Catarina's World

Small companies can be completely ruined by one person that decide to vent his grievances online. And for large companies losses can amount to millions of dollars. All it takes is one disgruntled employee or customer.

Have you calculated how much bad online reputation would cost you? To avoid it are you making sure internal communication as well as customer service are excellent?

More than an eye for an eye

Today's online world has enabled destructive people to have a field day. Small companies can lose a lot of money and even go bankrupt. Sure companies make mistakes but sometimes there is no proportion between what harm they have caused and the price they have to pay. But still few companies take precautions.

Beware of disgruntled employees and customers

One company got badly hit by a former employee making negative comments in a forum of relevance to their business. The comments swiftly came up high on Google's search results. Another example is an angry customer that took revenge on a small town company that had to close down as a result.

An IT company was mentioned in a thread on an online forum with thousands of comments. What the dissatisfied customer wrote had a huge impact and because the company didn't react swiftly the damage was huge. They are still having problems despite the fact that the customer in question was compensated years ago.

How much does bad online reputation cost you?

Having a bad reputation online can easily be calculated financially per month or year. A company that suddenly has a bad reputation just need to compare their sales to the year before. The difference is the price they are paying.

Ruining your brand or burning your company?

If customers don't dare to buy from you because Google is wrongly giving the impression that your company is surrounded by conflict you will suffer. All it takes for that to happen is that someone googles your name and a revengeful post ends up high on the first page of search engine results.

Is your customer service excellent?

The customer is always right. But regardless if they are or not, you have to make sure your customers are content. Already before the internet one upset customer meant you lost ten. Nowadays you may lose thousands. So having excellent customer service is absolutely fundamental in our online world.

Does your internal communication make staff feel appreciated and important?

Many companies, especially SMEs, have not paid much attention to internal communication and merely regarded it as an expense. Nowadays that’s no longer possible. Do your employees feel “part of the family”? If not, do you communicate in ways that make them see what’s in it for them? Do they have access to you or other superiors to air their grievances? If not, they are likely to vent their concerns online. Nowadays everyone has an online audience, Facebook friends if nothing else. So if your internal communication isn’t making staff identify with and like the company, you have a problem that needs to be rectified swiftly.

How can you change your online reputation?

By pushing already highly-ranked negative posts down search engine results pages so that they are seen by fewer people. Several companies have started blogs and used social media to turn around their reputation online. By constantly updating their blogs and social media accounts it normally takes about three to six months to squeeze the bad post down from the first to second page on Google.

Prevent it from happening

All businesses should keep an eye on the web and do what they can to prevent anyone from harming their reputation. You have to start monitoring SERPs (your search engine result pages) and how and when you are mentioned in online articles and forums. A simple way is to use Google Alerts or other such tools. It's also important to make sure that you own all the URLs that could possibly be used to give the impression that the information comes from you. Angry environmentalists for instance purchased a .net for one company and started publishing negative information with the intent to harm.

Have you adapted to the internet recording everything and forgetting nothing?

With the increasing number of constituencies using the internet to find information, are you doing online reputation management? Do you know what your employees, customers or the public at large write about you online? If not, it's high time you look into this aspect of our online world. The World Economic Forum recognized the importance of doing so by naming one online reputation management company as one of the 31 Technology Pioneers for 2011. Through proprietary technology they enable companies to monitor the web, delete information, and control how they look when searched online. If necessary, use one of those companies.

The tools are there, so what are you waiting for? Someone to get a negative article about you published online? That people bent on revenge should have this kind of power is in my opinion completely wrong. But that's unfortunately the way it is so, like it or not, it's time to start contemplating how we should live our lives in a world where the internet records everything and forgets nothing. There are software that enable companies to see everything a person does online, including on social media. And once that kind of software is widely used the tables will be turned and revengeful people will find their online reputation ruined. They will not be able to get a job and people will be reluctant to do business with them. Presumably that will make such people think twice before trying to harm someone online. But until then, invest in internal communication and customer service to make sure your customers and employees are happy. It’s a small expense compared to a bad reputation online.

Photo: Christopher Hill – PhotoExpress

Can't help wondering what the future has in store for newspapers? It's telling that even the New York Times are slashing employee benefits and laying off staff. Watch a very interesting interview with investigative journalist Russ Baker putting what's happening at the paper into a broader context: 

Should the US government have the power to shut down web sites world wide? Or do you agree with Wikipedia and Google that the proposed bills amount to Chinese style online censorship? Devote 2 minutes to watching an informative video about the bills:

If congress pass the bills, anyone posting a home video online with a song playing in the background could in theory be accused of piracy and their site shut down. The Obama administration has stated it's not in favour of the proposed legislation since it threatens an innovative and open internet. So if worse comes to worse, the president could presumably veto it? Some members of congress however, are keen on the bills in order to please Hollywood and the musical industy. 

Would the bills be the end of internet as we know it?

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the bills: ""They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed.

'Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. And, Sopa and Pipa build a framework for future restrictions and suppression. Proponents of Sopa have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy". 

According to Jimmy Wales, "The bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."

Sopa and Pipa actually propose that anyone found guilty of streaming copyrighted content without permission 10 or more times within six months should go to jail.

Would Sopa and Pipa completely change social media networks like Linkedin and Facebook because they would need to police everything their members post? Will online freedom of speech be severely resticted by the bills? Or do you agree with Robert Murdoch who has complained about the White House not supporting the most extreme elements of the bills? Do you want to keep the internet as it is or should it be censored world-wide by the US government? 

Video: Al Jazeera English – You Tube

Sometimes when I read the news it seems like a script to a new James Bond movie. Dr No is at it again with a 300,000 strong cyberarmy whose only purpose is to get into other countries secret networks. And Blofeld, or maybe Goldfinger, is helping countries deceive their citizens as well as an entire continent.

What's 007 up to? Having a martini, shaken not stirred, or fighting Dr No's cyberarmy?

Last year MI5 warned that Dr No is making a huge attempt at hacking into Western companies concentrating on defence, manufacturing, PR and law. They also said that “honeytraps” of beautiful girls were being used occasionally. Apparently it happened to the deputy mayor of London who woke up to find that he had been drugged by a pretty woman who downloaded secret files from his Blackberry while he was knocked out.

Dr No in cyberspace

If you believe the news, Dr No wants to use cyber warfare to destroy vital infrastructure in the West in areas like government, finance, business, military and defence. And the irony is that many of his cyberarmy soldiers have actually been educated at top institutions in the West.

Dr No’s victims so far are said to include Google in January this year and Exxon Mobile who suspect that he has stolen vital information from them. The bad news, according to Wired, is that nobody is immune to this kind of APT attacks. And they seem to happen mainly to companies and countries of interest to Dr No, who deny the allegations.

Blofeld’s evil genius at work

Some Euro countries current economic trouble was kept hidden for a long time with the help of Blofelt who, for a hefty fee, assisted them with sweeping their problems under the carpet to make Europe believe everything was fine. Nothing illegal just questionable from an ethic point of view and very profitable for Blofeld. He was also very active in orchestrating the global recession by all kinds of actions that almost brought down the entire American banking system and not to forget the substantial part he played in bringing AIG to its knees. With the Blofelds of this world it would have been tricky even for James Bond to do anything since they are not breaking the law. But that could be solved by his license to kill.

Where’s 007?

The continuation of the scripts would be M asking Miss Moneypenny to find 007. In his meeting with M Bond would be told everything is at his disposal to fix the problems. And as we know, James Bond always succeeds. No doubt he would have innovative and helpful gadgets from Q that would give him the upper hand, not least, in cyberspace. Can’t help wondering what 007 would need to do to succeed in the current scripts? And who would be the “honeytrap” Bond girl that would change sides to help him out?

Good and plausible scripts for Bond movies, don’t you think? Highlights how thin the line between fiction and reality is. If you believe everything you read in the news, that is. With a long background in media I am aware that not everything you read is true. Many times the negative aspects are blown out of proportion and facts are sometimes simply just invented. But there is at least a grain of truth in these stories.

Fiction is often based on reality but the latest ventures of Blofeld and Dr No, again, proves that it works the other way round as well. Maybe the perpetrators actually got their inspiration from fiction? Maybe I’m not far of when guessing on Dr No and Blofeld?

For your eyes only

Blofeld's actions must, so far at least, have harmed the world more than Dr No has?

Makes you wonder if we live in a real world or life is like a Bond movies, doesn’t it? As long as the Dr Nos and Blofelds of this world are not caught and brought to justice they thrive. But the good news is that after going through a multitude of difficulties 007 always succeeds and end up having a wonderful time with the Bond girl. So let’s hope the real world will play out like that.

Considering the troubles caused by Wikileaks maybe it’s time for intelligence services to, again, revert to “for your eyes ony” dossiers? That way further embarrassment could be prevented.

Begs the question where is James Bond at the moment? Hopefully not with a beautiful “honeytrap” that doesn’t see the error of her ways. Much better that he is speeding in his Aston Martin through the streets of London to attend a meeting with M. Or maybe he is actually recording a new Bond movie based on the above scripts? If so I wonder if the villain will be Dr No or Blofeld? Which one of them has caused most harm? Despite Dr Nos cyberarmy I tend to believe that Blofeld’s schemes have, at least up until now, been more harmful to the world.

Photo: Flickr theringhotel’s photostream +Paul Baack)

Apple, 3M and Google are prime examples of companies reaping the benefits of ideas generated by someone in their organisation. However, far too many companies still fail to benefit from the ideas of their staff.

The ideas floating around in your organisation are opportunities to develop and innovate. By listening to everyone your chances of innovating from within are unlocked.

So how do you get everybody to come forward with ideas they have for any area of the company? Could be ideas applicable to short term as well as long term benefits. Frequently management find it difficult to find out about all the different ideas employees have. They are unaware of anything from small ideas that would slightly improve their database to ideas that could result in new successful products – or even ideas that would completely change how the organisation operate. So how do you go about reaping the benefits from ideas your staff have?

Let staff know you value their ideas

The first thing to communicate is that you are sincerely interested in any idea someone in your organisation might have. Make sure they feel welcome presenting ideas to you even if the idea isn’t yet fully developed. Find simple ways that enable anyone from the cleaner up to take their ideas further than chatting to colleagues about them during a coffee break. Give them courage to present their ideas to colleagues and management. And make sure they are not afraid of looking ridiculous or get reprimanded for having suggestions.

If you don’t know about the abundance of ideas floating around in the organisation you are missing opportunities to develop and innovate, not to mention earning money. By listening to everyone your chances of finding new strategies and opportunities increase.

Ideas lost may be money lost

The more ideas are saved, mixed and worked on the better for an organisation. And it’s time to move on from the boxes where employees dot down a few ideas for the management to read. Frequently such communication neither give credit to ideas nor does it enable colleagues to discuss and develop a seed into something that can be used.

Develop ideas during office hours

To give an idea a fair chance the person behind it should be able to come forward with it and explain the benefits. One way would be to have monthly or weekly meetings where ideas can be presented to colleagues and management. The more ideas see the light of day the more ideas will be created and developed.

Brainstorm on a regular basis

In my experience brainstorming is a wonderful way of developing ideas, not to mention whole organisations. And it’s mainly ideas that are far out, almost regarded as crazy, that turn out to be the best. It’s hence best to have as many people as possible participating so that a seed can be creatively developed. It’s also crucial that people keep an open mind and don’t discard something that may turn out to be a bestseller before it’s developed.

Develop a culture that embrace ideas

For ideas to flourish staff must feel that they are appreciated for putting forward ideas and encouraged to think, question and be innovative. Obviously not all ideas are good ideas but you will lose out on the good ones if staff don’t let you know what they would like to improve.

When a lot of people come together and give feedback a lot of good ideas are developed. Even more so when people from different cultures join forces and look at innovations from different perspectives, which is one of the key assets of companies like Google and Apple.

Once you have developed a system where everybody in the organisation are encouraged to develop their ideas and present them you will not only get a lot of ideas but a culture where staff dare communicating what they would like to improve as well as increase the creativity of the organisation enormously. The result will be an atmosphere that is fun, people like to go to work, aren’t afraid to make mistakes and new products and services will be created that otherwise would never have seen the light of day.

Jump on the Google & Apple innovation band-waggon

Far too many companies all over the world have a culture where only the management are allowed to think and have ideas. So many that it’s often assumed that’s the case, even if management would like to develop a culture where everybody contributes. If that’s the case, it’s time for you to start communicating that you are open to all ideas and let staff know that you are interested in their thoughts and ideas. They will never know if you don’t let them know.

What are you doing to encourage a creative atmosphere that breeds ideas? Does staff come to you and explain their ideas? Do you have regular brainstorming session to find and develop ideas? Or is this an area you have neglected since it seems to complicated? If so, it’s high time you follow in the footsteps of Google and Apple and create a culture that breeds success.

(Photo: PhotoXpress – Stasys Eidiejus)

In the future, a US president could consider economic sanctions, cyber-retaliation or a military strike if key US computer systems are attacked, officials said in the wake of recent attacks on the defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

The world should follow Israel’s example and offer hackers the choice of going to prison or work for the state. It’s actually an excellent way of making use of hacker’s talents instead of them being used destructively, or worse for criminal purpose.

The Pentagon is busy drawing up a cyber defense strategy to protect America from cyber attacks from foreign nations.

Leaders in cyber warfare

The Center for a New American Society published a study claiming the United States, Britain, France, Israel, Russia and China as the leaders in cyber-war. They also believe Moscow and Beijing view cyber-attacks as an attractive option in the event of a major conflict.

Alarming isn’t it? Obviously cyber warfare is a horrendous prospect that we would all like to avoid. Somehow it doesn’t seem fair. Or maybe it’s no worse than military action? Catch is it can also be carried out by any criminal organisation wanting to say black mail a government to release one of their own from prison. Or hold a corporation at ransom.

Growing concern about the reach of hackers

Internet-based attacks on critical systems such as gas, power and water have increased around the world.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon strategy will classify major cyber-attacks as acts of war i.e. paving the way for military retaliation. It’s intended as a warning to foes that may try to sabotage the US electricity grid, subways or pipelines, officials said.

“If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” a military official told the Wall Street Journal.

Considering that China and Russia are, rightly or wrongly, considered the most likely sources of such attacks I really don’t see how the United States could take military action? Unless of course they intend to start World War III?

Governments and companies open to attacks

Sony was for the third time since April this year attacked by a group of hackers calling themselves Lulz Security. According to those hackers it was child’s play to get access to Sony’s information since it wasn’t even encrypted. And China recently, again, according to Google, hacked them from a Chinese military cyber warfare unit, to get access to US and Asian senior officials’ gmail accounts.

From what I understand most information online is easy for hackers to access which is a terrifying prospect. It actually seems that most companies have only bothered to really protect credit card details, if that. No wonder it’s easy for criminals to steal identities.

Israel knows the name of the game!

Obviously drastic measures are needed to prevent cyber wars and handle attacks if and when they happen. And unfortunately sometimes go on the offensive as well.

The most intelligent solution I have come across is the way Israel is handling the problem.

Already in the 1990s they decided to conquer cyber warfare and presented Israel’s hackers with a choice of going to prison or work for the state.

That was the start of defence unit 8200 that thousands are said to have joined since. Needless to say this smart move has given Israel an advantage in a world rapidly immersed in cross border technology attacks.

Unit 8200 is a leader in high technology warfare. It’s actually widely believe that’s where the Struxnet worm was created. If so maybe they did the world a favour?

The West scrambling to bolster its capabilities

The US has, for instance, set up Cyber Command to coordinate its ability to withstand an attack. Britain has Cyber Security Operations based at GCHQ, as well as Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office units to guard the national infrastructure.

A new cyber warfare strategy in the US will most likely mean that Nato will have to devise its own rules or response to cyber-attacks. The alliance need to examine whether or not its principle of collective defence will apply to online warfare as well.

Iran, not least because of Struxnet, is also believed to have assembled a cyber warfare crack team. Am sure that not only Iran but North Korea and other such states are at the minimum starting to build up units that can conduct cyber attacks. So it’s high time for the rest of the world to seriously increase online safety. The time when systems for gas, electricity and water didn’t need to be protected are long gone. So the rest of the world needs to wake up and follow in Israel’s footsteps. Better late than never.

Hackers, usually learn their skills engaging in illegal activity as teenagers. However, most of them are not hardened criminals. They really have a lot to offer all countries when it comes to defence against cyber warfare, or going on the offensive against an enemy. In my opinion we should all follow in Israel’s footsteps and offer our hackers a choice of going to jail or work for the state. Do you agree with me or do you have a better idea of how we can defend ourselves against cyber attacks, and hackers in general, for that matter?

photo: José Goulão – Flickr