“The ‘surplus society’ has a surplus of similar companies, employing similar people, with similar educational backgrounds, coming up with similar ideas, producing similar things, with similar prices and similar quality.” Kjell Nordström...
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Auditing in crisis – and a solution?
KPMG, one of the global "Big Four" accounting giants, has acknowledged guilt in criminal tax frauds, by providing sham tax shelters to wealthy clients between 1996 and 2002. This was announced by the US Justice Department on 29 August, together with a fine imposed on...
Oh dear, here we go again
Last summer I waged a lone war against the world's best cricket all-rounder. Simply put, I contend that Jacques Kallis should not be playing one day cricket (and definitely not 20:20!!). (PS - if you don't know what cricket is, or who Jacques is, then just skip this...
SAA flight crew don’t give a damn
My friends over at Jo'blog have posted an entry showing how customer-oriented SAA are, despite their recent bad press (see Graeme's previous entry). When are SAA going to learn that consumer-generated media holds weight? When are they going to start responding? Or are...
MBA blogging community
BusinessWeek Online, who brought us Blogspotting and other fantastic business blogging resources, have added a new string to their blow. The MBA blogging community (still in beta version) allows users (MBA students, alum or recruiters) to start their own blogs under...
Just call me the Oracle
Business2Day Blog reports "Goodbye, Coins. Hello, Digicash", which, in my humble opinion, adds weight to my predictions at RIP: Newspaper. My genius aside, can you think of one good reason coins and notes should stay in circulation? (ok, besides the tooth fairy...)
Why lawyers shouldn’t be marketers
Credit to Jackie Huba of the Church of the Customer - blog for picking up on this link. Shimmy off to legos.com to see the accompanying legal admonishment. You will automaticall be directed to the holiest of holies, www.lego.com (naturally). Next thing they'll be...
Talent Networker: Dave Matthews
I remember the first time I heard the Dave Matthews Band - it was a summers day driving along the South Coast with Mike (see his post on DMB). I could not quite figure out why this band resonated with me. Boasting a gruff voice, tainted with mud, Dave is not an...
Working Mothers – the debate still rages
Michelle Conlin wrote in 2000 for BusinessWeek on how the turn of the millennial would not necessarily solve one of women's age ol dilemmas - how to balance work, marriage and kids. It seems that men just get to carry on, assuming that the women will pick up the child...
RIP: The Newspaper
BBC News (UK Edition) has published a thought-provoking article titled "What will newspapers look like in 20 years?", on the back of The Guardian's decision to switch from 'broadsheet' format to a more compact, practical 'berliner' style. 10 years ago predictions were...
Where do you get your news from?
I find it fascinating that more and more people are getting their news from "spoof" news shows. The Late Night Shows (Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, etc), have always provided light relief, with a few well placed jokes about current affairs up front. But now, with the...
Millennials are not just in our homes!
Last week I had 2 Millennium generational (Gen Y) encounters. The first one was while visiting a client. A very progressive company with a young dynamic staff. Anyone would give their eye teeth to work in a company like this. When I asked what one issue would they say...
Remind me: How do rules help?
With a few exceptions, rules and regulations only serve to: 1. Divert attention from a company's objectives, 2. Provide a false sense of securty for executives, 3. Create work for bean counters, and 4. Teach men to stone dinosaurs and start fires with sticks. Courtesy...
Knowledge workers and office design
When considering how to attract and retain talented "Bright Young Things", not only must you consider remuneration policies, flexibility and freedom, challenging work and personal development opportunities (amongst other factors), you also need to take into account...
Global talent drought to hit in next five years
The HR magazine, Personnel Today, 13 Sep 2005, cites a survey by Deloittes that indicates globally HR practitioners are most worried about attracting and retaining talent over the next few years (read the full story here - includes graphic summaries). They state: "the...
WOMMA and The Deathmatch
WOMMA is an acronym for the newly-formed Word-of-Mouth Marketer's Association. It is the official trade association for the word of mouth marketing industry, and according to the site, a collection of "fantastic brands and marketers who know that happy customers are...
Free phone calls are worth a lot of money
Ever wondered how much free phone calls are worth? Wonder no more. E-Bay is going to pay around $4.1 Billion for Skype. From an article carried on ZD Net "The auctioneer said it plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock for the Web communications...
Pay 'em more to keep 'em
This morning I heard Thabo Mbeki say something that is very familiar to us. In addressing the high salaries that councilors of local government earn, sometimes higher than his own, Mbeki explained how skills come at a premium in the municipalities … they get...
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