Value Company Data- Costs Of Data Breaches Rising

In this age of information, the value of data and intellectual property is very high indeed. It is key for any company to protect not only business trade secrets but customer records as well.

According to Ponemon Institute reports the episodes of data breaches are costing an average of US$197 per lost or stolen customer record during 2007. This is a huge financial impact for any business.

A PC world article notes that organizations that experience data breaches are paying more than ever to recover from the incidents and retain customers once the events become public knowledge, according to a new research report.

Based on their interviews with different organizations, the average total cost of the breaches rose to $6.3 million in 2007, compared to an average of $4.8 million in 2006 with the average number of records exposed in the breaches Ponemon studied was roughly 20,000 per incident, although among those organizations surveyed the incidents ranged from as few as 4,000 records to more than 125,000 records.

What do you lose in a data breach?

• Not only do you lose the actual records, you also incur estimated cost of lost business and so-called customer churn that results from notification of the data breach episodes.
• Your company loses stability. You end up providing customer support and credit monitoring services to affected individuals, along with budgets allocated for advertising and marketing efforts aimed at repairing companies' public images.
  

However the article does end on a positive note for businesses (although not necessarily for clients). Despite the fact that the cost of responding to a data breach has risen consistently over the three years that Ponemon has studied the phenomenon, the expert believes that in time the price of losing customer data will eventually fall.

The researcher said that the sheer volume of incidents will drive customers to become desensitized to the events, resulting in lowered remediation costs and business churn.

"People are already finding that it is hard to trace an incident of ID theft to a specific breach, and with the growing number of notifications they receive, they won't care as much about the problem," Ponemon said. "There seems to be a herd mentality emerging among customers that applies to the law of large numbers; if people feel they are in a pool of millions of others who have had their records stolen or lost, their thinking is that the probability of being victimized isn't as strong."

Data security is key for any business strategy. It is worthwhile to invest time, money and effort to make sure that your clients feel safe and secure doing business with you. In this age of information, the value of this data rises in proportion to the profit businesses expect from clients.

Learning Business Strategy From HSBC

In a Wall Street Journal article today, HSBC just made a major presentation to its English investors. After taking impairment charges on bad mortgages this year, HSBC Chairman Stephen Green on Friday said the bank is aligning its strategy with three major trends shaping the world economy:

1. Emerging markets are growing faster than rich countries
2. World trade is outpacing growth in gross domestic product
3. And people nearly everywhere are living longer.

If you think about it, these trends are instrumental to many international businesses and not only applicable to HSBC. Businesses should consider other emerging markets and capitalize on that growth. The world has grown much smaller in the last few years due to the advent of the internet. Medical advancement have led people to age (not exactly gracefully) in a functional length that can be made profitable by businesses.

9 Of Forbes' 20 Most Important Questions In Business

Forbes.com just released a very interesting article headlined "The 20 Most Important Questions In Business." It's great that they shared this with the rest of us. There are many budding entrepreneurs all over the world. Even employees can benefit from learning how overall business strategy will help them continue to have employment.

Basically it mentions how we don't really have all the answers. But the key to success in business is to ask the right questions. Studies estimate that just two-thirds of all start-ups survive the first two years, and less than half make it to the fourth.

Here are some highlights of the article about the question entrepreneurs have to answer in order to keep their businesses afloat. This is basically the shorter version of the article with some of my comments on the side:

What is your value proposition?

Without a need, there is no incentive for customers to pay. And without sales, you have no business. Period.

What differentiates your product from the competitors'?

If you want to win in business, you need to offer something tangibly valuable that the competition doesn't.

How much cash do you need to survive the early years?

Three words: Mind the cash.

What are your strengths?

Figure out what you're good at and stick to it. Don't go chasing red balloons

How big is the threat of new entrants?

The trick: building a loyal following before new competition steps in for a share of your market.

How much power do your suppliers have?

Basic rule of thumb: The fewer the number of suppliers, the more sway they have.

Does the business scale?

Think service businesses, where the need for people grows along with revenues.

What price will your customers pay?

Get this answer wrong and you could leave bags of money on the table--or worse, send customers running into the arms of the competition. Do your homework before you start selling

How committed are you to making this happen?

Fair warning: If you want to run the show, get ready to give everything--and then some.

Holiday Marketing Targeting Young Adults

An article from eMarketer reports that young adults will spend $634 per person, according to researcher Youth Trends.

Tops on their shopping lists:



Most of them will be shopping online too



Not only that but $158 of the average $634 in spending, young adults will spend on other purchases for themselves. That's a ttal of $48 billion on discretionary purchases this year made by young adults 18-30 years old.

What does this mean for retailers? If you have products that are within the $158 range and are directed towards the young adult market, it would be beneficial to conceptualize promotions right now in this relation

What does this mean for management? Strategies should expand in terms of targeting the market. Although most businesses are geared towards the working population, because of convergence through the internet, the world has become so much smaller. More and more markets are becoming available online - younger and older.

Holiday Marketing Targeting Young Adults

An article from eMarketer reports that young adults will spend $634 per person, according to researcher Youth Trends.

Tops on their shopping lists:



Most of them will be shopping online too



Not only that but $158 of the average $634 in spending, young adults will spend on other purchases for themselves. That's a ttal of $48 billion on discretionary purchases this year made by young adults 18-30 years old.

What does this mean for retailers? If you have products that are within the $158 range and are directed towards the young adult market, it would be beneficial to conceptualize promotions right now in this relation

What does this mean for management? Strategies should expand in terms of targeting the market. Although most businesses are geared towards the working population, because of convergence through the internet, the world has become so much smaller. More and more markets are becoming available online - younger and older.

Organizing To Launch A Lead-Generating Campaign

Before launching any lead generation campaign, make sure all involved teams are on board and on the same page. The goals should be clearly defined and applicable to the different parties. The strategies should be in place to effectively be geared toward this similar goal

To start off, the campaign flow should be outlined carefully. Where does the process start and how will it end? How will you define its success or failure?

- Correlate the promotional material, collateral to be used with the goals

If the goal is to increase leads online, then the promotional material will be correlated to this goal. Most if not all efforts will then be concentrated online. You can start with search engine optimization (to enhance sign ups via the website), email campaigns, online linking campaigns and even search engine marketing if you've got enough money to play with

- Identify different response mechanisms

How do you want people to respond to your campaigns? Will there be a hotline number or d you want to course all campaign responses through your website or maybe a particular email address? These should be outlined carefully so your teams will be well-prepared to entertaian in-coming prospects and follow through on possible sales.

- Define the marketing message in line with the goal

Position the goal of your messages in the collateral in such a way that it will not be drowned by other content. Make this the focus of the entire piece. This should be the same for all pieces and for all campaigns if you're doing multiple campaigns at the same time

- Ensure that the user makes the most of your campaign

For the campaign to be effective, the user has to enjoy the experience. The campaign should be targeted enough to be appreciated by the right market. The flow of the campaign from ad to landing experience to response acceptance should be smooth and directed towards the goal.

Once these steps are properly outlined, the campaign should be able to push through without a hitch. These are macro perspectives of any campaign and not designed to sweat the small stuff. But once these are in place, the details will fit perfectly like pieces in a puzzle.

Can You Manage A Kindergarten Class?

I was a kindergarten teacher for a year and it's NOT easy. Imagine more than a dozen kids screaming and running and wanting to do other things while you try to teach. In the midst of all this chaos, you have to establish discipline and some form of learning. The good thing about children is that you will always grow attached to them. A level of responsibility, care and trust is given to a teacher by parents and this is what we try to live up to.

That's not to say managing adults would be much easier. Although more mature individuals know that they are paid to work and some people will succumb to what needs to be done because that's what the job entails, a manager should take the same responsibility for these people. As a manager, you won't always have brilliant or disciplined staff members, it will then be up to you to teach your staff not only to be better at the job they do but also as individuals.

According to "The New Dynamics of Strategy: Sensemaking is a Complex and Complicated World," from IBM Systems Journal, last 2003 by C.F. Kurtz and D. J. Snowden, one of my most admired knowledge management theorist David Snowden said that effective leaders manage chaos the way a kindergarten teacher manages her students...

"Experienced teachers allow a degree of freedom at the start of a session, then intervene to stabilize desirable patterns and destabilize undesirable ones, and when they are very clever, they seed the space so that the patterns they want are more likely to emerge."

And so my challenge to managers is just that. Can you manage a kindergarten class? Maybe you should start managing your department the way you would a kindergarten class.

(image from Strategic Talent Management)