Johnson Conley

Leadership is a Matter of Performance

State of Intelligent Automation

Automation
Automation
Security

“COVID-19 Has Been a Phisherman’s Friend”

Jun 3, 2020 #Cyberdefense, #Cybersecurity, #Cyberwarfare, #Global Policies, #Security, #Security Risks by Dennis Conley

A recent article in The Economist titled, “Policing the Wild West,” details a number of cybersecurity challenges. With the widespread actions of nation actors, proportional responses and the avoidance of civilian impacts need to be evaluated in the context of the existing laws of war. Inconsistent and fractured global and government cybersecurity policies and programs only complicate the matter. What is needed are clear norms of acceptable behavior and consequences for failing to meet those norms.

Security

How Secure Are We?

May 11, 2020 #Cybersecurity, #Global Supply Chain, #Security, #Supply Chain by Dennis Conley

In a recent development, semiconductor fabrication may be making a comeback in the United States according to this article in the Wall Street Journal. The chart above confirms concerns reported in the article about the high concentration of chip manufacturing suppliers in Asia. This is a example of the risks associated with our technology supply chain – highlighted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few years ago I published an article on the subject titled, “Security Risks and Exposures”. The article is as pertinent today as it was when it was first published.

Strategy

Incremental Digital Transformation

May 5, 2020 #Digital Strategy, #Digital Transformation, #Legacy Applications by Dennis Conley

In a recent Harvard Business Review article titled, “Discovery-Driven Digital Transformation,” the authors provide excellent insight into the challenges and opportunities established firms face trying to become digitally relevant. Important takeaways include:

  • Don’t approach digital transformation as a big bang initiative. It’s far better to approach digital change incrementally.
  • Established firms have an advantage in digital transformation as they have an intimate knowledge of existing customers and customer experiences. Firms also possess intimate knowledge of their processes as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their offerings.
  • Think like born-digital companies and expand your thinking to non-traditional competitor offerings and markets.
  • Focus on the business outcomes for each of your incremental digital improvements. Over time, the knowledge learned (successes and failures) through incremental digital transformation will be invaluable.

By starting small, the authors provide hope for companies unprepared for digital transformation. The approach presented also provides an opportune way to embrace digital transformation without huge budgets and the associated risks.

Business Resilience

COVID-19 – What you can do now

Apr 3, 2020 #Business Continuity, #business resilience, #coronavirus, #COVID-19, #Disaster Recovery by Dennis Conley

We hope this communique finds you safe, albeit struggling with what COVID-19 has wrought. Our prayers go out to those who are suffering. We’re working from home, practicing social distancing and limiting our physical contact with others. People and firms are facing issues they never anticipated. These are unprecedented times – but we will all make it through this pandemic.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking with a number of firms. What we’ve heard is that companies have faced many unanticipated challenges. We’ve also learned that through it all companies are doing their very best to accommodate this new abnormal. While it’s premature to start our after-action planning, we want to share with you something that you can do now. Take notes. Keep a diary of issues you’re running in to. This information will be valuable when we exit this crisis. Your journal should include:

  • Document how your workforce responded to the crisis. Were there insurmountable staff issues? What lessons did you learn about the most important resources for your firm – people?
  • Document how effective your work from home program is. What did you learn? We’re you prepared to deploy? What surprises did you encounter? How were you able to convert your remote workforce back to an office setting (when that occurs)?
  • Document how your supply chain (products and services) performed. What interruptions did you encounter? Who rose to the occasion and who answered beyond the call? How did you adjust?
  • Document how your policies and processes supported your pandemic response. What policies and procedures did you use? What processes and methods did you have to replace or discard?
  • Document where you had to increase your spending. Were the increases reasonable? Did you come up with ways to avoid increased spending?
  • Document the impacts to your brand, image and reputation. How did you respond?
  • Document what regulatory hurdles you’ve encountered. Did you face fines, penalties or sanctions?

This information will be valuable input for your after-action planning. If you’re like me, taking notes is the best way to recall situations of the past.

These are tough times, but we’ve shown extraordinary resilience in the past and – our response is and will be no different this time!

Stay safe and be well!

Automation

A Novel Use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Scientific Research

Mar 27, 2020 #Natural Language Processing by Dennis Conley

A fascinating article on NLP was recently published in Patterns. The article describes the use of NLP to perform sentiment analysis of 4,313 scientific abstracts to determine the successes and failures of species reintroduction. For comparison, a similar manual research effort against 361 published articles “required months of effort from highly trained experts just to obtain the raw data, which they then had to analyze.”

This is another example of how AI can achieve remarkable results. The good news is that the AI analysis shows improvements in the endangered species populations!

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