Remember, IT is the brain of your company. So here are some recommendations to run smarter, not harder.
1) Increase Automation (and Margins!)
First, assess your entire business spectrum and rank each segment for margin gain potential with automation. Then plot that with difficulty. Then target one initiative that falls into the sweet quadrant.
2) Add "Global" & Profit Maximization To Revenue Management Techniques
Many organizations are only touching on total revenue management and not optimizing globally or real-time. Spend money on this - it's a high ROI.
3) Use Open Source Software As Much As Possible
Yes, there is a free lunch. Software that is more secure, more reliable, more maintainable, and free! Most open source projects are the pet hobby of the world's best programmers. You're crazy not to take advantage of this.
4) Become More Virtual
Virtual working buys you better employees (who don't like to move or travel), big savings in office overhead, less travel cost and productivity loss, and faster operations. Time to get over "out of sight" - you just need better work management techniques - they are there!
5) Become and Accept More Mobile
Smart phones / tablets are everywhere now. 50% of buying now via mobile. If you are not selling and operating with mobile - your company is a walking, dead zombie.
Last But Not Least
6) Singularity Is Here
You must annually re-assess your entire IT operation, including your executives to keep pace - if you don't, your competitors are.
Tiger Nassau Home Page
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
IT Audit / Assessments - More Than Compliance
Too often IT "Audits" are limited to security and compliance issues, covering software licensing, compliance with HIPPA, Sarbenes-Oxley, DOD, and security issues.
As such, an IT "Audit" becomes almost a necessary nusiance rather than an opportunity to "assess" your entire IT capability and position the company as the market leader.
So what should a full IT "assessment" include? In addition to the typical software licensing, compliance, and security checks, you need to have your IT capabilities strategically assessed in the following 5 areas:
1) Ability to achieve the organization's goals and objectives - not only provide real-time metrics, but deliver the needed systems to meet sales goals and operational efficiences.
2) Measure the capacity and capability of both hardware and software infrastructure to deliver both present and future needs of the organization.
3) Disaster Recovery - your organization is far more likely to be brought down by a disaster than a hacker or virus. Of course security is a top concern in any audit / assessment, but the dangers and preventitive measures are fairly well known. Disasters are usually unexpected and unknown in damage yet just as crippling to organization systems.
4) IT Staffing and Planning - too often, IT is handled as a "technical black box" with all decisions such as outsourcing, cloud based SAAS, necessary skill sets, etc being made by ingrained, biased department staff. Even if they are doing a seemingly good job, you don't know the opportunity cost of different approaches.
5) Intelligent Systems - IT system intelligence will increasingly separate the winning organizations vs. the losers. Where is your organization on the relative and competitive scale?
Solid, comprehensive IT Audits / Assessments are not an option, or a necessary compliance nusiance - rather they are proactive blueprints to winning.
Tiger Nassau Home Page
As such, an IT "Audit" becomes almost a necessary nusiance rather than an opportunity to "assess" your entire IT capability and position the company as the market leader.
So what should a full IT "assessment" include? In addition to the typical software licensing, compliance, and security checks, you need to have your IT capabilities strategically assessed in the following 5 areas:
1) Ability to achieve the organization's goals and objectives - not only provide real-time metrics, but deliver the needed systems to meet sales goals and operational efficiences.
2) Measure the capacity and capability of both hardware and software infrastructure to deliver both present and future needs of the organization.
3) Disaster Recovery - your organization is far more likely to be brought down by a disaster than a hacker or virus. Of course security is a top concern in any audit / assessment, but the dangers and preventitive measures are fairly well known. Disasters are usually unexpected and unknown in damage yet just as crippling to organization systems.
4) IT Staffing and Planning - too often, IT is handled as a "technical black box" with all decisions such as outsourcing, cloud based SAAS, necessary skill sets, etc being made by ingrained, biased department staff. Even if they are doing a seemingly good job, you don't know the opportunity cost of different approaches.
5) Intelligent Systems - IT system intelligence will increasingly separate the winning organizations vs. the losers. Where is your organization on the relative and competitive scale?
Solid, comprehensive IT Audits / Assessments are not an option, or a necessary compliance nusiance - rather they are proactive blueprints to winning.
Tiger Nassau Home Page
Friday, July 29, 2011
Ready or Not For The Next Big Crisis
"We'll Deal With A Crisis When/If It Comes"
While unspoken, this is actually the policy of many CEO's and organizations I've talked with since they cannot definitively define what it will be. This is really high stakes gambling, because it is NOT IF, just WHEN and HOW BIG.
The photos shows this year's big dust storm in Phoenix. Looks like a scene out of a Hollywood apocalypse movie. No one predicted it and there was little advance warning.
People at our Scottsdale office had no time to react or "deal" with it - it was all over them before they knew it.
If your crisis is big, you will have no time to figure out a response, or you might make very bad decisions under pressure - you need responses prepared in advance. It's really decision-tree 101. You buy other insurance - now get some really valuable insurance with an IT Audit and Scenario Planning and be ready for the big crisis.
Tiger Nassau Home Page
While unspoken, this is actually the policy of many CEO's and organizations I've talked with since they cannot definitively define what it will be. This is really high stakes gambling, because it is NOT IF, just WHEN and HOW BIG.
The photos shows this year's big dust storm in Phoenix. Looks like a scene out of a Hollywood apocalypse movie. No one predicted it and there was little advance warning.
People at our Scottsdale office had no time to react or "deal" with it - it was all over them before they knew it.
If your crisis is big, you will have no time to figure out a response, or you might make very bad decisions under pressure - you need responses prepared in advance. It's really decision-tree 101. You buy other insurance - now get some really valuable insurance with an IT Audit and Scenario Planning and be ready for the big crisis.
Tiger Nassau Home Page
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Grizzlies and IT Risk
I love going hiking in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. And by now you have probably heard the stories of several Grizzly Bear attacks on hikers this year. Actually, there have been a lot more that you have not heard about.
It's true - there is a growing bear population. Grizzlies are the most dangerous. Black bears are generally less aggressive but if they attack, can be equally vicious. Note the picture of a black bear cub on our website - it would be insane to get that close to a Grizzly. Bears can out run, out climb, and out wrestle any human. If they attack you, you either need strong repellant or a prayer. Even a gun won't normally help.
So how dangerous is it out in the Parks? Well, it depends on where you go, what time of year, and how prepared you are. I've never seen a Grizzly while hiking (I really do not want to), but my friends have seen them. Is that random chance ? Partly. But it's also because I won't go hiking by myself or even one other in areas where Grizzlies are know to be. And friends that do, usually carry bear bells and keep bear spray in close reach. The publicized attacks you heard about were on people who ignored warning signs.
Attacks on your IT are similar to hiking with bears. If you don't pay attention and certainly if you ignore warning signs, attacks can be deadly to your company. On the other hand, if you take precautions, you will minimize the risk of having an attack and be more prepared when one occurs. Like Grizzlies and Black Bears, there are varying types of hackers and dangerous incidents that can occur.
Be smart about it and minimize your risk.
(c) Copyright 2011 Tiger Nassau, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The Mobile Wallet
Featured in our Tip of The Week:
The Mobile Wallet is here. What is it? Well, it's making payments via a mobile device via bluetooth.
According to the Kurzweil AI Newsletter, payments by traditional wallets will be dead by 2015 and everyone will be making payments by mobile devices.
All the big US bank players already have mobile payment programs such as: Google Wallet, Visa Wallet, American Express, Paypal (just buying Zong), and ISIS (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile).
Mobile payments are already common in Europe and other parts of the world.
So, are your sales strategies incorporating mobile payments ? 2015 is only 4 yeears away - that's not much time to completely change your sales and marketing strategies. What about your in-store operations ?
Are you using QR Codes ? These codes work with mobile devices and can offer immediate or delayed coupons. Welcome to the age of digital, real-time coupons. Do you have analytical programs in place for digital coupons ?
The Mobile Wallet is here. What is it? Well, it's making payments via a mobile device via bluetooth.
According to the Kurzweil AI Newsletter, payments by traditional wallets will be dead by 2015 and everyone will be making payments by mobile devices.
All the big US bank players already have mobile payment programs such as: Google Wallet, Visa Wallet, American Express, Paypal (just buying Zong), and ISIS (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile).
Mobile payments are already common in Europe and other parts of the world.
So, are your sales strategies incorporating mobile payments ? 2015 is only 4 yeears away - that's not much time to completely change your sales and marketing strategies. What about your in-store operations ?
Are you using QR Codes ? These codes work with mobile devices and can offer immediate or delayed coupons. Welcome to the age of digital, real-time coupons. Do you have analytical programs in place for digital coupons ?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
IT in The Boardroom
It's not that common for IT to be discussed in the Boardroom - you know, it's one of those technical issues that remains for the COO or CFO to handle in the light of other "major" corporate level issues.
But IT is really becoming the brain of an organization. And as the brain, it's pretty logical that it should be one of the key issues to be reported on at each board meeting
Various IT expense disasters have been well reported on - usually stemming from major ERP project overruns, sometimes driving organizations into bankruptcy. I doubt project management techniques were discussed at Board meetings in these organizations but it should have been - after all, it killed the company - more than health care costs, more than sales, more than international tax issues.
Less reported, is where IT has been the major strategic issue in determining the organization's future. For example, take Blockbuster, the video rental company. Blockbuster was eclipsed by NetFlix, a company that is highly systems driven. NetFlix has continually sponsored a major $1,000,000 dollar prize to programmers who can develop artificial intelligence algorithms that dramatically increase efficiency. I doubt the Netflix programming challenge was either brought to the attention of the Blockbuster Board, much less, discussed at a Board meeting, since it is one of those geeky things in the IT world. But again, this IT geeky issue was a major strategic threat to Blockbuster. And today Blockbuster is in bankruptcy and NetFlix is gaining strength. Which company would you rather be holding stock options in?
But IT is really becoming the brain of an organization. And as the brain, it's pretty logical that it should be one of the key issues to be reported on at each board meeting
Various IT expense disasters have been well reported on - usually stemming from major ERP project overruns, sometimes driving organizations into bankruptcy. I doubt project management techniques were discussed at Board meetings in these organizations but it should have been - after all, it killed the company - more than health care costs, more than sales, more than international tax issues.
Less reported, is where IT has been the major strategic issue in determining the organization's future. For example, take Blockbuster, the video rental company. Blockbuster was eclipsed by NetFlix, a company that is highly systems driven. NetFlix has continually sponsored a major $1,000,000 dollar prize to programmers who can develop artificial intelligence algorithms that dramatically increase efficiency. I doubt the Netflix programming challenge was either brought to the attention of the Blockbuster Board, much less, discussed at a Board meeting, since it is one of those geeky things in the IT world. But again, this IT geeky issue was a major strategic threat to Blockbuster. And today Blockbuster is in bankruptcy and NetFlix is gaining strength. Which company would you rather be holding stock options in?
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Is Wal-Mart Following GM ?
In the 1990's General Motors, faced with huge competitive disadvantages in both cost and quality to the highly automated Japanese, experimented with robots for car assembly and painting - they had problems - robots were scratching cars, malfunctioning..... Rather than work hard to resolve the robot issues, GM management thought it was more expedient to discard the robots, and go back to using human labor. 20 years later they were bankrupt, mostly due to high labor costs.
Fast forward to 2010 - I have seen first-hand some of the problems Wal-Mart has experienced with it's self-service check-out lanes. I have witnessed Americans so dumb, that they struggle with the machine use, and I have myself experienced mechanical problems. So as a result of the problems, and following in the steps (or missteps?) of GM, Wal-Mart is replacing the self-service aisles with human cashiers. Like GM, it is probably easier and cheaper in the short-run to apply labor than to fix the machine problems. And of course Wal-Mart scores a few political points by creating jobs for America.
Like GM, Wal-Mart's focus on the short-term result will be costly, if not fatal, in the long run:
* Machine operating costs do not rise with inflation.
* Machines do not file lawsuits or go on strike.
* Machines do not require supervision, or job training.
* Machines keep a consistent level of customer service.
* Machines don't add another pair of germ filled hands on your items.
The oil industry invested heavily into automation during the 1970's and 1980's and as a result have very few labor problems and high profits.
Short run automation pain or long-term bankruptcy. Take your pick.
Fast forward to 2010 - I have seen first-hand some of the problems Wal-Mart has experienced with it's self-service check-out lanes. I have witnessed Americans so dumb, that they struggle with the machine use, and I have myself experienced mechanical problems. So as a result of the problems, and following in the steps (or missteps?) of GM, Wal-Mart is replacing the self-service aisles with human cashiers. Like GM, it is probably easier and cheaper in the short-run to apply labor than to fix the machine problems. And of course Wal-Mart scores a few political points by creating jobs for America.
Like GM, Wal-Mart's focus on the short-term result will be costly, if not fatal, in the long run:
* Machine operating costs do not rise with inflation.
* Machines do not file lawsuits or go on strike.
* Machines do not require supervision, or job training.
* Machines keep a consistent level of customer service.
* Machines don't add another pair of germ filled hands on your items.
The oil industry invested heavily into automation during the 1970's and 1980's and as a result have very few labor problems and high profits.
Short run automation pain or long-term bankruptcy. Take your pick.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Business: Saguaro Style
We can learn a lot from Mother Nature. We love and believe in intelligent machines, but still, nature endures and will outlive us all. ie. The long-living saguaro cactus teaches valuable business lessons.
When young and sprouting, it lives under a bush to protect itself from weather and predators. It focuses on growing straight up - only when it gets to 75 or 100 yrs old, does it start to branch out.
To avoid being eaten, the cactus has long, hard, sharp nails. Birds actually will land on a cactus and will peck holes to nest inside as a protected sanctuary.
The saguaro expands (bloats) to store water doing wet periods and then contracts as water is used up during the mostly dry, hot periods. And it sips water, even when it's bloated.
The Saguaro is most vulnerable at it's foundation since it has shallow root system to maximize water capture.
Is your organization running like a Saguaro cactus ?
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