Year: 2008

  • People+Company Connections

    I’ve been playing around with the social web for a while now. One of the things I’m interested in is how people are connected through organisations. For examply take the Australian Stock Exchange, there are about 1800 companies listed on the ASX all of which have a board of directors. Many directors sit on more…

  • Fee split etiquette

    I am an active networker and I see many requests from recruiters to find a suitable candidate for a role. Sometimes someone replies with a request to split the fee. Can we talk about good etiquette for a fee split? If you work as a recruiter then it is quite reasonable to accept a fee…

  • Just start!

    Over the years I’ve attended various “… for beginners” Q&A’s for writing, film making, script writing, blogging, and other creative endeavors. I remember a fan asking Harlan Ellison what computer software he writes with and thinking “If you met Shakespeare would you want to know how he trimmed his quill?”. Sure that’s a but sarcastic,…

  • MBA 2008 Term 3

    I’ll be doing Corporate Finance for my next MBA (Executive) course. This is interesting as I’ll be doing a few mergers and acquisitions so hopefully I’ll learn some interesting ways to structure a deal. So far there hasn’t been a lot of M&A focused subjects at AGSM. Lectures start the week beginning 15 September 2008.…

  • MSN Clones update

    In response to a question on MSN Clones I’ve been using Pidgin for multiprotocal IM on Windows and Adium on Apple Mac’s. My kids still like aMSN and I like how easy it works for people who just want to connect to MSN buddies. However I have way too many people on Google-Talk to use…

  • Data Analysis and Statistical Modelling exam

    I’m studying for my DASM exam tomorrow. The study is not going well for two reasons: I’m a terrible procrastinator when it comes to exams I’m sitting on 80% of 55% for the course so far i.e. I’ve got 44/55 and tomorrow’s exam is worth the remaining 45% of the marks. So if I just…

  • Moving on from Oldfields

    I’ve moved on from my role as Divisional Manager – Treco Garden Sheds at Oldfields Holdings Limited. At the end of my two year contract and am very happy with the results we achieved. The Directors’ Operations Review in the Preliminary Final Report to the Australian Stock Exchange for the year ended 30 June 2008…

  • E MBA bloggers don’t update often

    I was wondering that when I was investigating doing an MBA. May bloggers started to post on their experiences but then dried up. Is the workload so onerous that they can’t find 10-30 minutes in a week to provide the update? In my case AGSM MBA (Executive) is quite busy – it takes 8-10 hours…

  • MBA 2008 Term 2

    I got a Distinction for my first term course Managing People and Organisations. Yay me! as my youngest daughter would say. More importantly I learned a number of different ways to expand my viewpoint. My tendancy is to use decision shortcuts to achieve things quickly. While this has served me quite well in my career…

  • MBA Update 2008 Term 1

    So this term I’ve been doing my first Organizational Behavior OB subject: Managing People and Organisations. I’ve received two distinctions so far on the assignments, despite being ridiculously busy at work. Now I have to knuckle down and review in preparation for the coming exams. The subject matter is exciting and fascinating on both practical…