"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results"...WC
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Several years ago, on a flight from London to Melbourne, I sat next to a soft-spoken Scotsman from Aberdeen, who was then CEO of a business unit of Siemens.
Long haul business travellers usually seek solitude. but on this occasion we engaged in what was the beginning of a friendship. The humility and enthusiasm of this generous high achiever was uplifting as he talked about using role models to motivate his organization.
One he enthused about was Cliff Young, an Australian who at 61 achieved the impossible to win the 1983 Sydney to Melbourne ultra marathon, a 900km run.
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North Korea is keeping the heat up around Asia,
Myanmar is clarifying it’s diplomatic standing upon Aung San Suu Kyi.
And maybe we can have a chance to meet Iran’s first lady after the June election
What these events share in common is the question “Who’s going be the leader?”
For interest, I wondered what similarities these CEO’s have with leaders in business and what such people need to reach that position in their working career.
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As large companies continue to consolidate and look at ways to rationalize they inevitably focus to cut out the middle man. The falling out of Singapore International Airlines with one of their major agents, Flight Centre in Australia, tells the story of this type of change.
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Categories: Product Management, Selling, Strategy Management, Understanding Consumner Behaviour Tags: Airline, Australia, British Airways, Business, Flight Centre, Jetstar Airways, Qantas, Travel agency
As social networking in business continues defining itself so rapidly we will see many large and small players circumvented if they ignore it.
One thing I notice with many business peers, including CEO’s and business leaders alike, is they generally focus on what they understand well.
Social networks” as a relatively new phenomena is generally not one of them.
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Categories: Market Intelligence, Marketing, Performance Management, Understanding Consumner Behaviour Tags: Business, CEO’s current focus, LinkedIn, Marketing, Search engine optimization, Social network, social networking, Web Design and Development, Web search engine
Those who have come into management jobs in the last 18 years of 
growth and affluence now have challenges.
Companies are now very lean and highly intent on remaining viable as they look to position for upturn when it comes. The skills for pulling all this all together are in short supply.
I am not sure if the so called XY Gen awakening is so evident yet. But these guys are seriously racing to get skill sets needed to manage all this. I have no doubt that there is a rapid maturing of the so called good times over indulging and conservative "me" generations that make up much of our business culture .
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How can we take holidays in the middle of recession. Just do it, I say and why not if you can get away with it? It is is a great thing but you sure come back to earth when you find it all there waiting for you. But I am back now and here is a quick round up the last month and some stuff on whats’ to come.
My Quote for this month
There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. – Peter Drucker
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Last month over 7000 visitors come to read us and over 60% who stayed over. As I am wrting this there are 251 people visiting now according to our blog meter. So it looks like we got something going which we hope we can keep up!!
Here is what we wrote about:
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“Our economic future is increasingly underwritten by the rise of Asia.”
It is interesting in Asia where lifestyles are good, the flow on economic slowdown has been less severe.
Something must be different?
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Categories: Economics & Environment Tags: Asia, Asian Economy, Australian Economy, Berkshire Hathaway, Business, Credit Card Risk, Credit rating, Credit rating agency, Moody, Oceania, United States
Do things really change or is it the way we see it?
To those who knew how things were in 1957 it may have seemed that the 
life was simple but it was not always easy. But considering it now maybe then it was a much better deal.
I wonder if it is possible to get that back and still keep the best of both worlds. Should we try to and if so how?
“Work Hard Play Hard” was our school motto at East Ivanhoe Primary School in Melbourne Australia. It still looks the same to me now as it did in 1957 when I was in Grade 4 there. So what has really changed?
Many of you may have seen this study or something similar. It is a lighthearted look at how the very same scenario is managed in two very different eras.
Now read on and enjoy !!!
Scenario 1: Jack goes rabbit shooting before school and pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.
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| 1957 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s rifle, goes to his car and gets his rifle & chats with Jack about guns. |
2007 – School goes into lock down, Star Force called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his Ute or gun again.. Counsellors called in for traumatized students and teachers. |
Scenario 2 : Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
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| 1957 – Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies. |
2007 – Police called arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it. Both children go to anger management programs for 3 months. School board hold meeting to implement bullying prevention programs. |
Scenario 3: Robbie won’t be still in class disrupts other students.
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| 1957 – Robbie sent to office and given 6 of the best by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again. |
2007 – Robbie given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. Robbie’s parents get fortnightly disability payments and School gets extra funding from state because Robbie has a disability. |
Scenario 4: Billy breaks a neighbor’s car window and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
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| 1957 – Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman. |
2007 – Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. |
Scenario 5: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
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| 1957 – Mark gets glass of water from Principal to take aspirin with. |
2007 – Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons. |
Scenario 6: Pedro fails high school English.
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| 1957 – Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college. |
2007 – Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching. English as a requirement for graduation is racist. Parents file class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English. |
Scenario 7: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a bull ant nest.
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| 1957 – Ants die. |
2007- Star Force, Federal Police & Anti-terrorism Squad called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, Feds investigate parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated. Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again. |
Scenario 8: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
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| 1957 – In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing. |
2007 – Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy. |
I noted when I look at my old primary school web site that has a theme now of “Fun, Caring, Learning, Cooperation, Fairness, Respect”. and a motto “Care Excellence and Justice”
It is interesting that it seemed those values were a given once and did not even have to be stated.
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As US President Obama passes his 100th day office in the white house, a poll reveals that his popularity is still up there. Following shortly, outbreak of the deadly A(H1N1) hits the front page of every newspaper and talksshow. I slowly realize that all of this is related to “change”.
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This story has been around a while but always worth recanting.
Bruce Sansome, Chairman of Natex Engineering Group in Australian shared this with a TEC Group in Melbourne recently.
As a lightheaded refocus he prefaced saying
"When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee."
Here is the story:
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Several years ago, on a flight from London to Melbourne, I sat next to a soft-spoken Scotsman from Aberdeen, who was then CEO of a business unit of Siemens.
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