People Kill People
http://www.smh.com.au/world/crazy-accident-us-boy-5-accidentally-shoots-sister-dead-20130502-2itwm.html As the title of the article suggests, a 5 year old boy has accidentally shot dead his 2 year old sister. The offending weapon was a .22 calibre rifle made by a company called Crickett, which markets the product as “My first rifle”. Of course, the truly offensive thing about this tragedy (after, of … Read more
Paint Jobs, pt. II – Measuring Success
http://smh.drive.com.au/motor-news/australian-large-cars-hit-record-lows-20130502-2iu5b.html Holden, who recently cut 500 Australian jobs, despite having received absurd amounts of government assistance over many years, has continued to notch up the failures. In April, the company sold approximately 1500 Commodores, or less than 20% of what it sold a decade ago. This is entirely unsurprising, and does not bode well for … Read more
Paint Jobs for a Wreckage
NB: First post in ten months! Well, I have nothing better to do than rant, so yeah. Welcome back, all two of you! It’s been a strange 12 months. Most of it wasn’t that great, but directing Com Revue, graduating and a kickass girlfriend (the first I’ve dated who actually likes cricket and scotch – … Read more
I’m Still a Billionaire, Bitch – thoughts on *that* IPO
Over the past few months, it is fair to say that the financial markets have been at the mercy of sentiment and pessimism. Weighed down by first the U.S. debt crisis, then the European debt crisis – Greece, then Italy, then Spain, then Greece again, then Spain again, and now back to Greece – investors … Read more
The Politics of Cycling
I observed a cyclist today riding against the flow of traffic at one of the busiest intersections in the CBD – the Park Street/George Street lights. He perched right on the corner, forcing oncoming traffic to change lines whilst turning to avoid him. He then began to ride head on towards the traffic, whilst said … Read more
Ask Why: A Tale for the Information Age
Jay W. Krueger is not a household name. By all accounts, he is a talented businessman, serving as Chief Strategy and Client Services Officer at PMSI, a medical services and workers’ compensation company based in Tampa, Florida. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he has led many strategic endeavours with over fifteen years’ … Read more
A Spotless Record
Amongst the doom and gloom of financial forecasts for 2012, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Mayans were right. Still, it turns out of course that the Mayan “prophecy” for 2012 was simply a badly interpreted but widely spread inscription, not unlike American evangelist Harold Camping’s many attempts at predicting the day of … Read more
Corporate diversity and why quotas miss the point
The November issue of the Harvard Business Review (Corporate Boards: Now and Then, pp. 38-39) reported on upcoming findings from executive search firm Spencer Stuart about the composition of board directors within the S&P 500. The clear conclusion is that diversity, be it gender, racial or other types, has a clear way to go. Women … Read more
What video games can teach us about business
As a teenager, I spent many an hour playing video games. The first game I ever owned was Diddy Kong Racing on the old Nintendo 64. From there, I moved onto Mario, Pokémon and of course Zelda (I still consider Ocarina of Time the best game ever created). Eventually, whilst I still own a Wii, … Read more
A quick note on the carbon price
NB: This post was written in the immediate aftermath of the carbon tax being passed, but I forgot to post it… In the wake of the passing of the carbon tax, the Gillard government has copped perhaps the most flak for its price of $23/tonne. Alright, there are plenty of other criticisms of the tax … Read more
