KiwiRail announced a three-million dollar (NZD) partnership to provide KiwiRail Network with the software and services designed to improve visibility and management of its tracks, bridges and other network assets to improve the speed, safety, and reliability of its rail service.

KiwiRail is committed to being an integrated part of New Zealand’s transport system, focusing on those areas where rail has a natural strength such as the movement of bulk commodities, import-export goods and long distance containerised traffic. The Ministry of Transport predicts freight volumes will grow by 75 percent over the next 20 years and KiwiRail needs to invest in its infrastructure to ensure rail can shoulder its share of that traffic.

This is a preview of IBM, Kiwirail NZ in $3m bid to make trains run on time.

More in our ongoing theme of important lessons for budding (or current entrepreneurs).

In large companies, the CEO has professional writers, a PR office, and lots of other skilled people on hand to help relay important messages to the right constituents. As a CEO of a start-up, you don’t have this luxury. You are always the company’s #1 Communicator.

Most important is to never underestimate this role. Silence isn’t golden; it’s dangerous. Even if there’s no good news to share, say something! At first, employees and investors will fill your silence with their fondest hopes. But once you’ve missed a single deadline, or something hasn’t gone according to plan, everyone will project their worst fears into the void.

This is a preview of Advanced Entrepreneurship: Silence Isn’t Golden; It’s Dangerous.

‘….The results of this study suggest not only that social network
users accept  unknown persons in their group just based on a nice
profile photo, but also that they are willing to reveal personal,
sensitive information after a short online conversation. This means
that social networks serve both as a meeting ground where people can
present themselves and communicate, but also as a starting point for
a virtual “friendship”, which brings people to divulge too much
information because of the illusion of anonymity……’

To read the complete article please follow this link.

It’s very simple – avoidance isn’t a viable strategy for decision making.

I spend a lot of my time setting up organizations in order to make rapid decisions; decisions designed to test, incrementally improve, and innovate (what, as one of my new colleagues at Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. reminded me, John Maxwell calls "failing forward"). To fail forward, you must create many decisions, each incrementally improving your businesses. This is the opposite of a Six Sigma discipline and probably has no place on an assembly line (or a surgery bed). But it drives many companies forward, as they become enabled to make calculated decisions that lead to learning, growth, and ultimately success. Success by failure is not an oxymoron.

This is a preview of Avoid Decisions, Avoid Life.