|
Mar 21, 2009 at 06:02 PM |
Asset security has always been important to any business.
Traditionally we think of Assets as being things we can touch and see.
But, increasingly a group of your most valuable Assets are some which you probably haven't given much thought to before today because, by their very nature, they aren't visible, ...you can't see them and touch them.
I'm referring to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR); Copyrights (C); and such as Domain name Rights and Registrations.
With the ever increasing importance of online trading, NOW really is the time when you should ask yourself.... 'How safe are my Assets?'
The last thing any owner or manager wants is to find that all their time, effort and money invested in building up a particular asset has been destroyed through the greed and/or dishonesty of others.
We are all used to terms such as 'shrinkage' ...that infamous euphemism for sheer unadulterated bloody-minded thievery by those we employee and pay good money to each week; ... but, 'shrinkage' although damaging, is at least and usually traceable and, to some extent, visible.
With the continuing rise in importance and value of such as IPR and Copyrights, thefts and subversion of these expensive assets can be a lot more difficult to determine. Often by the time any threats are fully recognised it has effectively become 'too damned late' to avoid the costs.
If you should find usurped or misappropriated intellectual Assets the impacts can be not only extremely severe, but even potentially terminal for your business.
Because the crooks in this category of (sic)'white-collar crime' are mainly the people we work beside in our offices; (rather than distant or unrecognisable employees in a store or warehouse); the actions, when uncovered, tend to cut us even more deeply. None more so than if the warning signs were there for some time, but you decided to ignore them until it became just too painful to continue with the delusion that said... "... Johnnie isn't that sort".
You wouldn't be alone if you are reading this now and thinking "Bugger! .... I wish I'd acted sooner".
Many business people like to think that they are hardened to the ethos of 'being in business'. Many of us like to imagine that as the saying goes ...'there are no flies on us'.
But, the truth is that we all need and want to think the best of those we elect to keep around us.
Each of us is reluctant to act at the first hint of a problem, and we often chose to ignore the warning signs and also fail to take the necessary steps to protect our property.
As human beings we don't want to think the worst of people. Especially not those employees and colleagues we come into contact with day-in and day-out, ...perhaps over many months or years of very close cooperation.
But, such an approach, whilst perhaps understandable; ...maybe even laudable from a social perspectives, is, in reality, crass stupidity of the grandest order.
Eventually the light of recognition becomes so blindingly bright that it shines through even the thickest of 'blinkers'.
It is then that we feel personally hurt and betrayed; ...often more because our trust and pride has been injured than for the pure monetary impacts.
But, with the increasing importance of these hitherto invisible assets, the damage to your pride may become so immaterial that it takes on the mantle of being truly insignificant.
Sooner, rather than later, as online businesses grow, the financial and strategic impacts of failures to secure your most valuable assets may signal the end of your entire business.
A particular case has been brought to my desk over the past weeks which demonstrates the warning signs which if unchecked could leave you vulnerable and financially damaged or destroyed.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
d'Boss