3 Tools for Managing Data at No Costs

Data Management is argued to firmly support the organizational learning. Learning organization relies on the knowledge management to innovate products and services to gain competitive edges over the rivals. Research has confirmed that the more effective knowledge management, the more innovative for competitive advantages. Managing knowledge is to turn the learning results of individual, team and organization to data which can be accessed and reused by the individual and teams for ideation and decision-making. For the importance of effective knowledge management, organization needs to properly record the knowledge as the product of learning of individual, team and the organization per se, in the database system for sharing and reusing in the robust cycle of work. Since knowledge can be tacit and implicit, it poses a challenge for filling the database with unnecessary and invaluable data which will complicate the data reusing and assessment. Therefore, it is recommended for the organization to design a knowledge management channel which identify the way knowledge flows and how to filter the valuable knowledge for organizational needs. 

Database management is another systematic way of recording and retaining the data for reusing. Since organization, not to mention their different departments and units, has a lot of data for communication, including irrelevant ones, they needs a database system to manage the overwhelming data for effective work communication. When we sneak about data, it also comes in a variety of forms - text, image, Multimedia, sounds... Then the organization needs a robust database system which can effectively handle all forms of data for recording and accessing. For a caution, Multimedia data such as video file and image consumes more storage space to put a burden on database system. In the current database technology, there are three ways the organization can set up their database system. The first one is offline and on-site database server, where computer servers with high valume of storage / Hard Disk drives are installed as the mainframe computer to record, retain and to retrieve for reusing. The second mode of database system is on-site and cloud-based data servers. This mode enables the data to be safely stored and secured by cloud server by giant cloud server company, namely Google Workspace, Amazon Web Services, Alibaba and so forth. Moreover, the organization still needs to install the computer servers as the mainframe for data communication but no requirement of high volume data storages / Hard Disk Drive. For the third mode, organization can consider web-based database system which all the configuration is on the world wide web and stored in the cloud servers. This approach is more convenient for data management and the configuration. However, there is a disadvantage that the whole database is not in the hand of organization but with the database developer company. Outsourcing the database developer company is advantageous when the organization lacks of specialized database developer staff to design, debug and maintain the database. Hosting the web-based database also requires skills in configuring the cloud server provider to launch the database application. In all, there are advantages and disadvantages of these three modes for managing database and the organization will explore and recommend the most effective mode based on their financial and knowledge circumstances. 

There is still a good venue for database to be managed at lower cost (efficiency) and yields favorable results (effectiveness), albeit less dynamic and robust functions. I would recommend three key tools for designing a web-based database platform at lower cost. The truth is database has three core elements - the storage of data (storage server), the data inputs or records and the accessibility. The first element (storage server) can be built with Google Drive, using the Google Cloud server, as a data storage. Google Drive, though limited with allocated storage capacity, can be increased with costs. It is also rather a wise move if the organization can make use of the YouTube and other multimedia channel to store their multimedia files and by inserting the link to the Google Drive. The second one is Data inputs or records that can be done with ASANA Task Management to link all documents with Google Drive. ASANA platform is free for use and can assign tasks, monitor and evaluate the tasks with unlimited files to upload. To maintain the uniformity, all records of tasks and results must be stored on the Google Drive which we can share the folder or file in the ASANA platform. The third one is accessibility. We can simply share the Google Drive to user by limiting the permission to access the files. However, doing this way will create more complicated file sharing to pop up in the user's Gmail account and their Google Drive. The most recommended tool to use is a blog which is right in the Google Workspace to create a database platform using Google Drive as your data server. Blogger is an application developed by the Google for sharing our posts in the blog style (a mini website) which is more specialized in the field of user. To sum up, there are three key cores of database and three tools which can be used to create the web-based database at lower costs. 

How to Design Your School Development Plan!

What is School Development Plan (SDP)? Why Every School must have it?

School Development Plan is a must-have instrument for school to guide their improvement plan and actions to achieve the high-level strategies or strategic goals. SDP always comes with improvement in the certain aspects of school operations, stemming from the baseline analysis. The baseline operation and results are key indicators for the new SDP to define what areas to repeat and what new areas to add values for the key stakeholders(parents and students). SDP is also a roadmap for actions and results to be monitored and evaluated for designing a new SDP. Can a school go without the SDP? There is no evidence of failure schools to operate without SDP. Some schools may sustain their operation without the SDP. However, many research findings on SDP to positively impact on school's sustainable growth, only with the effective and comprehensive SDP design and alignment of staff' performance with SDP's objectives and targets. Therefore, it is still possible for some other schools to operate without the SDP but it less competitive in the longer-run operations, comparing with the schools operating based on the SDP. We strongly encouraged the school leaders to form a team to design the SDP and put forward to actions.

The main component of SDP is financial aspect which must be secure to support the SDP initiatives to add values for school and their stakeholders. Sufficient funds and strong financial health will guarantee the SDP uninterrupted operation. However, school boards must decide on the percentage for fund allocations on the major improvement in the SDP which can jeopardize other functional operations. In the financial aspect, major investment on assets is bound with the reductions on profit earning and retaining. However, school must be attentive and decisive on how to use the investment funds for major improvements as indicated in the initial phase of analysis for area to improve. For example, there is a strong competitor school to pop up and the likelihood that the school facility will be undermined by the rival school, the major investment on physical asset to modernize the facility is most recommended for school boards to approve.  Another aspect to design the SDP is internal strength and weakness to inform the key improvement targets for achieving the SDP objectives and the School's Strategic Goals. According to the Norton & Kaplan (1992) in their Balanced Scorecard model, the internal process is essential for creating the value and it is argued to continuously improve the work processes for operational excellence. There is a suggested approach for process analysis which was written in earlier posts. The last essential component is competitor / threat that will impact on school operation. From the triangulation, school leaders can define the new initiatives to improve their teaching & learning service quality and supporting functions for retaining and for recruiting more students. 

What should be in your SDP? After collating all analytic data in financial, internal and competitor aspects, the SDP teams must create a format to structure the key components of SDP, namely improvement areas, objectives, targets and measurements, actions, timelines and funds. The format structure must be designed in a coherent and cohesive form that will link actions with targets, key measures and objectives in each area of improvement. Where are the key improvement areas coming from? How the school leaders / teams determine which improvement areas to be listed in the SDP? Key Improvement Areas are the so-called value creation for school. From the analytical data of your financial aspect, internal strength and weakness and competitor, school can decide which areas to improve to align with your school's strategic goals and vision. The improvement in SDP must create more values for key school's stakeholders to inspire and to arouse desires of staying with the schools. To be more precise, schools must synthesize the inputs of parent's and student's satisfaction through survey and in-person group interviews. Understanding their needs and their perceived needs will enhance school's development plan to meet and to exceed their needs. In all, SDP must be structured in a form with explicit Key Improvement Areas, Objectives, Targets & Measures, Action, Timeline and Funds. To add more concise improvement initiatives for value creation, school must synthesize the parent's and student's needs through the survey and interview. 

 Why Strategy Needs Strategy to Execute?

Every organization, regardless of the size, has a strategy to guide their business direction and operation. Strategy is an indispensable tool for the organization to succeed. We can argue for some smaller organization to operate without articulately written strategy but their strategies are within their thinking and planning is in their head. It is rather odds for the a successful organization to start without strategies. Since we argued strategy is a way to win/ to achieve the vision and goals, we continue to argue the crucial role of formulating the strategies to be executed. Formulating a strategy involves a lot of major activities to better understand the current position of the organization against their competitors. SWOT analysis is an ideal framework for analyzing the internal and external environment. Several other tools are also useful in conceptualizing the internal strength and weakness, namely Congruence Model (Organizational Building Blocks), Malcolm Baldridge Excellence Framework, McKinsey 7S framework and so forth. Having a formulated strategy adopted for execution, the organization needs to have another strategy to bring these strategies to actions, which the alignment of performance with strategic goals, Key Targets and Measures is argued to put in the tactical strategy for implementing the strategy. 

Strategy has at least three layers and four depending on the size of organization. The first top layer is a corporate strategy to set the direction/ priorities for the business unit/ department to further plan their strategies. The corporate strategy is considered the most important start of organization due to its vital role for positioning the organizational products in the markets. The second layer is Business unit strategy which is second most important to translate the corporate strategies into each business' strategies. Business strategy is responsible for planning their strategies to achieve the organization strategic goals and key targets. The third layer is departmental / functional strategies which involves the supporting department / function units, namely Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Supply Chain / Procurement/, to align their strategic action plan with the Business Unit strategies (Goals, Targets, Measures). Under each functional / departmental units, it is the operational strategies / tactical strategies to prescribe actions to achieve Functional Strategic goals, targets and measures. The strategies in each layer must be linked from bottom up. Applying the theory of change framework will help visualize the operational strategy to be linked with corporate strategies. 

In all, corporate strategy needs business strategy to achieve their goals and targets. The Business strategy requires functional / departmental strategies to succeed. Finally, the functional strategy needs operational strategies to put actions in the strategic plan to achieve the goals and key targets. Therefore, it is obvious that strategies need strategies to execute.