An offer you can't refuse...

What does a real-life CEO have in common with the central figures of a fictitious Mafia crime family in The Godfather? According to Justin Moore, CEO and founder of Axcient, plenty.

Moore is a serial entrepreneur, early-stage advisor, and angel investor. He’s currently at the helm of Axcient, a company he founded that provides backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery services to the small and mid-sized business (SMB) market. Right now, Axcient is protecting more than 2 billion files and applications for businesses across North America.

Moore also happens to think that The Godfather is “one of the best movies ever made” and had a chance to watch it again when the film was aired extensively last week to mark the 40th anniversary of its premiere. Though a decade had passed since the last time Moore watched it, his recent viewing offered an unexpected reward. This time he found the film rife with teaching moments for CEOs running a business today.

“I certainly don’t endorse crime or violence, and I’m not suggesting business should operate like the Mafia,” explains Moore, “but there are some universal themes in the movie I can relate to as a CEO.” Moore says The Godfather offers valuable lessons in community and team building, making tough decisions, and playing to win while not neglecting friends and family.

Here are five essential leadership lessons Moore distilled for Fast Company.

1. Build a powerful community. 

Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. ~Vito Corleone

Uttered in the iconic rasp of Marlon Brando, the words of Vito Corleone illustrate how he creates a loyal community among those he has helped. Moore says, “By granting these favors and helping people with their problems, Vito Corleone is building a network of influence--relationships that may or may not deliver a specific or quantifiable return, but all which serve to strengthen his power base and which have the potential to be reciprocal in the long run.”

Moore says building strategic partnerships enables companies to work through challenging markets and fast-track overall success. “As a CEO, I see it as part of my job to be a super connector, networking with the technology and investment community without an expectation of reciprocation. Partnerships forged through time, trust, and mutual benefit--such as those Axcient has built with HP, Ingram-Micro, and a vast network of service providers and resellers--are the types of community relationships that bring about the greatest returns.”

2. Hold people accountable. 

What's the matter with you? I think your brain is going soft. ~Vito Corleone

The Godfather reminds us of the importance of being tough when necessary. “As soon as Vito Corleone allowed a few moments of weakness to be seen by his enemy, they attempted to assassinate him. And it was largely because of failures of his team,” Moore observes.

“In business, accountability isn’t achieved by a murderous rampage. But the lesson is this--to be successful in business you have to be tough, and you have to be extremely focused on hitting goals and getting results," says Moore. That doesn’t mean patience and understanding don’t have a place, he says, but ongoing tolerance of low-performing people or products just eats away at the success of the entire company. “You are ultimately responsible for all of your employees and shareholders, and that requires tough and swift decisions.

3. Don’t get emotional.

It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business. ~Michael Corleone

“Many people don’t like to talk about the fact that in business, there are winners and losers. When Sonny Corleone reacts impulsively and emotionally, he gets taken out. In business, if you don’t take the opportunity to out-sell, out-bid, or out-market your competitor, they’ll take you out. I’m not suggesting doing anything outside the boundaries of morality or rightness--simply pointing out that when people make emotional decisions, they start making bad decisions. To lead successfully, you have to take your emotion and ego out of the equation.”

Likewise, Moore says it’s important to play to win. In business, that translates to knowing the competition and always staying at least one step ahead. “Operate your business with integrity and have respect for competition, but you also need to seize opportunities to eliminate your competition and win.”

4. Be decisive. 

Moore says that he, like most people who appreciate The Godfather, watch the movie with a combination of shock and respect. “Shock because he is so ruthless that he kills his own family member, but respect for the fact that Don Corleone knows exactly what he wants, executes decisively, and commands respect through unwavering leadership.”

While you don’t have to kill anyone to prove a point, as soon as you know what choice to make, move forward. “Know who on your team is making the right choices, and trust them to take decisive action as well. Hesitation too often leads to missed opportunities.”

5. Spend time with your family. 

Do you spend time with your family? Because a man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. ~Vito Corleone 

Moore isn’t endorsing 1940s machismo, but he is decrying 100-hour workweeks that many entrepreneurs fall prey to in hot pursuit of the next big thing. Though he’s been dedicated like that in the past, Moore finds it’s not sustainable in the long run. 

“A leader can’t be successful in creative problem-solving and making excellent decisions unless that person is connected to people and passions outside of work. I find that it’s often time with family and friends that gives me the perspective I need to build the relationships and make the decisive actions required for continued success in business,” says Moore.

Extract taken from:

http://www.fastcompany.com/1826672/an-offer-you-cant-refuse-leadership-lessons-from-the-godfather

Transformation to EXPERIS

To address the new challenges facing professional talent, we are pleased to announce that, from 19 March 2012, the ManpowerGroup in the UK and Ireland has transformed its Professional Resourcing operations by consolidating all its existing brands (Elan, Manpower Professional and Jefferson Wells) into a new single operating model and brand – Experis.
Experis is dedicated to connecting talented individuals with businesses and opportunities across a number of professional sectors, including IT, Finance, Engineering and Healthcare.  We will work with over 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 providing you access to a huge network of opportunities.
The world of work is evolving rapidly, new technologies, demographic shifts and increased social choices. Standing still is not an option. We’ve listened to our clients and candidates and after many years of development launch a collaborative business that offers professional talent access to a huge network of opportunities.
Our consultants have deep industry knowledge and understand the challenges you’re facing. We’ll connect you to the roles that can help you accelerate your career.

Card Fraud Hits 11 year Low

The amount of money lost due to fraud on credit and debit cards fell last year by 7% to £341m - its lowest level for 11 years.

The drop from 2010 was mainly due to a 41% fall in fraudsters impersonating people to obtain or use credit cards.
There was also a 24% fall in the amount of fraud from cards being faked.
The UK Cards Association said it was the third year in a row that card fraud had fallen, with a drop of 44% since losses peaked in 2008.
It brings card fraud to its lowest level since 2000 when £317m was lost through fraud.
The association credited the improvement to the increased use of anti-fraud measures.
Among them were online card verification software, such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode, and the increased use of chip-and-pin technology abroad.
Melanie Johnson, chair of the UK Cards Association, said: "This is... clear proof that our endeavours to fight fraud are packing a punch."
"Customers have also played their part in driving down losses by taking heed of advice about looking after their personal and financial details," she added.
Losses falling
Card fraud rose during the past decade to reach its peak, in 2008, of £610m.
Although the adoption of chip-and-pin technology, largely replacing signatures, had helped to rein in fraud in the UK, there was a revival in the fraudulent use of cards abroad.
However, this has now dropped as well, with fraud abroad falling by a further 15% last year to £80m.
That was its lowest level in 12 years, and nearly two-thirds down from the peak of foreign card fraud in 2008, when it stood at £230m.
Overall, the most common losses last year were due to cards being improperly used to order items over the phone, by post or over the internet - so-called "card not present" fraud.
This accounted for £221m - nearly two-thirds of all card fraud losses.
Meanwhile counterfeit card fraud, once the second-largest category of loss, has slumped in the past five years, down by three-quarters since 2007.
The biggest areas of card fraud loss in 2011 were:

• Cards not present: £221m
• Lost or stolen cards: £50m
• Counterfeit cards: £36m
• Card ID theft: £23m
• Cards stolen the post: £11m

DCI Paul Barnard, who leads the police cheque and plastic crime unit, said with more sophisticated anti-fraud technology now in use, criminals had returned to simpler forms of form.
"Many scams involve customers being conned into handing over their cards and Pins, or their telephone banking security details by someone calling, pretending to be their bank or police," he pointed out.
"Be wary of any unsolicited phone calls or emails - never hand over your card and Pin or bank security details in full as neither your bank or the police will ever ask you for these."
Meanwhile, fraud losses against online banking accounts fell by 24% last year to £35m, while fraud losses involving telephone banking rose by 32% to £17m.

Text extracted from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17273097

Spanish Bank BBVA to use Google's Cloud

Spanish banking giant BBVA is switching its 110,000 staff to use Google's range of enterprise software.

The deal is the biggest that the search giant has signed with one company for its cloud-computing services, where software is offered as a service via the internet.The bank told the BBC it would use Google's tools only for internal communication.

But the deal can be seen as a breakthrough in corporate adoption.
Banking - with its high security needs and strict regulations - was always considered to be one of the last industries to accept cloud-computing.
BBVA's director of innovation, Carmen Herranz, stressed that all customer data and other key banking systems would "stay in our own data centres" and be completely separate from the cloud solution.
The bank would use Google applications like email, calendar, docs, chat, video conferencing and other collaboration tools to "achieve a cultural change" and get "the whole company working together" across the 26 countries where BBVA is based. Ms Herranz said the project - with roll-out across all employees to be complete by the end of the year - was not about saving cost.
"The main goal is to promote innovation and making decisions and increase productivity. We are in a challenging market and need to make faster and more accurate decisions... and eliminate duplication," Ms Herranz told the BBC.
Also driving the change was the increasing mobility of the bank's workforce. A lot of the bank's computing needs had moved to smartphones, tablets, laptops and computers at home, she said.
Jose Olalla, chief information officer at BBVA, said because workers now had "access [to] the information they need at any time from any internet-connected device, anywhere in the world, [they] will be able to be more flexible and mobile".
BBVA is one of Spain's largest banks.
It is also the largest provider of financial services in Mexico, and has a large presence in the south of the United States.

'Largest ever deal'
Traditionally, companies have done all their computing on their own premises, to keep their data secure and to stay in control.
However, most enterprises leave some 80% of their computing power idle, and find themselves spending more than two thirds of their information technology budget on maintenance and software upgrades.

Cloud computing tends to be much more efficient, with firms like Amazon Web Services running their servers at more than 90% of capacity. That cuts cost and also helps the environment.

The man in charge of Google Enterprise apps in Europe, Sebastien Marotte, said that his corporate customers on average achieved cost savings of between 50% and 70%.
But the deal with BBVA, argues Mr Marotte, is important not only "because it is the largest ever agreement we have signed with an organisation, it is important because it is a very large financial company, it shows that now even banks are moving to the cloud".
BBVA's data would not reside on dedicated servers - a solution known as private cloud - but would sit distributed across the public cloud of Google's data centres. Both Mr Marotte and Ms Herranz stressed this would meet the demands of banking regulators and data protection officials, and be as secure as any solution on the bank's premises.
A bigger worry will be whether BBVA's computer network will be able to cope with the sharp rise in network traffic that cloud-computing solutions demand.
A pilot with 7,000 staff had not seen any issues, but the bank would closely monitor for any increases in network load. "Our biggest worry is around video conferencing," said Ms Herranz.
Network issues were blamed on serious performance problems when several years ago Google apps were introduced by the city of Los Angeles.
'Starting from scratch'
The biggest challenge for BBVA and other firms switching to cloud computing could indeed be cultural issues.
The bank says it has a training programme in place - including personalised guides - to prepare their staff for the move from their tried and trusted email solution and other tools to the new browser-based online world.
However, the bank encourages its employees to leave all their old email and data in those legacy systems. They will be accessible if necessary, but, says Ms Herranz, but we "want to start from scratch... don't want to carry across old behaviours".
"To move to the future, you have to leave the past in a box," said Ms Herranz.

Extract taken from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16486796

Hellrunner 2012 for Cancer Research UK

Welcome to 2012 everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely break.

As some of you already know, I am taking part in an event called the Hellrunner on Saturday 11^th Feb to raise some money for Cancer Research UK.

With the event only being 5 weeks away, I thought I had better start trying to ask you beautiful people for some donations to this fantastic cause!

The Hellrunner (as the name suggests) is a horrible half marathon through bogs, swamps, rivers and up and down some quite steep terrain so it will be a big challenge (GULP!).

Here’s a link to my fundraising page:

http://www.runningsponsorme.org/chrismorrow

The above link to a video on You Tube gives you an idea of what's in store for me!

If you can be of any help donating to the cause that would be fantastic!

Thanks in advance,

Chris

New Vocalink Chief Executive

Payment processing specialist VocaLink has named David Yates as chief executive, replacing Marion King, who is leaving at the end of the year after 10 years in the post.

Yates joins from Western Union where he was president of business development and innovation and responsible for overseeing its electronic channels, prepaid, global top-up and loyalty businesses as well as leading Western Union's Business Payments Sector. Yates also spent six years at First Data Corporation, latterly as President of First Data International.

In this role, he had executive management responsibility for all of First Data's activities outside of the US including the merchant acquiring, merchant transaction processing, issuer processing and ATM network solutions business units.

In a statement, the company said that he will be "focused on VocaLink's ongoing investment in its core business as well as continuing to build solid foundations for future growth". Sir John Gieve, chairman of VocaLink, said the appointment" comes at a significant time in the company's growth".

Yates himself said that he is looking forward "to guiding our strategy to bring smarter payment solutions to international markets, as well as leading our continued focus on meeting the commercial needs of our customers".

Extract taken from:

http://tiny.cc/re2lw

New Mobile Recording Regulations from FSA

The banking industry has been scrambling to comply with the Financial Services Authority's new mobile recording regulation, which started on 14 November, but merely ‘ticking the box' now could mean firms losing out on long-term efficiencies, says Neil Ainger.

The requirement to record conversations between traders, brokers, investment managers and other market participants has long been established so that regulators can check the correct procedures are being followed and investigate any misconduct. Up until now it has only applied to fixed line conversations but all that changed on 14 November when the FSA's new mobile recording regulation came into effect.
 
All participants in the UK's capital markets must record all mobile communication between traders from now on, covering voice, SMS text and Instant Messaging. Other jurisdictions are likely to follow suit - indeed Norway has already introduced the rule - so lots of vendors were expecting a bonanza of business. It hasn't necessarily turned out that way, however, says Ian Philip, the managing director of Anvil, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator, who says that many firms, especially smaller ones, "have gone for a ‘tick box' approach initially so they can prove compliance".

According to Paul Metcalfe, head of voice trading solutions at Orange Business Services' Trading Solutions, "mobile recording has been on the agenda for some time now, admittedly with some false starts, yet some financial institutions have still left things to the eleventh hour. In some cases it's almost as if they are playing a game of ‘chicken' with the FSA.

"My suspicion is that everyone will be ready in the minimal sense of the word on 14 November, with firms doing what is necessary but no more," says Rik Turner, a senior FS analyst at Ovum, who has produced his own report in conjunction with recording vendor Compliant Phones and the enterprise search specialist HP-Autonomy, entitled Mobile Communications Recording in the Financial Markets: An Update.

This outlines the requirements that firms need to comply with, principally that:

■ Recording must start when a mobile device is switched on, be continuous, and not be reliant on the user. It must also be tamper-proof to avoid data being spoiled.  
■ The recording solution must work on all forms of mobile communication to and from the device(s) that a regulated firm allows traders to use for their job. Interestingly, the FSA also says all ‘personal mobiles' used for work must be covered, recognising a potential problem here and shifting responsibility on to firms.
■ The solution must work wherever the regulated employee is (i.e. a recording must be made even if a trader is in Hong Kong on a UK registered phone).
■ The recordings must be stored in an ‘easily retrievable fashion' (the FSA does not specify if this means in the cloud or on premise; leaving this up to the discretion of the firm. Various strategies have been adopted so far).

The technological considerations are substantial, especially as there weren't any off-the-shelf solutions available to start with. Delivering seamless voice as traders roam across networks and countries, consistent browser access without interference, integration with existing landline recording systems if so desired, and delivering easy retrieval on vast call volumes, is a challenge for anyone. With BlackBerry, iPhones and other types of handsets/networks there are multiple points of entry so you cannot just record calls coming in or out via the PBX switch anymore.

Then there are the business continuity concerns - theoretically if the recording function stops then all trading must cease as no record is available. Needless to say this isn't acceptable, especially with demanding traders who are used to always-on service. Getting busy traders to buy-in to training programmes and migration policies has been another challenge.

Extract taken from:

http://tiny.cc/9jnte