Bull or Bear: Is there gold in them there markets?
Are we on the verge of another California gold rush, boom market or depression? No one knows. What is certain; risk mitigation must be central to any business model. This year may be especially challenging for the oil industry. Recently, conventional wisdom is downgrading average…
Resolution: Celebrating a New Operational start one more time
It is hard to believe we are now 19 years into the century. Seems like only yesterday we were worried whether the lights would stay on at Y2K. Each year many of us promise to do better at a list of things, some personal and…
Mission Accomplished: Santa Completes Another Worldwide Transit—Incident Free!
Every December 24th, this jolly ole elf embarks on one more global initiative. We know this to be true because each year since 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD and its predecessor the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs,…
Millennials Take On Our Increasingly Complex World
Originally published in 2013. On January 1st at 0348 hours a young engineer employed by a service company is trying to address a problem she has encountered with a compressor on a drilling rig in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico. She graduated from college three…
Command and Control: Is this the Way to Run the modern Railroad?
The managerial model, Command and Control (C&C) dates back to the dawn of humanity when tribal chieftains dictated the behavior of the group. It survives to this day in many forms. Typically, one thinks of military operations as the current manifestation of C&C in the…
Selling Your Economic Value Proposition to the C Suite: Translating Technology to the Language of Business
The challenge of building a Business Case for CAPEX investments with high intangible content, i.e., IoT, professional services and operational excellence, remains a challenge. Many also argue that disruptive new business models are making the old ways irrelevant. Hence, we simply must make the investment…
Are You In Distress?
During a recent offshore sail from Florida to Texas the weather significantly deteriorated on this blogger and his boat mates. Our 45-foot ocean going sailboat was one in which (mostly) the same crew that has significant sea time together. That said, there were two days…
Love to Have the Opportunity to Learn About Your Company: I Know I Can Help
It seems that the preferred CRM Cold Call script goes something like this, ”I’d love to jump on a call with you and learn more about your company. I am sure we can help.” Really? The roots of this approach may be from the “Sell…
Are Organizational Governance Models Broken: Why Can’t Management Get a Handle on Things?
Over 15 years ago, organizations such as Enron, Worldcom, Tysons, and others failed after massive managerial maleficence and even criminality. Enron’s auditor, Arthur Andersen folded as well. The result of this carnage was the imprisonment of many, the death (apparent heart attack) of the disgraced…
Is Your Digitalized Organization Cybersecure?
Here is How to Find Out! It seems that everyday a new major cyber breach is announced. The Rapid Response Institute and its Principals have addressed this issue many times through a variety of venues and publications. We recently conducted a workshop, “Implementing Digitalization: A…
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