The Catalyst Network

  What you need to Know to Protect Yourself from Phishing    Phishing is a fraudulent attempt to get sensitive information or data by disguising oneself as a trusted friend or acquaintance in electronic communication. Phishing is a cyberattack that uses disguised email as a weapon. The goal is to trick the email receiver into believing that the message is something they want or need — a request from their bank, for instance, or a note from someone in their company, and to click a link or download an attachment. Typically, the attackers look for information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details,  Phishing is an old attack method. It has been around since the mid-1990s. By analogy with the sport of angling, these Internet scammers were using e-mail lures, setting out hooks to "fish" for passwords and financial data from the "sea" of Internet users. When an offer is attention-grabbing, eye-catching, and too good to be true, you need to take precautions....

    How A Podcast Saved My life I was listening to an episode of an HBR IdeaCast where ShannonHuffman Polson spoke about her time in the military. She overcame many obstacles to fly U.S. Army attack helicopters. She remembered what her father told her “If you were to clean for 25cents, earn every cent.” She then mentioned the technique that saved my life. It was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese inventor and industrialist, the technique became an integral part of the Lean philosophy . The method became popular in the 1970s and is still in use till today. They have used the technique to get to the root of production failures in the production plant.   This technique has been added to a group of ideas that is called Lean philosophy. The technique is called The 5 Whys Technique . The 5 whys technique implies that when you encounter a problem, dig deeper into the investigation. Ask Why five times instead of once. What this does is that it helps you to get to...

  The 5 Whys Technique – Getting to the Root of Problems   Have you ever had a challenge that would not just go away? Maybe you notice it at first and tried to ignore it. At last the discomfort it caused made you to tackle it headlong and try to find a solution. The solution seemed to work as you had some respite. Then unexpectedly, the problem resurfaces!! What could be responsible for problems resurfacing after they have been supposedly addressed? Why do some disagreements persist after mediation has been attempted several? Why are there cold wars that develop into full-fledged confrontation? Could it be that the problem was never really addressed? Could it be that the resolutions attempted provided only a superficial treatment? The 5 why’s technique is Toyota’s method of getting to the root cause of tough, persistent problems. The method is one of the methods of lean manufacturing. It was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, a Japanese inventor and industrialist, the te...

  The Lean Startup in A Nutshell   Are startups smaller versions of large companies? No. Large companies have tools to manage strategy, operations, organizational theory, and so on. Startups don’t. They need a different set of tools. According to the book, a startup is a faith-based organization. You believe in your idea. But there are no facts. So, what is a startup to do? Part 1: Go outside the building and meet with customers. Get some feedback. Gather facts. (The book calls this the Customer Development Process ). Part 2: Have something to show customers, no matter how simple the version. Products are built incrementally. Take an incremented version of the product, improving it in stages. (The book calls this Agile Engineering ). Part 3: What is the startup taking outside the building? What should they be testing? They need information and to make decisions about- Who are the customers? How does the startup create and sustain demand so as to continue to ge...

  Lessons From 2020 So Far It was 8:46 a.m. Hijackers steered American Airlines Flight 11 into 1 World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m. they crashed United Flight 175 into 2 World Trade Center. At 9:37 a.m. the terrorists steered American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. At 10:03am the passengers on United Flight 93 saved countless lives by launching a counterattack against the hijackers. This resulted in the plane crashing into an empty field near Shanksville, Pa.  I understand that a sufferer of Truman Show delusion traveled all the way to New York to check whether the World Trade Center had fallen. He believed the 9/11 attacks were an elaborate plot twist in his personal storyline. It was exactly 9 years after the incident yesterday.  The focus of the blog today centers around lessons learned from 2020 so far. This year has been hard. You can say it has sucked. It has brought so much pain, disappointments, anxiety, and distress to many families. It has been a tough year...

    What Perfumes have to do with Inspiration and Influence     Remember the last time you hugged someone and the scent remained on your sweatshirt for weeks!! This was exactly what happened on Saturday 11th January. I was attending a goal setting and entrepreneurship event and I sat beside a lady who was also connected to the speaker. She had been a volunteer in one of his earlier events. At the break we had time to chat and get to know each other better. Little did I know that before the end of that day, she would give me a hug that I would remember for a long time to come. Muses and angels must be involved somehow in perfumes and scents. Especially with respect to inspiration and deep connection.   Thierry Mugler: How did it all start?     “I never dreamed of being a fashion designer. I wanted to be a director ,” Mugler once stated in an interview. “But fashion happened to be a good tool. It was a means of communicating.” The ...