​Like many people, I like to make resolutions at the start of new year. New Scientist reported that only 10% of the resolutions made in January will survive until December.  In many instances, it is because new habits were not formed so we can make the necessary changes to our lives.

Lots of my resolutions involve learning new things – a language, a new way that I want to behave, a craft I have always wanted to master. I am not alone in saying that I don’t achieve mastery for every resolution that I’ve made over the years, and it’s not without the best intentions.

Psychologist, Ebbinghaus observed that once we learn something, without practice we soon forget.

Did you know that 70% of what you learn is lost within 24 hours after learning without practice?

In March 2011, the R9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake and tsunami devastated the northeast coast of Japan. The radiation levels around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meant that a zone within a 20km radius of the plant was evacuated. Among the businesses impacted was Merck’s Onahama factory, the only plant in the world to make Xirallic pigments for the automotive industry. For a time, it was not possible to buy a high sheen black Ford because metallic tuxedo black was ‘temporarily unavailable’ since it was manufactured using Xirallic pigments from the now evacuated plant.

​The world’s top automakers, including Ford, Chrysler, Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota and GM were left stranded. How could this happen?

​I have to admit to being a Star Wars fan and did enjoy the latest fix, Rogue One, where we saw how the plans for the death star were uncovered. These plans prove during later movies to being instrumental in moving the power back from the dark side.  
There is a similar cyber battle going on in business. 2016 was a bad year for Yahoo!, one of the great pioneers of the internet. During September 2016, it reported that a security breach had affected over 500 million Yahoo! user accounts, the largest security breach ever to be reported publicly. But it turns out that this was just the beginning…