Dream Team

One of my teammates was bitterly complaining that sometimes he felt the entire team, or most of it, needed to be replaced. He is very competitive and sometimes leaves his own tasks and duties to help others, so that they achieve deadlines and quotas. However, it does not always happen so.

We see this scenario even in “professional” sports: two or three stars meet most of the qualities required for the team to be close to perfect. However, when the rest of them are not as good, or simply make mistakes, or do not execute according to plans; it is very likely that such team will lose the game.

In business is quite the same: we would love some times to have a Dream Team in our department or the whole company, but being realistic that would be close to impossible to achieve. The same market demands would prevent it from ever happening.

So, what do we do? As I explained to Theo, all we can do is give our best every time. Whatever we can achieve individually and as a team, should carry implicitly our 100% best effort. The market will notice, eventually. The best part is, as individuals, we will always be able to sleep well knowing we are doing the best we can. We cannot demand nor accept less from ourselves.


Are you the star in your team?

Data, data everywhere…

…but, where’s the information?

As IT suppliers, partners, consultants, professionals and such, we are always focused on providing services that in reality have just one goal: to protect your data.

Come to think about it: setting up UPSs to protect the servers and containers of files, installing Internet Security Suites so that those accessing such data are able to do it without having to worry it could become corrupted (or disappear). Configuring VPNs so that no prying eyes can look at your files, setting up data backup strategies and solutions so that disaster recovery procedures are in place; encrypting wireless signals, avoiding Spam and similar maladies that would alter said data, finding the best on-site and cloud-based solutions so that everything can be ported to the Web -and available to authorized staff only- planning and implementing CRM strategies in a similar fashion… the list goes on.

Certainly, we also set up new computers and fix servers, systems and networks when they are broken; we have to. However, absolutely everything we do gravitates around one single entity, the most precious asset there is in your electronic digital systems: data.

Without that data, you cannot obtain information. Independently of source, quantity and quality of such data; you need to dig in it to do your business and make the best decisions possible for the challenges of today and to plan for the future.

With the current data deluge we all experience, it is of paramount importance to be able to differentiate between information and data; and then know which data is in reality important to us and which is not.

Your business is distinctive and therefore some information will always emerge uniquely too; the data sources might be diverse and heterogeneous, some easy to understand or carry with us, some not.

Global data is growing at exponential proportions and so is yours. The following article might shed some light with regards to trends and the type of challenges we as IT and business professionals face, and it also highlights the need for business decision makers to be cognizant of this trend; so that we all can meet those challenges as a team.

Hope you enjoy the read; at least take a look at the figures and graphs. That will help us all get better at extracting information and then making better decisions.
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15557443