst for change enablement through collaboration and connections to drive empathetic business solutions.

She is a passionate advocate with 20+ years experience bringing awareness of Business Architecture and Business Analysis skills and mindset to numerous roles in the organization with an emphasis on communication, transparency, and collaboration across silos.

In this episode of the podcast we are talking about:

• Breanne’s background
• The case for Business Architecture
• Finding sponsorship and allies
• Creating and showing the value of Business Architecture day-by-day
• (Lack of) Reference models
• How to get started without a BPM tool first – and then choosing one after the start
• Planning and building a roadmap – for the organization and the business architecture team as well
• Setting up a strategic project portfolio for the organization

You can find Breanne on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/breannecasteel/.

Please reach out to us by either sending an email to hello@whatsyourbaseline.com or leaving us a voice message by clicking here.