Vodafone
Vodafone is
suddenly in trouble. There have been stories on the television and radio over the last 24 hours announcing that there is a problem with the company. Just listening to a report on BBC Radio 4 relating to Vodafone's dirty linen being washed in public.
Did I say
suddenly? I've been advising people that Vodafone is a problem since I wrote my ratio analysis resources for www.bized.ac.uk ... three or four years ago!
I had the same experience when I started reporting on www.amazon.com: I couldn't believe it when amazon was reporting a NEGATIVE balance sheet of $5 BILLION and falling and still there were analysts and brokers recommending amazon as a BUY. Out of the blue ONE analyst on Wall Street
suddenly announced that amazon was a problem and suddenly all other analysts woke up and looked at the dawn.
The outcome of all of this is that some companies can get away with massively understated results for a long time.
The chairman of Vodafone is
suddenly under fire; but his preecessors are equally culpable as the rot set in well before today. See how it all unfurls now.
You'd be well advised to read my report on Marks and Spencer too: things are getting better there but senior managers are taking disproportionate bonuses. Let's see how long that story takes to become a
sudden problem.
Duncan Williamson
Akbank from Turkey
Every day I receive an email telling me about a funny advert or home made film or snippet from a proper film or television programme ... here's an advert from aTurkish bank that I thought everyone would enjoy.
Click on
this link to go there.
Duncan Williamson
Time to Test the Cheap/Low Cost Airlines
I know it's just about high summer but what better time to test the concepts of cheap and low cost as in cheap flights and low cost airline?
Do this now: try to fly to Rome this weekend ... next weekend ... the weekend after with easyJet, Ryanair and BMIBaby. Now define cheap and low cost having done the same when trying to book with, say, British Airways, Lufthansa, Alitalia. Spot the difference.
The big point that most people seem unaware of is that these cheap/low cost airlines are run by people who know that they cannot survive purely on give away seat prices ... so they don't. I have moaned about this before and have even flown on easyJet; but I just don't like their model. My dream of a real and genuine cheap/ow cost airline would be an airline that charges the same low price all of the time for all passengers. If I suddenly want to go to Rome with just a few days to spare or with just a week or so to spare, I don't want to find that I might even pay around about the same by using a cheap/low cost airline as by using a scheduled airline.
Moreover, these cheap/low cost airlines usually operate out of airports that are not always where passengers might think they are. The biggest point, of course, is that whatever fare we pay, a cheap/low cost airline remains no frills: there is no meal, no drink ... in some cases you even have to pay to put your luggage in the hold. And the rest.
So, let me laud the dream of the cheap/low cost aeroplane seat but let it be truly and consistently cheap or low cost.
In spite of all of that I've got my eye on a very cheap ticket to Rome in September, however. I will report back if I manage to go!!! Look at Ryanair's web site until 17th July where they are touting tickets at £0.19 per ticket plus taxes and other charges that should be no more than £15 or so.
Duncan Williamson
Cost accounting book review
I was commissined to review a book on cost accounting last week ... different source to the thinkers50 book.
I liked the book despite some shortcomings and I think it is a very useful book for business teachers and for A level accounting students. Probably too much overall for a business studies student below undergraduate level.
Busy elsewhere at the moment so the review is again on my own site, so go to my
book reviews page there.
Duncan Williamson
The Thinkers50
Chris received this book and asked me to review it from the point of view of a business studies teacher. At the moment the review is on my duncanwil site but will be on oxbow.org.uk shortly.
Firstly, taking the book at face value, it is the worst book I have ever read with one saving grace: it introduces us to management "thinkers" whom we might not otherwise have thought or or even heard about.
Secondly, for a teacher it is an excellent resource.
See
my review in which I take the top three thinkers and show you how you might use the book as a useful resource.
Before you got, who do you think are the top three business thinkers? To qualify they have to be alive when the book was written. You may be surprised!
Duncan Williamson
Salvestrol
Am I being cynical?
Let me introduce you to salvestrol.
Covered here:
http://www.salvestrols.ca/resveratrolstory.aspBig article here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/dietfitness.html?in_article_id=393956&in_page_id=1798&in_a_source=
Apparently it's only certain veg that help.
All based on work by this guy
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/hls/staff/pharmacy/res_gpotter.jsp
who wrote about it FOUR YEARS AGO in the Lancet
Oh yes, the Professor has a company that....sells Salvestrol (now trademarked) as a supplement and the company says:
"
So without the expertise now developed by our scientists it is virtually impossible to guarantee an adequate intake of Salvestrols from the diet which is why taking a supplement is so important"So - modern marketing:
a. do research
b. maybe find something useful
c. trademark the name
d. develop supplements
e. get a national daily to run this 'new' news
f. say that veg are not enough
g. then you sell your supplements!
BINGO
Multiple Sclerosis
In the Daily Mail on Tuesday there was a big article about Dermot O’Connor and how he cured himself of Multiple Sclerosis. My brother has MS so I was curious to contact Dermot. I went to his website:
http://www.healing-code.com/No email address but two phone numbers. One is incorrect and one is never answered – and this is a site selling £000s worth of courses.
The postal address looked familiar and then I remembered that this was for the Hale Clinic.
So I telephoned the Hale Clinic:
http://www.haleclinic.com/They said they’d get back to me but only had one number for Dermot and half way through giving it to me they said they were not supposed to give it out. I then asked when Dermot would be coming to the Hale Clinic as he practices there.
They said once a month but he was there last Monday and would be there next Monday.
I then phoned back and got someone else who gave me three phone numbers including the one I wasn’t supposed to use. None of the numbers got through to Dermot. I asked them what his charges were but the Hale Clinic said they didn’t know as he decided those.
On the Hale Clinic site it says: “
great emphasis is placed on preventative medicine as a way of maintaining good health after treatment. The Hale Clinic has pioneered research into the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome, multiple sclerosis, autism, cerebral palsy and repetitive strain injury.”I asked them where this research was. They said they’d get back to me in about ten minutes.
They didn’t so I rang this morning.
The lady said that she’d find out and would I hold. I held and held and held. The lady came back and said there was an emergency.
So I rang back later and this time they gave me all the prices for Dermot’s consultation - £120+ !!!! I asked them when he was due in.
They replied by giving me his phone number and email address. I explained that that was not what I had asked.
They then told me ‘next Monday’.
I asked about the research and they now say that it is NOT available and they will take it off their site.
The article in the Daily Mail will have been read by millions. Thousands have MS – not all are as persistent as me. Think how they must feel – they ring a number where there’s no answer; they ring a clinic that gives contradictory information. And all the time there are courses costing £000s of pounds, treatments costing £120+
No wonder there are sites attacking complementary therapy!
Chris Sivewright
Marks and Spencer ... yet again
Second edition of my report into the company and the potential scam at Marks and Spencer is revealed. The management at this great company are now shown to be no better at paying management bonuses than many other less reputable companies.
Go to
this page on my web site to find the report. Look at the Financial Reporting section on the menu on that page and let me know what you think.
Duncan Williamson
Wind Power for the Home
My mind wanders from time to time to the day when I will generate some or all of my own electricity for my home. I was brought up in a town where there was a house, one house, that was powered entirely by a DIY hydro electric system. This takes us back a few decades and was really revolutionary then. Even now, very few of us have the sense to do it!
I'm convinced that solar and wind power are feasible additions to our personal power armoury but I'm still finding the costs prohibitive: payback periods of a minimum of 10 years seem normal. This is the aspect of renewable energy that I'd like to overcome.
Wind power interests me most since it will just take the erection of a small wind fan that will be driven as much as one quarter to one third of the time on average, I think.
I have just spent half an hour or so on the internet looking at home based solutions and I think it's fair to say that the basic kit can be put together at a relatively minimal cost but the eletronic gubbins that go with it add significant costs to say nothing of the labour costs and profit of the experts fitting the entire thing. No problem with people earning a living and making a profit.
A simple pole mounted wind turbine attached to my house would cost, it seems, around £1,500 and they tell me it would save me around £100 per year. I could have it attached to my existinelectricityty system by means of some fancy switching gear and then use it to power my DVD player, computer, fridge and freezer and several lights. That would do me on average, to be fair, I think, since my family is small and shrinking.
I am not selling any systems and my interest is genuine as I really would like to do this. However, the turbines on offer are larger than I thought they would need to be (again no judgement since I cannot assess these things from anything other than on a simple level) so the impact on the aesthetics of the house and neighbourhood are important.
Take a look at
this page for some of the information that I have come across. Please note this page gives arguments both for and against home wind farms.
As a matter of interest I was in a friend's garden the other day and he's got some solar power evening lights in the garden ... I've got a few of them now. Cheap to buy ospecialal offer from a well known DIY chain and they charge during the day and switch on automatically at dusk. They are rechargeable battery driven from the sun and are said to stay on for around 6 - 8 hours a night. Since I always leave a patio light on at night, I am now about to save the costs of that. Not sure about the payback since I already use a highly efficient energy saving bulb in the patio light. So there's the convenience factor allied to the solar powered lights as well as the aesthetics: they are relatively discreet.
Duncan Williamson
