Category Archives: Helpful Hints

November 20, 2014 · 11:48 am

The Lady Does Protest Too Much

You might have read Hamlet. Perhaps unwillingly in high school English, perhaps for pleasure since it’s one of the greatest dramatic works in the English language. At one point Gertrude says “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Tiger Woods Photo by Paddy Briggs

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That line has been used as a figure of speech ever since (and since 1602 means for a long time) to mean that a person’s overly frequent or vehement attempts to convince others of something have ironically helped to convince others that the opposite is true, by making the person look insincere and defensive. Thank you, Wikipedia!

I thought about that quote the other day as Tiger Woods responded to a satirical piece written by the great Dan Jenkins. Jenkins wrote an “interview” with Tiger which was clearly labeled as made up in which Tiger was made to look cheap, dumb, and nasty. What happened next is instructive for all of us and for any business.

The “interview” ran in the print-only edition of a golf magazine.  Had Tiger left it alone, it would have been read by hard-core golfers and died.  Instead, Tiger took it upon himself to issue a 600 word rebuttal on ThePlayersTribune.com which was picked up immediately by the media.  The interest in the controversy grew quickly, and the golf magazine then posted the original article on its website where anyone could read it.  The mostly ignored problem became a front and center issue.  Which is the point.

Maybe you’ve heard it called “The Streisand Effect.”  This is when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.  It’s instructive.  By protesting too much we fan the flames of the problem.  Should every negative comment be ignored?  Of course not.  But had Tiger responded publicly (and I’m not sure he should have in this case) with an appreciative chuckle and a wink of the eye (“I’ll have to work harder and adjust my thinking to live up to the bad guy image you made up”), this all would have gone away.  Better would have been a phone call to Jenkins and a quiet meeting someplace to straighten it all out.

There are dozens of examples of companies and individuals choosing the wrong course and triggering The Streisand Effect.  While our emotional response to something false or misleading might be to take that course, the smarter response is to choose another.  What’s yours?

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November 14, 2014 · 11:30 am

It’s The Tortilla, Stupid

Foodie Friday! For our fun this week, let’s consider the taco. Not the Taco Bell sort of dish but the real deal one can find everywhere from food trucks to bars to restaurants. They come in many varieties with different types of wrappers. I’m a fan, mostly because you can order a couple of one type, a couple of another type, and not be overly full. I’m also a fan of finger food and tacos meet that criterion as well.

English: Don Chow Tacos Ultimate LA Taco

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tacos de asador, tacos de cazo, tacos dorados (flautas to you!) – that’s just the start to a list of the dozens of varieties that exist. They all share one thing. They are some sort of filling encased in either a corn or flour tortilla. The meat may be marinated and grilled, fried, or boiled. Fish may be grilled or fried. The taco may be soft or hard, flat or puffy. There may or may not be guacamole or salsa or onions inside. But there is also a business point in there.

The proteins in the taco are the star of the show.  As you eat them you’re probably thinking about the flavor and texture of the meat or fish.  What you might not realize is that the tortilla is what makes the dish.  First, without the tortilla you’ve got a salad (or a very messy hand!).  But it’s the subtile flavor and crunch (or not) of the tortilla that brings the dish together.  That’s my business point.

We tend to focus on the “stars” in business.  The CEO, the productive salesperson, the marketing genius.  We forget sometimes that without the support staff – the tortillas – they would not be able to bring to the business what they do.  More importantly, just as the “wrong” tortilla (what the heck are puffy tacos anyway?) can run perfectly cooked and flavored filling, disgruntled staff can kill a star performer.  Try a taco with a fresh, homemade tortilla and you will understand the importance of the wrapper in making up for any flaws in the “star”.  Run your business with a happy, productive, supportive staff and you’ll find out how much better the “faces” of the company become.

Make sense?

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November 12, 2014 · 2:03 pm

Let’s Go Phishing!

Google put out a fascinating white paper on phishing attacks. No, it has nothing to do with a great jam band. If a title like Handcrafted Fraud and Extortion: Manual Account Hijacking In The Wild doesn’t get your attention, you’re not curious enough! It’s an interesting study on how online accounts are hijacked, usually leading to financial losses, stolen identities, and lots of other bad stuff.

The short version is that it’s basically human engineering – no fancy software involved. Taking advantage of people’s good natures, thieves mislead the recipients of their emails to give up details such as account login credentials or bank card information. Yes, there may be fake web pages involved (you DO know how to spot a fake, malformed URL, right?) but most of how these thieves hack in is based on ignorance, laziness, or both.

What can you do about this? Google recommends you should report suspicious-looking messages and you should type in URL’s to visit websites directly to login, rather than clicking through a link in your email program. As it turns out, there is also a pretty effective method for combatting phishing attacks called 2 step authentication.  Most platforms – Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others – use it and you should activate it for your accounts.  It means you’ll get a code texted to you which you must input to log in.  Does it add 15 seconds to a log in?  Yes, but it makes it extremely difficult for someone to hack your account unless they steal your phone too.  As the study shows, device theft is not at all a prevalent issue for hacking and this method has allowed Google to stop 99% of hijackings in the last few years.

It’s a good business lesson too.  We should spend more time thinking about systems that will prevent issues.  I suspect many of us think a lot about backups to repair damage but not enough about how to prevent it in the first place.  It may not be technology or software we need.  As with phishing, a bit of training and a heightened awareness of potential threats to the business can prevent a lot of fixing later on.

You agree?

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