Monthly Archive for August, 2006

3 Minute Management Course

Published on August 26, 2006 in Business. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Well I guess email spam isn’t all bad. Take for instance this 3 minute management course:

Lesson One
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing.
A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, “Can I also sit like you and do nothing?”
The eagle answered: “Sure, why not.” So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.
All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson #1
- To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.
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Lesson Two
A turkey was chatting with a bull. “I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, “but I haven’t got the energy.”
“Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?” replied the bull. “They’re packed with nutrients.”
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.
Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Management Lesson #2
- Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.
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Lesson Three
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold; the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Management Lesson #3
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut!

This ends your three-minute management course :-)

State of the Blogosphere

Published on August 19, 2006 in Business. 0 Comments

Did you know that there are now 50 million blogs? That 175,000 blogs are started every day? That 7,200 are created every hour? A very interesting article about blogging, State of the Blogosphere. So many to read, so little time.

Start your own hedge fund

Published on August 11, 2006 in Musings. 0 Comments

If you’re an equities trader like me, you must hear a lot about hedge funds…big returns, lots of money, set for life. So why not start your own? How hard could it be?

Could this be indicative of a hedge fund bubble? Last year 1,000 or so funds went belly-up. But around 2,100 new ones started, bringing the grand total to over 8,000, up from 600 ten years ago. (At press-time there were 6,010 Taco Bells in the U.S. Just FYI.) One curmudgeon by the coffee urn muttered that it reminded him of 1990s-era day-trading seminars. Booya to you, mister!

Where are the CIO’s?

Published on August 11, 2006 in Business. 0 Comments Tags: .

Good article at CIO Insight that makes you think: Why Business Schools Aren’t Turning Out Good CIO Candidates.

Most of my CIO friends and clients these days are business managers who currently happen to manage IT, rather than career technologists who have ascended to the role, a trend I have seen accelerate over the past ten years.