In the latest Business Matters Magazine on The Sunshine Coast (www.mattersmagazine.com.au). I think the editor is putting out subliminal messages, exposing his desires or just didn't realise what you get when you crop photos sometimes.
Something light to finish the year with...
Every month my treasured Monocle arrives from the UK by air. It's an exciting thing because each issue is a whole new world. But it's not just another magazine. See www.monocle.com.
Monocle only started at the beginning of 2007 and I found it in a random Melbourne newsagency during its second issue. Since then I have kept every issue. Since then my wife has filed them away on a bookshelf where visitors can easily gain access to them.
My latest arrived, I opened it, sat on the couch and started reading. 5am. My wife said "You read it like it is the best book you have ever read". And I do. I don't know why.
I don't know what makes Monocle so much better than every other magazine in the world. Perhaps they have been able to create an identity and soul and then put a magazine (and other accessories) to it. Unlike other mags that try to give their publication an identity.
The world of print isn't dead. It's just that the people who have been doing print for years don't know how to do it anymore.
Do yourself a favour, buy a copy of Monocle and feel the world that it offers. It's so much more than just a read.
Enjoy!
Sam.
Fluoride is just about to be pumped into the water where I live on The Sunshine Coast whilst many other places around the world are taking it out because of potential dangers. Anna Bligh, our state premier declared that she will ensure we have fluoridated water, even though the majority of Queenslanders didn't want it. What's up Captain Bligh?
Here are some facts:
For 11 years between 1986 and 1997 a national survey of 39,000 United States schoolchildren revealed no statistically significant differences in tooth decay between children drinking fluoridated versus non-fluoridated water. In addition it was found that instead of building strong healthy teeth, fluoride damaged brain enzymes and lowered IQs (Zhao, Foulkes).
Want a quick hit of fluoride? Take Prozac. The prescription anti-depressant contains three fluoride molecules per molecule of fluoxetine.
And next year we start drinking recycled sewage. Is my government trying to kill me?
The results are in, Qantas in August had the worst On-time departures, the worst On-time arrivals and the highest number of cancellations of any major Australian airline.
The figures are collated by the Federal Government and were published on the 10th October. Naturally, the new figures have not made it to the Qantas website yet; even though it does show an improvent of their bloody poor July results.
So the big questions; Should I persist flying with Qantas?
A picture tells a thousand words. Here is the on-time performance for Qantas Domestic taken straight from their website. I write this as I walk out the door to catch a Qantas flight to Sydney. I'll let you know how I go.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has "urged a major reshaping of funding for Australia's health system, saying prevention must be a key focus in order to improve people's lives" (Pharmacy Daily).
In Australia, Billions of dollars are spent on people because they are sick, because they have not looked after themselves and because they have not tried to fix their problem by eating better and (dare I say it) exercise. Whoah!
Every year we hear politicians talking about "prevention is better than cure" and that we should be doing more to improve our state of affairs. However, it takes big balls for a politician to stand up and say "We are going to invest more in prevention because this is more important than hospital funding".
The average voter is concerned about waiting lists, hospital funding and doctor shortages. Due to lobby groups such as the AMA, this dominates our media. Our media pay attention to it because it pulls at the heart strings. If someone dies on a waiting list, then they are right onto it. But do they pay any attention to the failure of our society to prevent that person from being on the waiting list in the first place because they are a smoker, ate too much McDonalds or just didn't get of their fat arse and exercise?
We all know that our government's investment into hospitals an investment in a sickness system, not a healthcare system.
Time will only tell if Nicola Roxon has balls big enough to stand up to groups like the AMA, but more importantly, voters, and make everyone realise that $1 invested into prevention now saves us $10 in the future. This is real healthcare. I just hope that Ms Roxon can do more than talk and actually make action. But let's face it, we haven't seen a lot of action yet out of this government.
We always look at those people in the financial industry with a somewhat elevated view. We consider them to be more intelligent and the people who control so much of our lives. This financial crisis that we now find ourselves in makes me ponder how smart are the Smart People? There is obviously an industry of Smart People who create financial tools that are so complex, even they don't get it. But they are Smart!
If they were so Smart, then why would we have these collapses so often? I thought they were Smart? I thought they would have learned from their mistakes? How can the Smart People cause the collapse of institutions such as AIG, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Institutions that have been around for decades? What are the Smart People doing?
AIG, run by Smart People (obviously), got so consumed by complex debt securities and credit default swaps that it has taken the US Federal Reserve to bail it out with a $85billion loan. But worse still for the Smart People, the Fed now owns 80% of AIG! Hmmm... I don't think this is a good outcome for the world.
But hey, at least the Fed has come to the saviour of the millions of people who would be greatly affected by an AIG collapse. At least we know that with Government people holding the purse strings, you have the dumb people now in charge of the Smart People and that the Dumb People have heaps of money to ensure that they will never get into trouble. But then again, the Dumb People of US Government have a terrible healthcare & welfare system, A monsterous debt and continue to spend billions each day on useless fights.
It is the Smart People who mean that the world suffers. It is the Smart People who cause the loss of jobs around the world. It is the Smart People who will forget about this in 2yrs time and continue on to make the same mistakes leading to another downturn in maybe 10yrs time.
These Smart People really are Dumb.
I fly about once a week on Qantas, domestic and international. I am a Gold Flyer which I guess is meant to have privileges and have spent some time trying to book a holiday through Qantas Holidays. Here's Qantas looks like from my eyes:
Geoff Dixon has given the incoming CEO a big hospital pass. He has
spent the past few years running down the core of Qantas for the sake
of profits. Great that it has close to a $1bn profit in increasing fuel
prices, greater expenses and a unionised workforce, but this is all at
the expense of customer satisfaction. I am starting to get pretty sick
and tired of their "efficiencies" at the sake of my comfort and
satisfaction. It doesn't take much to please a customer, but Geoff
Dixon was 100% focused on profit because he was leaving and a big
payout was tied to the earnings he returned.
I pity the new CEO. He will have a challenge of his hands trying to
restore the loyalty that they used to have. Geoff has eroded this.
A money hungry corporate who has forgotten that his airline is not the only one in the sky.
Good to see the back of you Geoff.
It just dawned on me. The Olympics is all about those sports that we just don't care about except for every 4years. We don't care about Greco-Roman Wrestling, handball or Table Tennis. But we become addicted, glued and armchair experts.
We can't name the world champion team for waterpolo or the dominant force in synchronised swimming. But they get top billing and we eat it up!
We don't care about the tennis or basketball or the baseball because this is on TV all the time. We just don't care.
But also, we don't care that about the fact that someone from outside our country won the men's 10m pistol shoot.
We thrive for something unusual, peculiar and just weird. But most importantly, we thrive on someone realising their dream. We see the emotions and the love of the competition. We live our life through them, even though we will forget about them next week.
For the past 3 years I have travelled to MIT in Boston to learn from the best business minds in the world. My #1 takeaway from this year was a concept called the Flywheel.
Imagine a huge flywheel, 20m in diameter and weighing close to 20tonnes. You push will all your might. Push, push, push. All your efforts and you only just nudge it. You push some more, it turns a little more. Push, push, push. It turns more and more. You seem to be making progress. Gathering speed, momentum, it because easier and finally. A breakthrough, the massive flywheel now seems so easy to push, its massive weight and its speed now combine to give it momentum that even an army couldn't stop.
Every business is similar to this flywheel. At the start, it almost seems impossible, but the greater the focus, the greater the faith that you are pushing for the right reason and knowing that you are pushing in the right direction, everything just seems to become easier. You business starts to gather momentum, customers flock to you and profits don't seem to be a struggle.
The Flywheel = Focus * Faith * Effort
Score your business. If you only have 50% focus, 50% faith and 50% effort, then your flywheel will only spin at 12.5%. 80% Focus, Faith and Effort you only get to 51.2%. If you have 96% FF&E, then you can spin your flywheel at 88.5% of its maximum. You can see the importance of alignment of everyone in the company, that they have faith in where you are steering the ship and the work they do day in day out in totally in support of where you want to be in 10yrs time.
It's amazing when you think of this, how something so simple can completely change the dynamics of the business. But use it elsewhere. There are a lot of applications for it.
There are now over 1 millions Australians with Type 2 diabetes. WOW! Last weekend we attended the Living with Diabetes Expo in Brisbane, Australia. It was well attended but would only represent about 1% of diabetics in Brisbane. There were some excellent resources, companies and seminars at this expo.
But perhaps the stereotypical Type 2 diabetic is lazy. You can do something about Type 2, but you have to get off your butt to do something about it. 1% did and I congratulate you. The other 99% don't care about their cost to society.
Sam.
Yesterday wa officially dubbed "Fat Wednesday" in the UK.
Nutrition experts said that Wed 02 Apr falls in the middle of a four week gap between people giving up New Year diets and starting new ones to get in shape for the northern summer.
An added factor is the early Easter break this year, which means most people still have chocolate in their homes.
The Sun newspaper said the average Briton consumed about 4000 calories yesterday - almost double the amount officially recommended by dietiticians.
-Taken from Pharmacy Daily-
Another election has swung by and yet more promises about our "health crisis" and how they are going to fix it. It is always the same; We will put more funding into hospitals, create more beds and get more doctors!
PLEASE! Someone's health is over by the time they need a hospital bed or doctor (unless of course they have cut a limb off). When will funding go into getting the common sense back into people and start slapping a few others around? We know what food is good for us. We know that exercise is good for us. We know that smoking is bad for us. We know the difference between good and bad!
I try and live a good "health" life. I stay fit, eat well and don't smoke. I pay my taxes, of which a portion will go to try and save an obese smoker's leg. Why the F*** should I have to pay for that? Why can't I get a tax break because I am not a burden on society?
The demise of the Australian "healthcare" system will be due to the fat, the smokers and the unfit. Hmmm... This is almost every politician I ever see on TV.
Now I see the problem!
