News You Can Use: 11/1/2017
- The World Once Laughed at North Korean Cyberpower. No More.
Their track record is mixed, but North Korea’s army of more than 6,000 hackers is undeniably persistent, and undeniably improving, according to American and British security officials who have traced these attacks and others back to the North.
Amid all the attention on Pyongyang’s progress in developing a nuclear weapon capable of striking the continental United States, the North Koreans have also quietly developed a cyberprogram that is stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and proving capable of unleashing global havoc.
Unlike its weapons tests, which have led to international sanctions, the North’s cyberstrikes have faced almost no pushback or punishment, even as the regime is already using its hacking capabilities for actual attacks against its adversaries in the West.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/15/world/asia/north-korea-hacking-cyber-sony.html
- CFOs Need Procurement as Their Right-Hand Man. Here’s Why.
CFOs should also look to procurement for a fresh perspective when it comes to solving business problems. Due to its far-reaching nature (procurement departments are involved in most, if not every, department in the organization), procurement is uniquely positioned to see and understand departmental and overall business needs. This gives CFOs a more accurate look at what technology and processes will be most beneficial in the long run.
The need for a future-focused perspective when making long-term internal strategy decisions is especially important to ensure high ROI on each investment that a CFO makes. As the report stresses, “This can be particularly important in extremely fast-growing organizations that need to move quickly to find innovative solutions for an ever-changing constellation of business needs.”
http://daily.financialexecutives.org/cfos-need-procurement-right-hand-man-heres/
- Equifax: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (NSFW)
John Oliver is a little late, I covered this topic last month 🙂 - Sorry, Millennials — You Are Not Entrepreneurs
However, the truth shows that millennials are full of shit. The number of people under 30 who own a business has fallen by 65 percent since the 1980s and is now at a quarter-century low according to the Wall Street Journal.
The reason why entrepreneurs are generally older is that they are better suited to the risk involved with starting a business. Nine out of 10 startups fail, so those individuals that choose to create companies are generally better prepared and more experienced than a typical millennial. They aren’t discouraged by past failures. They learn from them and apply those lessons to future opportunities. Business is far from a fair or easily solved equation.
- Here Is Everything You Need To Make Your Conference Calls Not Suck
Point 1:“The aim for a conference call or other kind of distance meeting should be to create the notion of sitting in the same room,” says Konftel’s product manager, Torbjörn Karlsson. “If you need to raise your voice to be heard or have a hard time to perceive what people say, you need to identify the weak components.”
Point 2:
“Today’s modern, minimalist rooms are the most common cause of poor sound quality in audio conferencing,” says Eriksson. “A cold room causes the sound to bounce around and gives a longer reverberation time.” He recommends taking several steps to minimize this “minimalist bounce” including furnishing the room with soft furnishings, and on the floor, fitted carpet or rugs; putting up long blinds, curtains, and wall hangings to absorb any bounce if the room has windows and large empty walls; and even decorating the room with potted plants.
Point 3:
“Before and during the meeting there are a number of minor tips that have an immediate effect on sound quality and cut irritating distractions,” says Eriksson. “Don’t tap your pen or fingers on the table. Remember that the screen on your laptop is a barrier between you and the microphone. Don’t place paper or folders over any expansion microphones on the table. Don’t put your chin in your hand when you’re talking.” All of the above can make it hard for the remote worker to understand you clearly. You’ll know exactly what Eriksson means if anyone on the call has ever asked “What’s that tapping noise?” and you’ve realized that it was your fingers drumming on the table.
Photo: Benjamin Child
SourceCast: Episode 92: Can Philly Actually Win?
News You Can Use: 9/21/2016
- Salesforce announces new role: Chief Equality Officer
This move, while notable for its diversity efforts, reflects Benioff’s continued contribution to community. TechCrunch noted Salesforce’s 1/1/1 charity program, which has over the years given “over $128 million in grants” and allowed employees to volunteer more than 1.6 million hours in their communities.
http://www.hrdive.com/news/salesforce-announces-new-role-chief-equality-officer/426278/
- Is Technology Making Procurement Professionals Lazy?
More astute procurement professionals may be compelled to move towards more sophisticated technology which may be overly complex for the issue you are trying to solve. If you are trying to get adoption across your organisation versus a subset of power users, then make sure your specification is fit for purpose in order to maximise the impact across the organisation. Broad adoption is highly correlated to ease of use and buying a “spreadsheet on steroids” will likely mean you need an analyst to answer every executive’s question about your procurement spend.
One of the great challenges procurement leader’s face is that they are often compelled to use procurement tools affiliated with their ERP provider. Most of these tools were born during the days of “Feature Wars” where more and more complexity was added to the tool until it became almost unusable without heroic manual effort. Where leaders have the influence to pull it off, they should explore best of breed, built for purpose tools.
- How Long Until Hackers Start Faking Leaked Documents?
Forging thousands—or more—documents is difficult to pull off, but slipping a single forgery in an actual cache is much easier. The attack could be something subtle. Maybe a country that anonymously publishes another country’s diplomatic cables wants to influence yet a third country, so adds some particularly egregious conversations about that third country. Or the next hacker who steals and publishes email from climate change researchers invents a bunch of over-the-top messages to make his political point even stronger. Or it could be personal: someone dumping email from thousands of users making changes in those by a friend, relative, or lover.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/hacking-forgeries/499775/?utm_source=feed
This is a great question, I have to imagine it has already happened. - Why Supply Chain Managers Are Psychopaths
A study of 261 corporate professionals working in supply chain management found that 21 percent of those individuals had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits, such as insincerity, lack of empathy or remorse, egocentric behavior, and the ability to be both charming and superficial.
The study found the supply chain management professionals had similar levels of psychopathic traits to the broad prison population.
http://www.sdcexec.com/news/12256445/why-supply-chain-managers-are-psychopaths
Difference Spin on the same study:
One out of five American CEOs might be a psychopath“A really interesting question is whether psychopathy can be a positive thing. Some psychologists would say yes, that there are certain attributes like coolness under pressure, which is sort of a fundamental positive. But Robert Hare would always say no, that in the absence of empathy, which is the definition in psychology of a psychopath, you will always get malevolence,” Ronson told Forbes.
“Basically, high-scoring psychopaths can be brilliant bosses but only ever for short term,” he added.
http://www.zmescience.com/science/psychology-science/psychopathic-executives/
- Do You Have A F*cking Problem With Swearing At Work?
But be careful who you swear around. The Wrike study revealed that of the 43% of those who do not use profane language in the workplace, 36% are bothered when others drop the F-bomb, and 20% would consider filling an official complaint in regards to their colleagues’ language. On the other hand, 33% of respondents would not consider a position at a workplace that strictly banned swearing, so you can’t f*cking win either way.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3063775/do-you-have-a-fcking-problem-with-swearing-at-work?partner=rss
Photo: Ian Schneider
News You Can Use: 4/13/2016
- Who’s the Boss of Workplace Culture?
When asked what they do to preserve and strengthen workplace culture, HR professionals and managers were on the same page, listing “training and development” (72 percent and 61 percent, respectively) and “getting feedback from employees and acting on it” (45 percent and 46 percent) as the two top strategies.
- Why Create RFP Hell?
This is not a good thing to do. A company with a reputation for putting its potential suppliers though RFP hell is not one that many suppliers will want to deal with. The more a supplier’s peers complain about RFP hell with Company X, the fewer are the suppliers who will even acknowledge the existence of an RFP from Company X. As the word of RFP Hell from Company X spreads, the only suppliers that will respond to an RFP from Company X are those that are desperate. Those in bad financial shape, those without a stable customer base, and those with a bad reputation. These are not suppliers you want to deal with.
http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2016/04/03/why-create-rfp-hell/
- How to build cybersecurity into outsourcing contracts
Customers must perform a gap analysis between the vendor’s offering and the customer’s requirements to identify gaps and determine whether they can be covered by either party. In addition, narrow limitations of liability—frequent in cloud contracts—can warp the incentives for protection against cyber risk. While there has been a significant growth among sophisticated cloud vendors who are able to address their customers’ data protection and compliance requirements, there is still substantial variation among cloud vendors’ ability to adequately address such requirements.
Also:
The key contractual provisions to mitigate cyber risk are: (1) the security standards required of the vendor; (2) restrictions on subcontracting; (3) employee related protections, such as background checks and training; (4) security testing; (5) security audits; (6) security incident reporting and investigation; (7) data retention and use restrictions; (8) customer data access rights; and (9) vendor liability for cyber incidents.
- Failure to Monitor a Supply Chain for Risk Can Tarnish Your Brand
A recent study by CIRANO found that while there is an 80% chance of a company losing at least 20% of its value at least once during a five year period as a result of a negative, but well publicized, incident, a major incident that negatively impacts the brand in a significant way can be much worse. Just ask Airbus that had its stock plummet by over 26% in a single day, equivalent to a market capitalization loss of approximately €5.4 Billion, after it announced on the close of trading on June 13, 2006 that issues with the supply and installation of electrical harnesses would lead to a further six-month delay in the delivery of the A380 (and that the impact of the disruption on earnings before interest and tax would be €500M per year for four years).
- SAP Ariba bids to transform financial supply chain in partnership with Prime Revenue
“To compete and win in today’s global economy requires digital supply chains that are connected, agile and intelligent,” said Alex Atzberger, President, SAP Ariba. “In joining forces, SAP Ariba and PrimeRevenue can create a closed-loop system that links all of the data companies need to manage transactions and supply chain financing events with greater insight, speed and simplicity than ever.”
Photo: Calib Frith