Category: Personal Reflections

Odd title, but things that come to you in dreams about being a 60’s record producer, and you’re wearing bright red flares, tend to not be particularly normal.

But I’m awake now, and yes, I look awful in red polyester.

Aaaaaanyway, my first waking thought was that as negative as the title may seem, it’s actually all about opportunity.  How many people really look back at a spectacular fail in their lives, and accept 100% of the responsibility for it?  Too few I suspect, and they have missed a tremendous opportunity to improve their lives going forward.

It’s human nature to blame someone, or something else initially: bad timing, the market crashed, stiff competition, moron boss and a whole multitude of other excuses.  I chose the word excuses carefully, because that’s exactly what they are.

I’m not saying it’s always your fault, and I’m not talking about blame here, but accepting the RESPONSIBILITY for ALL of your failures is the only way to both move on, and learn from them.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”, George Santayana.

You get fired for mouthing off to your boss, and blame the boss?  Guess what’s going to happen next time?  You may have even been right, but you really only had two choices; stay where you are and try another angle to get what you want, or leave.  Mouthing off was not an option, at least not for that boss who held your career in their hands.  Or the next one probably.

Like it or not, as long as you ARE an employee, there will be people and situations in your life that frustrate you.  Quite often, the exact opposite of what you normally do might be the best next step; If you’re very aggressive, try being reasonable, if you’re passive, try being a little more assertive, and if you’re a lot better at your job than your boss (and they know it), try considering THEIR ego for a while.

If you can’t do these things – and I am a perfect example – you have no choice BUT to accept full responsibility.  For the good AND for the bad mind you.

And never, I mean NEVER go after revenge!  As tempting as it may be, and as satisfied as you will feel at the moment of ‘triumph’, you have just created an enemy, one who will have no problem exacting THEIR revenge at some point down the road. They may also be better at it than you.

After all, the best revenge really is becoming more successful (in whatever way YOU measure success) than those you left behind.

I would be an incredible hypocrite if was to lecture anyone on being a saint, but I can at least accept full responsibility for everything that’s ever happened to me.  I take pride in my successes, and laugh at my abject failures …eventually.

I could list a thousand trite quotes like; The Chinese word for crisis is also the word for opportunity , blah, blah, blah…. this isn’t even true by the way

I prefer the much simpler; Accept it, and move on.

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As I’m writing this, I’m trying to decide what my own thoughts are on the matter. Intellectually I probably don’t care that much, but emotionally, I can’t help but think it’s a bad thing.

Background: My wife made what I thought was a wise-crack the other day, that it was actually faster to get a response to a customer service issue if you post something negative on social media, than it is if you call their toll-free number.

She wasn’t joking, and proved it.

A very large retailer had screwed up, not once, but twice, and she spent a long time on the phone trying to sort it out. Naturally, the support centre was based in India, out-sourced, and had no real concept of the original business outside of their database of questions. Long and short; she got nowhere.

The next day, she vented her frustration on Twitter, and within a few hours, a representative from the company HQ contacted her and the issue was resolved that day.

What I took from this is that it’s more important to give the perception of good customer service, than it is to actually give it. As long as no-one knows that your customer service sucks, people will keep buying, and you can keep saving money by outsourcing.

My dilemma is that I can’t decide if I care that the good customer service is genuine, or if the fact that it’s forced now makes it intolerable. Would I really make the fairly significant effort to go to a competitor just because the first vendor doesn’t really care?

I think the answer is yes, I would, because it’s not just about customer service, it’s about how business is done properly. Customer Service is most often associated with reacting when things go wrong, but it’s far more than that. The term ‘business partner‘ sums it up nicely as it’s supposed to be a partnership, not just a business deal, and is only at its best when it’s also pro-active, personal, performed with genuine empathy, and mutually beneficial.

I think what I’m really saying is customer service simply cannot be outsourced. I know it’s very expensive, but perhaps the following may help to offset it;

For one week in every year, EVERY member of staff, from Finance to Sales, from Marketing to IT, works in customer service. This includes the CEO, even the Board of Directors. EVERYONE!

Benefits:

  1. If the CEO talks to real-world customers, as well as sees what goes on every day in the support centre, they will have a much better idea of where his/her company may have gone astray. The CEO is the one responsible for the culture and priorities, so it would be good for them to be reminded of what’s most important;
    o
  2. Sales people often forget what it is they are supposed to be selling, which in almost every company is either a solution to problem, or something someone wants personally. The week they spend in customer service will help them reconnect with their target audience;
    o
  3. Product and Service developers often get too caught up in their day jobs to really understand what it is they are supposed to be developing. Hearing client problems and confusion every day for a week should help to clarify things for them, and maybe even give them ideas for innovation;
    o
  4. Marketing departments too often rely on their previous experience and/or education, so a few angry clients should do wonders for their clarity too, as well as give them ideas for future marketing concepts;
    o
  5. Ancillary departments like finance, IT etc should all have their go too, every employee is part of the culture of a company, everyone must be on the same page, as well as see the impact they are having first hand.

Passion and motivation are hard to maintain if you don’t know where you’re going, or worse, don’t agree with what you’re doing. I think a unified focus on customer service goes a long way to ensuring everyone stays on track.

Of course, your CEO may be a utterly incompetent at dealing with people, but if he/she loses a few clients from poor customer service – their own! – they will probably get the message 🙂

Anyone know any good studies on the effect of social media or outsourcing on customer satisfaction?

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That may seem like an aggressive statement, but the only way you will ever get the privacy you want is if you don’t put anything out there. No mobile phone, no email, no Facebook, no Twitter, and no browsing. Nothing. Shop at brick-and-mortar, do your banking in person, and if you want to talk to someone, call from a land-line. Maybe you can write them a letter, if you can trust the Post Office.

As I have already said in a number of posts, if you want ANY of the convenience that your mobile phone or the Internet provides, you pay a price in loss of personal privacy. Did you really think it was free? Or worse, do you actually EXPECT it to be free? You want all the benefits and none of the downside?

We have an expectation that it’s the government’s responsibilities to protect its citizens, from either external aggressors, or internal threats. How do you expect them to do that if they don’t at least TRY to do the same things the bad guys do? It’s called testing. As far as I am concerned, they can take whatever data of mine they like, as long as they do nothing with it other than work out how to plug the holes.

And if you’re worried that the government might use your data against you, what exactly are you doing?

Should there be more oversight? More transparency? Probably, but do you WANT to let the bad guys know how we’re catching them?

Question: Whom would you rather find a cancerous tumor in your body, a doctor, or a coroner? The doctor will be every bit as invasive, but will do so to save your life. You trust them, right?

OK, so that’s a little dramatic, and the other side of the analogy is excessive, but I think it makes the point. I WANT the government to find the holes before the bad guys do, because the bad guys have no rules whatsoever. They will steal from you, ruin your life, or whatever takes their fancy, and then not give you another thought unless it’s to laugh about how you made things so easy for them.

Businesses hire ‘bad guys’ all the time to test their systems, they are called ethical hackers. Same mind-set as a bad guy with one twist; they are there to help fix the problem, not exploit it.

Was Prism so different? They have no choice BUT to sift through everyone else’s data to find the ones who are doing bad things. Can you think of a better way of doing it? Seriously, if you can, I’d love to hear it, it will have far-reaching impact on the way security professionals think / work and should be heard.

It’s fairly clear which side I’m on, and this really is a issue with only 2 sides; for, and against the monitoring our private information. What’s needed now is a guest post from someone who is on the other side of the fence, maybe even a lawyer, and that’s all I can tell you about them or they’ll beat me up.

Let the debate begin!!

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For those expecting a Terminator-esque diatribe warning you about the evils of ‘machine’ autonomy you’re in the wrong place. For a security professional, I am perhaps the least suspicious and prone-to-conspiracy person I know. Even my Sister and Brother-in-law are worse, but they are a lawyer and Scottish respectively so their paranoia is expected.

After reading Daniel Burrus’s articles ‘Big Data Is Already Producing Big Results‘ and ‘Create an Integrated Big Data Strategy To Increase Sales Now‘ it occurred to me that while Big Data has no place in security beyond forensics (in my opinion), the security OF the big data itself is critical. So is the integrity and availability of it.

The concept of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) has been around almost as long as I have, but only with the advent of big data and real-time analytics does it truly come into its own.

Everyone trying to sell you something – which is everyone – is looking at big data, or more specifically, how to collect the data in first place, and what to DO with it once they’ve got it.

Scenario: You’re out shopping with your wife when suddenly you are barraged by lingerie offers, as your spending habits over the last few months have been recorded and instantly regurgitated by hopeful vendors. Your wife has no lingerie…

Morality aside, this is a gross invasion of his privacy (loss of confidentiality). Now image if that data was actually inaccurate (loss of integrity), I’m sure his wife would be very understanding, right? As for availability, that’s the vendor’s problem so I don’t care much.

Now, let’s take this even further. In ‘The Internet of Things‘, soon everything from your home security to your dog will be online. Your location, your travel plans, your favourite everything will be known by someone, or someTHING, somewhere. The amount of information being collected is growing, quite literally, exponentially. The trend is also to automate as much as possible, so for example, if no-one’s home, the oven should not be on. Do we really want ALL of these decisions made without human interaction?

I personally love the way things are going. Instant access, always-on, functionality, convenience etc. But I am prepared to pay the price for this, the currency of which is measured in terms of the loss of both my privacy, and potentially, my personal safety. The data is online, if someone really wants it, they can get it, then do things with it I don’t even want to contemplate.

Big Data is not evil, data just is, it’s the use to which the data is put that defines good or bad. Businesses have been very quick off the block to define the profit-making contexts within real-time data analysis, but so far I haven’t seen much in the way determining what’s right and wrong. Or whether or not we even have a choice to take part in it.

The generations born prior to 1990 are most likely the ones holding this trend back, so we’re the one’s who’d better write the policies, and put the checks and balances in place, because the Millennials are too busy posting pictures of their junk.

As both a US and UK citizen who has spent his whole life almost equally between the two continents, it occurred that I might be well placed to comment on why a lot of US companies have such a hard time getting started over here. You be the judge 🙂

Maybe I shouldn’t comment on our “special relationship”, especially as my wife’s family are Irish-American, lawyers, ridiculously intelligent, and gigantic.

That’s me in the middle, and I’m 6’/220lbs (1.83m/100kg);

Irish Giant Lawyers

There’s your first difference right there; I actually wrote weights and measures both ways so that everyone understands. Europeans and Americans both tend to get rather upset when they have to do the conversions. And don’t get me started on Celsius vs Fahrenheit, miles vs kilometres, S vs Z, or the date (EU 04/07/13 vs US 07/04/13).

These are minor, and amusing differences, but when a business suffers for the reasons I lay out below, no-one’s laughing (except perhaps the Chinese):

  1. Annual Leave – Americans get 2 weeks, and maybe a 3rd after the first 1,000 years of good service, Europeans start out with 4 – 5 weeks. Don’t question it, don’t even comment on it, just accept it. Americans work longer hours than the people of any other country I’ve ever been to (42 at last count). Well, it may be that they are AT work more than any other country, but it’s a mistake to think they work harder. US companies work year round at a certain rate, European countries do very little in August/September, but make up for it in other months. I’m sure someone smarter than me can provide statistics.The European way is better, MUCH better, it’s also healthier and more sustainable;
    o
  2. The Personal Touch – I think because Americans are so busy, the face-to-face aspect of doing business has taken a back seat to email. Even a phone call is too much sometimes. This does not work in Europe, where business is conducted in person, and preferably with ‘friends’. The whole concept of “it’s business, nothing personal” does not fly here.
    For the Americans; go and see your clients, buy them coffee/tea/vodka, talk about football (not your kind), and let your client bring up business when THEY are ready.
    For the Europeans; help the Americans out, if you’re not getting the service / attention you need, just say so, they will not be offended in any way. Suffering in silence, while very British, is outdated and obsolete;
    o
  3. Culture – In the US, it’s pretty much one culture from Washington State to Florida, from Southern California to Maine. It’s one currency, and one language (unless you live in Miami), so there are no issues providing services from anywhere, to anywhere.
    Not so in Europe, where you can drive 5 minutes and find an ancient enemy, a NEW enemy, 15 different dialects, and barter in chickens. OK, slight exaggeration, sheep are the common currency, but you get the point. You have to be careful sending someone from Greece to FYROM (if they’ll go), from Russia to anywhere else in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), from the UK to …well, anywhere else (hooliganism was invented here). And you want to do business in the Middle East too? Better have two passports.
    If you want to do business in France, hire a dedicated salesperson in France. If you want to do business in Germany, better hire a well known salesperson in Germany, and so on. I’ll translate a rather graphic US colloquialism into ‘Poo, or get off the potty.” i.e. commit local resources, or don’t even bother trying to do business there;
    o
  4. Stop With The Discounts! – The American sales process is the most aggressive, and pressure-filled anywhere in the world. End of month, end of quarter, and especially end of year targets force salespeople to almost throw their services away.  And what do European buyers do? They WAIT for the end of month, end of quarter and end of year to GET the discounts!
    Now combine that with selling multi-year deals AT the big discount, and you’ve just tied yourself into a never-ending spiral of price compression. Not smart;
    o
  5. Give Them Time! – Even more important than not discounting, is giving the European salespeople time to build up a pipeline. It takes a good salesperson a year (especially in security) or more to build up a decent client-base, and if you put too much pressure on too soon, they will quit, and you’ll start all over again. Have that happen too many times and you will ruin your reputation from both the client, and the hiring perspective.
    Don’t make the targets too high to reach, or the constant ‘failure’ will destroy their morale. Setting the bar high so they “don’t slack off the pace” is self-defeating, there are many other ways to motivate the sale-force towards excellence.
    Doing business in Europe is a long term investment, treat it as such. Unless of course you’re only out to make as much revenue as you can before you bail, and then by all means, carry on;
    o
  6. Devolve the P&L – No culture likes to be controlled by a foreign nation (yes, I’m biting my tongue), so devolve the P&L to the local country/region. By all means maintain the US control over the goals/KPIs/targets and so on, but leave HOW they get there to local reps. And no offence, make sure the local reps are LOCAL reps, not ex-pats, unless they’re prepared to stay long-term;
    o
  7. No Arbitrage – Nothing causes more consternation that two completely different bottom line reports because each side chose the most ‘favourable’ FX to make their point. Decide on EXACTLY which currency you will report with, and which FX you’re going to use, right from the beginning, and stick with it;
    o
  8. Visit, and Visit Often – America is so vast and so diverse, it’s understandable that coming over to Europe, with our even stranger languages / cultures, and foods, – black pudding anyone? – can seem a little daunting, but it’s absolutely worth it. Not just to see the sights. Again, Europe is a face-to-face culture, if you want to do business here, you must be seen to care. At the highest levels, do a road trip at least once a year to the more significant of your regional offices, to show not only the clients, but the employees that you’re serious, committed, and approachable.

The population of the EU alone exceeds that of America by almost 200 million, the GDP is on par, and if you throw Africa, the ME, and APAC into the mix, the potential is even more enormous (there are 50 countries within a 4 hour flight from London!).

The world is getting smaller, English is the language of business, and most of the planet really does want what the US has to offer.

It just won’t be on the US’s terms.

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