Getting buy-in and why it is important

By George Haldeman

I recently spoke at the Gaming Technology Summit in Las Vegas. The panel discussion was about the need to generate ROI from technology investments. While I listed a series of non-technical issues that impact ROI, none has a greater impact than getting buy in. This is true not only for technology investments but also for new marketing initiatives as well as operational changes.

Moving from Collaboration to Synergy

By George Haldeman

Collabaration

When casino managemnt teams attempt to solve problems they ususally assign various aspects of an issue to various resources with in the organization. Each person or group completes their portion of the project and their efforts are then combined into a solution to the task at hand. In this way we collaborate across departments in an attempt to optimize our results. In affect, we add the knowledge and action of one group of people with the knowledge and actions of another. Mathamatically it cal be expressed as 1+1=2.

Change is hard

By George Haldeman

Why is change hard

For many organizations, change is hard. Sometimes, we have substantial investments in certain strategies, people and technologies which cause us to fear change.  In many cases, it forces us to admit that what we have been doing is less than optimal. It can be difficult to admit that maybe we didn’t get it right the first time. The organization may look down on us if we admit change is necessary. Our subordinates may lose respect for us because we are changing course.