Monthly Archive for September, 2003

Barclay’s Slush fund

Published
by
Paul
on 30 September 2003
in Management Theory
. 0 Comments

From the Register

However, on Friday, in SEC filings connected to the rights issue, it was revealed that the former CEO was paid $2.1 million in severance fees, or about three times his annual salary. What’s more, Knapp is understood to be collecting $6,000 a day from the company in consulting fees and since his resignation has worked for five days, which would have netted him $30,000 since mid August.

The SEC filings also show that the separation agreement bound NTL and its executives from saying anything negative about Knapp as part of a “non-disparagement” clause.

Now I know why development slowed down this year.

It will be extremely disappointing if there happen to be any redundancies this year considering this pay out. I still find it very strange that a person seen as fundamentally undermining the company to the extent that it had to go into bankruptcy is rewarded in this manner. As a shareholder I would be incensed, but then I’m not. I would be but of course my options became worthless and therefore I never exercised them…

How can corporate governance justify this?

Howies

Published
by
Paul
on 30 September 2003
in Marketing
. 0 Comments

Beyond Branding - Human Businesses

John Moore celebrates a ‘Human brand’ Howies on Beyond Branding:

This is a casual clothing business that oozes human values. It’s website is funny, controversial, informative…
and

Howies has serious views about the environment, packaging and the way the world is spinning and it manages to convey these with both passion and wit. Some of their gear carry political messages, some doesn’t. There’s a lightness of touch to match a seriousness of purpose.

I went and had a look and these guys deserve your business. Of course they do have quite a controversial view, one which I have sympathy with, you may not. The over riding feeling though is that this company is honest about what it does and it tels it like it is. I get the feeling that if you had a problem, they would sort it out today rather than tomorrow and make me feel ‘wanted’ as a customer.

Only gripe is they don’t seem to have my size :( - I think I’ll send them a mail and see what happens.

Ukrainians Smash Computers

Published
by
Paul
on 29 September 2003
in Actions
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Computer crashing, Ukraine-style

Just spotted this and after a week of putting up with appalling ICT at work I feel that a quick entry into this Ukrainian competition might be in order but with my work machine. Can’t quite see how I’m going to drag the network or the entire IBM outsourced IT department either but I can dream…

Broken Angels

Published
by
Paul
on 29 September 2003
in Books
. 0 Comments

I haven’t finished reading Broken Angels by Richard Morgan yet but I thought I would let you know that its is fantastic Sci Fi well worth buying and is a fantastic follow up to Altered Carbon. Violent in the extreme, funny, inciteful and an excellent critique of war, messing with things we don’t understand and an advertisement for virtual sex…

I will post a full review in time but if you like Sci Fi you need this book - go buy it!!!!!!!!
P.S. Gollancz or Mr Morgan - if you are reading this - can I have a review copy of Market Forces?

PLSJ Makeover

Published
by
Paul
on 29 September 2003
in Blogging
. 0 Comments

[purse lip square jaw] anne galloway

Ane gives PLSJ a makeover. Takes a little getting used to compared to the previous design but its grown on me in the last few minutes…

Keep meaning to re-design around here but its never been one of my strong points. Concept needs to be English Oak (I have one in my garden) and a road sign (Beta Road) with a Broadband pipe thrown in. Where’s a designer when you need one?

Corporate Governance

Published
by
Paul
on 29 September 2003
in Management Theory
. 0 Comments

I feel let down today. Let down by a business that was once extremely entrepreunerial and let people have their head to solve problems and often threw money at them too. While the latter was unsustainable and probably led to a lot of the issues ntl now faces, the former was always the saving grace.

I have watched people work their socks off to deliver a project. Their passion comittment and I suppose love for their job was evident and their loyalty to the company astounding. I may even have done a little of it myself at one point.

These days croporate governance is in the acendency. Money is certainly not thrown about. This I believe is generally a good thing. Decisions are mae on sound business sense with ’some’ analysis thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately it also has the effect of slowing down decision making, of second guessing powerful shareholders and perhaps worst of all making people cover their arse.

Why is that worst of all? Being in business is about taking risks. Generally these should be of an acceptable nature, but ultimately they are risks. Its an uncertain world, imperfect and wonderful because of it. It means we get things wrong, but usually its Pareto saying, ‘Hey! isn’t there an 80:20 thing here?’ 80% is good enough (or better) and 20% just didn’t work out.

So in a good business the effort goes into delivering the solution and mitigating risk where it can be mitigated. At the moment though I feel like its 80% of the effort is going into attempting to eliminate risk and follow a process to the letter when in order to achieve business objectives, to please the customer, flexibility is needed.

A phrase paralysis by analysis has been heard mutter on a number of occasions, which is odd, becuase it seems the big multi-million decisions get made easily but the lesser ones get analysed to death.

I miss the old days. There was bad management, especially of money. There was bad decision making based on zero analysis and lots of gut feeling, but there was passion, there was belief and there was pride. And a lot of humour.

The humour is still here but its quiet, cynical, and I don’t see anything resemblinh passion. I feel worn out by it all, because I never was a good little corporate solider, I was always the outsider pitching the idea, and these days I have to make so many pitches, and no one is even prepared to take a swing.

Rant ends… ;.(

London Transport’s Smart Card

Published
by
Paul
on 29 September 2003
in Marketing
. 0 Comments

BBC NEWS | Technology | Smart cards track commuters

Civil rights campaigners have expressed concerns about the new smart travelcards introduced for London commuters.

Under the new system, Transport for London will be able to track a commuter’s movements and it plans to retain information on journeys made for “a number of years”

Each card has a unique ID number linked to the registered owner’s name, which is recorded together with the location and time of the exchange every time the card is used.

Another interesting use for Smart cards and the worries civil rights campaigners have. While I can quite clearly see their point and have sympathy for the view, it also could have considerable advantages for those organisation running the transport system. This type of information, due to developments in technology, will now become commonplace. The question then becomes not whether the data is held, because it will be like it or not, but whether the organisation that holds it uses the information ethically.

Marketing ethics, often seen as an anathema, reside at the heart of this debate. Can you trust the organisation to make use of the data anonymously? The answer to that of course is up to a point. There have been examples of the Inland revenue (UK tax office) requesting data from supermarkets of people they suspect of having more earnings than they report. This particular card could track your movements around London by rail and in the future maybe the whole of the UK.

Should you be worried? Well the old argument goes that if you are a law abiding citizen you have nothing to hide, so why worry. Alternatively you could argue that what you do in a ‘free’ society is up to you as long as you don’t break any laws, so why should others have access to this information?

Privacy is up to individual’s and they will need to work very hard to keep it that way. Loss of privacy could be important in some respects to a wider societal view but we must be ever vigiliant to protect what few rights we still maintain in this area. Even with laws in the UK and Information Commisioners to help us.

Maven Networks

Published
by
Paul
on 29 September 2003
in Broadband
. 0 Comments

Via Marc’s Voice#a1740 is a link to a new ‘end-to-end system for delivering high-quality video applications to broadband-connected PCs.’

Maven Networks looks like a firm to watch as does this technology, which is being used by the likes of BMW and Virgin records to promote products online.

A link from the Maven site to the Boston Globe site got me to this quote:

Hilmi Ozguc, cofounder and chief executive of 25-person Maven, said in an interview. “What we’re all about is combining the video quality of television merged with the personalization of the Web.” Ozguc is a former top executive of the ExciteAtHome broadband cable service.

and a further comment:

Ozguc said Maven envisions people arranging to have the downloads transmitted over high-speed connections late at night or during times when they are not actively surfing the Web. Links to show the clips would then show up in e-mail, roughly like signing up for an online magazine or newsletter subscription. In any case, Ozguc said, the service would be limited to people who opt to sign up for it. “The last thing we want to do is encourage video spam,” Ozguc said. “If I’m going to be advertised to, I really want to know about things that actually interest me.”

I’ve already tried to broadcast this within ntl, although I doubt we will make use of it. It would seem to allow powerful makreting messages to be carried and create interesting opportunities for marketeers…

Villages From their own BB company

Published
by
Paul
on 26 September 2003
in Broadband
. 1 Comment

BBC NEWS | England | Northamptonshire | Villages bypass BT for broadband

Great little story from the BBC about a rural village that organised themselves and formed a comapny to set up broadband. Who said England was merely a nation of shopkeepers?

Doctor Who to return

Published
by
Paul
on 26 September 2003
in Science Fiction
. 0 Comments

Doctor Who is coming back

The world’s greatest science fiction show is to return. I am over the moon!!!!!

I have to admit to being absoultely nuts about Dr Who and have a collection of videos, DVDs, Novels, Audio Dramas on CD, Models and Daleks. It was a part of my childhood which I have kept with me and it has seen me through a lot of years, entertaining, inspiring and of course the ubiquitous hiding ‘behind the sofa’.

Russell T Davies is an extremely good writer despite some negative press, and should breathe new life into the format. I hope the BBC will fund the project properly and give it a chance to succeed. After all, its last run was 26 years.

You can also get further info at Outpost Gallifrey, and I expect lots of other places :)
If you don’t know what I am talking about go here NOW!

Its great news considering this is the 40th Anniversary of its inception.

I am off to play Daleks with my son.