• TIME PRESSURE IS THE MOST COMMON CAUSE OF STRESS which, besides impacting the efficiency and effectiveness of business productivity & profitability, can lead to anxiety disorders, headaches, upset stomachs, insomnia, high blood pressure, and behaviors (like drinking & smoking) that increase risks of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. DCG offers clients and contacts a courtesy lunchtime workshop in Time Management Techniques (“Work Smarter not Harder”) to help owners & employees alleviate stress and minimize these impacts. Winter/Spring scheduling is now available.
  • “THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TIME WHEN MORE CYBERSECURITY CAUTION HAS BEEN REQUIRED when traversing the online world… Malicious email attachments have skyrocketed, social engineering techniques sharpened, and fraudulent customer support accounts proliferated last year across email, social media and cloud app environments, while malicious phishing payloads have spiked by 300%… The threat landscape presents a level of danger that means impregnable cybersecurity cannot possibly be guaranteed. It is essential to be as proactive as possible.” DCG partners can help. [CBR ONLINE.COM  – Jan 18]   Are YOU too smart to be scammed? Try this online test to see if you are one of the 9% that can spot a hoax message:  New research has found only one in ten people can score full marks on a quiz that tests their scam-spotting abilities.  [THE DAILY MAIL – JAN 21, 18]
  • “AS DIGITIZATION, ADVANCED ANALYTICS, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SWEEP ACROSS INDUSTRIES AND GEOGRAPHIES, they aren’t just reshaping the competitive landscape; they’re redefining the organizational imperative: adapt or die… and when you compete in a marketplace that moves quickly, the default option is to fall behind. So urgency is imperative and speed becomes the objective function, the operating model, and the cultural bias.” Amazon founder & CEO Jeff Bezos suggests that ‘high-velocity’ decisions can’t wait for all the information you’d like to have to make a decision, and suggests around a 70% level as usually sufficient. But urgency and speed in transitional changes obviously create challenges to maintaining organizational stability – which is where effective systems, processes, procedures and management strategies are critical, and where DCG can help. Call us before your reality check bounces.   [McKINSEY QUARTERLY – Jan 18]
  • INCREASING TEENAGE ANGST IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO “SMARTPHONE AND SOCIAL MEDIA OVERLOAD,” according to a longitudinal study of more than a million young Americans. Psychologists found that “playing games, using social media, texting and video-chatting were all associated with less happiness than adolescents who invested more time in real world, not-screen activities – such as playing sports, reading newspapers and face-t-face social interaction.” [LEVINE BRIEFING NEWS – Jan 22, 18]
  • COMING SOON: A CAR THAT WILL READ YOUR BRAIN WAVES was unveiled this month at the Consumer Electronics Show. The driver “wears a skullcap with electrodes that transmit brain-wave activity to influence the steering, acceleration and breaking systems. While the driver still turns the wheel or hits the gas pedal, the ‘brain-to-vehicle technology’ anticipates those movements and begins these actions up to ½ seconds sooner… The skullcap also can distinguish driver preferences & discomfort, so the car can adjust accordingly and switch back to manual.” [THE WEEK – Jan 19, 18]
  • IF A 300-KILOTON NUCLEAR BOMB WERE TO EXPLODE (the size North Korea recently tested), “around 90% of people within a 1.2 mile radius would die instantly, and half the population within a 9.3 square-mile radius would die more slowly from burns & radiation.” Others would be seriously impacted from the “thermal pulse heatwave, shattered flying debris from hurricane-strength blast-wave winds, or two days of radioactive debris fallout.” According to U.S. Civil Defense authorities, survival is helped by (1) lying down underneath something (the old “duck and cover” drill) and (2) promptly finding shelter, ideally below ground and sealed (i.e. a ‘fallout shelter’) or at the center of a building, preferably avoiding the top or ground floors. [THE ECONOMIST – Jan 20, 18]
  • “MYSTERIES OF THE UNSEEN WORLD” – a fascinating view of our planet seen as a single organism thru time-lapse images, and of our ‘invisible’ world seen thru high-speed and electro-microscopes. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FiZqn6fV-4Y
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: The FDA has just approved the first use of an algorithm which continuously monitors patients’ vitals and sends alerts up to six-hours before a potentially lethal heart attack or respiratory failure.

         Newest car theft technology: https://biggeekdad.com/2018/01/thieves-unlock-car-without-key/

        Creating a single unit of Bitcoin involves computers using special software to solve mathematical problems, which requires as much electricity as an average American home consumes in two years, says the New York Times.