Category: Insights


Remote Project Management
and Execution sets a path to innovation

By admin,

With the recent shift to increased remote working, project management teams faced significant adjustments to get the work done efficiently and with the usual high quality. While the benefits of remote working are quite clear, managing remote project teams comes with its own set of challenges. Though, when the right structure, technologies, and processes are in place, organizations have a great opportunity to fast adapt the work model and thrive further.

Remote working has been a relevant topic explored by organizations for a while; however, at scale, as forced by the recent events, is unusual and will affect organizations for many years. When remote working is appropriately done, it can increase productivity, innovation and help the organization embrace even a more efficient project execution approach. If it is done poorly, it raises inefficiencies, harms work relationships, and discourages employees. So there is a lot at stake!

How can remote project management be successful?

Effective Project Management is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to remote teams. Managing the implementation of complex projects involving multiple locations, workstreams, and teams can be exciting, requiring exceptional coordination and skill. Remote project management also brings a unique set of challenges. Without regular status meetings or meetings at work, which most teams perform daily in the office, project transparency naturally decreases, and complexity in the overall project execution increases.

Successful remote project implementation requires a practical framework using adequate technologies, establishing clear goals, providing team members autonomy, and delivering progress. While the project necessities will vary for each company, project scope, and team, having a consistent approach will enable companies to deliver high-quality projects on time, within budget successfully.

What should you have on top of your mind when working on remote project management strategies?

Working with remote project management strategies, no matter what methodology is chosen, it is vital to keep the following components on top of mind:

  • Creating shared objectives based on project specifics
  • Scoping out and prioritizing project specifics is crucial
  • Establishing effective project kickoff calls
  • Soften the chaos of remote project tasks
  • Prioritize to build remote teams with clear and effective communication at all levels
  • Achieve early timelines and deadlines for project milestones
  • Track every significant task and deadline in a central tool
  • Keep teammates accountable with quick status updates
  • Document every decision
  • Manage budget properly and mitigate risks early
  • Systematically provide team engagement
  • Praise achievements and project progress
  • Keep the lines of communication open

Over the years, our experience demonstrated that keeping this on the top of your mind will help manage any remote project successfully and increase your team’s ability and momentum to correct course faster when necessary.

In a nutshell:
  • Remote work differs from regular office work. In remote work, teams will need clarity and freedom to work when it’s best for everyone
  • Having a strong project management structure will help team members develop the right habits and create alignment and accountability through trivial status updates
  • Remote work embedded in micromanagement and control will fail – balance supervision with trustworthiness
  • Develop clear and obvious governance on project documentation and share information openly. Keep all communication integrated, where cross-functional teams can collaborateSoften the chaos of remote project tasks
  • Allow your team to embrace change always and be inspired by doing so

With the right technologies, tools, and processes in place, remote project work will consistently deliver real and valuable outcomes.

Team members will thrive in an environment that promotes adaptability, confidence, and autonomy.

Our team is regularly utilizing these methodologies and techniques for remote project management success, and it is an incredible journey.

Hopefully, this Article can inspire other organizations and managers to build a remote project that fits their culture.

  Category: Aurynion, Insights, news
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and Execution sets a path to innovation

Driving Value through True Partnerships

By admin,

Aurynion founder Michael Guethlein builds every client interaction from the founding values of the company: integrity, prudence, courage and trust. And, perhaps most importantly, respect. This approach affords him and his team the ability to truly understand a client’s issues — from their point of view — to drive functional outcomes that yield maximum value.

Question: Why did you found Aurynion?

Answer: I founded Aurynion in 2012 with the vision of bringing together a network of professionals and business partners who truly understand business needs — from the client’s perspective. I always thought I was an entrepreneur at heart and after working for 15 years at a global management consulting and services company leading and managing projects to support companies in their overall strategic planning, M&A, business analysis, outsourcing and performance optimization, I knew I had the experience to start my own firm.

When the time was right, I founded Aurynion, and I vowed to build this company with one main goal in mind: to truly partner my clients. The name Aurynion means “Positively Charged Guidance.” It consists of two words: “ion,” the positively charged part of an atom; and “auryn,” which traces its roots back to an ancient word meaning “guidance”.

Question: Describe what you mean by “truly partnering.”

Answer: I decided to strike out on my own because I wanted to be able to help clients for the long-term, and the way I could do that was to work on projects in which I knew I could tend to the client’s needs and create real value. Our approach is different because we tap into the client’s resources to help drive projects. We gather people from their teams — with relevant experience — and work with them to create deeper knowledge and expertise and achieve sustainable results.

We act like entrepreneurs and business owners, and we go the extra mile to make every project successful. When we created the company I established four values that we would stand for: integrity, prudence, courage and trust. They are a critical component of our approach and success.

Question: What services does Aurynion provide?

Answer: Aurynion focuses in three primary areas: Business Growth, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) and Business Optimization. Our business growth practice focuses on achieving sustainable company growth. Our team works with the client to develop a strategic operational foundation with performance measures and actionable plans to realize goals while minimizing risk and effort.

Our M&A practice provides overall strategy, during-the-deal planning and implementation and post-transaction integration to create and increase value for your company through the whole M&A cycle.

Business Optimization helps companies determine what is working and what isn’t working inside their organizations. We identify and recommend improvements and opportunities for consolidation, eliminating redundancies and improving overall efficiency and performance.

Question: What piece of advice would you give to others?

Answer: I try to step into my client’s shoes. I want to understand how someone thinks — from an entrepreneurial perspective. By having that mindset, we are able to achieve the best outcomes because we’re starting from the same place and working toward the same goals. It’s because of this that we are able to provide value and understanding.

Pricing Strategy and Tactics

By admin,

Aurynion LLC gathered SmartCEO Future 50 winners in New York to discuss best practices in pricing strategy and tactics. The participating executives shared how they chose their current pricing model, how their pricing strategy differs from their competition, and discussed how to ensure the pricing process remains realistic and value driven.

  • How much should your cost basis influence your price?
  • What differentiates your pricing model from the competition?
  • How did you choose your current pricing model?
  • How often do you review your pricing model to ensure it remain realistic and value-driven?
  • What other factors do/did you consider for setting once for your products and/or services?
  • Who is involved in setting the price for a product in your organization?
  • ‘Premium Service’ Pricing – a way to improve margins?
  • What best practices and what challenges do you see in terms of pricing?
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SmartCEO Awards celebrate
Entrepreneurship

By admin,

Aurynion and SmartCEO celebrate Entrepreneurship

As part of the Future 50 award ceremony, Aurynion LLC and SmartCEO gathered entrepreneur winners and their business teams for a high-energy, executive-level event in New York that brought their stories as entrepreneurs to life.

The New York event celebrated entrepreneurship and the achievements of executives and businesses throughout the New York region. As part of the program, the winners and finalists were profiled in the SmartCEO magazine. The event incorporated exclusive networking, upscale cocktail hours, renowned speakers, inspiring videos and, of course, the awards recognition.

In this event, Aurynion CEO Michael Guethlein together with the SmartCEO team handed over the award trophies to the winning executives of the New York region growth winners for their achievements and business models.

Congratulations on a great event!

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Entrepreneurship

Business Development
creating long-term value

By admin,

If you ask for a solid definition for business development, you will often get varying and contradictory responses. Some will opine that “Business development is sales”, others might say, “it is all about partnerships”, few business folks would center business development for “boosting revenue and growth”. Thus, most of the time these discussions lack a concise explanation and are not based on an overall framework.

The two major foundation stones for building the right business development strategy include:

  • Attracting new customers
  • Maintaining existing customers

Implementing the right business development strategy needs a well laid-out process:

Applying the right business development strategy has multiple benefits which are enlisted below:

  • Enhancing customer communication
  • Increasing brand value
  • Strengthening business and raises revenue
  • Enabling recurring business leading to successful partnerships and improved employee engagement

Therefore, a business development strategy must be well thought out, sound, appropriate and realistic.

Key take-aways from the discussion and/or Lessons Learned:

“Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organization through customers and markets focusing on establishing innovative partnerships and by educating your workforce”:

  • Create long-term value
  • Create opportunities that persist over the long term, like keeping the channel open so that value can flow in indefinitely.

  • Define customers and markets
  • Identifying the right set of customers and markets is defined by demographics, lifestyle and buying habits. Analyzing your target market to reach prospective customers is one important gateway to unlocking long term value proposition.

  • Establish innovative partnerships
  • Successful business rarely provide all services themselves. Relationship with partners, customers, employees, the press are all critical elements to the success of any business.

  • Educate your workforce
  • Your product or service offering needs to communicate a clear competitive advantage. This calls for educating your employees effectively.

For a successful Business Development Strategy, all three components (namely: sales, strategy and marketing) must align to enable effective outcomes and to foster creative thinking.

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creating long-term value