Strategic Alignment

Agility With Good Governance

Is it One or the Other? There are few people who would argue that agility isn’t a good thing for their business. Equally there are few people who would argue that good governance isn’t a good thing for their business. So why do so many people think that governance and agility are opposing forces?

Darren Wray

Building For An Exit

Starting with the End in Mind The founders of many startup organisations have the dream of selling their organisation one day, perhaps to a big company like Facebook, Google or Microsoft, particularly if they’re a technology based company. The recent sale of Instagram, a 2 year old company, to Facebook for a $1bn in cash and stock has perhaps raised awareness of this topic again.

Darren Wray

Business Continuity The Business Advantage

Thinking Differently One of the biggest advantages that you can have in business is to have access to people who can think differently. For example, when we first start working with our clients on Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery, they often consider it to be something that has to be done, almost a cost of doing business today. At Fifth Step though, we believe in the value of thinking differently

Darren Wray

What Use Is A Virtual IT Director?

Virtual What Now? A Virtual IT Director or Virtual CIO is an outsourced IT executive who provides IT expertise to organisations that can’t find – or can’t justify – a full-time member of staff. They allowing your organisation to benefit from decades of knowledge experience for a fraction of the cost of employing a permanent IT director or an interim manager. Being a flexible resource, it means that they can be onsite once a week or more often as needed, and that their time will naturally change

Darren Wray

Reduce Your Spend On Solvency II

How can we Reduce our Spend on Solvency II This is a question that is on increasingly on many lips – especially with the news that the plenary vote on the Omnibus II legislation may be further delayed (it had previously been delayed from to the 2nd July, but was further delayed at the end of last week to the 10th September 2012). There are a number of steps that firms can take to reduce the cost of their Solvency II projects, and whilst many are specific to the individual organisations, one generic approach is to start the transition from “project mode” into “business as usual” as quickly as possible.

Darren Wray