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Well, my friends, it has been a while since I have posted anything.  I am now considered a cancer survivor!

My primary goal in 2016 was to not see the inside of a hospital, and I achieved that goal.  2017 almost was shaping up to be the same.  At the end of 2017 and again in mid-2019 had two major maintenance surgeries to correct a few “plumbing” issues.

This means that after 6 years, 16 surgeries, and five teams of doctors at MD Anderson, I remain cancer-free.

So, as of September 2019 the numbers look like this:

• 3 – unrelated cancers
• 2 – times doctors said I was not going to live but a few months (or in one case hours)
• 16 – number of surgeries
• 6 years of cancer treatment and surgeries
• 6 years cancer-free free from first cancer, 5 years cancer-free from second cancer, and 2 years cancer-free from the third.

In 2017, I decided to look forward and start living life again.  The “New Normal.”  So my wife and I decided to go on a bike ride this year.  Not just any bike ride, RAGBRAI 2017.  www.ragbrai.com

RAGBRAI (Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) is an annual ride sponsored by the Des Moines Register newspaper. It is the oldest, largest and longest touring bicycle ride in the world.  This is the 45th year it has been held.  It starts in the west of Iowa and travels the entire width of the state to the Mississippi River in the east. This year is a “short” ride at only 417 miles over 7 days.  50-60 miles a day from small town to small town.  Note I have been told this is a “ride” not a “race” which is quite OK by me!

We will be joined by our nephew who has undergone his own miracle surgery.  At 16 years old, Shriner’s Hospital in Chicago to lengthen his right leg 2 inches with a very advanced surgical procedure.  Doctors have cleared him to join us on this ride.

Being the business person I am, I contacted Specialized Bike company (www.specialized.com), told them of my story, and asked if they would sponsor our team for the ride.  Much to my surprise, they agreed!  Their pre-ride support has been awesome.  And to celebrate more, they are providing us with their new Turbo Vado e-bikes to ride.  If you have never ridden e-bike before, you must!  It is a pedal-assist device which provides you some assistance going up hills or on longer rides.  Both my wife and I rented e-bikes in Lucerne Switzerland and fell in love with the technology.  The Turbo Vado is by far the newest and latest in this technology and we are grateful for their support.

For me, this is a great celebration of my journey.  We have been training for months now in the Texas heat (and Austin hills) and look forward to possibly cooler Iowa temperatures for the Iowa ride.

As we go forward, I continue to speak publicly at various business and cancer support organizations in support of cancer research and treatment.  Any way my journey can inspire of provide insight to someone going through their own journey, I would like to help.

Until next time….   Robert Dean

In this blog, I try and find correlations between my professional experiences in transforming global companies and professionals, and my personal journey with cancer.  If you have been following me of late, as of October 2015 I have been pronounced cancer free – again – by my multiple teams of doctors at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. (YEAH!)

On my last visit in December 2015 for a neuro consult (they had to make sure my brain was still there… HA!)  I was again deemed healthy and cancer free.  After 12 surgeries and procedures in less than three years, things happen with your body that for me, the patient, were not expected.  The docs may know, but… With much scar tissue and muscle removed in various areas of the body, things grow back differently than before.  Nerves have been cut, muscles are not there, scar tissue abounds. Your brain reacts to the multiple (12) sessions of anesthesia.  This last doctor visit provided me the direction for this blog post when she said “Bob, you need to adjust to ‘the new normal’“.

Sure I know how old I am and many of the insights I have about how I feel and function I would have thought would have come with a more mature perspective on life – not mention age. (OK, I know I tell people I am 39, but, my daughter is 37 and son 35, so YOU do the math….)

So just what is “the new normal”?  Please remember my insights here are both personal and professional.  On the personal side, I have changed my outlook on life.  Please see my blog post  What you see isn’t always reality…

Staying true to the NO TMI (Too Much Information) focus of this blog, trust me when I say I  live my life differently than before and people around me have no clue.

From a professional view, I am learning more every day.  Actually it is more correct to say I am remembering more every day.  I look at clients from a more “personal” view.  I see them more as people, not part of a business.  OH yes, the business process, the competitive position, the bottom and top line drive, etc. are still quite critical and central in my perspective for my clients.  But, I now look at my professional relationships as more than people to help me make money by selling more product for my employer.  By understanding my clients have personal insights, needs, and are driven by their own companies culture and business needs, it helps me be a better advisor, confidant, and “trusted business advisor”  (OK, yes, I really dislike that phrase “trusted business advisor”, but it is a reality in our business) to them.  THAT will help my employer establish relationships that will last over time beyond the transaction – and make us money – and create true business value and relationships for/with our clients.

So what does this have to do with “the new normal”?  My personal “new normal” has changed many times over three years.  I know that my reality can change hourly if not monthly.  The technology industry that I have been in for almost 40 years is a “light-speed” changing industry.  My client industries and companies change at their own speeds – but VERY fast compared to 20-30-40 years ago.  My personal “new normal” lasts for six months – until I go and get my new round of cancer scans and tests which the docs say are expected to be clean and clear of cancer.  But for my clients and industries worldwide, “the new normal” is always changing.  What we know is, what is true for today will change tomorrow.

What does this mean for companies and for your own professional perspective?  It means slow down and listen.  It means look at your business partners, colleagues, clients, customers as people with their own personal and business objectives.  It means when you listen, listen to understand, not just respond.  It means best practices aren’t.  They are good for THAT company, for their processes, at that point in time.  NOT for you.  But you can learn from it.

In the end, my personal journey with cancer has provided my with a refreshed and renewed view of experiences I have learned in my career and the people and opportunities I have met that have helped me learn.  As I go forward with my career over the next 10 years, I look forward to using my skills, experience, and insights to provide value for my clients/customers, employer, my peers/colleagues, and my team and students to be more effective in their own situations to provide more value in their world.

Data.  Lots of it.  When I first learned that I had cancer in January 2013, I knew nothing about cancer.  My wife and I immediately started a crash course learning as much as we could.  The first time it was prostate, the second time it was renal, and the third time colon cancer.  I can’t begin to tell you how much information there is available about cancer.  To the neophyte (not even a novice) the data was overwhelming.  So many sources, that in the end, one of our first priorities was to talk with credible professionals with lots of experience.  We also learned that many internet sites were not credible (Now isn’t that a shock? HA!)  So we stayed with the trusted sources like MD Anderson, Johns Hopkins, Mayo, and others.  Today, I have five teams of doctors at MD Anderson that have my back and help us sort through our questions and provide us insight to make our own choices – do something with the data.  In the end, you are your own best advocate.  But today we still sort through so much data to be informed and make good decisions.

That takes us to the dictionary…

Forget spellcheck or using Google. Remember the dictionary?  Yes, the book.  Now think for a minute.  What does a dictionary do?

Back in 1995, I had the opportunity in Manchester, England to make a presentation on e-commerce to over 1000 supply chain, sourcing and procurement professionals.  The focus of the presentation was how the information being shared using e-commerce was going to change the industry.  My team had been instrumental in implementing a major UK retailer’s first e-commerce system.  It even was the focus of a Financial Times special report.  Prior to taking the stage, a crazy idea struck me.  It was either going to be impactful – or make me look quite crazy.

I took a large book and walked on stage.  I had no clue what the book was – it was big.  I started the presentation without slides, held the book high in my hand, and asked “What does a dictionary do?”  The audience started to get quiet as I got their attention.  I asked again “What does a dictionary do?”  As the room got quiet, a few people raised their hands.  I picked one person who answered “It gives us definitions of words!” Another answered “It tells us how to pronounce words!”  HA!  Just what I hoped would happen.

I threw the book on the stage with a loud THUMP.  I yelled at the book “Give me the definition of ‘computer’.”  The book did nothing – of course.  I then made the pronouncement that “This book does nothing!”  The audience laughed…

Today, instead of e-commerce, there is much discussion about digitization, Internet of Things (IoT), business analytics, etc.  The foundation for these technology driven business approaches is that data is being made available from many more sources around the world.  This is a tremendous opportunity for insight and discovery.  But, like the dictionary, the data does nothing. (Yes, we can also discuss at length the difference of data and information…)

Like the dictionary, it takes a person who knows what the book (data) is and how to use it.  Someone with the skills, experience, and knowledge of how to use the book and then do something with what they find. Someone must apply the data to have a business impact and provide some kind of value to the business.  That is the key.

One of my personal interests of late has been the recent focus on business analytics.  Many of the consulting studies, board meetings, and executive discussions I have participated in has been focused on do you build the infrastructure to collect the data first then find the problem? Or do you define the problem then collect the data?  It seems that if the initiative is driven by IT, then the data is collected first, then they search for a problem to solve.  If driven by the business, the problem is defined first.  Even a major university I have discussed this with has two separate approaches.  The IT department and Supply Chain department are taking these same different approaches, when indeed they should be integrated for maximum impact and value.

The other business analytic topic discussed at length is the lack of data scientists to analyze the data.  In the end, the skills and experience needed to solve business problems goes far beyond those of a data scientist.  Experts in business process (sourcing/procurement, manufacturing operations, etc.), program management, and other skills along with a data scientist are required to take the data and do something with it.

In the end, technology is a game changer.  Today tons more data is being accessed by new technology.  This data does nothing until you provide it context by applying it to a business process and having a skilled, experienced human do something with it.  That is the business relevance of technology.  Otherwise we are destined to use technology to make bad decisions faster.

We met a man one day in the garden outside of MD Anderson in Houston.  I had just been released from my first surgery and needed a walk outside.  This man was by himself and followed at a safe distance stopping to look at the trees, flowers, squirrels, etc.  and after a while we engaged in a conversation.  This man looked very healthy, had a stable gait, and a normal complexion (not always found with cancer patients).  He had spent the morning with his doctors and learned his cancer had spread to multiple parts of his body and had very few months to live.  He had been walking throughout the hospital watching patients as he thought of his diagnosis and came to the conclusion that because he did not look ill or feel ill, he really did not need to be there at the hospital for care.  There were many more people that looked more ill than he was.  You could see it in all of them – they looked ill – he did not.  The truth was he was much more worse off than many.  Just because you do not look or feel ill does not mean you are well.

In business transformation, we learn the same thing.  I had the opportunity to lead the sourcing and procurement transformation of a global industrial products company with about 97 separate business operations.  It was visibly obvious that some companies were not well (ill?).  For example first shift manufacturing operations at three plants in Europe were at a stand still – eerily quiet.  Plant managers were proud in the fact that when a order did come in, they could product the product quickly and with a very high level of quality. Another company had acquired a major business where government contracts were over 1/3 of their business.  The company was performing quite well.  What was not discovered in the due diligence of the acquisition was that the military contracts expired in less than two years.  In cancer terms this meant this business had less than two years to live.

One set of companies looked healthy, but had symptoms they were ill.  The course of treatment was a standard protocol for improvement and dealt with easily.  The second company looked healthy with no obvious symptoms, but had a sort time to live and required a different protocol for health.

People have different perspectives to diagnose the same business symptoms.  The lines between reality and perception are blurry at best.  As I continue my journey, I have learned (re-learned?) a few things for my personal and professional well being:

• Slow down; walk slower, smell the flowers, watch the squirrels (now there’s a business context for you! HA!).
• Listen – really listen; You don’t have to talk or respond every time; learn from what others have to say.
• Take care of yourself; listen to your mind, body, and soul – it tells you a lot.
• MOST IMPORTANT: pay attention to your loved ones.  You may have cancer.  And, yes, it is quite physically and emotionally difficult.  But what the doctors and hospitals do not focus on is that our family, loved ones, partner, support group, have no clue how to help you – but they want to.  Nobody wants to see you go through pain.  Just remember, they have their own pain, too.