Honest and transparent approach will go a long way in customer acquisition and more importantly, customer retention. When it comes to your services and products it is important to be honest, sincere and transparent with respect to your strategy, cost and pricing that they may need to incur. Be honest with your clients and tell them the truth, tell them …
Be passionate, yet remain cool, calm and collected
Passion is one of the most important attributes that influences what we do and act on each day. Loss of your passion and your drive will unavoidably result in a decrease in commitment, attention and quality of output. Once you stop caring about a project, process, job, organization…you check out mentally and it is noticeable to those who are observant …
Attract the best talent, then do your best to retain them
Talented people are hard to find and they are even more difficult to retain long term. They have options and they know it. Having this in mind, it is important to invest in people ahead of anything else. Get the best folks you can and focus on quality over quantity. Once a team is built, then shift your focus towards …
CIO: one of the most rewarding positions
In my humble and somewhat biased opinion, one of the most rewarding positions is that of a CIO (Chief Information Officer). I say this based on their potential to influence positive transformation, change and growth within organizations. CIOs are uniquely positioned and have exposure and partnership opportunities with all business areas (finance, legal, marketing, operations…you name it, technology is involved …
Cyber security is a full-time job
As more and more products get connected online in this Internet of Things (IoT) “revolution” of sorts, it is important to take information security strategically, seriously and proactively. To start, your systems and networks need to be redundant, backed up and up to date (properly configured, patched and tested); your users need to know what NOT to do online (at …
Lessons from T-Mobile and Experian partnership and data breach
Cyber security, information security…call it what you want, but it must be taken seriously and proactively in every organization. Furthermore, your plan and attention must extend beyond the confines of your own networks, systems, applications and walls. You need to collaborate with your partners on join strategies to strengthen your connections, secure your data and protect your intellectual property. As …
Identify problems with questions, not statements
To solve problems one must first identify the core reasons of those issues and must accept their existence. Once ownership is established it is essential to ask proper questions as to how did you get to your current predicament and what can you do to make progress and move towards solutions. Don’t make vague statements, but rather take change of …
Leaders think and speak clearly
Leaders listen to ideas, consider them, and then make their own decisions based on collective experience, knowledge and available information. While you should always be considerate, professional and respectful to your colleagues you should not agree with ideas and courses of action that you don’t believe in. If your experience, education and knowledge advise you against a particular idea then …
Invest in people
Education, training, growth and other opportunities are among many responsibilities of leaders to provide for their teams and staff. Make sure people are trained in their area of responsibilities and that they have opportunities to continue learning, growing and advancing. It’s always better to have a smaller number of high performing people on your team than a larger number of …
Creative thinking required
Creativity and originality are at times challenging to come by in most organizations. Way too frequently folks follow the same path that was cut by those before them without considering all available options. It is imperative to consider alternatives and ensure that you and your business are using the best available solutions and are not simply maintaining status quo. At …