In the first instance, Ajax is Eric Wainwright’s dog, a gorgeous fun-loving lab.

In the second instance, HMS Ajax is a British cruiser whose crew performed heroically in the defeat of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee in 1939.
For PositiveWare, Ajax (Asynchronous Java and XML) is the use of a few technologies that give PositiveWare the feel and performance of a client application, delivered through a web application. An example of the use of Ajax is the split window in the plan manager window. When an element on the left side of the application is clicked, the relevant information appears immediately on the right side. In previous versions, this would have required an entire page refresh. Instead, the application gets only the data it needs, and is immediately ready for the next input.

Ajax initially came about as the result of Microsoft’s desire to create a web version of Outlook. It has since evolved, flowered, and become an essential part of the web application toolkit. At PositiveWare we have embraced these technologies and others to ensure that our users have the best experience possible.

A few years ago our partner, Quantum Growth Coaching, did a survey of almost 200 business owners to get a handle on planning practices. To summarize the findings,

• Having a strategy is effective.
• Writing it down more so.
• Measuring often made it even more valuable.
• Referencing business decisions against it provided the greatest subjective return.
• Having a strategy but not writing it down was no better than having none at all.

For PositiveWare, these results are incredibly important, because our application provides an environment for writing the plan down, measuring progress or lack thereof, and creating the greatest possible return by driving all actions to be aligned to the company plan.

For a copy of the survey or more information, please contact us at 303.293.2200 or email info@positiveware.com.

 

 

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We have partnered with Tokyo-based Kozo Keikaku Engineering (KKE), Inc., to distribute our software in Japan.

“The Japanese market is as yet untapped for performance management software,” stated Charles Von Thun, the president and founder of PositiveWare. “The KKE partnership represents significant potential for both parties.”

Von Thun estimates demand that the total market for performance management software will grow to $900 million in 2010. KKE , which began using PositiveWare internally this summer was sufficiently impressed to want to distribute the Japanese language version to companies throughout the country.

Founded in November, 2003, PositiveWare was named the 2005 Colorado Software and Internet Association’s Rookie of the Year. Clients include Avaya, DDRC, Touchdown Technologies and Decisioneering, Inc. Using the software to align employee behavior to strategic goals , the companies have realized an increase in productivity of up to 30 percent in the first few months.

PositiveWare principals have a long history in the Japanese market. Karen Kruse, CTO of PositiveWare, worked in Tokyo for nearly a year developing and implementing financial trading systems for the Tokyo stock exchange. Von Thun, the president and founder of PositiveWare, partnered with KKE previously to release several packaged software applications.

Today’s announcement is the result of months of discussion between KKE - Japanese distributor of AutoCad, Minitab, and Crystal Ball - and the development team of PositiveWare. The team began its work in April, 2005 to develop a Japanese language translation of the application that also reflected cultural norms.

Von Thun credits Microsoft’s .NET framework technology and PositiveWare’s internet-based design for the ease in which the partnership has developed. While creating, translating and testing the application was a laborious process, five years ago it may have been impossible, he notes.

Similarly demand in Japan has grown tremendously over the past 2-3 years.

“Our firm places a high value on accountability and communication, as do most other Japanese firms,” said Shota Hattori, CEO of KKE. “The PositiveWare application is not only a significant tool allowing companies to increase productivity and improve communication throughout the organization, it is also completely unique to the Japanese marketplace.

About PositiveWare

PositiveWare, LLC, provides web-based, performance management solutions. PositiveWare is used by managers and employees to establish and evaluate employee goals, leading to increased employee motivation and morale, reduced managerial workloads, and improved strategy execution.

PositiveWare emerged from its beta release with its v1.0 release in March 2005 and has numerous customers including a Fortune 500 technology company and an international software engineering company in Japan. For more information about the company and its products visit www.positiveware.com.

About Kozo Keikaku Engineering, Inc.

Kozo Keikaku Engineering, Inc., is a Tokyo-based company that evolved from one of Japan’s premier structural engineering firms to be a leading provider of information technology solutions. The firm is the Japanese distributor for AutoDesk, Minitab, and Crystal Ball, and is also a developer of custom software solutions for telecommunication companies including NTT-Docomo and KDDI, and major real estate developers and construction firms. For more information visit www.kke.co.jp/positiveware.

Some years ago I had the benefit of attending a professional development class at the Kennedy School of Government. Surrounded primarily by non-profit and big government types, I listened to the dulcet tones of Aubrey Daniels as he put forth a comprehensive paradigm for managing people based on some very simple precepts that were very appealing to the engineer in me.

Aubrey’s take on management is based on behavioral science, the description of the Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) model, and the description of reinforcement under the Rplus model. Simply put (perhaps too simply) an antecedent is anything that happens to make a behavior occur the first time. The behavior is the individual’s response to the antecedent. The consequence is the system’s response to the behavior. A positive consequence (or reinforcement) is any consequence that causes the behavior to repeat. A negative consequence is any consequence that causes a behavior to not repeat.

The key insight for me was around unintended consequences. What matters about any reinforcement is not what I think about it, it’s how the recipient reacts. As an example, I used to think public acknowledgement for good performance was a good thing. It turns out that one of my staff basically felt humiliated when acknowledged publicly, and preferred cash. By the same token, money is not a universal positive reinforcement, which explains why profit-sharing programs don’t have the results one would expect.

PositiveWare was built with positive reinforcement in mind, because it is only when behaviors are understood and tracked that an environment for positive reinforcement can be created.

Anyone interested in the topic would be well served by a read of Performance Management by Aubrey Daniels.

Numerous factors and influences converged in the making of PositiveWare. One of the most significant is the entrepreneurial coaching program called Strategic Coach®. Founded by Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith in Toronto in 1982, the program has grown to offer a variety of coaching, and knowledge products geared to entrepreneurs, and executives of entrepreneurial firms.

The program teaches entrepreneurs three core concepts: The Entrepreneurial Time System™ (ETS), The Unique Ability™, and Front Stage/Back Stage™. The ETS is used to teach entrepreneurs that there is more to life then working, and that by dividing and measuring their time carefully they can do more of what they love and less of what they don’t love.

The Unique Ability™ is the concept that every entrepreneur has one thing they love to do more then anything else, and that frequently in running a business the entrepreneur gets trapped into doing things they don’t love, partially because they have not focused enough on what they love.

Finally, the Front Stage/Back Stage is set of tools to help the entrepreneur create more efficient processes throughout their business. Properly done, these processes draw on the Unique Abilities of the entire team and allow the entrepreneur to do more of what they love, leading to improved results for everyone.

PositiveWare was built by Strategic Coach clients by and in part for Strategic Coach clients. The PositiveWare software is ideally suited to implementing the ETS, and for both developing and the executing the Front Stage/Back Stage concept. PositiveWare shares numerous clients with Strategic Coach, and is indebted to Dan Sullivan for articulating these important ideas. For more information about Strategic Coach contact them at 800.387.3206 or at www.strategiccoach.com.