Is there still a place for the human brain?

August 14th, 2010 Gordon Wood 4 comments

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results"...WC Print

It has been said that the best business brains are the inquisitive ones. But is it possible that this inquisitiveness will lead to its own demise as the leapfrogging emergence of global commercial processing power accelerates and unprecedented information ready to hand takes even greater control. With so much pre-programmed reactions being built in, will the human brain become redundant as a force driving humanity itself?

In pondering this, I chanced on the SAGE business brain training site which made me look at it clip_image002 this in more practical detail. It has some great insights into the types of business skills needed by successful people. The site, which runs Business Brain Training a quiz, also points out to me what people in business and young people learning should developed to be successful.

So in a debate with myself taking the side to argue in favor of brain keeping the power I concluded that it is actually even more critical to build management skills to ensure systems that run most of our lives don’t die.

Each of the items in the following quotes bare definitions I got from the SAGE site. I am not sure where they got them from but they are excellent food for thought. It was a fun to work thru hence I am posting it here. Perhaps someone may like to take the opposite view.

~000~

It is been put that with much of the worlds commercial and logistics now being connected by intelligent systems, the human brain can soon be replaced.

Here are 6 reasons why that will never happen.

Foresight by analytical system only helps predict futures but to spot opportunities takes more.

Foresight is the quality that will help you identify what success looks like for you. Good foresight is the sign of a great decision-maker, and someone who is equally strong at spotting opportunities that can lead them down their own path to success

Logic is at the heart of the heart of all systems. But even the most sophisticated NASA computers and commercial aero planes still need highly skilled people to tactically interpret information and react quickly to make critical decisions.

Logical thinking links up well with foresight. It’s the ability to recognize the order of events necessary to achieve success. The logical thinker’s strength is in identifying and processing patterns and seeing how they could work advantageously. Individuals with good logic skills are good at creating a practical order of a series of facts or events.

Concentration and sustaining focus on the right things is something systems can only support.

In a fast-moving business environment, people are faced with many different challenges, often in quick succession and sometimes all at once. Concentration is the ability to provide the necessary level of focus for each challenge, so that an individual can identify the key actions needed to achieve a solution.

Responsivness can be programmed but without human intervention disaster is inevitable.

This is the ability to work well under pressure and to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Individuals who excel in rapid response skills tend to be good all-rounders who can call on a range of skills when they need them. They can balance the adrenaline-fuelled thought process that is created by high-pressure situations with the calmness and control needed for intelligent decision making.

Memory just cannot be replaced by systems. System don’t remember anything they just store and process information.

It’s rare that all of the information you need to overcome a challenge will be readily available to you when you need it. The ability to retain key facts and carry forward lessons learnt from previous experience is vital to effective problem-solving. The knowledge stored by an individual gives them the power to continually improve the efficiency of business processes.

Numeracy is about joining the dots and not only about being able to calculate and understand numbers. It’s about understanding what is at the heart of the critical numbers and how they may change dynamically. Numeracy is also about understanding and reacting to what caused the numbers not in numerical terns but in the human activity terms that created them.

Success in business cannot be measured by profit alone. However, the ability to operate at a reasonably high level (and deliver profit) is an essential factor in determining long-term success. An agile numerical brain is a key part of making the right decisions to make a business profitable.

In conclusion it is easy to observe that good use of information systems and applications extensively improve intuition in the human brain of those who use and understand them well. And the human brain because of that improves the systems. Therefore these six highly important human abilities can never be replaced by synthetic brain power.

I rest my case.

~000~

Disclaimer / Acknowledgment

For those interested SAGE is one of the words large application technology companies with an impressive track record for quality business management products.

At the time publishing this post I can say with impurity that I have no association with SAGE at all nor am i aware do any of my affiliates. The information on their site referred to here is acknowledged as their material posted under international copyright and is used here for the purpose of debating arguments it poses.

Any inference or presumption that I or any of the contributors to this post represent SAGE or its views by association is denied. I do however acknowledge the excellent value of the material they posted and I recommended it.

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Categories: CapabilityManagement, What we are Reading Tags: Brain Power, SAGE

Who profits from poor data quality?

June 19th, 2010 Gordon Wood 8 comments

In the course of reading I found something that I believe puts a very different perspective on data management. We talk about how real time fast retrieval based analytics reporting can be used to grow the business. The truth it that it is not always so. Modern business systems have high integrity built in and can present data to you on demand, so you can ask questions that perhaps can be of high impact . That is the real value

But when a system process is broken or poorly designed, aside from fixing the cause, it seems bad data can provide business opportunities for the unscrupulous?

The question posed in the research material I read asked, Who profits from poor data quality?

Well apparently, the retail industry does—sometimes.

Poor data quality (and poor information quality in the case of intentionally confusing fine print) definitely has a role to play with things such as mail-in rebates—and it’s a supporting role that can definitely lead to increased profits.

In a post by Jim Harris dated 06/16/2010 he describes how this works. When I read it I saw how poor data engineered to be supplied this way allows some dubious business practices to scam the consumer. His post is also re-published in the Smart Data Collective,

It is an excellent read with congratulations to the author. I have also reposted here ~

A few months ago, during an e-mail correspondence with one of my blog readers from Brazil (I’ll let him decide if he wishes to remain anonymous or identify himself in the comments section), I was asked the following intriguing question:

“Who profits from poor data quality?”

The specific choice of verb (i.e., “profits”) may have been a linguistic issue, by which I mean that since I don’t know Portuguese, our correspondence had to be conducted in English.

Please don’t misunderstand me—his writing was perfectly understandable.

As I discussed in my blog post Can Social Media become a Universal Translator?, my native language is English, and like many people from the United States, it is the only language I am fluent in. My friends from Great Britain would most likely point that I am only fluent in the American “version” of the English language, but that’s a topic for another day—and another blog post.

When anyone communicates in another language—and especially in writing—not every word may be exactly right.

For example: Muito obrigado por sua pergunta!

Hopefully (and with help from Google Translate), I just wrote “thank you for your question” in Portuguese.

My point is that I believe he was asking why poor data quality continues to persist as an extremely prevalent issue, especially when its detrimental effects on effective business decisions has become painfully obvious given the recent global financial crisis.

However, being mentally stuck on my literal interpretation of the word “profit” has delayed my blog post response—until now.

Promoting Poor Data Quality

In economics, the term “flight to quality” describes the aftermath of a financial crisis (e.g., a stock market crash) when people become highly risk-averse and move their money into safer, more reliable investments. A similar “flight to data quality” often occurs in the aftermath of an event when poor data quality negatively impacted decision-critical enterprise information.

The recent recession provides many examples of the financial aspect of this negative impact. Therefore, even companies that may not have viewed poor data quality as a major risk—and a huge cost greatly decreasing their profits—are doing so now.

However, the retail industry has always been known for its paper thin profit margins, which are due, in large part, to often being forced into the highly competitive game of pricing. Although dropping the price is the easiest way to sell just about any product, it is also virtually impossible to sustain this rather effective, but short-term, tactic as a viable long-term business strategy.

Therefore, a common approach used to compete on price without risking too much on profit is to promote sales using a rebate, which I believe is a business strategy intentionally promoting poor data quality for the purposes of increasing profits.

You break it, you slip it—either way—you buy it, we profit

The most common form of a rebate is a mail-in rebate. The basic premise is simple. Instead of reducing the in-store price of a product, it is sold at full price, but a rebate form is provided that the customer can fill out and mail to the product’s manufacturer, which will then mail a rebate check to the customer—usually within a few business weeks after approving the rebate form.

For example, you could purchase a new mobile phone for $250 with a $125 mail-in rebate, which would make the “sale price” only $125—which is what the store will advertise as the actual sale price with “after a $125 mail-in rebate” written in small print.

Two key statistics significantly impact the profitability of these type of rebate programs, breakage and slippage.

Breakage is the percentage of customers who, for reasons I will get to in a moment, fail to take advantage of the rebate, and therefore end up paying full price for the product. Returning to my example, the mobile phone that would have cost $125 if you received the $125 mail-in rebate, instead becomes exactly what you paid for it—$250 (plus applicable taxes, of course).

Slippage is the percentage of customers who either don’t mail in the rebate form at all, or don’t cash their received rebate check. The former is the most common “slip,” while the latter is usually caused by failing to cash the rebate check before it expires, which is typically 30 to 90 days after it is processed (i.e., expiration dated)—and regardless of when it is actually received.

Breakage, and the most common form of slippage, are generally the result of making the rebate process intentionally complex.

Rebate forms often require you to provide a significant amount of information, both about yourself and the product, as well as attach several “proofs of purchase” such as a copy of the receipt and the barcode cut out of the product’s package.

Data entry errors are perhaps the most commonly cited root cause of poor data quality.

Rebates seem designed to guarantee data entry errors (by encouraging the customer to fill out the rebate form incorrectly).

In this particular situation, the manufacturer is hyper-vigilant about data quality and for an excellent reason—poor data quality will either delay or void the customer’s rebate.

Additionally, the fine print of the rebate form can include other “terms and conditions” voiding the rebate—even if the form is filled out perfectly. A common example is the limitation of “only one rebate per postal address.” This sounds reasonable, right?

Well, one major electronics manufacturer used this disclaimer to disqualify all customers who lived in multiple unit dwellings, such as an apartment building, where another customer “at the same postal address” had already applied for a rebate.

Conclusion

Statistics vary by product and region, but estimates show that breakage and slippage combine on average to result in 40% of retail customers paying full price when making a purchasing decision based on a promotional price requiring a mail-in rebate.

So who profits from poor data quality? Apparently, the retail industry does—sometimes.

Poor data quality (and poor information quality in the case of intentionally confusing fine print) definitely has a role to play with mail-in rebates—and it’s a supporting role that can definitely lead to increased profits.

Of course, the long-term risks and costs associated with alienating the marketplace with gimmicky promotions take their toll.

In fact, the major electronics manufacturer mentioned above was actually substantially fined in the United States and forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of denied mail-in rebates to customers.

Therefore, poor data quality, much like crime, doesn’t pay—at least not for very long.

I am not trying to demonize the retail industry.

Excluding criminal acts of intentional fraud, such as identity theft and money laundering, this was the best example I could think of that allowed me to respond to a reader’s request—without using the far more complex example of the mortgage crisis.

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Categories: Understanding Consumner Behaviour, What we are Reading Tags:

Checking world clock numbers is sobering

April 23rd, 2010 Ralph Eastman 2 comments

This earth clock is quite sobering. Depletions rates are actually frightening when you see them presented in this interactive update page. Yearly, monthly, weekly figures are one thing but what really makes you think is the daily depletion rate changing before your eyes.

Poodwaddle.com

I am going to bookmark this page and check it again in a week or so. If you want to follow the updates too you can RSS link or subscribe to the post.

For the record here is an image at the time I composed this post.

How can we stop this?

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Categories: What we are Reading Tags: Resources Depletion, Sustainablity

Beware of Criminals making use of your data .

February 21st, 2010 Gordon Wood 3 comments

There is so much conversation about social media, but it is not only network marketing media interested in exploiting iits potential. The criminal elements in our communities, it seems, are too interetsded to see how they can put it to use.

Are you one those people hooked on twitter who tells the world every time you leave home or go to some event.

If you do, think again before you this do next time. You may well be telling thieves to take advantage of you.

In his oz-analytics post this week headlined mining social media, Steve Bennett updated us on a site he found that detail how robbers can now see who is not at home using simple twitter stream search.

For many of us who have our emails on websites and public profiles, we may also seek to simplify our lives in the explosion of social networking. For this can join it all up on Facebook or similar sites. But beware what you include as it does not take super intelligence for someone to use this to put it together and then watch and wait till we tell them the coast is clear.

Any robber with a phone and a twitter account, may get an open invitation from to take what he likes because as we tell him we are not at home. A simple key word search on twitter give easily robbers the scoop on you . If you don’t believe me, do a search and see how many people say they are not at home. The web on the phone also provides maps and satellite photos of your street and your house to make the plundering job even easier And it is even easier with an alerting tool to send an email when someone says they’re not home.

The only issue then is it may get a bit crowded at your house if more than one robber turns up with the same idea.

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Categories: Intelligent Reporting, Risk Management, What we are Reading Tags:

Twitter Paradox-80/20 steals a base

June 5th, 2009 Gordon Wood 2 comments

My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter... If you are trying to figure out twitter as a social network this is interesting

A man is almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman. contrary to typical online social networks.

New Twitter Research also shows 10 % of Twitter Users Account for 90% of Tweets As Twitter is still in it’s infancy, it could be interesting to see who the early technology adopters?

Here is the May 2009 Harvard study by Bill Heil and Mikolaj Piskorski

Study’s highlights include:

Enjoy the ride; Sorry no return ticket

June 3rd, 2009 Roland F. Chessman No comments

As we focus on making it all happen it is easy to forget to enjoy the lighter side of life. Just to kept it in perspective. “The Ride of Your Life” by George Carlin is worth taking time out and reading every day.

George Carlin’s view on ageing is brilliant. He Begins with a question.

Do you realize the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids?

What we read in April 2009

May 16th, 2009 Ralph Eastman No comments

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

Your Feedback

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:

What we were reading in Mar, 2009

April 4th, 2009 Ralph Eastman 1 comment

Once again another month passes and those of us left are still here. And it seems ages since recession ended, doesn’t it?.

We did a bunch of posts this month and our readership short thru the roof despite my suggestion to turn off. Clearly people have too much idle time. Or is reading replacing TV as a pastime.. I wonder?

My Quote for this month

I have seen the future and it doesn’t work“.- a great one liner by Canadian author and journalist Robert Fulford

Your Feedback

We know we are being widely read because some folks are complaining we don’t spend enough time proof reading. We have noted that too and will take that seriously, especially now we know we are being taken seriously.

Here is some of what we wrote about:

I know you have already read this but in case you missed then here is a list of our March posts

Check out how to get email updates >>

Here is what we read about:

Sawbones Online fans get a second book

This month we saw one of our colleagues, yes another Wood, added a second book to the reading maize. Trevor Wood an Australian illustrator, has again dug deep into the realms of the living dead with his comic books about a zombie odd couple. In this he re-animates the dead with the comic “Sawbones”.

Wood, who teamed up with writer Jen Breach, who together have been publishing weekly comics for over two years with books also coming in multiple story format.

The two main characters, are rough and ready cowboy, Sheriff Sawyer and pompous English buffoon, Bones O’Brien, They get involved in comic adventures, with a focus firmly on slapstick. “The violence is implied,” Wood says. who adds “We put them in everyday situations instead of dealing with the situation normally, they eat your brains,”

In keeping with www.PerformanceeController.com policy of no direct plugs, even to ourselves, (what a silly idea that is) we cannot suggest you visit their website and order a book. Actually that is not true.The truth is if you dont get an order in quickly, you will most likely have to go on back-order and wait.

Sawbones Volume 2 and 1 are both available at comic stores and http://sawbonesonline.com/comic/

Is it Confidential, Maybe Not?

Lawyers know, or should know, that the photos, documents, videos and other similar files that they attach to emails, and send out into the cloud, contain metadata. This hidden data contains information about the attachments that may, or may not, be intended to remain confidential. Lawyers, especially, must be concerned about confidentiality of communications.

Read Full Post on this >>

To Tweet or not to Tweet

Do you have a Twitter account yet? If not you may get left behind as everyone else seems t have one.

But and for the life of me the value is still elusive as we are sending out and receiving loads of tweets to see what happens. But not so for many who just use it daily and for early adopter marketers who learning about this new channel for communication. They could be onto something here so I plan to follow this.

There is a lot more to come on Twitter I am sure as phenomena that is growing exponentially. The present Google acquisition rumors reflect Twitter’s importance as a social media and micro blogging service.

Check go this out ?>

Up and Comer Blog

New entrant to the business blog world is Singaporean Vince Chew. Vince is a young IT veteran and business change consultant who packs a punch when it comes to contributing to others. Knowing Vince as we do in person, we know his new blog will be worth watching for sure. we have also added it to our blog roll.

Why not check check out his new Creative Management blog and take a look at his post Writing good reports for success

Guess The Nationality

I was doing some research on marketing and awareness programs and I came across this titillating advertising, designed to get attention, as it asks you to Guess The Nationality!

Is it….American? Swiss? Spanish? French? Italian? Brazilian?

As you can see on the picture right .. the answer is Polish

Beating the Tom Tom Update

Microsoft and TomTom announced they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker’s mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom’s use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom’s countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won’t be making any payment to TomTom.

In a statement, the two companies said that the settlement provides TomTom patent coverage “in a manner that is fully compliant with TomTom’s obligations under the General Public Lucense Version 2.” As part of the agreement, TomTom will “remove from its products the functionality related to two file management systems patents,” over the next two years. The agreement protects TomTom’s customers under the patents during that time, the companies said.

Read the Full C Net Post>>

Encarta moves over for Wikipedia

In a recent Mashable.com post reported a Microsoft quote about Encarta closure

“Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past.”

The post goes on to say Wikipedia boasts 2.7 million entries in English versus just 42,000 for Encarta.

Check it out >>

Russia Microsoft Dichotomy

This month, Ina Frieda a writer at CNet, has her attention focused on on Microsoft. In one article this month she talks about the Software giant coming under anti trust scrutiny in Russia. Talk about maturing, it was not long ago Russia was listed on Microsoft’s piracy board as one of the highest offending countries outside Indonesia. It is amazing how the wheel turns.

Anyway if you are interested in Microsoft check out Ina’s Recent posts from Beyond Binary

Pirates and who Benefits

It is a well know that John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz wrote the original Dartmouth BASISC programming software that got Microsoft started. As the story goes Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the founders of Microsoft, then modified it and sold as their first product at Micro-Soft (that was the company’s name when it started business).

According to Sam Varghese at ITWire in his post last month he adds that everyone agrees the famous whine in 1976 saw Gates invent the term “software piracy.” He also outlines more about Gates view on the ling term benefits that will flow to Microsoft from China when they do start paying for software.

I for one have always been convinced that the 3 US dollars price you pay for any software in Jakarta is a Cartel level rate agreed by vendors to propagate its software into this developing nation. In Thailand a common folk law view is the Pantip Plaza, is actually owned by Microsoft Pantip is the home of the 15 minute pirate copy burners.

The Singapore Lion

Singapore’s latest technology blueprint, called Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015), was announced in 2006. It is designed to help the nation achieve various economic and social benefits through more sophisticated and innovative use of infocomm technologies.

Through iN2015, Singapore is aiming for a two-fold rise in value driven by its infocomm industry to S$26 billion (US$17 billion) and a three-fold increase in infocomm export revenue to S$60 billion (US$39 billion). It is also targeting for this industry to create 80,000 new jobs.

India consultant service coming of Age?

Uma-Kataya, of The Dancing Feather Fashion fame, is in India buying and coordinating her designer ranges in productions for the summer releases this year. Nothing new there but as a student of India and the constant change in the fashion business, she noticed the consultants trend is very interesting.

India as a country has had an English speaking base for over 400 years and the richness of this and other languages makes for interesting influences on their cultures.

As India maturing commercially continues with its increasing economic importance, so does the Indian consultants influence in the world’s largest managements.

“Conventional wisdom in the US holds that consulting firms like McKinsey have nothing to fear from Indian firms. The reason is that Indian firms are most unlikely to win high-end strategy and board level consulting business, at the expense of the likes of McKinsey and Bain, because the cultural barriers are way too high.”?

That is a quote from this Indian journal which challenges this conventional wisdom as it goes on to ask “will companies like Wipro and Infosys work to help US and other developed nation firms change their culture”?

Check it out www.indiajournal.com/pages/event.php?id=6300

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What we were reading in Feb, 2009.

March 3rd, 2009 Ralph Eastman No comments

As we research or just read for interest we find interesting stuff on varied subjects. I collect them here and add summaries for context. Also as I have the power with the keyboard, I hope you will forgive me if I sometimes I get carried away and add my two coins worth . You must tell me if it is not what you want or even perhaps just delete my link.

For this who want to read on, before you do here is a quote I like:

“”Saying you make my day, makes my day.” Anon

Aussie Bush Fires:

We acknowledge and pay respect to those who lost their lives in the Australian bush fires on Feb 7 2009. Our sincere condolences go to all who lost family and close friends. Many more are still in critical care and all now have to recover and rebuild their homes and their lives.

We encouraged anyone who feels so inclined to donate via the Australian Red Cross.

Take a look at the monsters on my post here >>

Climate Crunch Time:

It seems that everyone is well aware that climate change is a key issue for us all. But sadly, very few of us in the ordinary walks of life, find it easy to sort through the information we get. But like it or not to claim back the planet the carbon constrained world is a new reality .

This month the US President Obama asked Congress to legislate to meet the 80% emission reduction goal. He gave them no choice with an alternative that the administration would resort to use provisions being the existing clean air act. In my post about this in Feb US Climate Czar Acts! a point I made may put a roadblock in the way of understanding. My statement that the US is not going to ratify Kyoto is not a factor. In fact it is much to late for that as current Kyoto Protocol on climate change and global warming expires in 2012 .

What is more important is President Obama has a crucial role to play is in the negotiations for a new protocol for Jan, 1, 2013 start. A climate conference, in Dec 2009 in Copenhagen, of all the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ((UNFCCC), comprising around 170 countries, will meet for the last time on government level, before a climate agreement is to be renewed. International talks have been underway for some time, and the hope is that at least a rough framework on a new treaty will be negotiated in Copenhagen during the UN conference. Early agreement is needed there so countries can get the treaty through their domestic legislation in time for 2013 start.

This subject is vital for us all now to be more aware, so we were are doing research on the issues and seeking advice on considerations for ongoing adaption Anyone with a contribution on this is very welcome to add to this content.

Here is some more detail about the Copenhagen UNFCCC Conference >>

Carbon Labeling:

Have you ever wondered about those funny black feet with numbers on them feet appearing on products. In Asia you don’t see them much yet but they are coming. In Europe, North America and elsewhere they are now quite commonplace.

No, it is not a brand for footwear either. The symbol tells consumers the carbon emissions taken to make the product, so you can buy wisely, being aware of the impact it has on our environment.

In February we attended a seminar in Bangkok about a “Carbon Footprint and Labeling” project The project, now in its formative stage, is jointly lead by the EU Commission users and Thailand-EC Cooperation Facility Program.

The seminar discussed how the project would proceed and some of the issues it would deal with. The scope includes understanding measurement standards, setting guidelines for labels, making recommendations for use and certification control. Check out the report on this by Dr Kitipan Kitbamroong, himself an environmental specialist.

Why Carbon Footprint Labeling? >>

Beating on a TOM TOM

It seems like Microsoft have a new Toy and they don’t like anyone else playing with it for free. Moreover they say Linux have stolen it from them so no we can sit back and watch Linux wagons form a circle and the battle begin.

If like my wife and millions of people in the last 2 years who got a Tom Tom in a their gift boxes, and now use it daily to get you from A to B, this may interest you.

Read >> Is Microsoft finally taking Linux to court?

The most qualified job hunter

I like this man’s advice in his case study post

“Kevin’s heard me say a thousand times, “The most qualified job hunter is rarely the one who gets the offer?” Yup that’s right. It’s not a typo. I’m not crazy. The best positions go to the people who do the best job at positioning themselves as the best solution to an employer’s problem — once in they’re in the interview. And that’s the rub. “

That is an extract from this well worth while post which goes well on as a case study for job seekers.

In the body one very “just get it “point he makes:

“Employers only hire when they have problems to solve. And they will only hire you if they can specifically see you as the solution to their problems.”

Sounds like Sales doesn’t it? So I have added this to my recommend reading list for salespeople: Maybe a bit more about job hunters pipeline management would be useful but I guess that is why and recruiters have job inventories.

Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson – The Resume Makeover with before and after examples. see

Link here to check it out >>

I’m just John.. With a Guerilla CV

I found this while reading some comments on a Linkedin blog. If you are serious about getting a job, you cannot miss the shear subtly of this approach.

John S Rajeski sets a new the bar on and blows me away with his approach.

Link here is John S. Rajeski >>

Who’s Logged In

If you think it is just us young guys on the net have another look.

Baby boomers young and old are in there and even many older generations have taken to email by preference and to get information on such thing as health. Her is what looks like some good research work on this, It shows 74% of internet users age 64 and older send and receives email.

Interesting too that Teenagers, who use internet more for fun on the other hand are using email less. And ages 33-44 use it for shopping.

The article I got this information from expands commentary on all demographics and has a very useful graphical slide presentation to back it up.

The table below explains the definition terms used for the various generations.

Check it out>>

Home-Based Businesses Tips

This is useful stuff on home business I found in San Francisco Chronicle

These are the heading is covers

Naming Your Home-Based Business

What It takes to run a Home-Based Business?

Windows or Apple Computers for My Company?

Separating Your Home from Your Business

Balancing Work with Family

http://allbusiness.sfgate.com/3473091-1.html

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What we read in Jan 2009.

January 31st, 2009 Ralph Eastman 3 comments

Happy Chinese New Year

With the new year underway on January 1 this month we also heralded in the Year of the OX and Chinese New Year, which began on 26th of January. In China, where it is also called “Spring Festival”, it celebrates the beginning of the spring planting season. The changing date each year is dependant on the Chinese calendar invented in 2637 B.C.by Emperor Huangdi. For at least a week ahead of the celebrations that last another two weeks, people clean up their houses to sweep away bad luck of the previous year. It is usually a good time to ask for any money owed.

Check out what we read in Jan 2009

A Guiding Hand Over My Shoulder

Someone this week send me a link to an end user authoring software tool. This seems to have caught attention of many as a very useful training and support tool that shadows live workflow driven and other applications.

The tool produces support media to give over shoulder help that users often need. What seems good is the tool is designed to be interactive and follow user’s steps to get the job done all while users are working in their application.

On the video the first 2 minutes gives an overview about the the company then it differentiates the software’s process concepts and its approach to embedded learning.

The heart of the message starts at the 4:21 minutes mark and runs for about 7 minutes Iy is worth listening through. But you also get the point well after a minute or so. This live demo uses a Microsoft CRM user in a case example to shows how the media helps users to get their job done. The remaining 10 minutes (22 in total) present detail authoring set-up steps. After a minute or so some may find this segannt less interesting and bookmark it for later.

It bears closer look as one of those “well done software tools” that developers, trainers, help desk support functions and users themselves should have.I can imagine this embedded learning functionality will soon start appearing as an embedded feature in many workflow driven applications.

The tool is called “SHO Guide “. Check it out http://www.transcensus.com/pages/tour/guide/

Google Searches Impact Environment

Google Searches Impact Environment

It seems Google is to blame for all our climate wows. On Monday, January 12, 2009 a Fox News report Google operates huge data centers around the world that consume a great deal of power according to Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist.

Read News Article >>

Don’t upset your computer

Did you know your computer can hear you. Like most of us it functions better in a calm environment and underperforms if you upset it.

In an interesting video post Timo Elliot show us what happens when you yell at your computer

View Video Post and check out Timo’s BI questions Blog >>

What happened to the money?

This is a useful post and ongoing debate spawned by Jack M. Guttentag The Mortgage Professor post. In it he describes how the overcooked home mortgage market failures from 2006 triggered financial system collapsed in late 2008 and how the bail out money was relevant to trying to stem the tide of the full blown recession we now face.

Read article >>

BI Predictions for 2009

In Timo’s Elliott January post The definitive list of business intelligence predictions, makes interesting read.

In this he asserts “Cloud Computing” will cause a shift in the Business Intelligence balance of power from IT to business users, as Software as a Service picks up in the mid-market and BI moves into the cloud The IT industry’s expansion to “the cloud” will accelerate and by 2010, 20% of organizations will have an industry-specific analytic application delivered via Software as a Service as a standard component of their BI portfolio with Cloud computing will impact decision management.

Read Full Post >>

Gauging the Gauge

Shaun Rogers in a “B-eye netwok blog added a twitter poll to gage expectations on Business Intelligence technology. It interesting he separates “Cloud” and “Software as as Service” in his poll. You can add you vote:

Interesting too is the tool he used, a freely available widget that I can imagine will proliferate to web sites like ours and company intranets seeking to survey and get feedback on issues. Check it out, it includes the embedding code example which I used to post to the html in this blog. and believe me is is easy once you grab the idea and I am no Techo.

Check out Shaun’s blog>>

Solving Energy Problems

Do you get the feeling you have seen it all before. Steam and Electric energy or transport. Nuclear solutions for industry and solar for domestic are all options. All are proven as choices but none has ever succeeded to solve the issues.

Michael North, professor of organic chemistry at Newcastle University, says people don’t seem to realize that a large percent of everything that comes out of an oil well also drives the chemical industry He adds “Not only are we facing a fuel crisis, but the entire chemical industry is likely to cease to exist.”

But now for the first time it seems we may have a breakthrough as the very heart of the issue in C02.

I was interesting I found this find this when I researched uses stored C02. I read the US government had made a $300 Million Loan in January for a carbon storage project to limit C02 release into atmosphere.

Believe it or not hydrocarbon regeneration as viable option is not new. What is is finding a n efficient process to recycle and make renewable captured coal fired energy emissions to turn C02 in them into fuel.

Read How Startup Turns CO2 Into Fuel >>

“Vista” for those who love to hate it.

An article in the New York times, Published by DAVID POGUE on January 21, 2009 say what may others mutter daily. Me included, But it seems there is hope ..

Pogue says

“For an operating system that took five years to create, Windows Vista’s reputation went down in flames amazingly quickly. Not since Microsoft Bob has anything from the software giant drawn so much contempt and derision. Not every company lives to see the day when its customers beg, plead and sign petitions to bring back the previous version of its flagship product.

In his New Your Times piece headed “Hate Vista? You May Like the Fix”Pogue foes on to talk about Window 7 which is now in beta will overcome much of the pain.

David also has a video this too. It is an easy way to get the message and quite entertaining too.

It is down the page a bit from this great cartoon

Check it out>>

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What we read in Dec 08

January 16th, 2009 Ralph Eastman No comments

Happy New Year for 2009.

This is my first post for 2009 year after a good break. My resolution this year is to do my bit for energy conservation by increasing my own. By just losing some kilograms and getting fit hopefully that will reduce some of my ware and tear on the planets resources and cut the need for at least one larger seat on planes.

In 2009 I also plan to discontinue reading newspapers for information. In 2008 I found it hard to get balanced view of what is happening. Global warming debate and the exploding financial crisis topped the list for December and it looks like the fact based but unhelpful financial news will be ongoing in 2009. But cynical views aside I have great respect for journalist who try to sort out and report facts. The problem is they as they see smoke it usually means fire so I guess the papers must stay. But this year I do want to find some positive albeit small way to contribute to resolving these big issues.

Check out what we read in December 2008

Blog of the 2008 Year Awards.

Technically the awards are being decided January but we have been reading the contributors pieces in 2008. In the category of Best Science Blog if you want a good read on climate change and related nature issues have a look at “Watts Up With That” site run by Anthony Watt a blogger and meteorologist. This fascinating conversation site that claims to be a commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news.

This site is a true discussion site that many can emulate with. In it Anthony Watt is modest and balanced with his communication style and now sometimes sees over 6 million hits a week and comments on each of his and his hosted daily blogs sometimes by the hundreds.

Check out all categories >>

Poznan Conference.

Of great interest we followed The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań Poland on 1-12 December 2008 This was aimed to cement the Kyoto Protocol’s and having definitive a carbon neutral objective with emission reduction agreement in Copenhagen in 2009 including reducing global emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and disaster management.

Read full Article including list of Adopted Decisions >>

It was interesting that I again watched the 2005 Al Gore movie, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ high listed on a plane movies in December 2008. (2 min Trailer) Regardless of subject conviction to the debate technically it superb learning exercise to see how to presnt to win a case for change. In this movie Al Gore uses his superb selling and debating skills backed up by excellent credible research to present the compelling case to clean up the planet. At the Poznan formum he continued this vigal and presented the conference with more support for the case to enforcing tough new goals and with ideas for creating more momentum now and to achieve the critcal agreement on the tough emmsion and action objectives being discussed for Copehagen conference in late 20o9.

See video >>

On the flip side

Interesting that All gore presents over 50 years of trending, but this year scientific evidence is mounting that extremes of cold temperatures in the Northern hemisphere in 2009 winter ignpost opposite views. This evidence puts forward information to show ice cover was actually increasing in some parts and is not in decline. Does this mean the Kyoto initiatives are working and we are seeing reveral of the trends. Or is is the simply that the warmng hypothesisis is flswed?

If nothing else this highly cricial debate is highly emotional by nature.

Polar sea ice changes -net-coolingeffecton climate >>

Is it Global Cooling Now?

Of great interest also is a post named Four scientists: Global Warming Out, Global Cooling InThe author, Alan Lammey, Texas Energy Analyst, of Houston, cites noted William Gray an authoritative climate change speaker and Colorado State University’s, founder of the school’s famed hurricane research team. Gray spoke about multi-decade periods of warming and cooling and how global climate flux has been the norm for as long as there have been records.

Gray has taken quite a bit of political heat for insistence that global warming is not a man-made condition. Man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) is negligible, he said, compared to the amount of CO2 Mother Nature makes and disposes of each day or century.

My view is watch the share market and business reactions as this debate grows:

Read full Post >>

Yellow pages goes global.

The .COM .BIZ EDU, are all identifiers of types of domains, The advent of the .TEL could see a change in the way we see all these with an overarching web identity that could herald the joining of all addresses both physical and virtual in a giant yellow pages across the globe.

In his December 3 piece blogger Aaron Brazell comments on the advent of this new identity carrier. Read his Post >>

My view is to watch this space as we see more and more integrated connectivity in business.

Aaron is the founder and lead editor of Technosailor.com. He is a business and social media consultant and loves to see people reach their potential through the use of social media.

He says there overlap between useful social media and personal and corporate outreach and brand. I am not sure what all that means but he writes thought leading articles so I suggest you check him out at

Check out http://technosailor.com >>

Downturn Capacity Preservation.

In the downturns of 1983 in Australia with my colleagues in business we had some adamant advice that we should protect our capacity to do business. As others chose a path rationalize close and reduce maintaining idle capacity burden to preserve cash, our stand for an efficiency survival strategy proved highly successful as turnaround came a year or so later and we had ability for rapid business growth from that wisdom.

I believe redundancy a survival approach should really thought thruwellgiven it mostly adds difficulties instead of helping to achieve a goal –

This is an excerpt for a January post by Gordon Wood.

Here is a useful article by Bay Jordan on this subject The author of “Lean Organisations Need Fat People” his posted can be found on Sue Massey’s blog businessmanagementabcs.com

This post debates well 5 solid questions on this subject:

Do you really know who you are laying off?
Have you really examined your commercial logic?
Have you thought through the long-term implications?
Have you really thought through the impact on morale?
Have you thought about the wider economic implications?

In this article Bay also puts forward a proposition that provides:

A means of valuing people as assets
A method of creating employee ownership at virtually no cost to either the company or the individual.
A new method of incentive remuneration that overcomes most of the inherent weaknesses of traditional performance related pay schemes.

Read Bay’s Full Article >>

Time Machines.

This is a time server vendor symmetricom.comhas some interring information about time. We received there flyer in our email this month and picked out these articles of interest.

Another Leap Second Is On The Way: Are You Ready? Since 1972 when the practice was first mandated by the International Earth Rotation and Reference System Service (IERS) 24 leap seconds have been added to the world’s official time.

Read Their Article>>

The Ingenious History of time keeping devices Keeping track of time across a 24-hour period as we do today has its roots going back more than 4,000 years. Since that time, mankind has employed many varied and clever devices to keep track of the time of day and the time of night.

The current system of time measurement dates all the way back to c. 2000 BC. That’s when the Egyptians divided the day into two 12-hour periods and used the shadows cast by large obelisks to track the movement of the Sun.

Today, atomic clocks are used to calibrate other clocks as well as to maintain the proper time on earth. When compared to the obelisks used to tell time in 2000 BC, we sure have come a long way.

Read Their Article>>

More to come

During December we were reading a lot and learning how to leverage value and writing for our followers. We also updated our look and have plans for more to be better.

The is so much more we have read but time limits us. Doing the summaries is enriching but also costly in time as our effort is all gratus. But we still hope we can do better this year.

It is interesting last month as our pieces generally focused on business yet our reading log seems to be focused on life fundamentals rather than the way to manage them.

Our aim as always is for best practices management so work place and business performance improvements can makethe world a better place to live. Understanding life issues and markets and what drives them, we believe is key to achieving that.

Please feel free to comment on piece or overall as part of our objective for healthy debate.

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What we read in Nov 08

December 4th, 2008 Ralph Eastman 3 comments

This month we have started a section to share interesting articles we have read. Our idea is to update monthly with summary on each article so you can decide it it is relevant for you. Feedback would be useful.

if you have subject of interested or a useful article for others please let us know by adding a comnent on this page and we will add it to the next list. If you want to write and have something published please register.

November 2008

WWW.PointCarbon.com .We have added this site on our blog roll. With intensity of climate control and greenhouse initiatives increasing attention of most governments, the US included is high on this subject as a way to restart the recession ridden economies. Australia is making changes this month with a far reaching carbon credit scheme.

As a mainstream specialist newspaper, Point Carbon focuses on news energy and environmental markets. We are reading here about economic and business directions and practical management aspects of carbon trade, footprint & inventory management, audit and verification of carbon reduction projects.

Significant In December in Poznań Poland is a UN meeting of delegates from over 200 countries discussing the very hot topic of climate change. The two-week meeting is the halfway mark in the negotiations on an ambitious and effective international climate change deal to be clinched in Copenhagen in 2009

Today’s Measurement Dashboards Away from Rudder and Stick This article discusses the evolution of the use of the dashboard. A good example US Coast Guard, which for decades has been perfecting the skill of navigating the seas. Now, the Guard is learning and improving competencies to quickly observe relevant information from visual dashboard displays, such as alert messages, and rapidly drill down and mine the information to understand what is happening – what may be causing any exceptional outcomes. Dashboards are not just about monitoring dials – they are about moving the dials.

Who Are White Papers Aimed at Anyway? A good read that gets you in with a leading question and discusses this subject and some misleading terminology used by the software industry papers. This is a lead on something we are preparing as a “clean up your act paper” on the same subject which will be issued in December 2008.

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Archive

It is been put that with much of the worlds commercial and logistics now being connected by intelligent systems, the human brain can soon be replaced.

Promoting Poor Data Quality

You break it, you slip it—either way—you buy it, we profit

Conclusion

My Quote for this month

Your Feedback

Here is what we wrote about:

My Quote for this month

Your Feedback

Here is some of what we wrote about:

Here is what we read about:

Sawbones Online fans get a second book

Is it Confidential, Maybe Not?

To Tweet or not to Tweet

Up and Comer Blog

Guess The Nationality

Beating the Tom Tom Update

Encarta moves over for Wikipedia

Russia Microsoft Dichotomy

Pirates and who Benefits

The Singapore Lion

India consultant service coming of Age?

Aussie Bush Fires:

Climate Crunch Time:

Carbon Labeling:

Beating on a TOM TOM

The most qualified job hunter

I’m just John.. With a Guerilla CV

Who’s Logged In

Home-Based Businesses Tips

A Guiding Hand Over My Shoulder

Google Searches Impact Environment

Don’t upset your computer

What happened to the money?

BI Predictions for 2009

Gauging the Gauge

Solving Energy Problems

“Vista” for those who love to hate it.

Happy New Year for 2009.

Check out what we read in December 2008

Blog of the 2008 Year Awards.

Poznan Conference.

On the flip side

Is it Global Cooling Now?

Yellow pages goes global.

Downturn Capacity Preservation.

Time Machines.

More to come

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