I’m amused by the sniggering in the blogosphere at Microsoft collecting the scraps from the Facebook table when it acquired the rights to sell the platform’s remnant advertising worldwide; ie, that inventory that Facebook doesn’t want to sell itself. Others have scowled at the other part of the transaction: the $15-billion valuation attached to Facebook […]
Business
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Sport
An hour with Gavin Varejes
Daily we are confronted with traumatic events that redefine our lives and bring home the sombre realisation that many things are beyond our control: 9/11, tsunamis and the unavoidable encountering of Sharks supporters. When the genius concerned lists the day the Sharks won the Currie Cup for the first time at Loftus Versfeld among his […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media
Get me a fake Springbok jersey!
Canterbury, the Springbok kit sponsor, is complaining that “counterfeit” goods are damaging its business and could lead to job losses. What hogwash! Canterbury’s argument, a familiar complaint by branded-goods manufacturers, is based on a false assumption: that people would buy the “official” goods if alternatives — the far cheaper “fakes” — were not available. For […]
Posted inBusiness
An hour with Discovery Holdings’s Adrian Gore
Many people may have heard of the founder and CEO of Discovery Holdings, Adrian Gore, but most will be hard pressed to tell you why they know the name. When you meet Gore you will understand why. Understated and down to earth, it is sometimes hard to believe that this is the genius behind it […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
Time to grow up, bloggers
Microsoft’s quarter-billion dollar investment in Facebook is a litmus test for the maturity of the social media and social networking world called Web 2.0. While it was fun for some (like Thought Leader colleague Ivo Vegter) to join a group of Facebook users who promised to quit the social network if Microsoft bought a share […]
Posted inBusiness
Stability strategy: When should we take the off-ramp down Rocky Rich Lane?
In my business, building cars, it’s all about how fast we can churn out a completed vehicle without sacrificing quality standards and customer satisfaction. Along with this we take into consideration our employees and contractors … are they happy? Are they secure? If not, how can we fix the problem? Yesterday evening I was sitting […]
Posted inBusiness
Energy and economy
I find it somewhat amusing how humans seem to have designed and created incredibly successful societies based on the availability of different commodities. There was the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the industrial age and now our own current information age. The logical progression from rock and caves to fire and […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Facebook and Google: Who should worry?
Microsoft has invested $240-million in Facebook, resulting in a $15-billion evaluation for the social network. I fear that this might be the beginning of the end of the Facebook mania. Personally, I would have preferred to see an investment by Google. It is a company I admire, and one that I trust to have a […]
Posted inBusiness
Chop suey or McDonald’s? You decide …
We learned on Thursday that Standard Bank had sold 20% of its operations to the Chinese. As a customer, my wife is well positioned to take advantage of this — she recently spent some time heaving with the crowds in Bangkok, celebrating Chinese New Year with the 9 048 423,3 Thai people of Chinese descent. (Source: Wikipedia […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
Amazon patent insanity isn’t over
No sooner had a judge carved huge holes in the famous one-click-checkout patent which Amazon.com swindled out of the US Patent and Trademark Office, than the very same idiots at the very same mental institution awards it a patent on another amazing new thing.
Posted inBusiness
Business. Environment. Balance
Long gone are the days of hippies and activists alone protecting the existence of fauna and flora and protesting against the wrongs done to the environment by industry and big business. Our green playing field has changed indeed, with businesses stepping up to the plate and taking charge of their environmental and social responsibility issues. […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Aluminium smelters: The developmental state gone mad?
South Africa has no bauxite ore! Despite this geological fact, South Africa (and Mozambique) has aluminium smelters. Bauxite ore is the raw material for creating aluminium. The ore comes to us from Australia (and possibly Suriname and Brazil), we process the ore to produce aluminium and then ship it out. If we don’t have bauxite […]