Executive Coaching for HPC Leadership focuses on bridging the gap between "Petaflops" and "Profit."

Most executives (CIOs/CTOs) are comfortable managing standard IT (Email, ERP, Web). HPC is a different beast. It is a massive capital sink that looks like a "Money Pit" on a balance sheet but is actually the engine of innovation.

Coaching involves teaching leadership how to translate technical metrics (Core Hours) into business value (Time-to-Market), navigating the "Cloud vs. On-Prem" financial minefield, and managing the 5-year hardware lifecycle.

Here is the detailed breakdown of the coaching pillars, the "TCO" mindset, and the decision frameworks, followed by the downloadable Word file.

1. The Core Translation: Science to Strategy

The first job of the coach is to change the language.

• The Problem: The HPC team reports "95% Utilization." The CFO hears "We are wasting 5% of our money."
• The Translation:
• Utilization -> Demand: 95% utilization means the cluster is full. If a scientist has a breakthrough idea today, they have to wait in line for 2 days. That is a Missed Opportunity Cost.
• Speed -> Competitiveness: "This upgrade won't just make the simulation 2x faster; it allows us to run higher fidelity models that our competitors cannot run."

2. The Financial Trap: CapEx vs. OpEx

Buying a supercomputer is easy (CapEx). Keeping it running is the danger zone.

• The TCO Reality: Over 4 years, the electricity and cooling bill will equal the purchase price of the hardware.
• Coaching Point: Leaders must budget for Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), not just the sticker price.
• The "Zombie" Risk: A cluster that is 5 years old is "free" (paid off), but it consumes so much electricity for so little performance that it is actually more expensive to run than to buy a new one. Leaders must know when to decommission.

3. The Strategic Decision: Cloud vs. On-Prem

This is the most common dilemma for modern HPC leaders.

• The Cloud Argument (OpEx): "Infinite" scale. No hardware maintenance. Great for "Bursty" workloads (e.g., end-of-quarter crunch).
• The On-Prem Argument (CapEx): If you run 24/7, On-Prem is 3-5x cheaper than Cloud. Cloud is like renting a hotel room; On-Prem is like buying a house.
• The Strategic Hybrid: The coach helps the leader design a "Base Load" strategy (buy hardware for the average day) and "Burst" strategy (rent Cloud for the busy days).

4. Key Metrics (KPIs) for Leaders

Executives should ignore technical stats (Ping, Bandwidth) and focus on:

Metric	Question it Answers
Wait Time (Queue Time)	"How long is innovation blocked?" (High wait time = Need to buy more nodes).
Throughput (Jobs/Day)	"How much science are we actually finishing?"
Energy Efficiency (FLOPS/Watt)	"Are we burning cash efficiently?"
User Satisfaction (NPS)	"Are the scientists happy, or are they moving their grants to another university?"