Buying a new computer? Why you should get a Mac.

You can now run Windows on a Mac simultaneously with the Mac operating system as you would run any other application (and it can even run full screen, so if you use a dual screen setup you can have Mac OS X on one screen and Windows on the other).

This is great news! I’ve gone ahead and bought the application Parallels Desktop even though I don’t yet have one of the new Macs (but hope to get one soon!).

To quote the Apple site (which doesn’t even mention it’s own (beta) product, Boot Camp, which lets you run Windows XP on a Mac – although a restart is required to switch between the two systems):

Which means, of course, that the Mac may very well be the only computer you’ll ever need. In fact, the Mac’s flexibility — its ability to run both Mac and Windows* — has both customers and columnists very excited.

As Computerworld’s Scot Finnie points out, now you can forget about about having “to choose either the Mac for its superior design or Windows for its wealth of available software.� That’s because “you can have both operating systems on the same computer — the best of both worlds.� Mac OS X and Windows XP side by side. One great computer. Two operating systems. Many, many programs to run.Talk about a win-win situation. Now you can take advantage of all the benefits of owning a Mac but still enjoy the convenience of starting up your Mac in Windows XP and running a Windows-only game or productivity application when needed. Third-party software solutions such as Parallels Desktop for Mac help make it possible.

You can also run multiple operating systems, like the screenshot below shows.

So when will you switch? Mike? Barrie?!

technorati tags:switcher

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China’s Burning

The NY Timesreports today that as China ages, a shortage of cheap labour looms (free registration required). Since the 1950s, China has held a competitive labour differentiator based on Mao’s encouraged population explosions. However, shortly after Mao died, a one-child per family policy was adopted. Today China stands to lose its prized labour position to countries like Bangladesh, India and Vietnam as a significantly sized workforce a) does not have the masses to be replaced, and b) are being replaced by young highly educated and empowered people who are not cheap.

From the article, “As workers become scarcer and more expensive in the increasingly affluent cities along China’s eastern seaboard, the country will face growing economic pressures to move out of assembly work and other labor-intensive manufacturing, which will be taken up by poorer economies in Asia and beyond, and into service and information-based industries.”

Dutch Cabinet want to abolish the compulsory retirement age of 65 for civil servants

This article was shared with me today and was extracted from IPE.com, Investments and Pensions, Europe. The Dutch are always known for their progressive thinking on key issues relating to society. They must be feeling the pain and now have decided to address the issue. This could be the start of other governments addressing this issue that will have major impacts on society at large.

- The Dutch cabinet want to abolish the compulsory retirement age of 65 for civil servants, in order to encourage employees to working longer, it said. The decision is part of a package to stimulate all workers older than 55 to keep active as long as possible. The cabinet will actively inform employers, employees and companys personnel departments on the legal possibilities of carrying on working. At the moment, there are hardly any legal restrictions for non-civil servants to continuing a career beyond 65, if both the worker and his employer share this wish, the ministry of Social Affairs indicated. However, there are many cultural obstructions, e.g. a negative image, because many people think over 65s shouldnt work. The cabinet also said it will investigate if the compulsory salary pay-out during two years of illness for workers can be limited for over 65s. This is a response to the oft-cited objection to the obligation by employers. The announced information campaign will focus on the legal position of workers of over 65. Both employers and workers must think of different conditions, and a more tailor-made contract, the ministry explained. The governments efforts to increase labour participation should however prioritise the age group of 55 to 65, the cabinet stressed. This partly as a stimulus for over 65s to keep on working. For the next five years a growing labour participation of the age group of 60 to 64 is crucial, it added. The cabinet said there is no indication that increased numbers of over 65s will substantially compete with younger employees. It also stated that it is opposed to individuals deciding at which age their state pension AOW now at 65 will start. According to the cabinet, an increasing number of elderly wish to continue working after 65. In 2004, 83,000 over 65s mainly self-employed workers, migrants and women returners – were working beyond their official retirement age. The Netherlands is one of the EU countries with the highest labour participation of men under 60. The official retirement age is 65, but the effective retirement age is 61 on average.

I write what I like

In our Mind the Gap framework we speak of how Xers cannot remember insitutionalised apartheid. I am one of them. Graeme posted earlier about the Youth Day public holiday on 16th June here in South African that commemorates the youth riots of 16th June 1976. Being a white 26 year old South African I have found the last decade and a half of transformation quite bland. This is for a few reasons. In part, I was sheltered from the news and experience of emergency state-like events of the 1980s because of propogandised media and the comfort of white suburbia. And then, as Barrie would say, a fish does not know it is wet as it has no benchmark of dryness to measure against. I grew up, and began my conscious awakening amidst the changes in South Africa, not really knowing where we had come from in terms of institutionalised apartheid.

And so, in recent years I have begun to explore my history as a South African … the history not taught to me when I was in school. I visited Soweto for the first time on June 10th this year. Feeling surprisingly safe, I drove past a sign that pointed to the Hector Pieterson Memorial. I decided then to visit the Memorial before the 16th. The Memorial requires a post of its own, but on the day I picked up a book called I write what I like by Steve Biko. In wanting to get in touch with significant characters of the past few decades, I’d heard a little about Biko and thought this book would be a nice starting point to learn about the man who headed up the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa.

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Turning Employees into Millionaires

SAP, the conservative German software company announced a month or so ago that it will pay out $ 381 million in 2010, to a few hundred managers, if the company is able to increase its market cap by 100% from a $57 billion starting point in 2006. The explanation to shareholders was “if you want extraordinary performance, you have to offer extraordinary incentives”.

This is a great example of what we believe needs to be done to attract, retain and release talent in your organisation – they must be able to benefit from their contribution. But there are some things SAP needs to be careful of:

• You cannot give people accountability (or incentives like this) without also giving them responsibility to go with it. Are SAP going to allow staff members to be innovative in their pursuit of the target?
• What if they get close, but exactly there? There might even be incentive by shareholders and senior leaders to skupper the process in the last few months in order to avoid paying out the incentive. SAP need to put safeguards in place, not only so that this does not happen, but that it does not appear to happen at all.
• There is a possibility of manipulation. There always is when it comes to share price related issues. The danger is the “Aproi Moi, la deluge” issue – I wrote about this sometime last year – read it here.

I am sure that SAP are dealing with these and many other issues. This is a great thing they’re doing, and I wish them success.

Cellphones in Iraq

There was report today on the radio about a warning given to British soldiers serving in Iraq: do not phone home on your cellphone!

The Iraqi insurgents are tapping into cellphone calls made by soldiers back to their families. Its not the content of these calls that is the problem (soldiers are well trained these days about what can and can’t be said), but rather the fact that the insurgents get the numbers of both the solider and their family, and then send threatening text messages, and make threatening phone calls. Basically, they’re transporting the terror from the battlefield to the homes of the soldiers. Imagine the terror this can create, and the difficult position it puts soldiers in, knowing they might be opening their families to the conflict in this terror-full way.

In this Connection Economy, “the war” is no longer “over there” (as one hit TV show calls it). Today, terrorists strike from anywhere to anywhere. But governments still try and fight them using traditional force. As with all things, the Connection Economy brings potential for great good, and great evil, too.

Virgin Mobile launches

Virgin Mobile South Africa intends to have 300 000 subscribers within 18 months from its joint venture with Cell C according to a business report article. So Richard strikes again, this time in the soft underbelly of the cell phone market in South Africa, a highly lucrative business if you look at the profits of the current incumbents. However we all know how he does things, in his usual casual attitude he intends to shake up the market and offer people a service that is useful and show them all the hidden costs and also bring in some innovative ideas like monthly contracts as opposed to the current 2 year ones. They wont be offering free handsets however, but customers will be able to pay off the handset over time. Of course, the handsets and service will be sold and distibuted through the current Virgin Active outlets and this will add yet another quiver to the growing Virgin empire in South Africa.

Bill Gates announces his resignation

Its true, Bill Gates, probably one of the most famous and richest boomers has announced his resignation from Microsoft Corporation. Whilst this will only take place in the next two years, it certainly is a significant time in the life of Microsoft and the computer and software world. In a Fast Company article, a Microsoft employee is quoted as saying it is the end of an era and this is certainly very true considering the impact Microsoft and more particularly Bill Gates has had on the industry. The article states that Bill will be focusing on being more involved in his Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and using its $29 Billion to accelerate vaccine development to combat malaria. So, who knows what Bill Gates will be better known for in 50 years from now.

Business Continuity in Age of Constant Change

Conversations about knowledge continuity often relate to succession planning and the retirement of key older leaders. While these considerations are obviously important, they can mask the fact that, these days, business critical expertise and knowledge often reside lower down in the organisation and with younger employees. And when these younger people leave, they can threaten the life of the business itself. New thinking and strategies are required to ensure that businesses find out who knows what, understand how they know, create processes for transferring what they know, develop communities rather than stars and secure their future success by enabling business continuity.

For the past few decades this function has largely been delegated to ‘Knowledge Management’ (KM), who in turn thought of it primarily as a technology solution. The amount of raw information that has been captured but not properly utilised or transferred into companies is frightening (and, very often, overwhelming and confusing, and therefore fairly useless). It is time to move beyond KM to ‘Wisdom Management’. Wisdom is knowledge that is not time-bound or linked to specific experiences. Rather, it is transferable and has the ability to be used, adapted and applied wherever it is needed.

The problem is that wisdom can’t be bought. It takes time. Or does it?

We live in a world of constant change. In particular, the last decade has seen a dramatic increase in staff turnover and voluntary employee churn. This has been driven mainly by a younger generation who tend to move every three years on average – and move not just within industries, but to entirely different careers, on a regular basis.

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Women studying MBAs

It is a worldwide trend that women do not pursue MBAs as much as men. A recent Stanford lecture gave some insights.

Pursuing an MBA is a career choice. Its no use doing the degree without a plan for the next decade of career advancement. MBAs ratchet you up to a high-powered job, and career movement. And, MBAs themselves are particularly demanding courses of study. They require great commitment and understanding from families and friends.

Guest speakers at Stanford related stories about needing two nannies and a personal assistant to cope, and about not having set foot in a gym for 10 years. They also told stories of women deciding that you cannot have children and an MBA. “It can take 10 years to establish yourself before you feel you can take a maternity leave. Then you’re in your late 30s and infertility can be a problem.”

Such are the tradeoffs that women consider either before they seek an MBA degree or after they graduate. It’s the typical timeline for an MBA degree that most discourages some women from applying to business school. M.B.A. students tend to be about 27 years old, creating what one business-school official calls “a biological collision.” As they near 30, women who are focusing on marriage and children worry about how an MBA will affect their plans.

Medical and law schools attract more women in part because they can enter right after college, while most business schools seek applicants with at least four or five years of work experience. Some schools are starting to be more flexible to encourage younger women to apply, but it’s too early to detect any measurable impact on enrollment data.

Female MBA enrollment grew during the 1980s and 1990s, but has since leveled off at 25% to 30% at many schools. In its surveys of prospective students, the Graduate Management Admission Council found that women were significantly more likely than men to list the following potential reservations about attending business school: it might be intimidating or too stressful; it might force them to postpone marriage, children or other personal plans; it might require more experience than they felt they had; and it might severely limit available time for people who are important in their lives.

X versus Y

A nice thought about today’s two youngest generations, from the Toronto Star, 20 June 2006.

It’s time for Gen X to start reminiscing about the good old days, as a new generation comes of age, by Jen Gerson

As useful as Generation X has been at popularizing piercing, caffeine addiction and a self-satisfied sense of superiority born out of a love for charity rock concerts, it’s about time it moved on to make room for the next beacons of youth culture — Generation Y.

It’s our turn. Remember when the Xers wanted to shove the baby boomers aside? Payback’s a bitch.

By now, we know who the Xers really are. And other than Molly Ringwald and sarcasm, what have they done for the world lately? Have you seen what they’re pumping out on cable?

Generation X became the moniker for yet another lost generation: the whiny, the entitled, and at first, the underemployed. The Xers remain loosely defined as the forgotten children born after the glut of baby boomers between 1965 and 1980.

Although their adulthood began in earnest with a great deal of railing against the boomers in lieu of their missed opportunities, soon their lives became like the TBS lineup: continuous episodes of Friends by day, Sex and the City by night.

As the first wave of Gen Xers start selling off their condos and moving into the suburb years, the next generation of tastemakers and trendsetters are coming of age. And while a plethora of aging academics and boomer naysayers have analyzed our Net, work and social habits ad nauseam, there’s no voice coming from inside to stake our claim, to say, “This is what makes us different.”

Give us time. Gen Y came immediately after the 1980s, and floats in its infancy. Gen Y is forming its identity apart from its generational older siblings. The Gen Xers are flailing in their attempts to maintain their domination of all things young and cool.

So while the line between the generations is still being drawn, how does one tell the two cohorts apart? For your convenience, it’s Gen X vs. Gen Y: A Spotter’s Guide.

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The Impact of Retiring Boomers

For a few years now, Robert Kiyosaki (and many futurists and economists), have been predicting that when the Baby Boomers start to access their retirements funds, there will be a huge impact on the financial markets. Right now, Boomers are in more debt than any generation has ever been. But they also have more funds under management in retirement savings than ever before. This will create an interesting economic future.

I picked the following up off a Finnish (I think) website:

More than 76.1 million Americans were born between 1946 and 1964. Sociologists have defined those born during that period as “Baby Boomers.” Boomers are now between 40 and 58 years old. The vast numbers of Baby Boomers flooded the job market in the 1970’s. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, Boomers have had an insatiable appetite for investments and the stock market benefited from massive capital inflows.

In the next few years, scores of Baby Boomers will be retiring, which means retirement portfolios and 401ks will be liquidated. This generation certainly can’t rely on Social Security, so stocks will be sold for cash and invested in bonds.

The danger lies in the fact that Baby Boomers are the largest and wealthiest population group. Stocks will fall for many years as the Boomers cash in their chips. Think about it: They provided the fuel for the long bull market and by pulling their capital out, the market will fall.

Won’t the next generation buy the stocks Baby Boomers are selling?

Unfortunately, Generation X is a much smaller generation than the Boomers. Plus, Generation X’s buying power is no match for the large portfolios that will be sold off in droves. This is expected because older people simply have more money. To top it off, X’ers have less money for investing because of the increasing cost of living. Just being able to afford a house and paying large college debts leaves very little money to invest.

-In 1940, the ratio of people working (and supporting the system) to people receiving benefits under Social Security was 42 to 1.
-By 1960, that ratio was 5 workers for every recipient.
-By 2000, it had dropped to 3 to 1.
-By the year 2044, it is projected to be as low as 2 to 1.1

This is a dire future, and certainly a possibility. But there are some other factors to consider.
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Women in Finance

In April, the CFO magazine surveyed 363 financial executives on their views about gender and finance careers. Some interesting survey highlights include:

• * Only 38% of men say that women are at a disadvantage in the finance. But 66% of women think they have a disadvantage.
• * 68% of women say that flexible hours are an important factor when choosing a job. Only 40% of men do.
• * 31% of women would prefer to work for a man compared with 28% of men.
• *16% of women aspire to be CEO vs. 24% of men (7% think they will attain the position, vs. 17% of men).

A report in the New York Business Wire, gives further information:

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Driven by Passion

This is how many older, re-tyred, Baby Boomers are being described by their (new) bosses: “Driven by Passion”. As the biggest demographic tidal wave in the Western world inches ever closer to retirement, they’re looking for options for work after the magical 65 year threshhold. And there are a growing number of employers who are interested in using them.

Most of them are not driven by asset-acquisition, or by ever-increasing salary opportunities. Sure, they need to earn some money every month, and are not looking to become latter-day slaves, but they’re often motivated much more by their own passions, by things that interest them (rather than simply “doing my job description”), and know the value of employment at their age. All in all, that is a good mix in a group of employees. Employers are now working that out.

Read “Older workers find their niche” from the Associated Press, 19 June 2006, for a story on how a “retirement state”, Oregan, USA, is benefiting. Read it here.

Is print dead? – Long live Print!

In an interesting debate on the Fast Company Website, an email debate (not fax debate) took place between Jeff Jarvis (Former print editor, now blogger and consultant at BuzzMachine)  and John Griffin (President of National Geopgraphic Society’s magazine group) Both these men put forward interesting cases for whether print is dying or not. I wont go into the detail here, but take a look at the online debate here!
What do you think? is print here to stay or will it simply morph? What about newspapers in 20 years from now, will they be around? Interesting times and questions….enjoy!

Connections matter

There’s a company in the US called ‘American Apparel‘. They’re well known for being a ‘non-sweat’ shop business that gives everyone who works for them a better deal than possibly other T-Shirt Manufacturers. Google them to connect to links that describe some of who they are. From their web site…

“We offer the following benefits to all of our employees, sewers and administrators alike, as a matter of policy: paid time off, affordable healthcare for them and their families, company-subsidized lunches, bus passes, free ESL classes, on-site masseurs, free parking, proper lighting and ventilation, and the most up-to-date equipment (be it the latest cutting machine or software). We are continually striving to improve the work environment.”

But when it goes wrong in a connected world it aparently can go very wrong indeed. The blogosphere has attached itself to them and resulted in the following stories breaking on The Consumerist Blog…

* The story that American Apparel may be selling rubber flip flops built in a Thai sweat shop (check out CherryFlava for all the links)
* The resignation letter of one of their employees (check out CherryFlava for all the links)

I can’t tell how true any of this is? American Apparel’s web site doesn’t mention anything. But the point of this post is how things can go wrong, all over the place, in a connected world. If your dirty washing gets out there, and someone thinks it’s blog-worthy, then there’s no telling where it can go. And in that world, what kind of PR do you use to protect yourself?

Thirty Years Later

I cannot let today pass without a moment’s reflection. It is exactly 30 years ago, today, on 16 June 1976, that thousands of children left their classrooms in Soweto (and later around South Africa) to protest against apartheid, being taught in Afrikaans, and in favour of black consciousness and freedom for our country. About 700 of them lost their lives that day, with about 4,000 injured. Most were shot or beaten by the police and defense force.

At the time, I was a 6 year young boy, living in ignorant bliss, less than 50 kilometres away from where it happened. It took me most of life to bridge that 50 kilometre gap. Its something I reflect on often, and have been able to articulate in some way in a presentation I call “Living on Purpose“.

Thirty years ago today, South Africa’s Boomer generation did what many Boomers had started to do around the world: they changed history!!

Lest we forget…

Do women make better bosses?

Alan Lander reports in the Sunshine Coast Daily on a heated discussion on 14 June in his local community. Do women make better bosses? We’ve long argued at TomorrowToday (see our “World of Women” presentation) that women should be taking more of a lead in the 21st century. But we don’t mean that they should step into the testosterone driven, male dominated world of current reality. That would be playing men’s games like men. Rather, they should stpe up and start leading like women – actually changing the game. They should also be more gender inclusive – but they will be. So, as you read the report online here, or below, we actually side with both positions. Women should lead THEIR way, and not be drawn into a male leadership role. But they must lead, and men must learn to lead like them, too.
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Essential Vocabulary Additions for the 21st Century

Got this via e-mail (where else) the other day…

1. BLAMESTORMING : Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
2. SEAGULL MANAGER : A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
3. ASSMOSIS : The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
4. SALMON DAY : The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles
6. PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.
7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.
8. SITCOMs : Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.
9. STRESS PUPPY : A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
10. XEROX SUBSIDY : Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.
11. IRRITAINMENT : Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them. The J-Lo and Ben wedding (or not) was a prime example – Michael Jackson, another…
12. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE : The fine art of whacking the heck out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
13. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
14. 404 : Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message “404 Not Found,” meaning that the requested site could not be located.
15. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.
16. OHNOSECOND : That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an unedited e-mail by mistake)
17. WOOFS : Well-Off Older Folks.
18. CROP DUSTING : Surreptitiously farting while passing through a Cube Farm.

Alumni Talent: How losing the retention battles can help win the talent war

At the moment, one of the pains in the Human Capital side of business is the ‘War for Talent’. With the global village increasing the mobility of our top employees, and the increasing skills shortage in certain key areas Organisational Talent is a commodity as valuable and desirable as gold. However, the more Baby Boomers try to do the things that made them loyal to the company the more their young talent seem to bolt out of the door.

Today’s young talent are seen as arrogant ‘snots’ who refuse to earn their keep and patiently work their way up the corporate ladder. It is nothing like the ‘good old days’ when talent understood that they were being groomed for greatness, and they just needed to wait their turn. On top of all of this the market is competing so aggressively for these individuals that it would be unrealistic to expect them not to move for the types of salaries and opportunities they are being promised. There must be another way to get what we need out of these stars.

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The Gamers are Coming…and they’re changing the world!!!

In the opening lines of the original Star Trek series captain James T. Kirk introduces the episode with the phrase “Space: the final frontier”?. Today there is a new frontier being crossed by society. A frontier no less foreign, intimidating, and in some people’s minds, no less fictional than Star Trek’s galaxies – this new frontier is the world of the Gaming Generation.

Generation X and the Millennials are the first generations to have grown up in the computer game era. In the past games were events; everyone would gather around and block off an evening or significant amount of time to play Monopoly, Risk, Backgammon, or cards. The game was played at a time set aside specifically for it. Today’s youth come home and turn on the TV to play on their Playstation, not watch TV. When they stand in queues they have games on their cellphone or iPod to keep them busy. At the end of the year when Sony releases the PlayStation 3 it will be the most powerful computer in the household. In short, games and gaming pervade almost every sphere of their lives, not just the odd Friday evening put aside for a social gathering.

This shift has built gaming into the DNA of the Gaming generation. Their values, worldview, and lifestyles are affected as they look at the world very differently to those non-gamers they share the world with. These changes need to be understood & engaged with as we become the colleagues, friends, bosses, and parents of this group. World of Warcraft [one of the most popular games on the internet] wizard Helen Cheng says that many players spend more time playing the game than working at their regular jobs.

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Stories – The markers to our history

For millennia Stories and the telling of stories have been central to human existence. From the Hunter-Gathers who told of the day’s conquests around the fire, to friends who tell of what they were doing in December 2004 the exact minute the Tsunami hit while on holiday in Phuket, humans have woven their existence together with stories. The value of a story lies in its ability to convey complex multi-layered ideas in a simple and memorable form to culturally diverse audiences.

Today stories seem less important to our functioning as they were in ages gone by. We find that our preferred modes of operating are void of metaphor, symbolism and imagery. Often, when looking at management science employed by managers, the ‘softer’ value of viewing issues through the lens of Story is relegated in preference to good practice and sound expertise that over-complicate simple ideas. We are more comfortable in the realm of Story when it is applied to parenting as children thirst for the quenching that stories provide their imaginations.

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Talk Story: Signposts for Savvy Leaders

Why do we struggle so with telling stories? Kids don’t struggle in this regard, and perhaps nor do we when with friends, around a meal, in a pub or over a braai (or barbeque for the less initiated). The practice of storytelling is central in any culture with the Hawaiians using a magical phrase, ‘talk story’ – to capture the importance of storytelling in their context.

But assemble a group of adults or leaders around a board room table and story telling can be as painful as extracting teeth from a pit-bull. And as dangerous! Perhaps the problem lies not in the subject but in the context. The ‘work’ context – apart from the ‘water-cooler’ meetings or other informal times and spaces, simply does not invite storytelling. Perhaps we have been too deeply programmed to believe that when it comes to the formal places and spaces within our working lives, there can be no room for storytelling. Of course the irony is that stories do exist – they are always there it is just that in this context, they sit under the surface avoiding detection. This may be the case partly because there might be the uneasy feeling and unspoken belief that such a pursuit is really better left in the playground. And so it is, that in the realm where business-speak rules, stories have no rightful place, they have no voice.

But this needs to change.

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Slow down on those fast foods

We all do it, our busy schedules and run around lifestyles mean that we eat more take away and fast foods now than we ever did…ITS TRUE. How many times after a busy day, do you just say ” I think I’ll just grab something on the way home”. Its jsut the way it is, but we will pay in time for this. According to a New Scientist Article, fast foods even in moderation are dangerous. Why? According to research done on monkeys, diets high in trans fats (the kind of fat found in fast foods) caused the subjects to grow bellies faster and to become insulin resistant, a first sign of diabetes. However, and this is the interesting part, other monkeys were fed the same amount of calories but the fat was from mono unsaturated fats and had gained significantly less weight. So, in this fast paced time, think twice before you stop off and indulge in some of that deep fried, fat saturated and sauce basted take away. It could mean the difference between diabetes or not.

GooglePedia

One of the many reasons I like Firefox – the free, open source web browser – is that the community supporting Firefox continually comes up with little applications, called extensions, that through a simple installation process add great functionality to my browsing experience.

One such extension, a very recent addition to the stacks of existing Firefox add-ons, is GooglePedia. GooglePedia takes the powerful search functionality of Google and combines it with the formidable content of Wikipedia, so that when you run a search on Google half of the page displays Google search results, while the other half of the page shows Wikipedia search matches.

In case you’ve been hibernating for the last few years and don’t know what I’m talking about when I mention Wikipedia – Wikipedia is the world’s first online, open-source encyclopedia. It’s an enormous resource built by a community of volunteers – people like you and I – who have expertise and knowledge to share and do so, for the benefit of something much bigger than them, without remuneration.

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MySQL – The Model 21st Century Company?

I picked up on a great Fortune article on the CNNMoney.com site about MySQL, the open-source software designers, over the weekend. It unpacks the dynamics of this completely decentralised organisation, and just what makes it tick as well as it does.

This, according to the article, is a challenge facing many companies – new and old, established or fledgling – as we transition into a Connection Economy. As globalisation and commoditisation have an increased effect on our workplace and our employees, we need to find innovative new ways to nurture a productive bond among workers who rarely, if ever, meet.

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Leadership – Madiba Style

I guess its a cliche now, but we all know Nelson Mandela in many ways embodies leadership and is one of the greatest leaders of our time, not only in South Africa, but worldwide. I recently finished reading a book by his personal bodyguard, Rory Steyn which tells about the many behind the scenes incidents that characterised Madibas time as President of SA. Some stories are quite funny, some are quite poignant, but mostly the anecdotes and stories tell of the depth of conviction that Nelson Mandela has to be a great leader. Having read the abridged version of his autobiography “A Long Walk To Freedom” and now having read this book “One Step Behind Mandela” a few things come to light about his leadership style and what made him a great leader. These are in no particular order and are simply my observations of a great man:

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Scoble’s on the move

To be honest this post is all about beating my colleague Mike Stopforth to the punch : ) I see that one of his icons, Robert Scoble, rated as the world’s most famous corporate blogger, is leaving Microsoft to join a recently formed Internet Media Start-Up.

The world’s most famous corporate blogger, Robert Scoble, credited with helping to break down a siege mentality at his employer, Microsoft, confirmed on Sunday that he is leaving to join a recently formed Silicon Valley Internet media start-up.

For a full article click here

Posts on this Blog that include Scoble are – Microsoft, Mini-Microsoft and the Talent Exodus and The Feedster Top 500 – blogs of the month

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, Mike Stopforth, Microsoft

Money for Nothing…

…and your clicks for free.

Alex Tew is 21 years old, a student from Wiltshire, England. On August 25th of 2005 he launched the Million Dollar Homepage, an ambitious attempt to raise money (according to Alex) for his varsity education.

Quite simply, Alex set up a blank website, 1000 x 1000 pixels (one million pixels altogether) and sold off 10 x 10 pixel blocks for $100 each. That’s a dollar for a pixel, effectively. Purchasers had the option of submitting a graphic to be displayed, with a link to their website. Things started off a little slowly but as the rumours passed from pc to pc, email to email, blog to blog – orders began to pour in. Having begun with nothing at the end of August, Alex auctioned off the last 1000 pixels on 1 January 2006 for $38,100 and a grand total of $1,037,100.

Not a bad profit considering his only costs where five month’s worth of hosting fees – approximately R 500.

The incentive for investing in Alex’s homepage? Well, at the peak of its growth Alexa rated the site at 127 for traffic – that’s 127th out of ALL the sites making up the World Wide Web. The story of Alex’s site was pasted all over blogs around the world. The brands shown on the page have been seen literally by millions and millions of users. But not only are these companies, sponsors and individuals part of an elaborate (albeit successful) moneymaking scheme – they’re part of a great story. And sometimes just being part of a great story is absolutely priceless.

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More boomers planning next careers

A report from a US-based online newspaper, Columbus Dispatch.com on 8 June, says the following:

Efforts are under way in Washington as well as in corporate America to allow for phased retirements, given the unprecedented graying of the work force — as 76 million boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, march on.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, the number of U.S. workers 55 and older will grow 4.1 percent a year until 2014 — or at four times the rate for the labor force as a whole. Should older workers exit too rapidly, the talent drain from boomer retirements could hit some industries especially hard.

Research fellow David DeLong of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology AgeLab says his work shows that:

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