Making important decisions

Decisions, decisions, decisions. We are faced with dozens of them each day and as such they require our attention and consideration. While majority of decisions are not of great significance to future outcomes (both personally and professionally), others can be quite influential. Decisions or choices that you need to make in collaboration with others which are also of great importance …

Why Educause matters to me

Each industry has a number of organizations that unify professionals and enable them to network, collaborate, communicate and exchange ideas and knowledge. For me, one of such organizations, is certainly Educause. Educause is an association that unifies all of us who are in higher education (higher ed) information technology (IT) and provides opportunities for collaboration with colleagues and vendors. When …

Why leaders are not experts

As a leader one must motivate, inspire, set standards, coordinate, improve, communicate, collaborate and so on, but they should never mistakenly believe and act as if they know everything. There is a multitude of reasons why teams are built with people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, knowledge and education in order for them to complement each other and cover all responsibilities. …

Be honest, compete on value, not price

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 …

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 …

Market your products and services, don’t spam people

Marketing is a blend of science and art and it should be approached very carefully and strategically. One of the most frequent methods of marketing and awareness building are mailing lists to which people sign up in order to receive promotions, discounts, free products or services and so on. However, when it comes to populating and building your e-mail lists …