Published April 19th, 2008
in Business and Golf.
I recently wrote a report in a course called Management of Human Resources at Cass Business School on General Electric (GE) and its Human Resource Management (HRM) practices. When researching for this report, I came across a very interesting article published by The Economist, a news and international affairs publication, on golf and the game’s importance in business.
GE, for example, is famous for being a ‘golf company’. Jack Welsh, the company’s famous ex-boss, is according to many the best golfing CEO of all times and golf has over the years become an essential tool within the company for any manager looking to move up the career ladder. The Economist claims that Welsh used the game as a character test to see whether a person had the guts to work for his organisation. Many other organisations value the game very highly too. For example, John Mack, the boss of Morgan Stanley, is said to have made it a habit to appoint golfing friends to the board.
The Economist addresses a very interesting and important issue in the article. Is it possible that there’s a correlation between the very low number of female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and the fact that they don’t get the opportunity to play golf with the male counterparts (e.g. because of mens-only clubs such as Augusta National in the US)? On the rare occasions when women get to play golf with their male colleagues, they play off a different tee. At the time of print, there were only eleven female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and sadly, I don’t think the number has increased dramatically since then.
What’s your option? Do you think it’s possible that there’s a correlation between the very low number of female CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies and the fact that they don’t get the opportunity to play golf with their male counterparts?
You can read the original article here.
Published February 1st, 2008
in Web 2.0, Media and Internet and Business.
There has been a lot of speculation in the media during the last year about Internet’s latest phenomena Facebook and its profitability. An article by the Economist published in October 2007 suggested that Facebook might generate revenues of some $100m this year. Microsoft later paid $240m for 1.6% of the company – which valued the company to as much as $15bn – an amount many experts think is mad.
It now looks like the finances of the private-held company finally have been leaked onto the Net. Kara Swisher at AllThingsD.com, part of the Wall-Street Journal, has published the following financial metrics – which she claims comes from a meeting held by Facebook’s CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, yesterday:
- 2007 Revenues: $150 million
- 2008 Revenues: $300 to $350 million (projected)
- 2007 Headcount: 450
- 2008 Headcount: 1,000 (projected)
- Capital Expenditures: $200 million (i.e., servers)
- EBITDA*: $50 million
- 2008 Cash Flow (EBITDA - Capital Expenditures): negative 150 million
*EBITDA = Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
Sounds like a fantastic investment opportunity – doesn’t it? But of course, the figures can change dramatically if Facebook would make a breakthrough in social network monetization – such as their very own version of Google Ads.
Read Karen’s article for more information.
Published January 22nd, 2008
in Business and Management.
I have just started to take a course called IT for Business at Cass Business School. The course touches upon everything from IT Management issues to Web 2.0.
Ron Young delivered the first lecture yesterday and talked about Knowledge Management (KM) and technology. Ron is the CEO of a company called Knowledge Associates. He is acknowledged as a leading expert in KM and has worked with leading organisations in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Ron outlined five key challenges that he reckons companies will face within the next 10 years:
- Companies need to substantially increase the productivity of knowledge working, at least by a 50 fold
- Companies need to exponentially develop global knowledge sharing networks and relations
- Companies need to radically innovate
- Companies need to dramatically improve quality
- Leadership must be aligned to the timeless business principles (increase sales, reduce costs, increase profit/value)
For more information, visit his blog on the URL below:
km-consulting.blogspot.com
Published November 28th, 2007
in Media and Internet and Business.
I found a great magazine last week called Entrepreneur. It is an American magazine but can be found at selected bookshops such as Borders in London. The magazine offers some great information and interesting reading on sales and marketing, management, technology and business strategy.
The November issue features an interview with Guy Kawasaki, known as the former chief evangelist for Apple. He has recently launched a social media site called Truemors and shares his start-up experience so far.
What I found most interesting with the interview was his comparison between the old internet start-up and his way of doing it – which I think applies to a lot of new internet based businesses today that does not require a significant amount of funding from VCs to get functioning.
Continue reading ‘Internet start-ups: today vs. yesterday’
Published October 2nd, 2007
in Media and Internet and Business.
EBay, the company behind the online auction and shopping website ebay.com, has written down its investment in Skype, an Internet telephone service, by £695m (nearly 50%). Skype has continued to add new users (its current user base is said to be 200m) at a fast rate but failed to produce the sort of e-commerce and advertising revenues that EBay had hoped for when it acquired the firm.
FT.com reports that EBay continues to insist that its long-term hopes for Skype remain unchanged and that it has no plans of selling the business.
Continue reading ‘EBay writes down its investment in Skype’
Published September 20th, 2007
in Media and Internet and Business.
I came across an interesting article in the Economist recently about the use of mathematical algorithms in business. An algorithm is essentially a procedure or formula for solving a problem. The speed and processing power of today’s computers mean that algorithms can execute tasks and solve problems at an incredible speed. Examples of algorithms used in business include the ones used by search-engine companies such as Google.
The Economist explains in their article how one can validate credit-card numbers using an algorithm called the Luhn algorithm. The algorithm, which was created by an IBM researcher more than 40 years ago, can be used to validate the numbers entered by consumers on an e-commerce site, for example, to keep processing times down.
Continue reading ‘How to validate credit-card numbers’
Published March 28th, 2007
in Web 2.0 and Business.
Times are good in London. The weather is finally getting better after a quite cold start of the year. The economy in London as one of the world’s leading financial centres is not too bad either. This can be illustrated by all the brand new Ferraris quite annoyingly passing by my home just outside the Square Mile. The Economist launched the Big Mac index in 1980s, perhaps its time to abolish the burgers and introduce the Italian sports cars. When a young banker is driving home in his extremely expensive car before 6pm on a Monday; you know times are good.
The management team at Google, the search giant, is perhaps not as cheerful and pleased as the workers in the Square Mile. YouTube, one of Google’s main acquisitions last year, is facing quite a lot of trouble. Viacom, a media company, has announced that it is going to sue Google and YouTube for copyright infringement.
Continue reading ‘Google’s headache’
Published March 22nd, 2007
in Web 2.0 and Business.
The Mckinsey Quarterly, the McKinsey & Company’s print and online publication, published a survey in March 2007 regarding how businesses use Web 2.0, a phrase that refers to the second generation of web-based technologies and services such as social networking sites and communication tools. Popular websites such as MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube and Wikipedia can all be classified as sites based upon the Web 2.0 concept.
The survey was conducted in January 2007 and is based upon 2,847 responses from executives world-wide.
Continue reading ‘The future looks bright for Web 2.0′
