CASE IN POINT: LESSONS FOR THE PROACTIVE MANAGER
Archive: Case in Point: Lessons for the proactive manager
Note: These newsletters contain links to news reports located on external sites and older links may no longer be available
Volume 16 -- 2024
Cybersecurity doesn't have to be scary
Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.
-- Confucius
Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, 'Would an idiot do that?' And if they would, I do not do that thing.
-- Dwight Schrute (From the TV Show ''The Office'')
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil rights leader and minister
You have to think a little smarter, be proactive, not reactive.
-- Frank Abagnale
The safety of the people shall be the highest law.
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman philosopher born in 106 BC
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.
-- George Petrie (excerpt from the Auburn Creed)
In the end you should always do the right thing even if it's hard.
-- Nicholas Sparks
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-- Unknown
Life is divided into three terms -- that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.
-- William Wordsworth
Volume 15 -- 2023
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning
-- Benjamin Franklin
In the algorithmic dance of progress, let ethics lead the choreography, for in the rhythm of artificial intelligence, the heartbeat of humanity must set the tempo.
-- Generated by ChatGPT
You are an essential ingredient in our ongoing effort to reduce Security Risk.
-- Kirsten Manthorne
Life is one big road with lots of signs
-- Box Marley
I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you're proactive, you focus on preparing. If you're reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.
-- John C. Maxwell
It's not always - or not only - the initial mistake that brings down a leader. It's the response, or lack thereof.
-- from the Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Brief 7/20/2023
New technology is not good or evil in and of itself. It's all about how people choose to use it.
-- David Wong
You can have all the right strategies in the world; if you don't have the right culture, you're dead.
-- Patrick Whitesell
The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.
-- Calvin Coolidge
Ethics are more important than laws.
-- Wynton Marsalis
If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
-- William H. McRaven
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
-- Confucius
Volume 14 -- 2022
Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.
-- John C. Maxwell
Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.
-- Stephen Covey
Only those who have patience to do simple things perfectly ever acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.
-- James J. Corbett
A wise man learns from his mistakes, a wiser man learns from others' mistakes, the wisest man learns from others' successes.
-- Anonymous
It's a dangerous world, man. You've gotta keep your eyes and ears peeled and be on the alert all the time.
-- Vinnie Paul
In the end you should always do the right thing even if it's hard
-- Nicholas Sparks
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
-- Bertolt Brecht
Collegiality among colleagues is the ideal, but it is not a legal requirement.
-- Anonymous
It is better to disappoint people with the truth than to appease them with a lie.
-- Simon Sinek
Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing.
-- Ted Lasso
Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.
-- Zig Ziglar
Every problem is a gift -- without problems we would not grow.
-- Anthony Robbins
Volume 13 -- 2021
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
-- Anais Nin
There's always a sense that people will do things quite differently if they think they have privacy.
-- Peter Thiel
A free mind makes its own choices, an enslaved mind follows the crowd.
-- Floyd Mayweather
You have to think a little harder, be proactive, not reactive.
-- Frank Abagnale
Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned.
-- Frank Sonnenberg
Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.
-- Chris Karcher
America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.
--Warren G. Harding
Communicate unto the other person that which you would want him to communicate unto you if your positions were reversed.
-- Aaron Goldman
Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday.
-- John Wayne
Fraud really thrives in moments of great social change and transition.
-- Maria Konnikova
If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it, too. Criminals are using every technology tool at their disposal to hack into people's accounts. If they know there's a key hidden somewhere, they won't stop until they find it.
-- Tim Cook
A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences.
-- Proverbs 27:12
Volume 12 -- 2020
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.
Orison Swett Marden
The mistakes of the past are valuable lessons for the future.
-- Lailah Gifty Akita
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
--Edmund Burke
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
--Albert Einstein
True prevention is not waiting for bad things to happen, it's preventing things from happening in the first place.
--Don McPherson
There are more things ... likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality
--Seneca
It takes less time to do things right than to explain why you did it wrong.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.
--Stephen Covey
Inside every problem are hidden opportunities
--John C. Maxwell
Not everything that gets your attention deserves your attention. Let that resonate for a minute.
--Jimmy Dykes from the book: The Film Doesn't Lie: Evaluating Your Life one Play at a Time
History repeats itself. So you might wanna pay attention.
--Quavo
For me, privacy and security are really important. We think about it in terms of both: You can't have privacy without security.
-- Larry Page
Volume 11 -- 2019
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the future.
-- Steve Miller
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest
-- Confucius
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.
--Oprah Winfrey
Collaboration is a key part of the success of any organization, executed through a clearly defined vision and mission and based on transparency and constant communication.
--Dinesh Paliwal
Fraud rarely occurs when strong controls and oversight are in place.
Robinson's Theory of Fraud Opportunity: a person with complete control of a process, and who fully understands the system for which they have complete control, is a danger to the organization from an occupational fraud standpoint. This risk is increased exponentially when you have complete trust in this employee.
Kevin Robinson
Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.
Alan Alda
Ethical decisions ensure that everyone's best interests are protected.
Harvey MacKay
When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.
--Jocko Willink
A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.
--Roy H. Williams
Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.
-- An Wang
The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and won’t face facts.
-- a Proverb of Solomon
Volume 10 -- 2018
The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.
-- John Locke
Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.
-- J.C. Watts
Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
-- Jim Rohn
Transparency is your friend in conflict of interest situations.
-- Kevin Robinson
We believe that transparency creates trust.
-- Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture, North America
Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.
-- Potter Stewart
Once you've lost your privacy, you realize you've lost an extremely valuable thing.
-- Billy Graham
It takes a career, a lifetime, to build up a reputation, and only one misstep for it all to crumble away.
-- Aaron Rodgers
Every day brings new choices.
-- Martha Beck
Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times.
-- John Gerzema
That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
-- Steve Jobs
Wise men say, and not without reason, that whoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past.
-- Niccolò Machiavelli
Volume 9 -- 2017
The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.
--J. Pierpont Morgan
Who am I, where have I been, and where am I going?
--Carl Sandburg
There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.
--Proverbs 14:12
It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.
--John Wooden
A fool thinks he needs no advice, but a wise man listens to others.
-- A Proverb of Solomon
Be proactive not reactive, for an apparently insignificant issue ignored today can spawn tomorrow's catastrophe.
-- Ken Poirot
If you see something, say something
-- Homeland Security
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters
-- Albert Einstein
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.
-- H.L. Mencken
Common sense is unfunded.
-- Unknown
To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting
-- Edmund Burke
When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.
-- David Brin
Volume 8 -- 2016
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.
-- Margaret J. Wheatley
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
-- Douglas Adams
The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it.
-- Stephen Covey
People always make the best exploits. I've never found it hard to hack most people. If you listen to them, watch them, their vulnerabilities are like a neon sign screwed into their heads.
-- Elliot Anderson (Rami Malek) in Mr. Robot
Things will absolutely go wrong. In a healthy team, as soon as things go wrong, that information should be surfaced. Trying to hide or obscure bad news creates an environment of distrust or lack of transparency.
-- Steven Sinofsky
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
-- John F. Kennedy
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Ultimately, what happened at Baylor is about a culture where too much power is given to one person.
-- Tony Barnhart
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
-- Abraham Lincoln
Transparency, honesty, kindness, good stewardship, even humor, work in businesses at all times
-- John Gerzema
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.
-- James Thurber
Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.
-- Augustine of Hippo
Volume 7 -- 2015
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.
-- Margaret J. Wheatley
Our research has shown that strong relationships, careers, organizations, and communities all draw from the same source of power --- the ability to talk openly about high-stakes, emotional, controversial topics.
-- Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning
-- Benjamin Franklin
If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology.
-- Bruce Schneier
I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you're proactive, you focus on preparing. If you're reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.
-- John C. Maxwell
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all.
-- Dr. George Petrie from The Auburn Creed
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
-- Warren Buffett
Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
-- General Colin Powell
The time is always right to do the right thing.
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Security is always excessive until it's not enough.
-- Robbie Sinclair
Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.
-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9
Volume 6 -- 2014
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
-- Nelson Mandela
Example is the best precept.
-- Aesop
It is the fool who thinks he cannot be fooled.
-- Joey Skaggs
In any situation, the best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.
-- Jane Addams
Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be.
-- Jack Welch
Awareness without action is worthless.
-- Phil McGraw
Obedience of the law is demanded; not asked as a favor.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
A leader leads by example, whether he intends to or not.
-- Unknown
There are risks and costs to a program of action - but they are far less than the long range cost of comfortable inaction.
-- John F. Kennedy
A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.
-- Mitch Ratliff
Volume 5 - 2013
Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
-- St. Francis of Assisi
If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.
-- Henry Ford
Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
-- Albert Einstein
He is most free from danger, who, even when safe, is on his guard.
-- Publillus Syrus
A naïve man believes everything, but a wise man looks well into the matter.
-- Proverbs
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
-- Benjamin Franklin
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)
Action is the foundational key to all success.
-- Pablo Picasso
No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
-- Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.
-- Leonard Nimoy
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.
-- Lawrence Peter ''Yogi'' Berra
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Volume 4 -- 2012
Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.
-- Denis Waitley
This was not a mistake, an oversight, or a misjudgment. This was a conspiracy of silence by top officials.
-- Linda Kelly Pennsylvania Attorney General
All of us are watchers - of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway - but few are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing.
-- Peter M. Leschak
Passwords are like underwear … change yours often …. don't share them with friends … don't leave yours lying around …
-- Virginia E. Rezmierski EDUCOM '98
Some choices we live not only once but a thousand times over, remembering them for the rest of our lives.
-- Richard Bach
If that is the culture at the bottom, God help the culture at the top
-- Former FBI Director Louis Freeh discussing the Penn State situation where employees feared reporting criminal activity
Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.
-- Harper Lee
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
-- John Quincy Adams
Contemplating any business act, an employee should ask whether he/she would be willing to see it immediately described by an informed and critical reporter on the front page of the local paper, there to be read by his/her spouse, children, and friends.
-- Warren E. Buffet
We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet.
-- Unknown
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own
-- Aesop
Part of being a leader at that level is to be a risk manager and to think through what might happen
-- Penn State Trustee Chair Karen B. Peetz
Volume 3 -- 2011
I don't expect anyone to be perfect. It's not human nature. What I do expect is that they will take risks, correct mistakes, and learn from both.
-- Mike Armstrong, Former CEO AT&T
Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.
--Josiah Gilbert Holland 1819-1881, American Author
One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.
-- Arnold Glascow
"Gee, there is something wrong with just about everything, isn't there, Dad?" - "Beaver" (Theodore Cleaver) "Just about, Beav!" - Dad (Ward Cleaver)
-- "Leave It To Beaver," television series 1957-1963
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
-- Ecclesiastes 1:9
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know."
-- Aldous Huxley
To know what is right and to not do it is the worst cowardice.
-- Confucius
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.."
-- Confucius
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
-- Douglas Adams
The corporate culture is the most powerful control in any organization.
--James (Jim) Roth, PhD, author of Best Practices: Evaluating the Corporate Culture
You can observe a lot just by watching.
-- Lawrence Peter ''Yogi'' Berra
Communication is the real work of leadership.
-- Nitin Nohria
Volume 2 -- 2010
Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up.
-- Unknown
The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won't sit upon a cold stove lid, either.
-- Mark Twain
Carelessness does more harm than a want of knowledge.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Fundamentally, security is about people, not technology.
-- Dr. Greg Newby
If you do not manage culture, it manages you, and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening.
-- Unknown
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Are you astonished Aulus, that our friend Fabullinus is so frequently deceived? A good man has always something to learn in regard to fraud.
-- Marcus Aurelius quotes (Roman emperor, best known for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy, AD 121-180
Don't get yourself in certain circumstances or instances, because it's not a good feeling to be sitting in that chair where you've got 12 people that are in control of your life. You have an opportunity to be in control of your life for yourself by the decisions that you make.
-- Puff Daddy
Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.
-- Albert Einstein
Security is always excessive until it's not enough.
-- Robbie Sinclair, Head of Security, Country Energy, NSW Australia
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
-- Thomas Paine
We took risks. We knew we took them. Things have come out against us. We have no cause for complaint.
-- Robert Frost
Volume 1 - 2009
Every manager is a risk manager.
-- Kevin Robinson
Complacency is not something we have the luxury of.
-- Jacob Nolan, Texas A&M student
People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems.
-- Bruce Schneier
-- Albert Einstein
-- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
It's very important for universities to be high places of integrity. That's about all we have to go on.
-- Morton Weir former university chancellor and current university board member at Knox College
The cost of greatness is responsibility.
-- Sir Winston Churchill
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
-- Adam Savage MythBusters
The time is always right to do what is right.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every manager is a risk manager.
--Kevin Robinson
Every dollar you lose to fraud or compliance failure is a dollar you've lost to your primary mission of education, research and outreach.
--Kevin Robinson
Contemplating any business act, an employee should ask himself whether he would be willing to see it immediately described by an informed and critical reporter on the front page of his local paper, there to be read by his spouse, children, and friends.
--Warren Buffet
OACP Higher Education News Feeds Higher Education RSS Feeds
Case-in-Point linked news stories are available through RSS feeds, which uses XML technology to deliver headlines and summaries to your desktop or browser. To use RSS, copy the news feed address and paste it into an RSS news reader or use a browser which supports RSS feeds or has extensions for RSS Feeds.
Information Security & TechnologyIf you display the RSS feed content publicly, including on your website, we ask that you provide attribution to Auburn University Office of Audit, Compliance & Privacy by including "Source: AU OACP" in text adjacent to the RSS feed content and linked to our website.
