I found it
I have been telling people for years why we use the abbreviations Dr and Cr for debit and credit in bookkeeping. However, I have never been able to prove what I have said. OK, I know I read it years ago but haven't seriously looked for the proof. I tell people:
Dr comes from the word Debitor not debtor and debitor is not in use today
Cr comes from the word Creditor, which is still in use today
Well, today I just happened to be reading the opening to Othello, a play be William Shalespeare, when lo and behold I came upon this:
Iago:
... By debitor and creditor; this counter caster,
He, in good time, must his lieutenant be,
And I, God bless the mark, his Moorship's ancient.
Act 1 Scene 1 lines 31 - 34
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says that the word debitor was in current usage from the 15th to the 17th centuries and you can also find the word in Shakespeare's Cymbeline.
The word debtor, maybe surprisingly, has been traced by the OED back to around 1290.
The word creditor, on the other hand can only be traced back to 1447. Here are a couple of creditor quotations for you:
1543 (
title), A profitable Treatyce..to learne..the kepyng of the famouse reconynge, called in Latyn, Dare and Habere, and in Englyshe, Debitor and Creditor, etc.
1588 J. MELLIS Briefe Instr. Cvb, The left side..is Debitor and the other Creditor.
So now you know a bit more of the history of these few words and abbreviations; and you even know the Latin for them too.
Duncan Williamson
Newspaper Marketing Agency
If you are teaching business studies and want a brilliant set of resources for your older students go along to this page on the Newspaper Marketing Agency's web site:
http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/whyNewspapers?whyNewspapersModel=7335?WT.mc_id=np_lnkpgeThere is all you need to evaluate how Guinness used newspaper marketing to boost its sales. PDF files, PowerPoint files and a bit more.
It's Guinness, so it's an alcoholic drink ... so please don't use it with under age students, good as it is.
Take a look around the rest of that site, though and you will find a veritable wealth of other resources to do with newspaper marketing campaigns. Just click on almost any link and you'll be treated to something excellent!
Duncan Williamson
Dyson and that awfully nice lady at Pepsi Cola
Dyson Cleans up
Sir James Dyson had a good idea a long time ago: he invented the bagless vacuum cleaner, made cleaning carpets, upholstery and curtains much more of a true clean up operation. He then set up a manufacturing organisation here in the UK.Finally, he sold the UK down the river as he sent part of his manufacturing operations abroad to where he could make more money.
Now, why did I say that? Well, reading in yesterday's issue of The Times, I see that Dyson said this recently:
Britain has to go back to its roots. As our balance of trade shrinks into the red, we have a choice: do we want Britain to be a theme park or a hub of creative engineering?
Yeah, right, Sir James!
Also, what kind of an engineer makes fundamental mistakes like this when he says:
The result is that we produce only 24,000 engineering graduates a year compared with 300,000 in China and 450,000 in India.
Population of the UK v China v India? Relativitities Sir James? Quality Sir James?
Let me ask a question of you Sir James: if entrepreneurs like you take your business abroad, where are our engineers going to work?
The Lady at PepsiCo
What is the name of the CEO and Chairman of Pepsi Cola? Did you know that it is a woman (I didn't) and did you know that she's called Indra Nooyi (I didn't). Well, she is and she is! I read an article on Indra in yesterday's edition of The Times and she gave her top tips on leadership.
In answer to the question, What does leadership mean?, Indra replied:
I have a five Cs model
competence (damn good at getting resutls)
confidence to have the courage to make difficult decisions
communication skills
convey your vision and direction
compass pointed North to your true values
compassion: empathy not sympathy
Apart from the compass based one I thought they were rather good.
On the downside Indra, it says in the article in The Times, "... counts Henry Kissinger as a friend ..." That's not something I would want to admit: check his record.
Duncan Williamson
Soya beans
Some of you may know that in the Far east, they do marvellous things with soya beans that we here in Europe can only dream of.
They also use soya beans in Asian communities in the former Soviet Union too. So, where we are very familiar with bean sprouts from mung beans *the ones you get at the Chinese take away) they do the same with soya beans over there. They are much bigger and when they blanch them and add their spices, they are magnificent.
Well, no wonder then that there have been riots in Indonesia of late. Let's see why, the Financial Times tells the story:
Soyabean crops are being displaced in the US to make way for more lucrative corn crops, which can be used for biofuel. Rapidly growing bands of middle class Asians are consuming more meat: which means more pigs and chicken eating soyabeans in feedstock. The poor, meanwhile, continue to rely on soya products like tofu and fermented bean cakes for their daily protein.
Near term supply dynamics offer little respite. According to the US Department of Agriculture, US soyabean acreage has peaked and is likely to drop below 70m acres by 2016, down around 9% from 2006 ... Brazilian producers have been hit by a vicious circle of poor yields and high debts; even if these ease, there are high shipping and fuel costs to factor into the equation. In parts of Asia itself, perverse subsidies make it cheaper to grow fertiliser guzzling crops rather than the self sufficient soyabean which creates its own nitrogen.
... Chinese demand will continue to expand, accounting for three quarters of the projected gain in world soya trade by 2016 according to the USDA ... at some point higher prices will prompt farmers to revert to soyabeans and Brazilian production is climbing.
Our greed for fuel and the headlong dash into biofuels has already had an impact on corn, or maize; and now anyone involved with soya beans is going to suffer. Aren't we just a bit selfish, don't you think?
Duncan Williamson
Smells in marketing
If you read my personal blog, you will know that I have just picked up a copy of The New Scientist, as I do from time to time.
In the Feedback Section of this week's mag, there is this:
NTT says the scent generators can be placed in retail stores, cafes and office lobbies, "reflecting the growing trend to use aromas as an active marketing tool."
That is in the middle of a piece discussing the use of citrus smells to sell beer in Japan.
Well, my point is this: ... growing use of aromas ... where have they been? I used to dream of being sent to Duckworths in my childhood on the days that they had been grinding and bagging fresh coffee. How about supermarkets piping the smell of their bakery around the shop?
If others are catching on now, then fine; but it really is old hat lads!
Duncan Williamson
IFRS/IAS
Anyone here interested in getting bukshee copies of the International Financial Reporting Standards (formerly International Accounting Standards)? Legitimately, that is, from a pukha source.
Go here http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/RECH_mot.do and search for International Accounting Standards and that should give you everything you need. All that is courtesy of the European Union that has adopted the IFRS so has to put the Standards into their equivalent of the London Gazette. Hence, they are available free of charge.
Alternatively, careen on down to the IASB and buy a copy.
Duncan Williamson
Make any sense of this can you?
I wonder if this is just bad and/or tired journalism or do people really think like this?
Let's try to unravel something from today's Financial Times.
Manchester United will this week seek to re establish itself as one of the world's richest clubs by announcing record gross turnover of £245m. The Premier League champions will also add impetus to its global branding power by claiming a third of a billion people around the world are supporters. The club wants to correct the impression that it has slipped down the table of football's money league, arguing that recent analyses of its own financial data and that of its Champions League and Premier League rivals do not compare like with like. When United unveils its financial results on Friday for the year to June 30 2007, it will say gross turnover, which includes revenues from its Nike merchandising deal and income from MUTV, its broadcasting arm, has risen 21 per cent to £245m, up from £202m the previous year.
However, the club's overall income still leaves it behind Real Madrid which in September reported turnover for 2006-07 of £263m. But United's main motivation is to demonstrate that among England's elite clubs it remains the one with the biggest financial clout.
United is thought to have been peeved at the way the club's finances were compared unfavourably with those of Arsenal when the north London club published its annual results in September. Arsenal reported that its £201m turnover was above United's £168m, even though the Arsenal figure was for gross turnover for 2006-07, including non-recurring property income, while Uni-ted's figure was for net turnover the previous season.
The race for financial supremacy will be joined by Chelsea later this month when it is expected to report turnover of around £200m.
Honestly, what are we mere mortals missing?
Duncan Williamson
Worried about blu ray?
Are you worried about the future of blu ray and hd dvd? Well, according to the Financial Times, a winner has just passed the finishing line and it's Sony's blu ray format.
These are the two ultra nigh capacity and density storage formats that allow us to dump upwards of 25Gb of things onto a DVD sized disc.
The two formats were, like vhs and betamax before them, in direct competition and the FT says,
Last week film studio Warner Bros announced it would stop releasing films in the rival HD format backed by Microsoft and Toshiba. Roughly 70 per cent of new movies will now be released exclusively on Blu-ray. Toshiba shares dropped 2.3 per cent Monday to their lowest level since March and Sony was up 0.7 per cent in a falling Japanese market.
Looks like it's true then.
However, is saw a desktop computer last week for a small amount of money that was supporting both formats in one of its disc drives.
So maybe this battle has still really to be won?
Duncan Williamson
