Paying in goats Some traditions from days past never die out as illustrated in a recent news report. A Saudi who has his farm within Jeddah's municipality was informed that he would need to pay SR248,000 in order to get electricity since his property was two meters from the nearest line. Now for anyone that is a significant amount of money and especially for a villager who supports himself through his farm. Towards showing his intent and desire for electricity, he took it upon himself to deliver what he believed to be the equivalent amount… in goats. This story also reminds me of an experience that Abdullah (writer's husband – ed.) had in Pakistan. He had provided some assistance to a Pakistani national. This individual, towards showing his assistance had three gorgeous peacocks delivered to Abdullah's home in Islamabad. Abdullah was not expecting such a thoughtful gift and at the time did not have a pen for the peacocks. As a result, until a pen was built, his security guards were spending most of their time chasing the peacocks around the neighborhood! – americanbedu.com Balance sheets I think the most informative accounting course I ever had was Accounting Theory. Honestly. Financial statements are constructs of very imaginative human minds. Balance sheets, in particular, are probably named that way just so that you can make funny jokes with its acronym. As for people, no matter how open-minded they may seem, usually don't react very well (especially to new ideas) once you try to tell them they may be wrong. I should constantly remind myself that. In the episode of Bones I watched today, a little quote stood out – “living wide”, as oppose to living narrow, of course. We can't always be exhausting ourselves fire-fighting little concerns as they show up when we really should be understanding the problem and devising a good scalable solution that will prevent those little concerns from surfacing constantly. Certainly, we can't have a fool-proof strategy overnight. So we should be solving each problem by putting a lot of thought into it, treating each solution as a piece of puzzle in the grander scheme of what will become our strategy. Yet that isn't easy. People seek out quick solutions and the simplest way to deliver results fast – even if it means plugging holes with fingers. Research and thinking comes with time and experience which aren't supported in the corporate culture mostly because working without results, or rather, working without showing results is a tough choice to make. (I hate to admit it, but I'm kind of missing the old “doing it once, and doing it right” guy.) I think a lot of problems we have are similar to those Accounting Theory problems our very annoying professor posted to us in class. Every assumption you make simplify things just that bit too much, everything you take for granted to be right will turn out wrong, and everything you don't check will be where the problem lies. Eventually, you realize you just have to take a step back and ask yourself, “who are the financial statements catered for?” And even then, every answer you give will only be half right. Besides, people just aren't exactly task-oriented thinking machines. They get angry and annoyed, and may take criticisms as accusations of personal failure. Plus, it isn't all that easy to realize which is the raw nerve you rubbed every time. “When you're inexperienced, you're idealistic.” I hope that even when I'm experienced, I'll keep my goal far away from where it's already met. – cerebralsnapshot.wordpress.com Platform change When the platform changes, the leaders change. Wordperfect had a virtual monopoly on word processing in big firms that used DOS. Then Windows arrived and the folks at Wordperfect didn't feel the need to hurry in porting themselves to the new platform. They had achieved lock-in after all, and why support Microsoft? In less than a year, they were toast. When the game machine platform of choice switches from Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of bestelling games change and new companies become dominant. When the platform for music shifted from record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too, and many labels were crushed. Again and again the same rules apply. In fact, they always do. When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled. Think this only applies to software? The platform for healthcare changed from independent doctor's offices and small practices to hospitals. The platform for TV changed from airwaves to wires (so HBO and ESPN win, NBC loses). The platform for cars is changing from gas engines to alternatives. And the platform for books is changing (fast!) to e-books and readers. Just published today: the Vook multimedia production of Unleashing the Ideavirus. The price will increase to $5 in two weeks, but right now it's 99 cents. It runs on the web and on your iPhone. Here's the thing: Vook abridged it, built it, filmed it and distributed it in less than 90 days. They have a software application that they can use again and again for other titles. They've organized themselves to be profitable at a profit margin that few big book publishers can match. Once again, the platform changes. Insiders become outsiders and new opportunities abound.
