http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:59:31 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We often find ourselves telling our clients they’re wrong. Of course, we don’t say it like that – “You’re Wrong! Mr. Client!” No. Sometimes they have a problem and already have a solution in mind. Our engineers can often tell very quickly their solution is ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/08/12/how-to-tell-your-customers-they%e2%80%99re-wrong/ In mid May, I was offered the amazing opportunity to be part of the inaugural Global Women’s Leadership Institute, held in Saudi Arabia. The purpose of the institute was to develop women leaders and create a cross-cultural network of those women leaders. Once I was accepted into the program, reality ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/08/11/soul-searching-in-saudi-arabia/ As part of my experience with the Global Women's Leadership Institute, we were treated to a presentation on the creation of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) by Nadhmi Nasr, the Executive Vice President of KAUST. What an amazing story! This incredible, 9000 acre, state-of-the-art University was built and ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/06/22/kaust-an-amazing-example-of-project-management/ I had lunch today with one of the smartest people I know (no, I didn’t have lunch alone!). He’s a software architect for a large global financial services firm and has found himself with an interesting job – he’s the “go to” guy for all of their most difficult ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/05/24/the-life-of-a-consultant/ I had the pleasure of crossing paths with the Dr. Moinuddin Sarker of Natural State Resources a few years ago at a Connecticut Technology Council event. For those of you that are not familiar with this company, they have discovered a method to make fuel from recyclable plastic. ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/05/18/one-of-my-favorite-innovative-ct-companies/ OK, “failure” is kind of a strong word in this case. But here’s the story: We recently had the opportunity to do a “post mortem” kind of meeting on a deal we didn’t get (hey, you can’t win them all, right?) We thought we knew why, or ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/05/10/proposal-writing-what-do-clients-really-want-learning-from-our-failures/ Advanced Decisions is turning 40 this year. That’s amazing to me. I’ve been spending some time thinking about what’s lead to this longevity and the one thing I keep coming back to is relationships. We have customers we’ve been doing business with for 20+ years. In such a ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/04/23/advanced-decisions-is-40/ When can a fourth grader kick the butt of a seventh grader? At the New Haven Science Fair! As I mentioned last week, I had the privilege of judging the first round of the New Haven Science fair on Tuesday. Many of the entries were great but ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/04/08/the-next-generation-of-techies-part-2/ One of the issues near and dear to me is the lack of engineering talent, especially at the entry levels. Without these young people going into engineering, sciences and other technical fields I just don’t see how we can compete in the world economy. So when I have ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/04/02/the-next-generation-of-techies/ I know that seems like an odd title for a blog post, but for the longest time, I’ve been hesitant about the value of social media for growing a business like ours. I can see why it works for retail or B-to-C business but for some reason I had ... http://advanceddecisions.com/judis-blog/index.php/2010/03/12/my-doubts-about-social-media/