The Australia 2020 summit has issued its initial report.
Although there is doubt about whether the delegates were representative and whether they were the "best and brightest" the report contains a snapshot of contemporary Australian views which the Government will consider.
UPDATE: David Marr comments on the process.
The Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific is produced by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), to provide a detailed picture of the major economic, social and environmental trends in Asia and the Pacific. Findings in this year’s edition include increased urban poverty, that energy consumption grew at a pace unequalled elsewhere and increased motorization is improving mobility.
This interview with Google's engineering director gives some insight into how the company maintains its creative culture and innovative operations.
Google has launched a site for non-profits with free Google tools to promote their work, raise money, and operate more efficiently
The Rudd Government is convening an Australia 2020 Summit at Parliament House on 19 and 20 April to help shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future.
The Summit will debate and develop long-term options for the nation across 10 critical areas. It is not clear whether the summit will actually do scenario planning.
The objectives are described as:
This Financial Times article by funds manager George Soros has some interesting background and comments including the following:
The super-boom got out of hand when the new products became so
complicated that the authorities could no longer calculate the risks
and started relying on the risk management methods of the banks
themselves. Similarly, the rating agencies relied on the information
provided by the originators of synthetic products. It was a shocking
abdication of responsibility.
Everything that could go wrong did. What started with subprime
mortgages spread to all collateralised debt obligations, endangered
municipal and mortgage insurance and reinsurance companies and
threatened to unravel the multi-trillion-dollar credit default swap
market. Investment banks’ commitments to leveraged buyouts became
liabilities. Market-neutral hedge funds turned out not to be
market-neutral and had to be unwound. The asset-backed commercial paper
market came to a standstill and the special investment vehicles set up
by banks to get mortgages off their balance sheets could no longer get
outside financing. The final blow came when interbank lending, which is
at the heart of the financial system, was disrupted because banks had
to husband their resources and could not trust their counterparties.
The central banks had to inject an unprecedented amount of money and
extend credit on an unprecedented range of securities to a broader
range of institutions than ever before. That made the crisis more
severe than any since the second world war.
Whilst I have been aware of Savings & Loans credit union's blog for some time, the Better Banking Blog has drawn my attention to RaboPlus's Executive Blog and its demonstration of the value of interactive communication with customers.
In the comments section on a post about Westpac's online banking downtime, RaboPlus's Head of Financial Services for Australia and New Zealand receives comments both about his site's own downtime and design and responds to both quickly receiving praise from the commenters.
There's no point in being defensive: if you're open about problems and show that you'll respond to comments you'll attract a favourable response.
Venture capital investors are reputed to be hard-nosed, so I found this framework for reviewing a CEO to be of interest.
It assesses the CEO in the following areas:
Each year at Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement) I say a prayer asking for forgiveness for (amongst other things) being arrogant. I did not always think that this applied to me.
I recall responding, when I was a young lawyer, to a client's observation that lawyers were privileged with a sharp retort that, on the contrary, lawyers had huge obligations and responsibilities. But the truth is that lawyers are indeed privileged and failure by many lawyers to recognise that privilege does lead to arrogance.
What privilege am I talking about? The privilege of working in a profession that is respected for its ethical standards and commitment to justice and the rule of law. The privilege of being able to earn a good income. Yes, these privileges come with obligations but the benefits must not be underestimated or abused.
How can a young lawyer (or indeed any professional of any age) combat arrogance?
The simplest way is to put clients first.
Here are some everyday rules:
Don't go into partnership with any person unless they are like-minded and hold the same values.
This post has been inspired by Blawg Review #142
You need to be different to make your product stand out in the marketplace and maintain profit margins.
But if you can't differentiate, how do you survive if you find yourself in a commoditizing industry characterized by me-too products, overcapacity, and frequent price cuts? How can you make money?
Read this HBS Working Knowledge article
