The current uproar in Europe over the food supply chain, after horse meat was found in products labelled as beef, shows an immediate benefit of Lean production and supply chain. To produce something cheaply the traditional supply chain tries to screw suppliers to get raw materials as cheaply as possible. The suppliers in turn will …
Category: Change Drivers
Feb 10
Missing Physical Education
I saw a rapidly vanishing scene the other day; a father walking with his family up to the letterbox and the children standing on tiptoe to post the envelopes they had been clutching. It took me back to my childhood reading the Ladybird Book of the Post Man and watching the film of The Night …
Nov 14
Bigger is Better
The benefits of Mergers and Aquistion are simply economies of scale. But are there limits to growth? – This article in the Economist argues that there are – and that it is common to overestimate the benefits. This article from McKinsey looks at where mergers go wrong. Most buyers routinely overvalue the synergies to be …
Jul 15
Business travel: Keeping mobile roaming headaches at bay
With summer holidays coming up and international roaming data at £1 for 1mb – thats one email with an attachment, it’s time for drastic action. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14129868
Apr 30
From Global Solution to Big Problem
In six easy steps: Central: “Here’s our Global Solution” Local: “Does it work for me?” Central: “We will get down to the detail later but it can do everything we need. We will work together on this, now let’s get on..” Local: “But I can’t use it because it doesn’t do this” Central: “This is the …
Apr 29
Adobe’s name is mud
More is coming out about the loss of the “keys to the Kingdom” at RSA. For a great discussion of this and other security topics follow the Security Now! Podcast and the archive at GRC.com In short a user just opened a spreadsheet. A small group of RSA employees received a targeted spearfishing email, which …
Apr 15
Compliance testing
I was chased today to complete my overdue mandatory compliance training. So I spent a few hours completing the training and the test. The result? “Test Passed The exam contained 14 questions, of which you answered 13 correctly, or 93%. These are the questions you answered incorrectly: What are the consequences of failing to complete …
Apr 12
Phishermans Friend
I get an email from McKinsey. “Someone you have never heard of has lost your data.” I was not alone. Epsilon, a marketing services company that sends 40 billion e-mails a year has been hacked. An estimated 2% of its customer date has been “exposed”. As with the recent major leak at RSA, Epsilon has …
Apr 01
Break in at the locksmith
The IT security world was rocked by the publication of an open letter, written by security vendor RSA boss Art Coviello on 18 March. In the letter he said the company had ‘identified an extremely sophisticated cyber-attack in progress’. ‘An investigation has led us to believe that the attack is in the category of an …
Mar 22
The Project Mahout
How do you get an elephant from A to B? There are four ways: You can Push it, Pull it, Pick it up and carry it, or You can climb up onto the elephants back and whisper in its ear “There is a bun in that direction.” In change management, the subject has got to …