April 24, 2008
April 23, 2008
What would the Ginster think?
A story in today’s Guardian made me think of my own home life.
A woman in Florida came home to find an alligator in the kitchen, it may have been chasing the cat…
Here is a picture of Ginny in her kitchen
While Ginny is a lover of wildlife…
… I am not sure it would extend to an alligator in the kitchen.
April 17, 2008
It’s a question of trust
In the FT earlier on this week I was amused by, Andrew Hill’s piece ‘For Gord’s sake, why won’t banks lend to each other?’ In this article Andrew sets out the what he believes Gordon Brown is thinking about banks at the moment.
In a more serious piece, it is clear that the Government wants banks to ‘fess up on ‘inadequate credit-rating procedures and failure to disclose writeoffs’ as this had reduced confidence in the global economy.
The problem is not in relation to interest rates but in the fact the banks don’t trust each other. In some cases, different parts of one bank will not trust each other either.
Perhaps it is time for confessions and wiping the slate clean so we can start to rebuild.
April 8, 2008
Election fever?
Things are hotting up in London as Boris seems to be taking the lead over Ken. But Londoners are generous people and are keen to share this excitement with the rest of the UK, especially it seems Scotland.
I was amused to see the poster campaign being run by the English Democrats in Edinburgh.
I suspect this is in part driven by the fact that neither Scotland or England have got through to the European cup and we need something to keep us going!
April 7, 2008
Relative worlds
I was given one of our client’s internal staff magazines today and was fascinated by an article featuring the work of world mapper. Firstly, here is the world with no distotion to it
While I recommend for everyone to go and have a look, I was particularly interested in two maps. Firstly, my own role of working in the financial services industry and the export strength in Europe:
Interesting how little the US export in terms of financial services.
Secondly a sad contrast to the wealth generated by financial services. The next graph looks at the first Millennium Development Goal which is to halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who live on the equivalent of US$1 a day, or less.
The largest population living on US$1 a day is in Southern Asia, most of whom live in India - one of the big outsourcing hubs for european financial services…
March 22, 2008
Men behaving badly?
There is a great piece in Comment is Free by Larry Elliott. The article looks at the behaviour of the banks asking for cheap funding from the central banks and the central banks willingness to provide it.
While I have lots of sympathy for this argument, I also understand why the central banks are providing the money to support this key part of our economy. To prevent an economic meltdown for normal consumers, this money needs to be provided. Consumers are already impacted by the increased cost of arranging a mortgage and many are struggling to get access to credit.
While we do need to think about consumers and not just beating up the banks for previous mistakes, I think Steve Bell’s picture from the Guardian sums it up nicely.
March 6, 2008
Tangled webs
Having just finished my last meeting of the day, I thought I would spend 5 minutes looking at the Guardian’s website before getting back to the day job.
My eye was caught by this headline -
What do you think the readers said?
The thought that went through my mind was that this man wanted his cake and to eat it and the women in his life were going to let him.
If you want other Guardian reader’s views, click here
Surprisingly, no-one has offered much support to a woman who faces a life of single motherhood. I hope it all gets sorted for the best (though I don’t know what ‘best’ is).
February 22, 2008
February 19, 2008
Talking sense
Every morning, I pick up my copy of City AM outside London Bridge station. It is a great read and it is the only weekly daily I consistently read.
This morning, they had a great piece by Julie Meyer. I agree that there is a lot of pressure on women to be a success at everything. I also agree that we can’t do it all.
On my part, I am a rubbish domesticated wife - I need a cleaner to keep the house at a basic level of cleanliness and Mr Tosh would die of malnutrition if it wasn’t for M&S Steamfresh meals. Then I ask myself, why doesn’t Mr Tosh make me a nutritious meal every night??? (answer - I would die of a heart attack within 6 months from consumption of deep-fried pizza).
Expectations are high on women and I for one have opted out of the domestic goddess role - hurrah for not being an over-achiever.
February 17, 2008
Market research
I am writing my Market Analysis essay at the moment, hence I can find time to blog a marketing relating post. While not writing my essay, I was reading the News of the World - one of my favourite activities on a Sunday to see an article about Paul Burrell’s wife leaving him for another man. Paul is described in the article as a ‘luvvie’ though I am sure I can think of other terms but will stick with luvvie too. The article also mentions his successful homeware range, so I go off on a google trawl.
Can you believe he has a range of wines?? Not a great brand if you read the market research from Tipping Point, where 85.7% gave his wine the thumbs down. The research also mentions his homeware range and as we are off the US next week, I thought I would take a quick look on Paul B’s website. Sadly there were no goodies to look at during the writing of this post.
It is staggering that Burrell thinks of himself as have a strong brand. Ah well ,life is full of mysteries, so had better get back to thinking of market research in a more constructive way.
