MISSED OPPORTUNITIES..

 
My life is filled with them.  But before you go for the hankie drawer and commiserate with me I must admit they are not that important..


I used to play ice hockey, still love watching it and from time to time plot an escape from this green and pleasant land (?) and catch an NHL game or three in America.

This would have been an amazing week to have done so.

Montreal Canadiens met Boston Bruins on Wednesday evening and lost (boo hoo! my favourite team) but the match was eventful to say the least - 172 penalty minutes, fights galore, goals galore (final score 8-6)..

Then Thursday night the Canadiens travelled to my other fave team of the NHL, New York Islanders.  Hard to say which I prefer really - Montreal an 'original 6' team of the Hockey League from 100 years ago and loads of amazing history and culture or NY Islanders, a newer upstart that doesn't have as much money, has a scrappy rink relative to the Canadiens and stuck out in a Long Island backwater relative to the other NY team (Rangers) who play at Madison Square Garden.

Islanders beat the Canadiens - battered and bruised from their defeat on Wednesday I guess.

And Friday comes.. Islanders play against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight, an altogether much more difficult game for them - and NY have launched a load of tickets at only $49 (I usually end up paying around twice that) with a load of offers attached - All You Can Eat Seat, Get Your Gear Seat etc etc

bah! I couldn't have gone.  Too busy with work.  But then I will soon.  Very soon.
 

GOOGLE DOODLE DO.. OR DON'T?

 
Now the warm weather is back with us. Well, warmer weather at least.  The question must be asked.  Are Google running out of ideas?

I don't mean the entire google organisation.  I'm sure they are brimming over with new ideas for us all - Google this and Google that.  I am referring to the people at Google Doodle.  These are the group (or maybe just one person) who Google pay (I'm sure handsomely) to sit and dream up new variations on their logo for the main search pages of the world.

But I have noticed this week that they have been playing around with the Google logo to celbrate Jules Verne's 183rd birthday and today it's the turn of Thomas Edison, who if he had managed to invent a time freeze machine would today have been 164.  Although he wouldn't would he because time would have frozen and I assume he would be as old as he was when he invented the machine? Anyway.. here they are..

Now I love Google Doodle's and think they serve a useful purpose of edutainment, but the point is these are not really valid celebratory events are they?

True I would celebrate if I made it to my 164th birthday.  But my guess is nobody else would care too much?

So, come on Google less is more.  Surprise us, entertain us, amuse us even.  But please don't start changing your logo just because you've found some obscure relevance to the day..

 

NEW WORLD ORDER..

 
I read a quote recently that went something like this..

"We must be impatient with those in
the public service who see themselves as
pen-pushers and guardians of rubber
stamps, thieves intent on self-enrichment,
bureaucrats who think they have
a right to ignore the vision of Batho
Pele, who come to work as late as possible,
work as little as possible and knock
off as early as possible."

I am involved in an interesting world at the moment. 
One in which the old world order of UK politics is rapidly changing - led
by an onslaught of budget cuts.  No or less money  means people have
to change how they work - to get the same results with less financial input.

This is great.  For me.  Given that part of what I do is advise government
departments etc about how to do things a little differently.  Now with added 'less money'!

Rapid and constant re-assessment of work is what is needed.  Personally and
among the organisations I work with.  A lot can be taken from management
and business theory

Insight. Improve. Innovate.

Interesting. Useful.  Most of all it also reminds me of a long time ago
in my past when somebody once told me I could get by in the world
with two of the three i's.

This was a different world.  And the i's were different.  I got away with
it from around 1990 to 2010.  Twenty years trading on two out of
the following three; Industry. Initiative. Intelligence.

Those that know me, know which one i I mostly avoided!

And so to now.

Got to get on.  Industry seems to be required.  Oh dear!

ECONOMY WATCH..

  

Who knows where the UK economy is heading?

Public sector employment is falling.  That is, in the main, a good thing.  From where I sit - and it is an educated and informed position - the people I've seen losing jobs in the public sector in the past year or two have been well deserved recruits to the dole lines.  The really good ones, the committed individuals, are still there or left in frustration some years ago.

I wouldn't employ many of the recent redundancies let's put it that way.  These are the people who could never quite grasp that the rest of the world wasn't full of 'training days', extended leave periods for illness and the like.  Almost every email to one of these people would get an instant auto-response saying, "sorry I am out of the office until x and will not be receiving my emails...'

But private sector employment took a hit at the beginning of the recession.  And it hasn't picked itself up yet.  Not even to fill the drop in employment from two years ago let alone to create new jobs for all those useful public sector people now sat at home [at this point the reader should not get unduly concerned for their welfare as many of these people are sat on bundles of (our) cash from very attractive redundancy payments let alone the promise of their cosy public sector, final salary pensions kicking in].

So, here's what the graph looks like with some historical perspective...

Who knows where that line is going to turn - up or down?

In short, nobody.