Author Archive for Graeme Codrington

Reflections on Africa

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on July 21, 2008
in Global View
. 0 Comments

I suppose Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday is as good a time as any to briefly reflect on Africa. As an African by both birth and choice, I must admit that my heart is often broken by this continent. Albeit that Africans are resilient, remarkably adaptable and generally hospitable and friendly (among the black languages of South Africa, for example, there is no indigenous word for “stranger”), there never seems to be a week without some tragic tale emerging from the 52 nations of this mighty continent. I am not saying that everything is as bad as the global news headlines often make it out to be. But, Africa nevertheless seems to have massive problems when compared to the issues facing other regions of the world. Why is this?

One thing that has helped me recently is reading Jeffrey Sach’s “The End of Poverty” in which he lists the major causes of extreme poverty (and most of Africa is in this category), showing that many of the factors that cause African poverty are beyond the control of people. Africa’s mosquitoes carry malaria, whereas India’s do not, for example. Africa has no major navigable rivers (OK, there is one, but that is all within the DRC). Africa has the worst top soil of any continent (except, I suppose, Antarctica). And Africa’s tribes are more divided by culture and language than any other continent (in South Africa, for example, there are eleven official languages. In Nigeria, there are over 100 unique, indigenous languages). So, Africa is partly as it is due simply to the lottery of geography.

But, in the 21st century, that does not explain the whole story. It does not explain Sudan, for example. And, it most certainly does not explain Zimbabwe.

Continue reading ‘Reflections on Africa’

Free games

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 27, 2008
in Gamers and Game Theory, Global View and Innovation
. 0 Comments

At TomorrowToday, we are great fans of games, and especially of the learnings we can get from games. We are also keen observers of the gaming industry, which often picks up on shifting values and economic models before other industries do (compare them, for example, to the music industry - especially on the issue of pricing I’m about to talk about!).

Here is a small feature from the latest Economist magazine on a new financial model for games. Give them away for free!

FOR millions of East Asians, online gaming is not so much a hobby as a way of life. “Massively multiplayer” online games such as “Legend of Mir 3” and “MapleStory” have legions of devoted fans who spend an alarming proportion of their waking hours sitting in front of their PCs, at home or in internet cafés, doing battle with elves, wizards and mythological beasts. Some players take their parallel gaming lives very seriously: one man murdered a friend in a dispute over a stolen virtual sword (GC: this happened a few years ago, and is the only known extreme incident - but it is still much quoted).

Many of these games rely on a business model that is different from the way the video-games industry works in the West. Rather than selling games as shrink-wrapped retail products which can then be played on a PC or games console, the Asian industry often gives away the software as a free download and lets users play for nothing. Revenue comes instead from small payments made by more avid players to buy extras for their in-game characters, from weapons to haircuts. In this way, a minority of paying customers subsidise the game for everyone else.

Continue reading ‘Free games’

Introducing the Generations

Published
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Graeme Codrington
on June 12, 2008
in Articles and Generations
. 0 Comments

- First published in the April 2008, Mortgage Solutions magazine

The era in which you were born has an extraordinary effect on your value system, your expectations of the workplace and how you approach life. In this article, Dr Graeme Codrington, one of the world’s leading experts on generational theory, gives an introduction to the concept of the generation gap.
Continue reading ‘Introducing the Generations’

Accenture’s Multi-Polar World

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 10, 2008
in Connection Economy and Global View
. 0 Comments

Accenture released an excellent report last year entitled “The Multi-Polar World”. In it, they argue that right now we live in a world going through major transitions, caught between different “poles” of focus, interest and power. I think they are spot on the money.

You can read the full report online for free. Just go here.

I have reproduced their summary below if you don’t have the time for a 2Mb PDF download and 36 pages of reading.

Continue reading ‘Accenture’s Multi-Polar World’

Dwindling global electricity supply

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 10, 2008
in Environmental Issues, Future Trends and Global View
. 0 Comments

Coal electricity supplyI live and work between Johannesburg and London. For the past few months, South Africa has been plagued by the short supply of electricity. This is due to lack of planning for the sustained economic boom we have experienced over the past decade. As early as 1998, forecasters were warning that South Africa would run out of electricity in about 2007. Well, to be clear - that we would reach the point where demand and supply were so closely aligned that any blip in the system would result in blackouts. That is precisely what happened.

The problem should soon be resolved by the opening of new power stations (they take some time to build!) and the recommissioning of old power stations that had been mothballed. In this respect, South Africa is not unlike other countries that have experienced electricity shortages due to economic growth and bad planning. Recent examples include Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and California.

I am planning to spend the next 3-4 years in my London base, but it seems I will not escape the power problem. According to The Economist, England faces the same dark future. The expected date of blackouts - 2012. Just in time for the Olympics in London.

Read the article here (subscription may be required), or an excerpt below.

Green and black
A looming supply crunch causes problems for a government with green ambitions

Apr 3rd 2008
From The Economist print edition

RHETORIC is a sad fact of political life, and most voters are smart enough to know that grand promises made in the heat of a parliamentary debate or an election battle should be taken with a pinch of salt. But on energy policy the gap between claim and reality is now wide enough to be embarrassing. Grandiose pronouncements about climate change (“our greatest obligation to future generations”, according to Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer) stand incongruously next to Britain’s anaemic record on cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions, which have stayed stubbornly unchanged for years.

That has led to much rancour, with greens accusing the government of “betrayal”. And in the midst of all this acrimony another problem looms: Britain is beginning to run short of electricity. Reversing this trend seems likely to turn up the heat even more.

Continue reading ‘Dwindling global electricity supply’

The Age of the Millennials - a CBS video

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 10, 2008
in Millennial generation
. 0 Comments

CBS have released a really excellent video of a special insert they did on the Millennial generation. I cannot find a way to extract the video from their website - so you have to go there to see it. It is really worth doing so. Find it here.

Activists and companies can co-operate

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 10, 2008
in Environmental Issues, Ethics, Future Trends and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

The Economist recently ran a fascinating little piece on how activists and companies need to work towards a common outcome and goal. Read it here (subscription may be required) - or an extract below. It may be idealistic, but it is a wonderful goal to have, and certainly is a requirement if we are really going to change the world.

Strange bedfellows

Companies as activists
May 22nd 2008

LAST month Tom Katzenmeyer, vice-president of investor relations at Limited Brands, met representatives of the government of the Canadian province of Alberta. Limited Brands is an American apparel firm with sales of $10.1 billion last year; its best-known division is Victoria’s Secret, which sells lingerie. And what was the topic of discussion? The firm’s worries over threatened caribou habitats.

Continue reading ‘Activists and companies can co-operate’

The Next Empire/s

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 24, 2008
in Book Reviews, Connection Economy and Global View
. 0 Comments

The latest edition of Strategy+Business has a great article on a new book looking at USA, Europe and China. Here is an extract:

What can the U.S. do to maintain its competitive position against the E.U. and China? Foreign policy scholar Parag Khanna believes the answer lies right under our noses.

Only 30 years old, Parag Khanna has spent more than two years traveling to more than 100 countries, hoping to see firsthand the flash points of geopolitics and globalization. From his observations emerged a book, the recently published The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order ???????? ????? ????????(Random House, 2008), a thought-provoking look at the future of global competition. Khanna posits that the struggle for global economic and diplomatic influence over the coming decades will pit three empires — the United States, the European Union, and China — against one another on a battleground that he calls the “Second World.” This group comprises countries in five critical regions — Asia outside China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America — that hope to achieve full industrial development through economic and strategic alliances with one or more of the three major blocs.

Indiana McCain and the Election of Doom

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 22, 2008
in Boomers RetYrement, Generations and Global View
. 0 Comments

I must give The Economist website the credit for this awesome headline. And I must agree with them that John McCain is in trouble. If elected as President later this year, he will be the oldest person ever elected American President. While this should be no factor, since life expectancy has been steadily increasing over the past half century, and McCain is sprightly, healthy and the very model of what today’s elderly can be, there is a problem.

McCain is not a Boomer. The Boomers (born after World War II and into the 1960s) are old and aging (although they will hate to read that bald fact stated so bluntly). They’re now in their mid 40s to mid 60s. But, they feel 25. Or, at least 35! Any decent marketing efforts aimed at them cannot treat them (or show visual images of them) as they are - i.e. over 50, ageing individuals. Marketing efforts aimed at Boomers should think of 35-39 year olds, and use similar images, too.

Americans are not ready for an old President. (There is a website devoted to things that are younger than Mr McCain - including the Golden Gate Bridge, plutonium, Coke-in-a-can, Velcro, 91% of Americans…). Or more specifically stated, Americans are not ready for an old President who is not a Boomer. In 20 years time, they’ll be ready for 70 something President, but not yet.

So, this should be a really fun election to watch. You will have either your first woman, or your first African-American. Or your first septuagint. Which of these is America more ready for. I’m not sure. But I am prepared to put my generational credentials on the line, and say that Boomers and Gen Xers would rather have a Boomer than someone from either the Silent or Veteran generations. So, for my money, on generational theory alone, McCain has no chance. But, then again, who would have thought that Indiana Jones would get another run at his age (actually, Harrison Ford is a Boomer in his 60’s - so maybe there is your answer!!)

The Future of Mobile

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 18, 2008
in Future Trends, Innovation and Technology
. 1 Comment

We all know how ubiquitous mobile phones have become. In poorer countries, where communication technologies have been slow to arrive, the take up of mobile telephony is nothing less than breathtaking. But, the future brilliance of mobile phones lies not in their communication ability, but in the add ons that can be made to these little computers we all carry around with us. A decade from now, mobile phones will be personal digital devices hooked up with tens and hundreds of functions.

I recently blogged about the ability of MP3 players to replace stethoscopes - of course, any MP3 and microphone enbaled mobile phone could do the same. I also recently read about mobile phones being used by diabetics - they have a little needle embedded in them. A click of a button, the needle pops out of the phone and is inserted into the skin, the insulin reading is done by the phone and displayed, and the diabetic knows immediately what has to be done (sorry, I am not diabetic and don’t know exactly how it works - but the key is that the technology to do the test diabetics must do daily is embedded in the cellphone).

But, now graduate students have found a way to turn their cellphones into microscopes.

Continue reading ‘The Future of Mobile’

Developing a good business culture is like making fine wine

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 14, 2008
in Organisational Design and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

I recently read a fantastic interview with Management consultant, Ralph Sink. He has been a lifelong believer in high-performance systems, also known as self-organizing teams and participative management. These require employees to take ownership of their jobs, to collaborate with one another to establish control over their work, to be innovative, and to deliver results — to maintain accountability for the business and be treated with corresponding respect, regardless of their level within the organizational hierarchy.

You can read the full interview here at Strategy+Business.

Here are some of the gems from the interview:

  • On attempts to create attractive corporate cultures without all the hard work: It’s like making wine. Managers who operate by metrics, paperwork, and numbers say, “OK, we’ve analyzed wine. It has sugar in it. It has pulp. It has yeast. It has grapes.” So, they dump those ingredients in a pot, stir it, drink it, and say, “but this doesn’t taste like wine,” and wonder why. It’s because the wine had to go through a process. They may have had the components right, but they overlooked the principles for transforming grapes and water into wine. These managers will look at our approach and say, “Oh, I see what this is. You operate with 20 percent fewer people. You eliminate the supervisors, and everybody is self-managed.” So without any development process, principles, or leadership, they go in and cut head counts. And when they end up with a catastrophe, they say, “This approach didn’t work.” From their perspective, they analyzed the pot and put the elements in and stirred it up, so when it failed, they weren’t to blame.

Continue reading ‘Developing a good business culture is like making fine wine’

Generation comparisons

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 10, 2008
in Boomers RetYrement, Generations, Millennial generation and Talent - Bright Young Things
. 0 Comments

Book coverI am a huge fan of Eric Chester, an American author, speaker and consultant who focuses on understanding what he calls “Generation Why” (what a cool title!! I wish I had thought of that first). You can see his excellent work at http://www.generationwhy.com.

He has a nice summary of the three generations now in the workplace. The dates on his summary reflect the consensus among American researchers. My own dates (Boomers 1946-1965; Xers 1966 - 1985 and Millennials 1986 - present) reflect more of an international bias, recognising that different countries arte slightly ahead or slightly trailing these median date ranges.

Read Eric’s summary at his website (and spend some time looking around while you are there), or see below.

Continue reading ‘Generation comparisons’

Research into Generation Y

Published
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Graeme Codrington
on May 9, 2008
in Millennial generation
. 0 Comments

Someone sent me the executive summary of a report by the Bank of America, entitled “Generational Differences: Managing the ‘Gen Y’ Associate.”

Here are some of the findings:

  • They’re not hungry. They are not ambitious for advancement if it comes at the expense of their personal lives and goals.

  • They expect more control. They expect more authority and more discretion about how they spend their time at work.

  • High self-esteem. They grew up basking in the “decade of the child”, with self-esteemed laced parenting and education.

  • They want everything now: technology, training, feedback and recognition.

  • Tech-savvy. Gen Next exhibits greater knowledge and skill using computers and digital tools. Because Gen Next was born with technology - - bred on YouTube, Google, Napster, Facebook, MySpace and other innovations - - they assimilate it better.

  • Variety. Gen Next doesn’t like to be on one assignment too long.

  • Not here for long. They don’t expect to stay on a job, or even a career, too long.

Targeting the Boomers

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 5, 2008
in Boomers RetYrement, Future Trends and Generations
. 0 Comments

Springwise recently carried the following report on a new concept targeting the 50+ Baby Boomers, who don’t want to accept they are getting old.

Brain Gymns for Boomers

Our brains resemble our muscles in one key respect: don’t exercise them, and they’re likely to lose strength. Conversely, many experts now believe that brains stimulated in a healthy manner can better resist debilitating mental conditions such as Alzheimer’s. Which begs the question: how to keep brains in top shape?

The solution offered by vibrantBrains, a San Francisco start-up, is to create a workout centre for the brain, patterned after a health club. Instead of exercising muscle groups via a series of circuit-training machines, vibrantBrains members hone their mental skills using a variety of computer software programs and other tools, for a monthly membership fee of USD 60. vibrantBrain’s health-club-for-the-mind approach should appeal to the millions of baby boomers who’ve spent their adult lives regularly visiting gyms. As they approach retirement age, they’ll want to maintain their mental agility, too, as attested by sales of Nintendo’s Brain Age, which sold 10 million copies, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

No doubt we’ll see plenty of additional products and services aimed at enhancing baby boomers’ brain power, joining a long list of companies already selling everything from vitamins to training seminars. Still, vibrantBrain’s model is unique. And from a business standpoint, it has a couple of profit-enhancing advantages over the traditional gyms that it’s based on. Space requirements are minimal compared to health clubs, and entrepreneurs won’t have to lease or buy an expensive array of exercise machines.

If the mental health club idea catches on, the real competition eventually may come from traditional health clubs, which could add brain-exercise routines as easily as they’ve added yoga and martial arts instruction. However, even if that happens, there should be plenty of opportunities for start-ups to differentiate themselves—from rehabilitative clinics for the elderly to centers focused on mental and physical exercises for kids.

Website: www.vibrantbrains.com

Millennials as Social Citizens

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 5, 2008
in Millennial generation
. 0 Comments

I subscribe to Google alerts for a number of issues, including discussions on “Generation Y” or the Millennial generation.

In today’s alerts, I received a link to a post about how the Millennials are volunteering around the world. Read it here (or a summary below). There are some great links to reports on this. This certainly links in with our experience and research. These young people are going to change the world!

For information about volunteering in the UK, check out DirectGov and Worldwide Volunteering as examples of companies and governments encouraging volunteering among young people.

Continue reading ‘Millennials as Social Citizens’

Wired Politicians

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 30, 2008
in Generations, Global View and Technology
. 0 Comments

A week or so ago, Dean noted that the Tories in the UK were trying to target (or needed to try and target) a younger generation of voters. In the same week, I read an article in The Economist about how British politics was using (or not using) digital communication technologies and Web-based tools. Read it online here, or a summary below.

The internet and politics

Semi-connected

Apr 17th 2008
From The Economist print edition

British politics is missing out on the potential of new media

EVEN the least fogeyish of politicians have been flummoxed by the internet. Tony Blair, champion of all things modern, paid no end of lip service to the potential of new media as prime minister but was comically technophobic himself. Still, the internet plays a role in huge areas of British public life: party politics, punditry and government itself. But web aficionados lament a yawning gap with America, and with the most go-ahead corners of Europe.

The official websites of the main political parties—Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats—get less web traffic than the most popular political blogs, and much less than even the far-right British National Party. No surprise, say cyber enthusiasts; they do a passable job as repositories of information but offer little scope for users to get involved beyond signing up for e-mail distribution lists.

Continue reading ‘Wired Politicians’

Solving the Ten Most Common Generation Y Workforce Challenges

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 30, 2008
in Millennial generation
. 0 Comments

I was pointed to a website recently that offers a place for people to post free content for reprint. In between the rubbish on the site, there are some real gems. Here is one related to the Millennial generation at work. It’s fairly obvious stuff, but succinctly written, and a nice starting point for discussions in the workplace.

Solving the Ten Most Common Generation Y Workforce Challenges

by Bea Fields

We are at a very important time in history. Over the next five years, approximately 62 million Baby Boomers, who have helped form our business world for the last 20 years will be retiring. As they exit out of the workforce approximately 40 million Gen X, born between 1965 and 1977, and 72 million Generation Y, born after 1977 will fill their shoes. In this day and age, our businesses cannot thrive without young talent. And, if our businesses are not thriving, the economy will become more and more anemic. There is a huge force at play in this equation, and that force is Generation Y.

Many organizations and businesses are asking how they need to change in order to attract and then retain Generation Y. When I answer this question, many people don’t seem to like my answer, because my answer is this: If you want to attract young talent into your organization, you will be called to not just change but undergo a metamorphosis that will keep Gen Y interested and excited about working for and with your company. And, if you try to sit on them, keep them or make life difficult, they will leave in a heartbeat.

Continue reading ‘Solving the Ten Most Common Generation Y Workforce Challenges’

Talent management as a competitive differentiator

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 30, 2008
in Future Trends and Talent - Bright Young Things
. 0 Comments

The Adecco Institute does ongoing studies into the Future of Work. Last week, they released the following study (see the Executive summary below).

Study: Talent Management to become key differentiator for companies competing in global marketplace

Globalization boosts demand for skilled labor - growing skills shortages require new role of HR to succeed in competition for qualified workforce.

Finding talent, developing talent and keeping talent will be the new role of Human Resources (HR) management in the future. This “talent management” - the assessment and long-term planning of a company’s workforce needs - rather than the traditional filling of vacancies, will become a key differentiator for companies competing in the global marketplace.”This new role of HR management comes as a consequence of three trends converging: Globalization, demographic change and skills shortages”, says Donna Murphy, Managing Director of the Adecco Institute, referring to the result of a study based on interviews with 5,000 HR professionals. Globalization in developed countries increases the demand for skilled and highly qualified labor, while the demand for unskilled work shrinks.

Continue reading ‘Talent management as a competitive differentiator’

Competing for Eco tourists

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 25, 2008
in Environmental Issues, On the Move - Travel and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

The Strategy+Business blog and website always has insightful content. It’s the online moutpiece of consulting giant, Booz Allen Hamilton, so that should be no surprise. Subscribe to their e-zine here.

This month’s “Leading Idea” was about eco tourism, and how to maintain a competitive advantage in this space. There are lessons for every business trying to use corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool. Read the full article here, or see a summary below.

Competing on the Eco Front
by Jürgen Ringbeck and Stephan Gross

4/01/08
Environmentally friendly countries have a leg up in the competition for international travelers, but sustaining that advantage takes work.

Eco tourismWhy do travelers — be they on business or just visiting — prefer to go to Switzerland rather than, say, Ukraine? It’s no surprise: Switzerland offers a much more attractive combination of factors. It’s easy to get there and to travel within the country, it’s clean and visitors feel safe there, and Switzerland’s combination of traditional culture and natural beauty is justly famed all over the world. Yet the continued popularity of Switzerland and other desirable destinations is by no means a given. Maintaining the relative purity of the environment while promoting and growing tourism is critical as competition intensifies among regions to attract the ever-growing number of travelers.

A recent study by Booz Allen Hamilton (part of the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008) found that environmental factors may determine whether travel and tourism sectors thrive or falter in the coming years. The report evaluated the health of the tourism industry in 130 countries based on 14 pillars important to travelers, private operators, and public authorities — including regulatory framework, infrastructure, and cost to natural, cultural, and human resources. This year, for the first time, the index also ranked each country according to its environmental sustainability. Among the items examined were the stringency of environmental regulations and the extent to which they are enforced, carbon dioxide emission levels, and the percentage of the country’s species that are endangered.

Continue reading ‘Competing for Eco tourists’

Load shedding lessons (and opportunities)

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 23, 2008
in Articles, Connection Economy and Leadership
. 4 Comments

Dr Graeme Codrington offers insight for South Africans (and others) on how not to be left in the dark when it comes to strategic planning as well as attracting and retaining talented young people with creativity - particularly when traditional solutions aren’t working. Consider how you could use the current load shedding to your advantage!

Continue reading ‘Load shedding lessons (and opportunities)’

The Multitasking Generation

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 17, 2008
in Millennial generation, Talent - Bright Young Things and Technology
. 0 Comments

Every now and again, TIME magazine has a seriously excellent, long and in depth, feature article that grabs my attention. I am not a subscriber, but always check TIME editions out on the newstand. These features are well researched and worth keeping.

I missed one about 2 years ago, and was recently given a copy of it by a friend. I found it online, and it is available here. It is about the generation of young people that are growing up with pervasive technology, and the impact of multitasking from a young age.

It’s long, but it’s worth a read. Extracts are available below…

The Multitasking Generation
TIME magazine, Mar. 19, 2006
By CLAUDIA WALLIS

It’s 9:30 p.m., and Stephen and Georgina Cox know exactly where their children are. Well, their bodies, at least. Piers, 14, is holed up in his bedroom–eyes fixed on his computer screen–where he has been logged onto a MySpace chat room and AOL Instant Messenger (IM) for the past three hours. His twin sister Bronte is planted in the living room, having commandeered her dad’s iMac–as usual. She, too, is busily IMing, while chatting on her cell phone and chipping away at homework.

By all standard space-time calculations, the four members of the family occupy the same three-bedroom home in Van Nuys, Calif., but psychologically each exists in his or her own little universe. Georgina, 51, who works for a display-cabinet maker, is tidying up the living room as Bronte works, not that her daughter notices. Stephen, 49, who juggles jobs as a squash coach, fitness trainer, event planner and head of a cancer charity he founded, has wolfed down his dinner alone in the kitchen, having missed supper with the kids. He, too, typically spends the evening on his cell phone and returning e-mails–when he can nudge Bronte off the computer. “One gets obsessed with one’s gadgets,” he concedes.

Continue reading ‘The Multitasking Generation’

A great carpark innovation at Joburg airport

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 16, 2008
in Innovation, On the Move - Travel and Technology
. 1 Comment

I spend a lot of time in carparks, specifically at airports. Normally, I am rushing to park and get checked in. And, at most airports around the world, there are not enough parking spaces, and it can take a lot of time to find an empty bay. But, at OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg, the carpark has added a wonderful new feature.

Above every parking bay a small unit has been installed in the ceiling. This has the ability to detect whether something is parked in the bay, and turns a bright light from green to red if the bay is full. This is a remarkable improvement - you drive into the parking area and scan the ceiling for green lights. Search time is dramatically reduced, and from the far side of the parking garage, you can set a course for an open parking bay.

Thanks ACSA. This is one of your best innovations ever!

Answering the climate sceptics

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 9, 2008
in Environmental Issues
. 0 Comments

The BBC News website recently carried a great article about climate change and answers for the sceptics. It is available online here, or read a summary below.

What are some of the reasons why “climate sceptics” dispute the evidence that human activities such as industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation are bringing potentially dangerous changes to the Earth’s climate?

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalises its landmark report for 2007, we look at 10 of the arguments most often made against the IPCC consensus, and some of the counter-arguments made by scientists who agree with the IPCC.

Continue reading ‘Answering the climate sceptics’

Five Ways Generation Y May Reinvent IT

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 9, 2008
in Millennial generation and Technology
. 0 Comments

I was sent a link to Baselinemag recently, that took an interesting look at the Millennial Generation from an IT industry perspective. Read the original article here, or see a summary below.

They’ve been called everything from narcissists to “Generation Me,” but those wily post-Gen X employees might just show their elders how to revamp an enterprise.

They depend too much on their parents’ money, they need constant hand-holding, they have no job loyalty, but do show remarkable acumen for demanding more than they’re worth, showing disrespect for older employees, and displaying stunning naiveté about corporate culture.

The backlash against Generation Y seems to be in full swing while the ink on their college diplomas is still drying.

Much discussion has centered around the expectations and work habits of this particular generation, with some pundits fretting about whether their casual attitudes will sink enterprises in the long run.

Continue reading ‘Five Ways Generation Y May Reinvent IT’

A Place for Mom to Work

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 9, 2008
in Future Trends and Gender issues
. 0 Comments

This was sent to me by email yesterday:

In the same way that freelancers are flocking to shared working spaces, stay-at-home moms are happy to find a third space that accommodates both them and their offspring. In London, private members clubs like Maggie & Rose and Cupcake Mom, offer mothers a place to convene and relax, where they’re welcome to come and go as they please, 7 days a week.

Maggie & Rose, based in Kensington, features several play areas and offers children’s lessons in art, cooking, dance and more, as well as a weekend movie club and birthday party services. Parents are catered to with a comfortable and quiet café (with wifi access, of course), as well as seminars and access to a family advisory service: “well researched info on nannies, tutors, schools, holidays, etc.” Memberships are priced at GBP 500 per year.

Set to open in Wandsworth next month, Cupcake also aims to provide a grown-up but child-friendly environment. Its focus, however, is mainly on pregnant women and new mothers. In addition to a crèche and an organic café, Cupcake also offers personal trainers and a spa. The top floor of the club, where the spa is located, is a “baby-free zone” and features treatments tailor-made for pregnant women and new moms, from the “Cupcake in the Oven Massage” to the “Mermaid Wrap.” Cupcake also plans to install a sleep pod for much-needed powernaps, and will offer a concierge service to help busy moms complete their to-do lists. Membership is GBP 149 per month. Founded by Karen Hastings, an American MBA graduate who lives in London, Cupcake is backed by Trapezia Capital, a UK venture fund that solely invests in women-led businesses. Hastings plans to open clubs in affluent areas across the country. We’re pretty sure British moms (and dads) aren’t the only parents who would gladly pay for access to a being space, a community of peers and the opportunity for some pampered me-time. Entrepreneurs across the world: start planning.

Websites: www.maggieandrose.co.uk — www.cupcakemum.com
Contacts: studio@maggieandrose.com — info@cupcakemum.com