Corridor combat: when two people who are not getting on well at work – pass each other in the corridor – each smiles at the other while muttering silently “F… you”.

George works in an office and he makes and receives many phone calls daily. He finds it easier to wear a headset. Desiree works for George and often cannot tell whether George is on a call. Daily she will walk over to George to ask him a question – only to find George frown at her, point to his headset and shake his head.

Off the phone or not, George and Desiree rarely talk to each other. Desiree rarely gets her questions answered – so she makes errors which George points out to her without providing any assistance – “At this level you’re expected to get it right”.

Frustrated, Desiree makes her phone calls on speakerphone and plays her radio loudly.

Corridor combat is ineffective. George and Desiree are making some poor decisions about the way they behave towards each other. Their friction is a source of office gossip although none of their colleagues is willing to help out with an office relationship which is getting out of control.

In most companies, when negative behaviour happens, people just don’t know how to address it. They are afraid of confrontation. They aren’t sure what their responsibilities are as individuals, and they aren’t sure what words to choose.

Even when employees and managers do work up the nerve to address unhelpful behaviour, they often employ tactics that cause greater anxiety and misunderstanding. Without meaning to, people take actions that can feel like an attack, spinning the confronted individual into defensive behaviours – denial and resentment.

Corridor combat is an almost daily occurrence inside of most large organisations, and smaller organisations are far from immune. Educating managers and employees to listen actively and speak constructively can help save millions of dollars, hours of productivity, and lots of headaches.

Here are six basic communications tactics to use when you’re dealing with charged situations in your workplace:

1. Don’t react in anger.

Express your feelings in a clear and non-threatening way. Creating an open, receptive environment reduces the chances of escalating the conflict.

2. Be specific when describing the offending situation.

Just say what you saw or what you heard. But don’t state any assumptions about intention. This limits the odds of the person responding defensively.

3. Explain how the situation has affected you.

Often people don’t ask or even consider about how others are affected by their behaviour, so addressing this directly can help people see some of the consequences of their behaviour.

4. Ask what they were thinking at the time of the offending action and how the situation makes them feel.

Aim for direct answers. Get clarification if needed. Understanding their point of view is the best way to learn how to work with them.

5. Acknowledge your contribution to the situation.

Accepting your share of the responsibility takes away the blame and establishes an even ground.

6. Invite the other person to work with you to improve the situation.

This takes the individual off the hot seat, and gives them the power to make a change for the better.

Joe Moore is managing director of ProActive ReSolutions, which specialises in building more respectful workplace behaviour between people.

The ‘Jesus tablet’ has been microwaved and coated in chocolate and it continues to be praised by profit-conscious media executives intent on maximising income streams.

But does the iPad really have what it takes to slow the inexorable profit slide at newspapers and magazines?

“Nah. I don’t think so at all,” I was told by Geoffrey Handley from The Hyperfactory, a global ad agency that specialises in developing campaigns for mobile devices.

“Apple has been fairly revolutionary in making the noise about stuff but their devices haven’t – in my opinion – shaped our industry or anything,” he said about a week after the iPad’s release.

“What Steve Jobs has always been great at doing is building hype and building brand. So his app store was nothing different – sure it might have had better usability because that’s what he’s good at, he’s good at design, usability, making a lot of noise – but in terms of a turning point in reality, no.”

“A real game changer” – but who’s playing?

It seems that media executives are banking on the hype, however. News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch calls the iPad “a real game changer in the presentation of news” and anticipates younger readers subscribing in droves to his company’s masthead apps.

But reality can be perverse.

In its first month on sale, says News Corp, 8,500 people subscribed to The Australian’s iPad app. The newspaper has reported that “subscriber numbers had declined the following month” as competitors’ apps came on sale.

Expectations are high but even in the week following the iPad’s release, when the app had 4,500 subscribers at $5 a pop, some experts were dismissive.

“I don’t think that’s a terribly big figure,” Marcus O’Donnell, journalism program coordinator at the University of Wollongong, told me.

“When I bought my iPad, I immediately bought it purely for that reason, even though if there had been a multiple range of choices I may not have bought it,” said O’Donnell.

He calls it “a shocking app”.

“It’s almost totally devoid of pictures, which misreads what the iPad is all about,” he said. “The iPad is a sensual medium, it’s about ease of access, touching, visuality. And it’s also a very kind of pared-down version of [the web] – it’s not full content.”

From Sociology to ‘Motiology’: Studying mobile consumers

Ralph Simon, chairman emeritus and founder of Mobile Entertainment Forum and co-founder of Zomba Music Group, told me a week after the launch that he thought news companies have to concentrate more on doing something different, that they’re not doing elsewhere, in order to secure the numbers for their apps.

“I think that you have to come up with a more interesting kind of appeal or at least focus on that mobile user so that you are editorially doing something that is appropriate to that medium,” he said.

But Simon said he thinks it’s too early to make a call on how the iPad is performing.

“I think the impact of this, and particularly when you see other iPad-like devices coming out, is certainly going to accelerate the process,” he said.

Handley told me that he thinks that with a plethora of new devices emerging, media companies need to develop a different strategy for tablet devices.

“I think it’s more about taking into account your strategy from day one and understanding consumer behaviour as opposed to ‘Oh, there’s going to be this device, we need to just replicate what we’ve got on our web and stick it on here and then let’s stick a price tag’,” he said. “Why would anyone do that? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Simon agreed, pointing to what he called the economic and commercial elements of “motioeconomics”.

“What is definitely happening is we’re living in a much, much more mobile society and I look very much at this whole, new word that’s getting quite a lot of currency – the impact of mobile on people’s lives and lifestyles – it’s not the sociology of mobile lifestyles. It’s called ‘motiology’.”

“I think it’s about convenience and I think it’s about aesthetics, I really do,” said O’Donnell. “I don’t think you’re actually going to get anything on an iPad that you can’t deliver on the net. I think the experience of getting it on the iPad will be the deal-breaker for people. It’s a very easy, nice experience, reading on the iPad and having three columns and having a page. That sounds terribly old-fashioned, I know. But it is. And the apps that are doing that well, like The Times [of London] app and the [National Public Radio] app, are providing multimedia, they’re providing ease of navigation, and they’re doing it well in design terms.”

With change beckoning, the industry may be up for grabs

Robert Tercek, president of digital media at the Oprah Winfrey Network, told me that he thinks that big companies have a hard time making the necessary adjustments.

“Their skill set is managing the existing business, the traditional business, not adapting rapidly to new conditions. So that’s not something big companies are well adapted to, that sort of massive change that we’re experiencing right now. But the second thing is that traditional companies always have a difficult choice. They’ve gotta make a decision between going for the new thing and protecting their old traditional business. They almost always choose to defend. The choice they always make is to stick with what they know. I can’t really blame them because those are big businesses.”

Gotham Chopra, co-founder of Liquid Comic, talked about “a culture where attention spans are short”.

“I think where I’m coming from is that the art of storytelling, whether again it’s in the fictional space or the non-fictional space, needs to be continued to be nurtured. Expecting this new distribution platform to solve all the problems in the media world, I don’t think is necessarily a good idea.”

“In fact, it’s a time of great change,” Tercek told me. “It’s time to change and a terrific time for entrepreneurs. Traditional businesses have a very difficult time coping with massive change, change on a massive scale.”

“What’s happening now is that both ends of the equation, on the creative side and on the consumer side, are starting to fragment so much that big media’s grip is starting to loosen and that creates all kinds of niche opportunities for startup companies, for feisty start-ups,” continued Tercek. “So it’s a terrific time to get started. And sometimes those niches will turn out to be quite lucrative and thereby a small company can become a big one.”

Matthew da Silva writes feature stories to fulfil a dream after working in communications and technical writing roles for two decades. He grew up in Sydney, lived in Japan for nine years and now lives on the Sunshine Coast, in Queensland. He blogs daily at Happy Antipodean.

Image by blakespot

Confidence in the federal government’s polices hit its lowest point since August 2008 in the latest Sensis Business Index quarterly survey. What will the hung Parliament resulting from the election do to that already shaky confidence? The mind boggles.

This most recent Sensis survey pulled from a sample of 1,800 businesses nationwide. Interviews took place between July 22 and Aug. 11. Read the latest report here.

Report author Christena Singh said business confidence improved slightly after freefalling the previous quarter. Overall confidence remains substantially below last year’s levels, she said.

“On a positive note, small businesses are cautiously optimistic about the future direction of the Australian economy,” Singh said. “They also are expecting business conditions to improve over the next 12 months.”

Those small-business owners who expressed confidence about their prospects generally said they were chipper because their business was well-established and their customer relations strong.

In addition, access to financing, a powerful engine for growth and capital expenditure, tightened up in the quarter, the report said.

“We have seen a marginal improvement in trading conditions this quarter, with sales, employment and capital expenditure rising,” Singh said. “However, the key profitability indicator continued to decline during this quarter.”

Ms. Gillard and Mr. Abbott would have loved to comment on that profitability indicator, but they’re tied up at the moment.

Image by MystifyMe Concert Photography

One Melbourne company is combining that dynamic with customer databases to create a business service it describes as an Australian first.

My Customer Testimonals interviews people chosen from a business’ clientele, and turns those interviews into audio clips and transcripts that the business can use for marketing and advertising.

My Customer Testimonials will simply hand over the clips and transcripts to the client business or, for a higher fee, package the testimonials on an MCT-hosted web page customised with the client’s business information.

Darren Bourke, the company’s founder and director, said in his launch media release that testimonials offer a quicker conversion of prospects to customers.

“While print advertising is a one-off form of marketing, testimonials can be used as many times as you like in many forms of marketing collateral,” Bourke said.

The interviews are conducted by phone. The MCT interviewer asks for the customer’s consent to record, then rolls through a set of questions. The result is a set of responses that feel honest and unvarnished, even if the audio can’t avoid but sound low-tech because of the phone connection.

“Potential customers are more likely to trust the word of a third party — similar to editorial in the media — than a pure, traditional form of advertising,” Bourke said.

My Customer Testimonials’ package start at $595 for three interviews — audio in MP3 form and transcripts in PDF and Microsoft Word. For $895, MCT will conduct and package six interviews, and host them on a customized website. For $1,245, the client gets nine interviews and the hosted website.

Image by Rachael Voorhees

The 18th annual awards were announced Aug. 20.

Stratsec, Business of the Year

Peter Lilley, CEO of cyber-security company Stratsec, says he stays ahead of the game by “acting like the bad guys, looking at a business’ broken windows, looking for holes in the roof, entries under the floorboards.” Deakin-based Stratsec provides vigilance for government, defence departments, banks, health systems and telecommunications in more than 20 countries.

teachers.on.net, Micro-Business

teachers.on.net is a pioneering online recruitment company that targets schools and teachers. Based in the Adelaide suburb of Eastwood and employing less than five full-time equivalent employees, teachers.on.net has enjoyed solid growth in the face of fierce competition. The little company is now moving into international markets.

Soprano Design, Innovation

Sydney-based Soprano Design has partnered with IBM and mobile data firm Acision to streamline the adoption of SMS, MMS, email and voice business communication. The company, which as operations in Paris, London and Singapore, accelerates enterprise messaging for mobile network operators by providing ready-to-go, web-based software and apps for enterprise and government clients.

Northern Project Contracting, Social Responsibility

Northern Project Contracting trains and contracts workers for the mining and civil construction industries in northern and western Queensland. The company’s ownership is indigenous, as is 80 percent of its employees.

City Ceramics, MYOB Small Business

Robbie Sheppard left school at age 14, arrived in Darwin at 20 in a Kombi van and set up a business as a tiler. Ten years ago, he started a company that supplies ceramics for retail and wholesale. City Ceramics opened a $5 million warehouse and showroom a couple of years ago, and is riding the Darwin development boom.

Kelly Engineering, Regional Business

Six generations of family farming inform the business savvy of Kelly Engineering, an agricultural machinery exporter. It employs 43 of the 400 residents of Booleroo Centre, and is exporting its innovative tillage contraptions to markets such as Missouri in the United States.

Clearly not, or businesses would be doing more to increase theirs on a weekly basis instead of running around like headless chooks promoting to every Tom, Dick and Harry they come across.

Is it that they’ve run out of time to focus on it? Business has become too overwhelming for them? Or, are you (oops, I mean they) simply struggling to grasp the key fundamentals to increasing their conversion rates on and offline?

Here are three of my top tips for increasing your conversion rates – areas where businesses typically fail to provide ample evidence that they are good at what they do, thereby putting their sales and business in jeopardy.

1. Demonstrate Proof

It may sound obvious, but collecting and displaying testimonials in your brochures, email campaigns, proposals and on your website is a key fundamental step required for boosting sales – and yet few do it well.

I recommend you ask every single client that you have ever worked with for a testimonial or recommendation. From there, select a key phrase from the testimonial and highlight that in bold text and display above the ‘complete’ testimonial. Here’s an example from my book, Sleeping Your Way to The Top in Business:

“An engaging, well written and very amusing book with practical guidance and ideas” – BRW Magazine

This key phrase has been pulled from two paragraphs of content. Select the phrase that will influence your target market the most and ensure you have chosen one that reflects what they are seeking. For ideas, raid your bookshelf and see how others have displayed testimonials on their front or back covers. This is the same method but only utilised in brochures and/or on the web.

Third-party endorsements carry more weight than direct promotions. Ensure that you have scattered testimonials in key areas – areas where prospects are deciding whether or not to purchase from you. The ‘Buy Now’ button on your website or above an enquiry form would be great places to start.

2. Demonstrate Credibility

Social proof is the art of getting the ‘crowd’ and/or your market’s overwhelming acceptance – once again a third-party endorsement but on a larger scale. This may be in the form of obtaining media exposure where the publication endorses and deems you credible enough for state, national or international media coverage.

Prospects then can’t help but ‘perceive’ you as credible because others have endorsed you publicly – an essential part in demonstrating credibility and social proof. Remember, perception is reality on and offline. You must acknowledge this to generate real tangible results.

Social proof can also be demonstrated by strategic (but not overly obvious) name-dropping. Weave into conversations and text the names of the largest and most recognisable organisations that you have worked with, i.e. “Sally has worked with companies such as x, y and z. Her media exposure includes, but is not limited to, a, b and c.”

Demonstrating your credibility upfront assists in gaining interest and buy-in from prospective customers. Without it, convincing them that you are the best at what you do is an uphill battle that many do not win.

Consider this: the overall impressions of you and your business are formed within the first 30 seconds of interaction. This first impression, it has been statistically proven, can take up to eight or more meetings to undo.

Scary, right?

You must integrate the art demonstrating your credibility into a methodical step-by-step marketing approach when speaking with prospects in person or online. Why take the hard route when you can make it seamless and easy for your prospects to buy from you based on your previous street cred?

You’ve already put in the hard work, so it is simply a matter of leveraging it.

3. Make a Bold Guarantee

Consumers are more wary than ever when it comes to trusting companies, particularly online. Make it easier for them by providing a strong guarantee – a guarantee that bowls them over and takes the guess work out of purchasing from you. For example:

• 30 Days Money Back Guarantee
• Lifetime Guarantee
• Cancel anytime
• Better than your money back

Guarantees are essential in increasing your conversion rates. If you truly believe in the products or services that you are offering, put your money where your mouth is. It will not only increase your level of customer service but demonstrate to the market that you are a passionate, reliable and trustworthy individual or business.

Focus on increasing your conversion rates and you may just discover that it isn’t an issue of getting to larger markets but, rather, it’s about creating a highly seductive offer to an existing one that’s well within your reach.

Ben Angel’s new  book is Sleeping Your Way to the Top in Business. Learn more at his website, www.benangel.com.au.

No business will succeed without acquiring new customers, but are you focusing enough on retaining your existing customers? If not, I have a few tips.

Existing customers are much easier to do business with. They know how you operate and what to expect. Most importantly, you’ve dealt with them before so you know what they expect of you in return.

Stay connected: Whether it’s a phone call out of the blue, an email or a tweet, let your past customers know you haven’t forgotten about them.

Become a resource: If you hear through the grapevine (or, as its currently known, social media) that a past client is looking for assistance or a referral and you know someone who might fit the bill, let them know about it.

Ask for feedback: Throughout your working relationship, ask for consistent feedback on how you can tailor your services to better suit your client’s needs.

Share: Have you read a good book your client may be interested in? Are you attending a seminar in you think may help your client? Have you stumbled on a great website  (such as this one) that your past customers may find interesting? Share it with them.

Reward loyalty: Consider implementing a loyalty plan for existing customers, be it a special offer, a value add or simply a bottle of wine. Let them know you appreciate their business.

Follow through: If you discuss a new idea, resource or topic with a past or existing client, follow through. Nothing is worse than someone who “said they would.”

Keep learning: If you focus regularly on attaining new knowledge and insights, you have more to offer your existing customers.

It’s much cheaper to retain existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. Spending a little effort in customer retention not only improves your bottom line and saves you time in the long run, it helps foster a relationship that, nurtured correctly, can turn into referrals in the long run.

Jake Thomas is a small business owner based in the southern suburbs of Sydney. Dividing his time between operating Emroy Print & Design and being a part owner of Small Business Forum has given Jake a keen understanding of all things business, marketing and management. More information about Jake can be found at www.itsjakethomas.com.

Image by Rufino Uribe

His latest venture in that discipline — Geomite Biomineral Development — has landed him the runner-up spot on the SMART 100.

2.  Geomite Biomineral

Company: Geomite Biomineral Development
Headquarters: Adelaide, SA

Geomite’s biomineral concoction combines volcanic material with “biochar” prepared from bamboo procured from the lower slopes of tropical rainforests (you read that right). The result is a soil management system that acts as a combined fertiliser, soil ameliorant, carbon creator and structural builder.

It short, it makes plants happy. Or, to use Hayes’ words, it just helps them do their thing: “I realised that plants possess a powerful intelligence that they use to manipulate soil microbiology in order to feed and medicate themselves.”

Hayes’ goal is no less than the replacement and elimination of chemical fertilisation worldwide.

“Synthetic chemical fertilisers have been damaging the environment since close of World War II, after explosives manufacturing was turned into fertiliser manufacturing,” Hayes writes. “By creating the concept of pest/disease attack, they made the use of lethal sprays necessary. The rise of environmental conscience has brought us to the realisation that this practice must be halted.”

According to Hayes, organic or biodynamic farming addresses parts of the problem, but biomineral techniques get down to the basics of soil/plant interaction.

Hayes is making contacts in other parts of the world — in Indonesia, for instance, where production of the bamboo biochar will be based. He is waiting for results from test fields in Australia, Mexico and South Africa. He envisions worldwide use for Geomite, starting with bulk applications in orchards and vineyards. He then would winnow down the product to the home market, selling 15kg bags for gardens.

Geomite Biomineral’s SMART 100 Application
The SMART 100 Winners List 2010

Fortunately for these innovators, Hughes transformed her frustration into a business that boasts a suite of online tools that make the R&D tax claim process more accessible and far less intimidating. R&D SmartTax and its Eligibility Wizard and Application Wizard wants to empower Australia’s idea people. For that, Hughes and her company top the charts in Anthill’s SMART 100.

1. R&D Eligibility Wizard and R&D Application Wizard

Company: R&D SmartTax
Headquarters: Brisbane, QLD

The R&D Eligibility Wizard lets users self-assess whether their companies or projects fit the requirements for tax breaks. The Application Wizard lets small and medium-sized enterprises self-assess eligibility and complete questions that feed into an R&D application that is emailed to the user for lodgement.

Subscribers to the R&D SmartTax tools use unique access codes to unlock a secure online database. The user is asked detailed questions developed from Hughes’ years of tax-consulting experience. Responses are stored in the database and a series of automated scripts creates the R&D Application that is emailed for editing, review and lodgement. The software will be regularly updated to keep up with tax-code changes.

Hughes, the managing director for R&D SmartTax, has worked for more than a decade all over Australia helping large and small companies benefit from the R&D tax breaks. She is a member of the Taxation Institute of Australia and the ATO/AusIndustry Consultative Group that meets to discuss R&D policy. She has been asked to contribute on specific policy matters such as R&D plans and the new R&D tax credit system.

Traditionally, applications for tax breaks rely heavily on the hiring of consultants to guide businesses through the maze of options and requirements. R&D SmartTax says its online tools provide that same expertise, but at a much lower cost.

Hughes notes that the tools don’t necessarily have to go head-to-monitor against real-life consultants. The consultants themselves, she says, can use the tools, as can large businesses and the government’s AusIndustry division for business programs. Hughes says the tax guidebook from AusIndustry and the Australian Taxation Office offers little useful detail for tax claimants.

The primary target of the R&D online tools are the estimated 500,000 Australian companies that should be making R&D tax claims. Hughes says the initial goal is modest — one percent of those companies using the SmartTax suite. Bet on Hughes’ deductions being as sharp as the innovators she aims to help.

R&D SmartTax’s SMART 100 Application
The SMART 100 Winners List 2010

Its in-built reservoir with cooling carbonation technology not only maintains the temperature and freshness of beer but it also hit the spot with our maven judges, coming in at number three.

3. BeerVaults

Company: JONESCHIJOFF
Headquarters: Footscray, Victoria

And now, our Exhibit A for proof that not all brilliant innovation has to address world hunger or display on an iPhone. Sometimes, a body just needs a small taste of a jaw-droppingly expensive beer.

But how can that be done? Ultra-high-end premium beers, as a rule, come only in bottles. And once a bottle is opened, it must be drained then and there. The proprietor is loathe to waste precious brew, while the would-be drinker doesn’t want to spend $50 (or much more) for a bottle.

Enter Biero, a chic Melbourne bar. The owners posed the problem to urban design firm JONESCHIJOFF. The result was the BeerVault. Suds fans rejoice.

BeerVault siphons the beer, under pressure, into clear, pressurised cylinders. The temperature-controlled containers can keep the premium beers in tip-top shape for up to five days, and customers can avail themselves of less-than-bottle-size samples for manageable prices.

There’s an aesthetic side to the BeerVaults too — the clear cylinders show off the brews’ various hues. It help the patrons’ shop for what looks good, and the multi-toned cylinders look tres cool behind the bar.

At this point, there are no plans to install BeerVaults elsewhere. But in addition to contributing to beer guts, the devices have been a powerful marketing tool for JONESCHIJOFF (so has the Paper Plane Academy). Cheers BeerVault!

BeerVault’s SMART 100 Application
The SMART 100 Winners List 2010

That’s the core idea behind SurgicalPerformance, a website that allows physicians to audit themselves and see how their work stacks up against others in the field.

4. SurgicalPerformance

Company: SurgicalPerformance

With Surgical Performance, a doctor subscribes to the site (annual fee: $200) and enters patients’ treatments and outcomes in a database (all patients’ identifiable information is removed). Other doctors serve as controls and benchmarks.

The site produces outcome reports about complication rates and survival percentages. Only the user will see her/his individual results, but the outcomes of the other doctors will be displayed for the purpose of comparison.

Auditing is not a new idea in the medical profession. Professional medical organisations sometimes create old-style regional databases and report treatment outcomes to their doctors by mail. Unfortunately, participation in these programs often is mandatory and participating doctors feel watched and sometimes do not enter all results — especially the bad ones.

SurgicalPerformance currently has modules for gynecologists and obstetricians, urologists and bowel cancer surgeons. The site also offers a discussion forum where surgeons can feel free to exchange experiences with mishaps and complications.

SurgicalPerformance’s SMART 100 Application
The SMART 100 Winners List 2010

5. DSS vehicle safety system

Company: SeeingMachines

DSS uses a video camera and image-analysis software to track a driver’s eyes and head movements. If DSS determines the driver’s eyes aren’t spending enough time on the road, an appropriately attention-getting sound goes off, and the driver, presumably, focuses more on the task at hand.

Speaking of hands, the device doesn’t touch the driver. There are no wires or sensors. It’s all done with cameras and software. Similar devices — or at least those that aim for similar outcomes — require the driver to wear wired-up glasses, or monitor the vehicle’s steering instead of the driver.

Currently, DSS is targeted largely at industrial vehicles — heavy loaders, long-haul trucker and the like. And understandably so. Fatigue is an ongoing challenge among truckers worldwide.

Logbooks and strictly enforced driving hours have tried to address the issue. The folks behind DSS hope they have a high-tech solution.

With heavy-vehicle fleets, the DSS monitoring can also be picked up by dispatchers, providing a backup for warning the driver if he or she is nodding off or spending too much time fiddling with the satellite radio.

DSS’ technology can also be used in other commercial vehicles and military transports, trains, and passenger vehicles. Research is currently trying to overcome obstacles and challenges associated with sunglasses and night driving.

DSS vehicle safety system’s SMART 100 Application
The SMART 100 Winners List 2010

Therefore, it is extremely important that you store your information properly and keep it secure. It’s also important that you protect your PCs from misuse, abuse and data loss. Why? Because there are bad guys out there and you don’t want them getting their hands on your information.

Bad guys? Yes, it’s a term we Internet security people use frequently, but do you fully understand who the bad guys are? Before you can properly arm yourself against a security attack and/or breach by the bad guys, it helps if you know who to watch for so that you can put in place the proper layers of defence.

Technically, a cyber crime is any intentional breach in computer security via the Internet, or some other illegal act facilitated by the Internet. However, as we will see below, there are actually quite a few unique categories of bad guys to look out for.

Hackers, Crackers, and Script Kiddies: mostly harmless, or cause for alarm?

In the early days of computers, hackers were white hat good guys who tried to do no harm and hacker was a benign term.

Hackers illegally accessed computers to learn more about them, or to find security holes in the computer or the network to which it’s attached. They did nothing malicious, used their skills for good purposes and took pride in the quality of hacks that would leave no trace of an intrusion. Today’s white hat hackers are typically computer security experts, who specialise in penetration testing and other security testing methodologies to ensure that a company’s information systems are secure.

During the early 1980s the lay of the land changed and we started to see the rise of crackers. This refers to a person who intentionally accesses a computer, or network of computers, for evil reasons – typically, with the intent of destroying and/or stealing information. Today, these bad guy crackers are sometimes referred to as black hats, or hackers (just to confuse us).

Usually, both hackers and crackers have very advanced computer and networking skills allowing them to develop scripts or programs to help them attack computer systems and networks.

Hacking tools can sometimes fall into the hands of script kiddies, who often use them randomly and with little regard or perhaps even understanding of the potentially harmful consequences. These script kiddies usually have very limited computer skills and can be quite immature, trying to effect large numbers of attacks in order to obtain attention and notoriety.

The Rise of Cyber Criminals

We typically use the term cyber criminals to describe those who use the Internet in illegal ways, or to facilitate illegal or fraudulent activities.

More specifically, cyber criminals are the people trying to put malware onto your system so that they can obtain valuable information such as credit card and bank account details, user names and passwords. This is identity theft and those responsible will either use the information to defraud someone, or sell it on to someone else who will.

Cyber criminals are also scammers and phishers who try to con you into giving them money. They might claim to need your help to transfer large amounts of money, or that you’ve won a prize in a lottery you never entered. Sometimes it’s the promise of an inheritance from a wealthy relative you’ve never heard of.

Some cyber criminals illegally distribute software, music, movies against copyright laws. They might even sell illegal forms of pornography. Typically their activities are entirely profit motivated, though in the cases of cyber bullying and cyber grooming the motivations lie elsewhere.

Not all cyber criminals have sophisticated computer and networking skills. Today, the vast majority of cyber criminals simply use the malicious tools and kits marketed for profit by those creating them.

In effect, most cyber criminals are simply up-to-date script kiddies, but now they’re motivated by profit, not notoriety. For about US$400, almost anyone can buy appropriate scripts and after about four hours of working through the instructions, be fully set up as a cyber criminal. Scary stuff.

More Cyber Bad Guys on the loose

People trying to illegally obtain information about companies or government organisations are known as cyber spies. Typically when the attack is against a business it is profit-driven, while when it’s against government organisations it is espionage.

People who carry out blackmail via the Internet are cyber extortionists. For instance, threatening to release confidential information if an individual or company does not pay a large amount of money. Cyber extortionists may put in place a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) against the web site or network of a business and demand payment to stop the attack. They might trick you into downloading and installing malware/scareware/scamware, for example rogue anti-virus software, and then demand payment in order for it to be removed.

Relatively new on the scene are cyber activists who use the Internet as a fast and cheap communications tool for their public movements. They may be involved in cause-related fundraising, community building, lobbying and organising public demonstrations. One example is Iranians using Twitter to organise mass protests in 2009.

Of course, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, so we also have cyber terrorists. These are cyber criminals who use the Internet to destroy computers or disrupt Internet-connected services for political reasons. Just like a regular terrorist attack, cyber terrorism typically requires highly skilled individuals, a lot of money to implement, and detailed planning. An example is when hundreds of DDoS attacks in 2007 virtually took down the Internet in Estonia.

Last, and certainly not least, we have cyber warriors. It seems that many countries, including the USA and China, have decided that the Internet is a valid tool to fight a war against their enemies.

While the Internet can be used to greatly enhance military and economic power, it also presents a soft underbelly to present and future adversaries. Thus governments are recruiting and training “cyber warriors” to use the Internet for offensive attacks, and to protect us from such attacks by others. Sad, but true.

How to protect your business – and yourself

By going online, everyone is exposed to all these forms of bad guys. Thus it’s crucial for both businesses and individuals to keep their information secure so that the bad guys can’t gain access to it. Here’s some advice:

• Have up-to-date and properly configured Internet Security software on all the PCs you use.
• Lock down desktop PCs, laptops and servers by limiting user privileges, eliminating unnecessary applications and having strong passwords. Giving up administrator privileges is a simple way to remove 90% of the risk of malware being able to install and run.
• Understand who might be looking to break through your defences and how they might go about doing it.

Think like the bad guys. Knowing who your enemies are will help you to do this.

Lloyd Borrett is self-described Security Evangelist at AVG (AU/NZ), a Melbourne-based distributor of Internet Security products. Learn more at http://www.borrett.id.au.

Image by bfishadow

Remember, every move in making a connection with a prospect has one purpose -– to compel them take the next step. Whether that step is to supply your organisation with ongoing referrals, add them to a newsletter database or purchase a product is not important -– the individual must act.

So, here’s the Magnificent 7. Each fundamental cannot be applied successfully without the one that precedes it. Each are intertwined and significant to the final outcome.

Fundamental No. 1: Purpose

You must identify your team’s purpose for networking, with the ultimate goal of going from connections to monetisation. The biggest challenge businesses face is that networking isn’t taken as seriously as marketing. Networking is marketing, too, and must be outlined to keep individuals on task and focussed.

Fundamental No. 2: Message

You must clearly define the message you are taking to market to ensure it aligns with your customers’ values and, most importantly, that your team’s messages match and represent the larger organisation. Miscommunication can destroy even the most earnest effort to make an influential first impression. If the message wavers and is unclear, prospects will be unaware of your team’s role in the bigger picture.

Fundamental No. 3: Presence

Your team must be memorable, and the only way to achieve this is through presence, which builds credibility, trust and connection with prospects and existing clients. The identity of “self” is a basic facet of effective networking. A team that lacks self-confidence and presence  will feel the pain in sales results time after time. By discovering their identity, when staff approach a networking situation they will have an innate confidence that connects and produces larger-scale positive outcomes.

Fundamental No. 4: Package

You must package yourself and your team as a marketable product that establishes instant credibility with your target market. Your package includes the way you behave and, most importantly, networking etiquette. Does your staff understand networking etiquette practices or do they go in blindly and risk insulting others with their actions? For instance, in Asian cultures you must accept a business card with two hands and acknowledge it before placing it in your pocket. The higher you play, the more important these finer distinctions become.

Fundamental No. 5: Image

You must style yourself and your team visually to establish instant presence and credibility and be taken seriously. About 55% of all communication is visual. If your staff fails to impart the correct impression of themselves and your company while networking, they will fail to gain trust, influence and satisfactory outcomes. Put basic grooming policies in place and review them regularly to ensure teams are adhering to them. Your team is, after all, the front line in many cases.

Fundamental No. 6: Connection

Your team must learn the real way to build business relationships with energetic and emotional engagement techniques that help build lead streams. We each have the potential to shift someone neurologically via our interactions -– whether we anchor positive emotions with the business brand is another question. Have your team interact and engage at varying levels of energy to better connect, i.e. company policy that all prospects and alliance partners must be greeted with a smile. You may think this is basic, but I can assure you that not all of your team members are practising this.

Fundamental No. 7: Action

Your team must leverage all of its skills, abilities, credibility factors and resources to streamline and automate its networking to maximise productivity. Failure to follow through on influential connections is detrimental to your business’ income. Put in place a step-by-step networking and touch-point system for your staff when meeting new business connections. This takes the guesswork out of the process to produce more effective outcomes.

Author and speaker Ben Angel has trained the likes of Toyota, VECCI, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Real Estate Institute of Australia on effective networking practices. Contact him at ben@benangel.com.au.

Image by Luc Legay

Pretending risk does not exist, or taking a “wait and see” approach, shrinks the number of available options should disaster occur while simultaneously raising the cost of any solution.

If you’ve ever turned a blind eye, you’re not alone.

Even Microsoft’s Bing was caught short when a fire in the building housing their data center disrupted service, because it did not build any redundancy measures into its system.

Investors need you to understand risk

If your banker took that same approach with risk  — i.e. refused to consider the ramifications when considering investments, sought out only those deals that sounded romantic (“I have a tower in Paris to sell you”) — would you partner with her?

Of course not, yet entrepreneurs ask venture capitalists to consider them as superior investment candidates with no comprehension of the risk they represent to investors.

How can you expect to successfully pass a due-diligence review if you have no knowledge of what risks potential investors might find?

A better approach would be to demonstrate that you know your company’s risk and that you have a mitigation plan in place and have taken steps to reduce that risk’s impact. Plus, if you address the risks, you are better positioned to frame the facts.

I am not suggesting twisting the truth, but by taking the lead you can position the story in a way that is most advantageous to your company.

How to identify your risks

Risk management is one of those things that can be as simple or as complicated as management desires, but for a company starting from scratch the following proposed method is a good start.

The initial process can be as simple as brainstorming with a pen and paper. I’d suggest making some categories first to ensure that all areas of risk are considered.

Look at customer issues, sales, environmental, supply chain, succession, you get the idea, and start listing everything you can think of. Don’t worry how big or small they are, just list them, get them noted.

Also, forget about doing this exercise on your own. Bring in your team as they will have insights you may not have considered, both in what qualifies as a risk and what steps might be taken to mitigate them.

Calculate the ‘risk factor’

Next to each risk identify, if you can, the highest likelihood and cost. It’s ok to start with very rough numbers, as the exercise helps you identify fuzzy areas in your knowledge.

Continuing on the Bing theme, one example could be where your data center loses power in a typhoon, and you have no provisions in place for temporary power. First consider the likelihood of that occurring during typhoon season, and not some average factoring in time off-season: say 8% likehood of that happening. Then consider the cost for the downtime this will cause, lost revenue, and any downtime fees built into contracts with customers: say $750,000 in lost revenues.

These factors will be refined as better estimates are developed but they give you a starting point to select the risks with the greatest impact.

The “risk factor” is the result of taking those two numbers and multiplying them together.

In this case 8% x $750,000 equals $60,000.

Once all the risks have an associated risk factor, this number should help you quickly identify where to focus your resources, as the higher the risk factor the greater the potential impact to your company.

You’ll probably notice that some risks that seemed significant may not have scored as expected because the odds of them happening are low, and relatively weaker risks might score higher because they are more likely to occur.

Datacenter down due to typhoon: 8% x $750,000 = $60,000
Sales team defects to competition: 40% x $150,000 = $60,000
Strike by union building vital widget: 80% x $125,000 = $100,000

Set Yourself Free

The risk factor helps the entrepreneur focus on her immediate priorities. In the risk list above, a strike has the greatest potential to affect the company and steps may be considered prior to a strike, such as finding some alternative sources for that key widget, or other creative work around that mitigate that impact and reduce the anticipated cost.

After addressing the most critical risks, determine if there are ways to mitigate other risks on your list.

In the case of the data center, a retainer like agreement with a generator supplier might be the ideal interim solution to cover the down period between when the center’s batteries are drained and the restoral of power. The cost would be nominal and protect against lost revenue, spoiled reputation, and contractual fines.

Time to Go

Risks are not stagnant, they’re not lurking in the coat closet waiting to leap out. Their likelihood ebbs and flows depending on the conditions; sometimes given the stage of the company, they may be “retired”- never to tarnish the list again. Others might be seasonal, consider a florist worried about having enough roses for Valentine’s Day.

You cannot afford to be complacent and think that risk decrease as time progresses. Nothing could be further from the truth. Companies go through stages and cycles, new risks should be continuously added to the list.

LouAnn Conner is Managing Director of Sagacious Consulting, a global consultancy that helps companies achieve operational excellence. Sagacious Consulting is head-quartered in San Francisco, California.