I’ve always found mentors to be truly remarkable people who not only make light work of venturing outside societal and technical norms but who go out on a limb to help those who ask. Their advice has often helped me to successfully navigate corporate politics, avoid technical minefields and, on occasion, convinced me to restructure my thinking, expectations and attitudes.

Modern organizations have tried to increase the collaborative effort by creating centers of expertise, regional hubs and invested heavily in collaborative technologies. However, despite all the investment, invariably they fall short of the mark because open-plan office design has shown that it is negatively related to workers’ satisfaction with their physical environment and perceived productivity […]

After many years of work with clients across Africa and the Middle East I decided to join a large research organization, more specifically, Huawei’s European Research Center (ERC) headquartered in Munich. I figured that researching security and digging deeper into the cloud would not only give me a chance to put my field experience to […]

Just about every person you’re likely to meet exhibits some idiosyncrasies, or quirks. These may be noticeable during normal day-to-day interaction or could only surface under times of stress or discomfort. I’m particularly interested in the latter because it can shed light onto someone’s receptiveness and the true nature of their responses during discussions and […]

Before going on leave some weeks back, I managed to finish up a number of projects and hand them over to those who would act as custodians in my absence. I try to make the process as painless and informative as possible for those staying behind to man the walls. But in spite of my […]

Today I was approached by a friend and colleague to give a talk about the benefits of working in the information technology consulting industry and “How you attain achievement and enjoyment at work”. To be honest, I was taken aback by the mere proposition of talking on the subject in a positive voice given my […]

What is it about professional certifications that compels people to get certified in the technologies they work in or fields they want to get into? As many of us know, a certification doesn’t necessarily translate into someone’s mastery of topic. For a long time I resisted obtaining them because of too many disappointing experiences with […]

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of BlackBerry phones, is laying everything on the line in the hope that its latest device, the BlackBerry 10 smartphone, will win over consumers and pull the company out of a lossmaking slump that saw its share price tumble by almost 96% over the past two years. RIM […]

To say that I’m a fan of international roaming would be a big fat lie. Don’t get me wrong, I love the freedom of being able to take my mobile phone and SIM (subscriber identity module) card from my current provider, travel half way around the world and still be able to communicate as if […]

Millions of frequent flyers around the globe go through the pain of requalifying for the coveted Emirates Skywards Gold membership level. For some of us, this may mean being only a few thousand tier miles away from retaining Gold, for others, it could be 25,000 miles. So what’s the best way to ensure you keep […]