When I first started managing, I thought a lot about myself: how I was doing with my team, how I didn’t want to be a terrible manager, things I could do to become a great manager. Yet when I first started out, the advice I got was “it’s not about you anymore.”
Where in the world is the school where managers study apology avoidance. It always surprises me when perpetrator-like managers have already built an impressive array of personal apology avoidance habits and language. They don’t get this from their mothers, I know that. I also know those who ignore their mom’s advice deserve what they get.
Cybercriminals are everywhere, and they target everyone — from SMBs to large enterprises, government agencies, nation states, and even political organizations including the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which announced in June its networks had been breached. Hackers are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to find and exploit vulnerabilities that allow them to steal confidential and sensitive data and sell it to the highest bidder. Are some more at risk than others? You bet.
Although it was over 25 years ago, I will never forget the words of my Introduction to Marketing professor when asked to describe the three things it takes to succeed in a marketing place: “Differentiation, Differentiation, Differentiation!” But how to make your organization stand out in a competitive landscape filled with white noise and awash in the notion of “me too” isn’t as easy as it sounds. However, there are some surefire ways to stand out from your competitors.
We’ve been reviewing some of the information around business valuation and legacy. Part of that includes evaluating how you begin planning for your exit from the business. It will happen someday.
Dear Coach: I struggle with some people on my team not living up to expectations. It’s as if they are not even listening. I’m really getting tired of this and ready to clear the decks and start over. Am I being too hasty?
The contemporary business environment is essentially a small subsystem in the larger cyber world. Every enterprise, no matter how technically progressive or apprehensive about technology, is connected to and handles different streams of data. The current IT landscape is highly disruptive, but it does promise better business outcomes for those who are Internet of Things (IoT) ready and prepared to embrace Big Data. However, there are some apprehensions about this more connected, omnipresent, and easily accessible data — it opens many doors to hackers, creating room for Cyber threats to seep in.
As discussed in Part 1, most companies have by now at least a basic awareness of the need to take action to reduce their vulnerability to cybercrime and to prepare for the possibility that they will suffer a cyberattack. In that article, we outlined six of our 12 best practices for addressing and responding to cyber risks. In Part 2, we will discuss the remaining six.
Part of planning and preparation means being ready for the unexpected. There are four D’s that can drastically reduce the value of a company. It is true for a sole owner, but obviously the likelihood increases with more people involved.
While Amazon Echo has steadily gained popularity over the last two years, the upcoming launch of Google Home will likely propel the adoption of smart devices even further in the home. And why not?