One of the best pieces of business wisdom that Jay and I ever heard was “surround yourself with people smarter than you, and then get out of their way.” Now that my technical skills and certifications are dusty and expired, that’s exactly what I need to do or else I do more harm than good! I spend a good chunk of my time looking for, and spending time with others that we can learn from to help make ITW better, faster, stronger. If you ever took a philosophy class—or you admit watching Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure—Socrates was known to assert that the wisest man was the one who recognized his own ignorance. Read more…
Perhaps the biggest problem with all these consumer devices on corporate networks is the lack of proper support tools and device management capabilities that BlackBerry users have long enjoyed. Happily, we see that supportability and manageability of iPhones for the enterprise is maturing. It’s almost where it needs to be for widespread acceptance and to be in line with security best practices. Wait … Did I say “almost there”? You might ask, “Aren’t there thousands of iPhones in corporate hands right now?” Yes. Unfortunately that’s true. Perhaps you’re one of those early adopters who’ve been accessing work email and data on an iPhone. Well, I have been watching you and your impact on business IT for a long time. You are causing a whole lot of issues, and you can be expensive.
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ITW and Glenn Davis Group with Ron Ellis
I feel pretty jazzed when I get to spend a morning combining 2 of my favourite things.
The great people at the Glenn Davis Group are longtime clients of ITW and their team is one of our most formidable hockey rivals! Their VP of Operations and their Technology Director wanted to sit down with us, share a mutual business update, and talk about some of their IT priorities for the coming year. We decided to add a little magic to the event, so we booked one of the boardrooms at the Hockey Hall of Fame. ITW is a proud sponsor of the HHOF, and so we were able to get Toronto hockey legend—and Stanley Cup winner—Ron Ellis to take us on a private tour before we sat down to talk business. Read more…
I’ve been talking a lot with clients lately about security and the Cloud. These issues aren’t new, but something came up in conversation that has been resonating with me for days. As with most interesting ideas, it is pretty simple. The bigger and more well-known your organization is, the higher the likelihood is that someone dislikes you (for whatever reason) and will try to mess with you. This is acutely true in our industry where security is the name of the game and hackers take pride in sticking it to the corporate juggernauts who claim their systems are impenetrable.
A perfect example is the great Sony network hack from earlier this year. Despite the damage to Sony’s credibility, very few people profited from any stolen secrets on this job … it was likely just mischief for the sake of bragging rights. That is often the case with hackers and online saboteurs. It is reasonable to suppose they did it just because Sony is huge and they wanted to prove they could slay a giant. This phenomena raises an interesting paradox: nearly every organization wants to grow and increase their visibility to the public in order to get new clients and customers. However, you may reach a point where the shady characters start to take notice and you become a target.
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PT Barnum: Genius or Con-Man?
Phineas Taylor Barnum was the world’s first show-business millionaire. He could promote and sell anything. He is historically … but erroneously … credited with the following phrase: There’s a sucker born every minute. The self-serving wisdom here is clear enough: there is no shortage of people who are willing to part with their money in exchange for empty promises, miracle potions, smoke, mirrors, and fanfare.
The only thing I dislike more than losing is dishonesty. That’s probably why I don’t like magicians or clowns! Read more…
