The Chief Excellence Officer™️ Academy

I teach and coach frontline managers to how to build an operating system that transforms strategy into excellence through their team.


ACCOMPLISHMENTS
---

1
―
Invented the OKR Quality Matrix, a tool used by managers in hundreds of companies to craft OKRs that measure what really matters.

2
―
Invented the OKR Activation Canvas, a tool used by managers in hundreds of companies to create operational clarity and link it to the strategic clarity brought by OKRs.

3
―
Creator of the following online programs:

• Questexcellence: The OKR Accelerator for Managers.
• Zero⭕️ → 🟢OKR Playbook for Managers

4
―
Author of "How to Activate OKRs - The 3 Step Uplift Protocol That Determines OKRs That Get Accomplished From Those That Languish"

Founder

AFRINIC

Scale and integrate AFRINIC's training offerings into a capacity development and professional services program from strategy development to execution and quality control.


ACCOMPLISHMENTS
---

1
―
Built afrinic.academy, a bilingual e-learning platform used by 4700+ engineers from over 80 countries with a median course Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 47 by developing all the required skills in-house, saving the company $250,000/annum.

2
―
Designed & launched the company's cohort-based course (“Zero to IPv6 Certified in 21 days”), which has received a median NPs of 57 from 2500+ engineers from 61 countries by implementing Agile Instructional Design.

3
―
Invented the Deployathon, which helps 150+ network operators to achieve 400+ IPv6 & RPKI deployment milestones yearly.


4
―
Launched certi6.io, the only bilingual IPv6 Forum Gold Certified certification with a 3-person team by implementing 4DX (the 4 Disciplines of Execution) creating a 500-question bank covering all 6 Bloom levels within 1 year.

5
―
Built my team into the company’s model for operational excellence by implementing 11 ISO 9001:2015-certified processes to a median maturity level of 7 on a 10-point scale.

6
―
Drove adoption of OKRs as the company's strategy execution framework across 80% of teams by facilitating a 5-day leadership retreat.

7
―
Designed the U-Connect partnership program and onboarded 17 universities in 3 countries to train 250 post-graduate students.

8
―
Earned an induction into the global IPv6 Forum Hall of Fame as an evangelist by training and advocacy of 7000+ engineers in 70+ countries.

Head of Capacity Building

Research, design and develop training courses to promote next generation (IPv6) Internet technology development in Africa. Targeting network engineers, governments and business executives.


ACCOMPLISHMENTS


1
―
Created the IPv6 Forum Certified Systems Engineer program by analysing gaps in the current certification offerings with respect to systems engineer’s job requirements. 

2
―
Developed a program which trained at least 600 engineers across 16 countries with a median NPS of 70 each year by designing curricula, building a team and standardising processes.

3
―
Grew demand 550% and participants’ satisfaction 60%(from 2010 levels) through systematic analysis and implementation of workshop feedback in key areas of trainers’ delivery, content and event logistics. 

4
―
Designed a testbed that's been used by over 50,000 engineers through 15 labs on 4 continents by standardising an architecture that integrates virtual machines to physical routers.

5
―
Secured $150K from the European Commission (6Deploy project) by showcasing the excellent ratings (median NPS of 70) we were consistently getting from 600+ engineers each year.

6
―
Cut per workshop costs by 60% ($65k p.a) while increasing duration from 3 to 4 days by creating a course experience for which all partners were willing to sponsor all fixed costs and 25% of travel costs each year.

7
―
Created the world’s first IPv6 Strategy & Planning course, which has been taken by 500 executives with a median NPS of 82 by analysing the implications of IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 through the lenses of the business and mission model canvas.

8
―
Delivered a keynote presentation to 500 tech leaders, including 7 gov't ministers, at the African Development Bank's first Ministerial Forum on ICT Integration in Education (2013).

9
―
Rated “Excellent” on all KPIs for trainers by at least 90% of all course participants by continuously adapting my delivery based on course feedback.

Training Manager

UNDP

During this brief stint, I developed the agency's IT strategic plan to leverage IT in medical records management, improving interest in and access to education in order to support the MDGs.

ICT Coordinator

Ahmadu Bello University - Zaria

Manage the development evolution of a 7000+ node  IP network.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
---

1
―
Cut network outages by 80%  by redesigning the internal network to replace multiple levels of internal address sharing (NAT) with dynamic routing using OSPF.

2
―
Created the university’s Standards for Networking & Documentation policy which improved IT contract sustainability by ≥ 50% and was adopted by 20 other universities.

3
―
Increased project post-handoff success by 50% by creating standardised templates for documenting the work done by contractors.

4
―
Designed and implemented the university’s first traffic monitoring system, increasing networking traffic visibility by 95% using free open-source software.

5
―
Wrote “The Ntop User’s Guide”, which was used by 4000+ engineers worldwide to get started with free open-source traffic monitoring using the ntop utility. 

6
―
Designed and installed a 75 access-point enterprise WiFi network which served 1,500 nodes on time and on budget as proof of concept of my undergraduate project.

7
―
Initiated and co-taught the Effective IT-management track for ≥ 150 ICT Directors at the annual Nigerian Network Operators’ Group.

8
―
Led the development of the first network services strategic plan by facilitating SWOT & goal-setting brainstorming sessions. 

9
―
Increased adoption of Linux on the desktop by 100% within the team by modelling Ubuntu’s functional & aesthetic elegance. 

10
―
Implemented eGroupware to enhance internal collaboration, resulting in a 60% decrease in email reliance and a 57% increase in productivity.

Systems Analst/Network Engineer

Nigerian Network Operators' Group (ngNOG)

Objective: promote effectiveness use of ICTs in the Nigerian universities through training.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1
―
Co-authored (with Prof. Len Liverpool and Geraldine Daloengg) “Guide to ICT Policy & Strategy for African Higher Educational Institutions” to help ≥ 500 universities in Africa develop effective IT strategies. 

2
―
Initiated and co-taught the Effective IT-management track for ≥ 150 ICT Directors at the annual Nigerian Network Operators’ Group.

3
―
Selected as one of 7 trainers in Nigeria that reviewed the curriculum and strategic plan of Nigerian Network Operators’ Group. I introduced mind mapping to the group and led its use in brainstorming sessions.

Instructor (volunteer)

Kaduna Business School

Led organization´s IT development and general innovation, developed and taught IT-Business Integration, Six Sigma & Project Management executive development courses and consulting jobs.


ACCOMPLISHMENTS
---

1
―
Designed and implemented an engagement campaign across 5 states, which would later become the Nigerian Research & Education Network, by recruiting and leading a 5 team of former bosses & professors.

2
―
Rated “Excellent” on all KPIs  by at least 60% of ≥1000 executives in Project Management & Lean Six Sigma executive education courses by experimenting with different delivery methods.

3
―
Mapped 7 core processes at the military ordnance factory in Kaduna, setting the stage for Six Sigma implementation, which doubled factory output without increasing CAPEX.  

4
―
Delivered the inaugural presentation (“Internet Business Intelligence”) at the school’s launch, attracting an “Excellent” rating from 90% of the 25 participants.

5
―
Raised the median score of presentation quality for executive education content from 40% to 91% by pioneering the use of movie clips within slides & case studies.

6
―
Raised the quality of the school’s presentations by 60% by designing standard presentation templates & modelling engaging presentations to the other instructors.

7
―
Developed the proposal that won the school its first in-house training contract for 75 senior staff of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology.

Management Consultant & IT Coordinator

WWL Ltd

Responsible for developing proposals to client solutions, managed a 25 node CyberCafe network and providing technical support to clients. 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS
---

1
―
Raised equipment uptime by 60% by implementing a rigorous Friday night maintenance schedule.

2
―
Implemented an email system that served 500 staff of the Energy Commission of Nigeria by using Sendmail deployed on RedHat Linux. 

3
―
Boosted cybercafe revenue by $10,000/month by using  Windows Registry hacks to prevent bypass of the billing software to steal Internet services. 

4
―
Performed routine maintenance of 120 PCs in three cities (Jos, Gombe & Yola) over 3 days for First Bank of Nigeria.

Junior IT Consulting & Support Engineer [Internship]

Do you believe the best way to motivate a team is to get them to experience #excellence? then you'd love working with and for me. 

I created certi6.io (with a team of two) - the world's only bilingual IPv6 certification platform. I have trained over 3000 executives, managers and engineers in over 40 countries.

I design and implement systems that:

💎 Inspire people to do work that fills them with pride, producing services that clients adore.

💎 Produce learning experiences that captivate and drive people to flourish.

💎 Take the guesswork out of strategy execution.

Check https://www.perfexcellence.com for my resources and services.

Mukom Tamon

Thirukumaran Karunanidhi

Legal & General

Enabler of teams - Chief roadblock remover, thrives on complexity

Role 1: TPM
Lead cross functional team in enabling strategic business integration layer for L&G Retail Workplace Pension illustrations services (for UK Pension Dashboard) and create elastic high throughput service for customer comms data aggregation - that enables modernised stack for data composition that aids email, print and other forms of customer comms, including using different illustration/ projection capabilities applicable. Working with Customer Comms value stream and aligning to UK FRS, FCA COBS and other reporting and compliance frameworks for illustrations.

Role 2: TPM
Lead cross-functional team to build an internal Intelligent Document Processing SaaS platform - enabling operational efficiencies. Leveraging latest technology advances in AI/ ML - using opensource LLMs to create a system that is augmented by AI agents in figuring out the work items on the back of documents that BAU operation teams can work on.

Technology Product Manager

Enabler of teams - Chief roadblock remover

Role 1: TPM
Lead cross-functional team to build an internal Intelligent Document Processing SaaS platform - enabling operational efficiencies. Leveraging latest technology advances in AI/ ML - using opensource LLMs to create a system that is augmented by AI agents in figuring out the work items on the back of documents that BAU operation teams can work on.

Role 2: TPM
Lead a diverse team of engineers towards an Internal Platform initiative to enable a synergic engineering system. Leveraging the DevOps practices to enable continuous improvement on our internal engineering practices. Working with teams to map their path to production so that we can leverage each other's strengths and know-how in areas that are common across our product teams - building an internal platform organically

Technology Product Owner

Tata Consultancy Services

Role 1: Lead technical solution analyst on an agile program that is aiming to build data streaming and data as a service platform for Retirement Savings in Legal & General that collates data from various key mainframe product engines on to cloud platform.

Responsibility: Analyse, Design and help implement Change Data Capture from Mainframe DB2 tables belonging to core product engines. Provide detailed analysis and design inputs data streaming configuration, data load, data transformation and data standardisation approach.

Ongoing Learning: 
• IBM DB2 utilities for table and table data profiling
• Best practices for no-SQL MongoDB data modelling
• Translation of SQL RDBMs data model to business oriented no-SQL document collection model
• Data standardisation for data linkage and data matching
• Data linkage best practices
• Data lineage and Data Governance

Role2: Lead technical solution analyst and lead mainframe developer on an agile program that is aiming to build a machine learning enabled Intelligent Document Processing solution. 

Responsibilities: Engage with various stakeholders to design and implement integrations for key IBM mainframe systems (AS400, Z systems) and business operational systems with a bespoke cloud based Intelligent Document Processing system. Create designs, service contracts, integration standards based on Mainframe system and service knowledge in IT landscape. Implement Mainframe service wrappers in cloud using OpenLegacy. Provide solution approach for Machine Learning data requirements from mainframe.

Ongoing Learning:
• OpenLegacy technology stack, service deployment tools
• System Observability and Monitoring best practices
• IBM Mainframe CICS TCP/IP webservices accessing as a server/client
• Importance of service contracts for legacy systems
• AWS cloud services including Machine Learning services
• General Machine Learning best practices and MLOps 
• Data Labelling and Data cleansing for ML model training
• DevOps Best practices

Senior Business System Analyst

Role: Senior Mainframe developer in an agile program that is that implemented advance notification processes for unit fund dealing and unit transaction processing for L&G Retirement Services (DC workplace)

Resposibilities: Upskill and establish a long running team of Mainframe developers providing mentoring where needed on business domain and system knowledge. Ensure build and deployment is done as per established Mainframe development standards and best practises

Highlights:
• Helped establish modular development practises
• Delivered Mainframe system changes under Agile delivery model
• Establish user story for technical changes and shift left testing with bespoke test stubs and jobs
• Tangible business operational cost savings on unit fund deals management and unit management system.

Learning and key-takeaway
• Established  linear/waterfall development practices need cultural shift and change in thinking patterns for the way teams operate as well as how individuals work
• Mainframe code and build practises could be advanced with more recent tools and processes
• Complex and business critical functions need extensive analysis during solutioning stage in the absence of SME knowledge in that area
• “Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce systems which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.” ~ Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month

Senior Mainframe Developer

Role: Technical solution architect and Business analysis lead for the transfer of business from Legal & General Mature Savings to Re-Assure 
[https://www.reassure.co.uk/about-us/transfer-of-business-from-legal-general-to-reassure/]
[https://www.tcs.com/tcs-helps-legal-and-general-successfully-transfer-one-point-one-million-policies-to-reassure]

Responsibilities:
• Create solution architecture and implementation delivery pipelines for Customer correspondence data and associated metadata migration from L&G mature savings systems to Re-Assure
• Create solution architecture and implementation delivery pipeline for as-is system cutover and Day-1 critical operations involving a number of mainframe systems
• Support data migration analysis and documentation of data models
• Engage with other Technical solution architects, business stakeholders, 3rd party system SMEs and TCS System SMEs to device solutions for

Highlights:
• Deliver GDPR compliant cutover solutions covering over 130 applications and 5 Mainframe policy administration systems
• Solutions were designed to allow inflight business transactions to seamlessly transfer in case of a successful transfer to receiving company or remain operational within L&G in case of a failed transfer event, with minimal manual intervention
• Implemented bespoke processes, document design templates and KPI tracking dashboards which helped shift left the design for implementation planning, cutover planning and deletion post cutover
• Apply lean thinking for cutover solutions where IT change cost could be avoided and handled via business process stockpiling or stoppage
• Design solution for Direct Debit cutover solution , financial accounting reconciliation and reporting across 5 different policy administration systems

Learning and key-takeaway
• It is not impossible to coordinate with stakeholders and SMEs from 130 ancillary and 5 core product systems to implement data migration, cutover and day-1 business BAU operation solutions.

Technical Solutions Architect

Role: Business system analysis (seconded) for solution proposals -  L&G retirement savings product engine

Responsibility:  Perform requirement analysis, solution feasibility analysis and solution proposal documentation for delivery planning. Engage key stakeholders from business change, operations and IT to walkthrough and get feedback on solution approach.

Highlights:
• Worked in L&G business change team in as a seconded BA , running BAU projects and performing business process improvements on with-profit and end of tax year activities in L&G Mature savings
• Helped streamline and automate a number of key reporting activities needed for with-profits actuarial processing and bonus rate processing.
• Involved in key customer product and comms changes - working closely with leading business mail print houses, physical document archival companies to plan yearly mailing and reconciliation

Learning and key-takeaways:
• Need for having business operational run-book for key business processes that are time-critical and involving numerous stakeholders (with-profit bonus declaration and bonus rate updates in core product engines)
• Business Process Modelling and optimisation
• Stakeholder Management
• Effective communication for coordinating between various stakeholders on time critical operations
• Role of Business Change team perspectives, objectives and focus on business operations
• Requirement elicitation and Requirement engineering

Business System Analyst

Role: Senior System Analyst for retirement savings projection and quoting engine - Implementing Target Dated Funds (Pathway Funds) BAU processing and pension pot projection changes, Implement ongoing bulk Mainframe batch processing capabilities to accelerate DC workplace policy processing times

Responsibilities: 
• Work closely with Actuarial and Customer communications team to analyse, design and implement pension pot projections and illustrations for customer outbound documents and online illustrations to account for Target Dated Funds and their time varying features on pension pot monetary value.
• Analyse, design and implement bulk Mainframe batch processes

Highlights:
• Implemented target dated fund projections in pension pot calculation
• Worked closely with senior Product and Pricing Actuarial teams
• Delivered Illustration and disclosure needs as per COBS and Actuarial TM1 standards for inflation assumptions including target dated funds

Learning and key-takeaway:
• System solution dependency management when implementing solutions that impact a multitude of core system processes
• Importance of developer standards and developer process documentation
• Actuarial requirements for independent test and verification of major projection changes
• Load balancing and throttling needs when automating bulk high transaction processing

Senior System Analyst

Role: Senior mainframe systems analyst and developer implementing system changes for Life and Unit linked Life policy administration systems in L&G

Responsibilities: Design and implement BAU changes as per business requirements for two product engines involving IMS, DB2 and PL/1. Follow best practises and established system development standards for each system. Identify value delivery business cases for IT delivery

Highlights: 
• Implemented bespoke JCL and PL/1 based isolated development tools that enables team members to do parallel code development and unit testing before moving the code to Endevor and testing under controlled configurations
• unlearn and learn a number of development practises
• Implement changes to business critical reporting that used to happen via data in IMS database to DB2 reporting using IBM DB2 tables and DB2 DGTTs to improve throughput

Learning and key-takeaway:
• IMS database management and data structure
• IBM DB2 DGTT and CGTT for large data operations during online processing
• PL/1 modular programming
• Bespoke process and tools creation for mainframe development leveraging standard system libraries and processes

System Analyst and System Engineer

Role: Systems Engineer on a mainframe mature savings and retirement savings product engine, streamlining and improving performance of batch and online processes

Responsibilities: Business requirement analysis and System solution specification creation for various Mainframe change projects

Highlights:
• FCA COBS 13 illustration rule change implementations in core projection systems
• Mainframe Bulk Fund switching process implementation that will help straight through processing for large schemes in hours as opposed to days

Learnings and key-takeaway:
• Importance of FCA handbook on business operations
• Golden source of truth for regression testing, system test state initialisation
• New MS visual studio features and processes for local testing of mainframe code(C language) before migrating and testing in Mainframe
• Bulk transaction processing - transaction state tracking and reporting for monetary accounting

System Engineer

Role: Engineer and maintain a Mainframe Pension and annuity projection and quoting systems for Legal & General Mature Savings. 

Responsibilities: Involved in project initiations, SDLC and delivery. Analyse and build system features to established standard. Conform to actuarial technical memorandum and COBS standards for pension projection testing

Highlights:
• Designed and implemented on UK Retail Distribution Review (RDR) Product disclosure and pension pot projection engine changes on L&G Retirement savings platform.
• Designed and implemented key Adviser and Consultancy charging platforms to enable post RDR product administration
• Designed and implemented UK Auto Enrolment and Pensions freedom related system features for a mainframe Pension savings product engine
• Streamlined automation of regression testing for Actuarial verification of projection results for document disclosure
• System and process changes as part of UK Abolition of Protected Rights in retirement savings

Learning and key-takeaway:
• Actuarial functional design process for retirement savings projections and annuities
• Importance of Code and Error handling Standards 
• Importance of Analysis and Design on defect free solution delivery
• IBM Mainframe application development tools and processes
• Cross platform code build and maintenance using modern code versioning 
• C programming language best practices for development and testing in Mainframe
• CICS MRO and Re-entrant programming
• Importance of automation tests and coverage for Actuarial testing
• Excel VBA application and tools design and build

Assistant System Engineer

I make a difference, but I can't do it alone.

Learning, implementing and refining IT solutions at scale for 14+ years. Working with various tools, processes, technology and most importantly PEOPLE to help achieve key objectives and results. Driven by curiosity and knowledge. Open to collective learning and adapting. Happy solving problems. Learning to adopt Agility and lean thinking.

If I were to describe my current approach to problem solving succinctly: "Understand and explore the problem space fully - solutions are just means to an end, objectives and outcome are key" - to that end, right solutions get built addressing the right problems!

Computer Systems are all at the core dealing with message passing at various abstraction levels. So I have been on the lookout for the most efficient approaches to elegantly achieve this. Systems thinking, design thinking, design patterns  and other abstract methods have helped shape my approach to problem solving.

Over the years, working with multiple domains, and multiple technologies, I'm humbled to remember that throwing compute power at a problem may not always be the right solution!

Enabler of teams - Chief roadblock remover

Role 1: TPM
Lead cross-functional team to build an internal Intelligent Document Processing SaaS platform - enabling operational efficiencies. Leveraging latest technology advances in AI/ ML - using opensource LLMs to create a system that is augmented by AI agents in figuring out the work items on the back of documents that BAU operation teams can work on.

Role 2: TPM
PO for Internal Platform initiative to enable a synergic engineering system. Leveraging the DevOps practices to enable continuous improvement on our internal engineering practices. Working with teams to map their path to production so that we can leverage each other's strengths and know-how in areas that are common across our product teams - building an internal platform organically

taplio

The Battle

Mukom Tamon

Thirukumaran Karunanidhi

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?