Daisy Chain
Are you "Linked In"? A friend here in London added me to his list and then another invitation from a friend in SA popped into my email inbox and then I invited an ex-colleague in Germany ... and so the network grew! What is www.linkedin.com all about? In short, it's a...
It’s a small world anyway
So here I am in Hawaii with my head having just arrived in Atlanta. It still has about a 9 hour trip to catch-up with the rest of me. Added trouble is that I picked-up a nasty flu type bug as I was leaving SA and which then decided to make my head its home - I guess...
Where does the water go?
Today, the pumps in New Orleans started up again. The levees are being repaired, and the USA can start pumping the water out of the 60% of New Orleans that is still under 3 to 6 feet of water. The 10,000 odd people who are refusing to leave the city are being warned...
Microsoft SA launches Women in IT website
I picked up a post (more of a rant) by Rich...! at the always entertaining Jo'blog site referring to Microsoft SA's recent "Women in IT" website launch. In essence the site is a community platform for SA women either interested in, or working in, the IT field....
Been fired? Got story? Go here!
Another 'isn't blogging wonderful' application. Been fired? Want to tell someone? Go here!
Talent Community: Face-to-Face
This evening marked the first of what I hope will be many insightful, interactive "real people" meetings for what has become known as the TomorrowToday.biz Talent Community. Much has been said and done electronically leading up to this point, as the Talent Community...
Is it cos I’s black?
I wrote yesterday about some of my random musings about the chaos in New Orleans. One of my points was that this shows how the media might be treating African-American (I am from South Africa, where "black" is an acceptable term) victims of the hurricane. Well, if you...
Dealing with BYTs in the office – lessons from parenthood
Here is a great book review by a good friend of mine. I wonder if we shouldn't be looking more to parenthood and children (maybe especially teens) for some lessons on how to deal with the Bright Young Things in our companies. Raising Adults By Jim Hancock Summary by...
Dealing with BYTs in the office – lessons from parenthood
Here is a great book review by a good friend of mine. I wonder if we shouldn't be looking more to parenthood and children (maybe especially teens) for some lessons on how to deal with the Bright Young Things in our companies. Raising Adults By Jim Hancock Summary by...
Does your company pamper you?
Vikas Kumar, in The Economic Times, has written an excellent article on talented employees. Read it here. A few quotes: instead of you choosing your employee - and this one's going to be pretty hard for most HR heads and CEOs to swallow - the brightest get to choose,...
Looking for Incredible Intelligence
This morning I took my daughter into a computer store (click here) near to where I live. Our objective was to buy a PayStation 2 game suitable for a 5 year old. It was the first time I'd been in this particular store, and was really impressed with the layout and...
Africa Leaps Forward
The Newsweek of 11 July 2005, carried a multiple page on Africa (read it here). It is fairly upbeat, arguing that Africa cannot wait for foreign assistance or aid, but needs to sort its own house out. It goes on to point out that money countries are doing this now....
Business good in China
American businesses are doing well in China. The front page of the China Daily business section reads, “US firms upbeat on China.” The article says that most US businesses operating in China reported increases in annual revenues last year, as reported in the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in China’s “White Paper 2005 American Business in China.” Almost all of the businesses surveyed were equally divided between being “optimistic” or “cautiously optimistic” for the next 5 years.Some interesting stats on their no. 1 goal:62% – produce goods or services in China for the China market14% – Produce good or services in China for the US market11% – Export to China5% – Produce good or services in China for other markets5% – Serve as regional headquartersIn another front page article James Green (AmCham Shanghai’s director of government relations) says Shanghai’s biggest business challenge is human resources. “Finding, training and keeping management,” Green said. “It’s a hot labour market and people are in high demand.” Seems like their question is along the lines of “How do we attract, recruit and retain talent?”Intellectual property rights protection remains a prominent problem (in both Beijing and Shanghai). The article says that “Many companies don’t expand beyond a representative office for fear of losing proprietary information and technology.” Seems like going the Open Source way – with both people and information – is a plausible solution.
Die-hard brand loyalty
Over at my China travel blog I’ve written about how much I love my Apple iBook laptop. It doesn’t give me any problems, runs really well, has excellent battery life and is very portable (when I bought a camera memory card reader the other day in Mudanjiang, China, I whipped out my iBook from my backpack, plugged in the card reader, checked it worked and then bought it – without a word of English being spoken).
Lessons from anarchy
The 18 August 2005 Economist magazine carried one of the most brilliantly written critiques of world governments' responses to terrorism. By looking back at the Anarchist movement of the late 19th century, and seeing what governments did then and what effect it had,...
Watching a Master
I have played the trumpet since I was 11, and even spent two years doing it professionally, including a year as lead trumpeter of the National Serviceman's Orchestra of the South African Air Force (whilst conscripted in the late 1980s). I love the instrument, and...
What Skype's doing – way kewl
A previous post by Mike introduced Google's new desktop search tool (worth getting) as well as Google Talk. Certainly a threat to the likes of Skype who dominate currently. But Skype isn't sitting back waiting for Google to attack. Check out Mark Evan's Blog on...
start.com – kewl
Got to be honest that I don't know what it's about, but it is interesting. Check out Start.com It's a Microsoft test site. I know some of that cos of what's wrtitten at the bottom of the front page "this site is not an officially supported site. It is an incubation...
Builders Wanted
From the Futurist Update, September 2005: A building boom, an aging workforce, and higher technical demands of workers are laying the foundations of a potential skills crisis in the U.S. construction industry. Now employing nearly 7 million carpenters, electricians,...
iPod: The Quintessential CGM Example
Ok, so this is not the first time we've mentioned iPod's on this blog. It also won't be the last. I want to refer back to two previous posts, Graeme's Could 16 million iPod users be wrong? and my CGM: Consumer-Generated Media. It is no secret that Apple "get it". Pete...