February 08, 2023

The Value of Human Involvement Over Automation

Proponents of this type of automation will say that it saves time in the long run, providing answers and solutions quickly. Automated customer support also allows people to receive help 24/7, eliminating the issue of having to wait until standard business hours to get an issue resolved. Automatic billing, chatbots, and AI-assisted customer service have increasingly become the standard, particularly for e-commerce vendors. When a business owner has an issue — especially if it involves money, fees, or overcharges — dealing with an endless series of automated responses can get frustrating. If those automated responses do not lead them to the help they ultimately need, that frustration can (and likely will) compound further. Even the most intuitive automated solutions can’t replace a human’s personality, emotional response, and instinctual capabilities to adapt to any situation. ... Consumers and entrepreneurs alike are craving human connection in today’s increasingly automated world, so much so that many brands are making the personal relationships they foster with customers an angle of their sales strategy.

CISO Role Undergoes Evolution as Jobs Grow More Complex

“CISOs should also work closely with legal and compliance teams to ensure that the organization is meeting its regulatory requirements,” he says. “Additionally, a CISO should also develop strong relationships with other security leaders in the organization, as well as with external partners such as vendors and industry groups.” He points out other security leadership roles are also changing and include the chief security officer, and the chief privacy officer, with new roles emerging, including the chief data officer and the chief digital officer. MacLeod says as the threat landscape evolves in 2023, the complexity and sophistication of threats will require CISOs to be more proactive in identifying and mitigating risks. ... Eisenberg adds increased scrutiny of organizations’ spending for essential services will require the CISO to business rationalize strategic investments in cybersecurity to counter the ever-increasing complexity and velocity of cyber threats to business resilience.

OpenAI makes a ChatGPT-like tool called Codex that can write software.

If an AI service can now write code for developers, it raises the question of how it will impact students studying computer science, and if highly paid software-engineering jobs will vanish. Still, software-engineering skills will continue to be in high demand, and AI services like Codex are just a natural step as programming becomes progressively easier over generations, according to academics and experts in computer-science education. Codex has been available to developers since 2021 in the form of GitHub Copilot. And OpenAI, which has raised more than $10 billion from Microsoft and other backers, has been investing more in Codex of late, hiring more than 1,000 contractors to write code and associated descriptions that will help Codex learn to become a better programmer, Semafor reported. Codex and ChatGPT are a "huge productivity enhancer," and many programmers are already using Codex in their day-to-day workflows, Christopher Manning, a professor of computer science and linguistics at Stanford University, said. 

Centralizing governance: An increasingly pertinent consideration

Historically it was common for large multinationals to have lawyers around the world. Different jurisdictions have different laws, and it is beneficial to have local specialists that are close to the business. Things are changing, however. There are more opportunities, to outsource specific legal support– to alternative legal service providers or to create an internal shared services operation through the use of innovative legal technology, such as centralized contract and knowledge management and cloud-based workflow tools. This makes the centralization of certain legal activities such as entity management more feasible and more efficient. The downside of a decentralized legal structure in today’s world is becoming increasingly clear. From a management perspective, it is not always easy to align business operations in a decentralized management structure. Decentralized structures have their own authority and bring with them tension between a local and global perspective.

8 steps to turning around a toxic IT culture

An IT leader can’t simply create a positive culture with the wave of a hand. Culture is a function of leadership execution. “Leading by example is the way to start a turnaround,” says Fredrik Hagstroem, CTO of Emergn, a digital business services firm. A clear vision guides team direction. It’s like a compass that reliably points everyone in the correct direction. Even when things are complex or changing, having a goal helps everyone become aligned, Hagstroem says. “Good leadership that drives collaboration and trust will be evident in frequent use of collective and inclusive pronouns, such as ‘we,’ ‘us,’ and ‘ours’ — meaning everyone in the company.” Strong leadership ensures that vision, strategy, and goals aren’t just clearly understood, but attractive and motivating. “Leaders must demonstrate that collaboration and contributions to common goals are more important than individual performance,” Hagstroem says. He advises changing professional relationships from urging team members to reach personal objectives and responsibilities to achieving team goals. 

Implementing an Emerging Risk Analysis Process

While looking for emerging risks, we search for information about our targeted subjects and sweep the events that are happening. The reliability of the information collected has strategic importance in this study. This activity is generally called horizon sensing or horizon scanning. The effort is about looking into the future as widely as possible while trying to see the relevant indicators from the news, trends, cultural tendencies, political events, and natural events. One can easily get lost in this phase or drown in a vast amount of information from the search, since the source of information is not filtered or tested. Unless the information is collected from an official, reliable and reputable source, we need to take it with some healthy skepticism. Otherwise, our results may misinform the strategy level and lead to more significant failures. The information collection has two parts: one is to see what is happening in the world relevant to the business, and the second is the internal view. We look inside the organization and discuss the identified events or changes that may contribute to define emerging risks with relevant stakeholders. 

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