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Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

As I saw the Facebook IPO come to market last week, like many I’m sure, my initial reaction was along the lines expressed in the sentence: “These people are totally bonkers and incapable of learning from the all too recent past !” As at the last minute the bankers raised the price to $38 which was an over valuation, it was of little surprise that the price fell to around $33 and really one suspects that $28 is what it should be at most.

However and whilst I took little interest in the original “dot.com” boom, the Facebook IPO did catch my eye and make me think back to the late 1960s and from there take a slightly different perspective on not just facebook but the whole way the market now seems to work so hopefully, an interesting tale to tell…

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In perhaps one of the more underwhelming announcements of recent days, the FA appointed Roy Hodgson as the new England Manager and frankly, whether voiced publicly or not, I suspect that most people would think “So what ?” There had been a lot of buzz around Harry Rednap as being the most likely candidate and he would certainly have been more the “people’s choice” if only because he is far better media and a bigger personality.

However, this is not a case of “Lions led by Donkeys”, it probably wouldn’t matter who the Manager was, the whole focus of both the players and the FA is the Premier League, that is where the money is, that is where their focus is, the England Team is a sideshow to them all and it shows in the consistently poor results at the International level.

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The other day, David Cameron gave a speech on the “Crisis in Capitalism” as has every other ‘Party Leader’ in recent times as they “struggle to explain” just what went wrong with the UK and even the Global Economy in recent times.

The real problem behind all of this may well be, that politicians are confusing the ‘What Happened’ with the previous held “assumptions” based upon class and politics that frankly, no longer apply in any sense at all… the very idea that “Tories are for treading on downtrodden workers” is no more relevant than that Labour are all for “Nationalising everything”, the world has moved on…

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The Daily Telegraph has become, by and large, a bit of a ‘no go area’ for me, far too many moaning old duffers in the comments section to bother with, I personally suspect that it ought to be renamed, “The Daily Whineograph”. But if ‘politics’ on there is bad, the ‘motoring’ section is even worse…

Land Rover has a ‘concept’ vehicle which could form the basis of a ‘Defender’ (think original Land Rover, mud, farms etc.), replacement at a show in California and a DT journalist got to drive it and take pictures, the reader’s feedback was little short of hilarious and most of it seemed so totally out of touch with reality, I did have to have a pop ! However, what really engaged me was the whole issue of building upon a brand success without becoming tied into a long gone past.

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My previous entry touched on my views of the “A” Level results and how inappropriate is our current Higher/Further Education setup which needs to be refocussed on high quality and challenging advanced training rather than dodgy and over priced degrees.

I now want to focus in on two very interconnected groups of people: Consumers and the Businesses that serve them because clearly, the expectations and behaviour of both need a radical overhaul in the light of a totally changed economic landscape. However and before that, a story I have told before about a very wise Chinese Gentleman I once met back in the 1960s.

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It really doesn’t matter how long you live, there are some mistakes that you will tend to repeat as I was reminded only the other day. The mistake is to assume that in some old fashioned way, a supplier that you use regularly, wants to maintain the relationship and keep you as a satisfied customer. Bollocks, they couldn’t give a flying fart.

The absolute farce that operates on car and house insurance is a prime case, move to a new provider each year and you get a good deal, stay with the same one for the second year and they will Roger you Royally by upping the premium considerably. Where the logic lies in that, defeats me entirely unless all sales are outsourced and the outsourcing company only gets commission for new customers. Whatever the reason, it is the business practices of total lunatics.

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I have little time for “conspiracy theories”, in the UK Cock Up is far more the norm than any individual or group of individuals trying to manipulate ‘outcomes’ but there is one aspect of the Duke of York “story” that does interest me which an editorial in The Independent almost accidentally touched upon.

Namely that it (the story), has taken off since the Wikileaks mention of the reaction of an American diplomat to the Prince and his comments over the SFO investigation into the al-Yamamah arms deal with the Saudi Arabian government of 30 years ago, a contract the US always resented the UK wining.

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I notice that now the daylight hours are drawing out, Dawn comes slightly earlier, the Earth stirs again and interestingly, so do some ‘thinkers’ in the Media about our technical ‘tomorrow’, my first example being : http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/adrianhon/100006362/soon-you-wont-need-permission-to-make-films-set-up-tv-channels-publish-books-or-try-out-inventions-no-wonder-the-old-industries-are-scared/

But there is something as fascinating in this link from the Economist : http://www.economist.com/node/18114221

These are exciting times…

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It will take your ‘average journalist’ at least 6 months to wake up to what the ‘real story’ is about today, frankly most of them don’t have a clue and as proof, consider the following : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/8319768/If-Strasbourg-has-its-way-we-will-all-end-up-as-prisoners.html

All jolly good stuff but all, rather irrelevant given what currently drives the World of which the Egyptian Revolution was but a ‘taste’, the BIG ISSUE this day is Youth Unemployment combined with a ‘mature’ Commercial Sector that couldn’t think their way out of a wet paper bag on their best days which clearly, are long past. We need to engage with our unemployed youth, right across the Western economies, now…

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There was an article in today’s Independent about the Government initiative to kick start the roll out of high speed broadband. The complaint of the Editorial was to compare the UK to a Tortoise and Europe generally to a Hare, which was an interesting thing to do considering the outcome of that tale.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-britain-plays-tortoise-to-europes-hare-2153085.html

I have always found such Editorials somewhat irritating because they are writing about something they know nothing about and aren’t even trying to comprehend the dimensions of, which is all rather odd considering that there are so many historical examples to call upon and the above picture is no accident taken under a railway bridge crossing the Grand Union Canal.

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