Manifesto #1: for maximum value-creation we need values

This is the first of potentially, many posts, regarding my being annoyed (shall I say pissed?) by the level of incompetence, intellectual laziness and greed that we have been faced with in the past ten years or so. In this section, I will post a few basic sanity checks, and rules of thumbs that unfortunately [...]

On lack of Investment and how this could end up very badly

We are in a vicious cycle. “Best practices” as regards how to navigate during a crisis suggest that a firm should not stop investing during a downturn; actually a firm should push innovation and investments so as to: – offer differencing / innovative products during the recession in order to justify a price premium – [...]

Business Idea for Free!

Sometimes, (often?) I have ideas for products / ventures outside of my field of interest. Since I do not plan on executing them, I thought I might as well give them away here for free. No guarantee that they will always be great but you’ll never know. I’ll call this new category: Ich’sights I was [...]

Rom’s Blog Round Up – 02/26/2009

Two very interesting articles from Wired. Recipe for Disaster provides some interesting background on the maths that went behind Wall Street’s risk assessment as well as its flaws. Seriously, the smartest guys in the room? Or just lazy fat cats? Tssss. Check it out here Daniel Roth has a very very good piece on the [...]

Book Review: “Improve your profit and worker productivity at NO COST!”

I just finished “Improve your profit and worker productivity at NO COST!”. While I acknowledge that succeeding in limiting employee salaries is a very compelling promise, I wonder if there are no hidden costs, unbeknownst or not to the authors. In particular, I challenge the value of the “We should be happy to have a [...]

Management Book of the Month: “Improve your profit and worker productivity at NO COST!” Satisfaction guaranteed.

In this book, you will learn the secrets of business gurus who managed to successfully navigate through the crisis, sometimes with their company! Skeptical? No need to! This is a proven, simple method that has already been applied successfully across thousands of global firms. Steps Highlights: – Take [INSERT YOUR COMPANY NAME HERE] – Lay-off [...]

In Bed with Alan Moore

If you like Independent thinkers, here’s one. I just finished Writing for Comics by Alan Moore. If you have never heard that name, prepare yourself to hearing it a lot; Alan Moore is –arguably- the greatest writer in graphic novel (I never liked the word “comics” too demeaning in my mind) history, and mostly the [...]

On Consumer Sentiment and Obama Policies

So the economy is tanking. Consumers are depressed. Credit is scarce. The debt amount is daunting. The system is broken, with more Madoffs to come out of the box. Chrysler might go underwater, if not GM… Wow. Just writing about this is actually depressing me too… How did we get there? I think there is [...]

New Poster – “Le Cirque”

An hommage to Circus (“Le Cirque” in French). 100% Power-Point again. Slightly drafty but who said I was a professional? Let me know your thoughts.

It’s the target stupid!

As I was recently reviewing documents regarding a company’s financials, highlighting the gaps vs. plan and their suggested actions to close the gaps, one thing really struck me; all documents were showing that the numbers were below target across all regions, businesses etc. especially from an EBITDA perspective and the Management’s one and only response [...]