How Many Royals?
Here's one for ya!
If you do a search on the Financial Times site (
www.ft.com) and search in the Markets Data: charts and analysis section for companies including the word Royal (including the foreign laguage variation of Real and Royale), how many companies do you think you will find?
a 119
b 191
c 911
d 119
One of the above is true as at 29th July 2007
Duncan Williamson
Another on property
Here is a really interesting article on the property market in London, including the car parking space that cost £250,000 to buy. Not just another 'Oh look, a house costs fifteen billion Pounds in Mayfair'. No, it's an article wirtten for an American readership and whilst a lot of it is anecdotal, it does contain significant insights into some of the mentality behind London property prices. Let me say, I for one do NOT believe that the recent boom in property prices in London is due to City types to the extent that they infer in this article and elsewhere. London is far too big and the number of City types far too small to have that impact. However, the expectations spin off from the way that property prices are reported and bid up by Estate Agents is a different story.
Duncan Williamson
Selling your house ... at a massive discount
There are now more than 200 companies that buy houses at discounted prices from distressed homeowners. In some cases, the companies rent them back to the sellers. This is the well known sale and lease back technique in action, no more, no less.
Often, these companies agree to buy homes for 70-80 per cent of their market value and pay all relevant fees and costs. In return, sellers can rent their homes for less than their previous monthly mortgage payments. This is true and I tested it a few weeks ago when I contacted two of these companies and asked them to buy my house. I told them what I thought it was worth and they both offered me around £60,000 less than that figure. They said they would pay in cash and pay all fees.
"A year ago, we had about 20-25 competitors in this sector. Now we have more than 200," said Keith Woodward, a spokesman for Approva Homebuyers.
Business is business, of course, and if a homeowner has equity in their property and feel the need to sacrifice it to pay off some or all of their debts, then fine. The hard part is that there is a suggestion that when the property company feels it's time to make a profit on their investment, they do so and the tenant is turfed out of their home. Again, it's business but is it ethical?
Reference: Ellen Kelleher writing in the FT on 16th June 2007
Duncan Williamson
Ethics of email at work
How about this from the Daily Telegraph: think about it from an ethical point of view:
- theft of time?
- breach of contract?
- breach of ethics
- corporate governance issues as employers may not be policing this properly?
- data protection act breaches?
- more?
Employees are engaging in risky online behaviour at work by downloading music or pornography and gossiping over email, a new study shows.
The Trust and Risk in the Workplace Study examined the office internet habits of employees in the UK, Holland, Australia, the United States and Singapore. It found that 31 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women had downloaded music at work, while nine per cent of men and four per cent of women had accessed obscene material.
However, the risky habits of UK workers were largely email driven with 35 per cent of female employees and 33 per cent of their male colleagues admitting to gossiping or passing on confidential information via email.
Dr Monica Whitty, of Queen's University Belfast, who led the research warned that workers are placing their employers networks at risk with their behaviour.
"Almost two thirds of our sample would blame their employer if confidential data was stolen from their work computers," she said.
"Given that security breaches and careless mistakes can lead to the loss or theft of confidential information, employers should be cautious when it comes to protecting confidential data," she added.
Source: Daily Telegraph, 6th June 2007
Duncan Williamson
World's tallest building II
Didn't know the answer?
Well from just a few days ago, the world's tallest building is the Burj Dubai in, erm, Dubai. Here's its official website:
http://www.burjdubai.com/
Duncan Williamson
The tallest building in the world
Which is the tallest building in the world now, then?
Duncan Williamson
TWO new books
I have just edited a book on calculations/Numeracy for AS/A2 Business studies that Chris wrote a while ago. I also brought it up to date by updating the three oldest cases and adding a further 15% more cases from topical business news stories from this week. I smartened up the appearance of the book and now Oxbow is proud to say that it is ready for sale: we sell these books using an printing on demand printer.
I have also just written a brand new book in this series: Book 3! This time the book, Numeracy for AS/A2 Business Studies AND for Applied AS/A2 Business Studies, not only follows on from books one and two but it also contains some more advanced cases. This means that this third book in the series allows teachers to target the more challenging work to their Applied students or their students who are more mathematically mature and ready for more of a challenge. Nevertheless, the book highlights the advanced cases so that teachers can see at a glance what might not be appropriate for them. There is also guidance on many questions where a more advanced question can be transformed back into a mainstream question by reducing the amount of data to be analysed … you don’t get this anywhere else, do you?
As with Book 1, Book 3 has a fully comprehensive Excel spreadsheet to go with it that contains solutions and additional resources and this is completely free of charge: all you have to do is to buy the book and then write to me at the address given and the spreadsheet is yours.
Duncan Williamson
Inkjet cartridges
The market for inkjet cartridges is in a mess isn't it?
I own and use an Epson CX6400 multi function printer and am happy with it. I
have been told that inkjet cartridges for this printer, like many others
now, have the electronics built into the cartridge rather than the printer.
So, for that reason they are expensive. Well, no: the electronic bit is, I
assume, but not the price.
For a while I used a company that supplied cartridges at a very small price:
nowhere near the £28 a cartridge that Epson sold them for. Then that company
told me that the law had changed and they couldn't sell at £2 a cartridge or
whatever it was and their prices leapt to £6 each. Still not bad but a 200%
increase.
Yesterday I went to PC World to get a cartridge and some other odds and ends
and found:
A four pack, one of each colour, for £38 ... Epson cartridges for £13, £12,
£11 each ... then almost at ground level, bearing in mind how tall I am and
how weak my eyesight can be, I spotted a batch of cartridges for my printer
and others for £1.98 each. I looked and looked for the catch but there
wasn't one except that they only had black ink cartridges for a minimum of
£11.
So, did the law change of has that company just humped up its prices because
it was either making a loss or using the hypothesis of supply and demand?
Apart from companies that are refilling cartridges rather than selling new
ones, how can there be such a massive difference in price between different
suppliers. As far as output is concerned, the quality of all cartridges I
have used, whether Epson or own brand, have been the same and consistent.
WHO PAYS FULL PRICE WHEN THEY CAN AVOID THEN ... AND WHY?
Food for thought?
Duncan Williamson
Microsoft ... me too!
A fascinating article in the Lex column of the Financial Times yesterday on Microsoft, Google and Apple.
17th July 2007
The fascinating aspect of this table of financial results? It shows that history may be absolutely no guide whatssoever to the future or, perhaps more accurately, no guide whatsoever to market expectations.
Duncan Williamson
How not to behave
A few weeks ago I was told this story.
A friend of a friend, let’s call him Mr X, was asking why he was no longer working for a client they used to have in common, after all, he used to do a lot of work with them.
Apparently this is what happened: Mr X was on site with the client and since it was a remote site, they were put up in an hotel. They then moved to another hotel for another part of the work and Mr X didn't like the new hotel. He thought he would say so and said to the client's representative:
'Get me a new hotel or get me a ticket home.'
Within an hour he he’d received a ticket home and off he went.
The lesson to learn: either keep your mouth shut or negotiate from a position of strength.
Duncan Williamson
Unstoppable
I have just read a review of a new book on corporate strategy ... oh no, not another one? Possibly not.
Chris Zook of Bain & Company, a consultancy, has written this book and I recommend that you take a look at the web pages devoted to this book. go here: http://www.unstoppablegrowth.com/core/unstoppable_live.asp where you will see video interviews with Zook: he's got a bit of a monotonous voice but he does has some fascinating things to say. I liked his story of how de Beers changed its strategy. He also talks about companies using their hidden assets: shades of the Balanced Scorecard here, too, by the way.
There is a PDF file to download too, entitled the Unstoppable Fact Sheet and the link is on the URL I have just given.
Is Zook any good at arithmetic could be a question you might ask after reading this, from that fact sheet: The average period of holding for a share of common stock is about ten times shorter than what it used to be (from eight years to eight months) ... you can see the mistake, can't you? You might even want to correct the gammar of that sentence too to make it much more clear and understandable.
You might even want to buy the book ... so far I haven't!
Duncan Williamson
Royal Mail
Please can someone tell me what the sense in this is, please?
Last year the Royal Mail paid a bonus to all of its employees of a total of around £274 million with a huge slice of that, surprise, surprise, going to the senior management: fat cats! As they were paying that bonus management bleated on that they needed £2 billion investment to let the company compete when postal services were deregulated ... they have since been deregulated.
We are now in the middle of the THIRD of an indeterminate number of 24 hour strikes by postal workers at the Royal Mail.
Does this look like good and responsible leadership and followership to you?
Duncan Williamson
Journalistic type jargon
I just came across this spoof from the book: The Financial Times Guide to Using the Financial Pages by Romesh Vaitilingham
Today's Stock Market Report
Helium was up. Feathers were down. Paper was stationery.
Fluorescent tubing was dimmed in light trading. Knives were up sharply.
Cows steered into a bull market. Pencils lost a few points.
Hiking equipment was trailing.
Lifts rose, while escalators continued on their slow decline.
Weights were up in heavy trading.
Light switches were off.
Mining equipment hit rock bottom.Nappies remained unchanged.
Shipping lines stayed on an even keel.
The market for raisins dried up.
Cocal Cola fizzed.
Caterpillar shares inched up a bit.
Sun peaked at midday.
Balloon prices were inflated.
Scott Tissues touched a new bottom.
I have edited that list a little and I am sure you enjoyed it.
Duncan Williamson
Dumber and Dumber
For years I have been saying Business Studies has been dumbed down. Sadly there are still people who fail it.
Now I see that the same thing is happening to Economics. When the Head of Economics at Eton says AQA is dumbing down:
then it must be true!
Chris
How useful is your MP?
Oddly there are no sites (via Google) that have that title. Maybe MPs are useful...maybe not. How many people have tried lobbying their MP?
Here's a guide:
A guide to lobbying your MP
Your MP has a duty to listen to your concerns.
MPs will often give more attention to the views of a constituent than of an organisation - even those they support. They are sensitive to the opinion of their electorate.
Few MPs have such large majorities that they can take voters for granted, and most want a reputation as a good constituency MP.
Your meeting could make all the difference in influencing what issues your MP decides to focus on. This is especially true when MPs are entering parliament for the first time.
Who is your MP?
Visit http://www.locata.co.uk/commons. If you cannot find the name of your local MP on the internet, you can always phone the House of Commons information desk on: 020 7219 4272.
Finding out about your MP
The more you know about your MP the better able you will be to lobby them effectively. You can go to the library and look them up in Dod's parliamentary companion, call the House of Commons information desk on 0207 219 4272 or you can use the internet. See below for links to useful websites.
You should research whether your MP is a Minister or a shadow spokesperson, a member of a select committee, a member of an All Party Group and whether they have raised your issue in parliament. You can find out the official party position on the issue you want to raise with your MP by checking the party's website, or finding their manifesto documents. You should also check whether your MP has any links with a foreign country and what your MP's job was before entering parliament.
Meeting your MP
As a constituent your MP will be keen to meet you. It is usually easiest to book an appointment at their weekly surgery in the constituency. You can do this by contacting the constituency office or the House of Commons. You might also wish to invite them to take part in a local group meeting/activity. In preparing for a meeting you should:
- Be realistic about how much you can cover in one meeting.
- List about three points that you want to get across
- Research the topic thoroughly, making sure that you fully understand the issues and have clear facts to support your argument
- Be clear about what you want your MP to do as a result of the meeting, such as writing to a minister or asking a parliamentary question
- Using the information that you know about the MP and their party, predict some possible responses you are likely to get. If you think that your MP will not agree with your position then rehearse your arguments.
Source: www.stillhuman.org.uk/
People - as always - are welcome to post their responses here - has anyone tried getting their MP involved in anything?
Chris
Violence in Oxford; Violence worldwide
I rent out rooms to foreign students during the summer. Currently I have two Latvians, one Spanish, one Saudi, one Polish staying with me.
Last night the Spanish student was mugged. A yob held a knife to his throat (the Spanish student is 16) and demanded his mobile phone.
Earlier in the evening I had spent time telling the Spaniard that Oxford is much more peaceful than Manchester or Liverpool.
I guess he won't be going there then!
Meanwhile the Saudi's English is improving. He has managed to tell me how much he hates Iranians, that the Shi'ites are not Muslims and that Bush is the biggest terrorist in the world.
Somehow the word 'microcosm' springs to mind...
Chris
Support Live Earth by not going
Loads about Live Earth concerts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/liveearth/
Let's look at some facts:
The stars will fly 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the circumference of the world.
The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.
The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day: 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions (Source: http://carbonfootprint.com/)
The average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.
The concert will also generate some 1,025 tonnes of waste at the concert stadiums - much of which will go directly into landfill sites.
Worldwide audience of around 1,268,500 is expected to attend the concerts. Dr Andrea Collins, an expert in sustainability from Cardiff University, has researched the impact of such mass gatherings on the environment. "An event of this size at Wembley - which holds 65,000 at a rock concert, will generate around 59 tonnes of waste," she says. "That is largely composed of the rubbish from food and drink consumption." She found that a Wembley-sized football match generated an 'ecological footprint' of 3,000 global hectares - an area the size of 4,166 football pitches. This is the amount of bioproductive land required to absorb the C02 emissions produced by such an event.
Each person attending the event will have to make a return journey to the venue, be it by air, rail, bus or car. This burns fossil fuel - precisely what we are trying to reduce.
Five of the top performing acts together have an annual output of almost 2,000 carbon tonnes. Madonna alone has an annual carbon footprint of 1,018 tonnes, according to John Buckley.
Live Earth is encouraging 'citizens of the world' to take small steps: share a car, plant a shrub, turn off a light or hang out washing rather than use a dryer.
Support Live Earth by not going there; by not buying the merchandising. The organisers could best support the aims by cancelling it.
(Much of the above was from www.dailymail.co.uk)
Chris
This is a test
There may be a problem with posting here ... this is a test!
DW
Practical view of the BP accounts
After a gap whilst I've been away travelling again, here is something you should find useful. Take a look at the following rates of growth ratios for British Petroleum based on their latest four years' accounts:
| Rates of Growth | | | |
| Income Statement | 31-Dec-05 | 31-Dec-04 | 31-Dec-03 |
| Discontinued Turnover | | | |
| Turnover or Gross Income | 6.59 | 24.81 | -14.06 |
| Trading Profit | -9.54 | 30.80 | 51.51 |
| Profit after Tax | -0.61 | 25.52 | 67.89 |
| Net Income | -1.53 | 30.84 | 62.90 |
Clearly this is a simplified and abbreviated account and the calculations are mine: hence any errors are mine and I apologise if I have got anything wrong.
My point here is that such a presentation shows the potential power of rates of growth ratios over and above ordinary ratios.
From 2002 to 2003, we see that a 14.06% FALL in sales or turnover has resulted in a RISE in profit after tax of 67.89% for the period.
Similarly for the period 2004 to 2005, sales ROSE by 6.59% whilst profit after tax FELL by 0.61% for the same period.
What conclusions do we draw from these figures? Anything to do with sales/product mix? Anything to do with product profitability? Could be both, could be either.
Food for thought anyway.
Duncan Williamson
