Resources & Articles
Can Your Business Continue?
Last year many of us watched the worst hurricane season on record as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of businesses and homes. Now into the 2006 hurricane season, scientists warn that this year may be even worse. While the Greater Richmond area is affected by the occasional hurricane, it is also just as likely to experience thunderstorms, tornados, and extensive power outages. This can mean bad news for businesses with tight profit margins and high availability demands. Therefore, it is important for you to be prepared.
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Corporate culture and operational risk management.
When First Union and Wachovia merged to form Wachovia Corp., CEO Ken Thompson articulated a simple but meaningful vision for the new company: to become the best, most trusted and most admired financial services company.
A strong risk management culture is key to achieving this vision. At Wachovia, we believe that effective management of operational risk can position our company at the forefront of the industry. By communicating consistent guidelines and standards for managing risk across the company, we can reduce uncertainty, minimize losses and choose where to invest discretionary capital. This results in a better customer experience, enhanced reputation and greater shareholder value.
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Managing the Risks of Counterfeiting in the Information Technology Industry
Counterfeiting is among the most challenging issues facing the information technology (IT) industry today. Illegal replicas of brand-name high tech products are flooding the marketplace, cutting into legitimate companies’ revenue and reducing their ability to invest in research and development (R&D). Proliferation of technology used to make computers, servers, and a host of high tech products—as well as a lack of regulatory enforcement in developing nations—is accelerating counterfeiting. It is now estimated that as much as 10 percent of all high tech products sold globally are counterfeit.
The sight of street-corner vendors selling bootlegged CDs, DVDs, apparel, and jewelry is commonplace—and now counterfeit high tech products are becoming widely replicated by illicit producers and sold over the Internet. The public, however, is becoming more aware of the dangers posed by counterfeiting and the criminal organizations behind it, and many people are fighting back. Reports of connections between counterfeiters and terrorist organizations—and speculation that revenue generated by counterfeiters is helping to fund terrorism—have helped spur increased resistance.
Click here to download the white paper on counterfeiting (PDF)Lines Of Succession
Where are the holding companies looking for their next rulers?At a WPP Group annual meeting in London a few years ago, one shareholder asked about the holding company's CEO succession plan. As chairman Philip Lader began to respond, CEO Martin Sorrell cut him off. Sorrell gave the investor a withering look and curtly replied that WPP would deal with the situation in due course.
Among his holding-company peers, the WPP founder, who turned 60 in February, may be having the toughest time contemplating the moment he will step aside from running the worldwide operations he has built over the past 20 years. But it’s not much easier for many of his rivals, who, while not founders, are the kind of entrepreneurial personalities who have steered industry holding companies during a dynamic period of consolidation. Driven and competitive, they aren’t the kind of men who look forward to golfing into the sunset. They’re accustomed to the power, glamour and perks of the top job in the Hollywood of the business world, and the thought of pulling back from day-to-day operations is tantamount to acknowledging professional mortality. But such plans are increasingly becoming a priority: Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy is 63; Interpublic Group’s Michael Roth and Havas’ Alain de Pouzilhac are both 59; Omnicom Group’s John Wren is 52. (Corporate best practices call for consideration of a successor to begin three to five years before a CEO’s 65th birthday.)
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What Lies Beneath: Technology That Supports Effective Compliance
Much has been written about the reporting requirements mandated by federal laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 [the Act], the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act [HIPAA] and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act enacted in 1999 [GLBA], but less has been said about the technology that underlies successful efforts to comply. What is clear is that enterprise software and integrated records management are the only viable ways to meet these requirements. The software selected must take into account both changes in these requirements, and the prospect of future state and federal retention and reporting requirements. Since software doesn’t exist in a vacuum, hardware and network considerations must be part of the overall system strategy. Law firms with corporate clients and corporate counsel need to be involved in the planning and implementation of such a system.
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E.R. for Hard Drives
He knew it was important, but backing up his hard drive was the last thing on Ryan Risdal’s mind. Mr. Risdal, 35, was too busy rearing four children and caring for his ill wife.
One day after her death last August, Mr. Risdal was trying to recover some pictures from his computer to display at his wife’s funeral. But the computer would not cooperate, and the local repair shop told him he was out of luck. The drive was inoperable, and nothing could be retrieved.
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