Improving my health on the road

I'm 10 - 15kg overweight now after living an unsustainable existence for the last few years working full-time and studying part-time.

I finally have broken the shackles on this overseas trip, not eating snack food whilst locking myself indoors all weekend to read textbooks, academic papers, pour over research and writing assignments to the early hours of the morning.

I had an ad hoc exercise regime at best; it was pretty ineffective really, just wasted money on a gym membership. Was all the study worth it? Too early to tell just yet, in the future, maybe. I still have a further two units to complete in 2015.

It will only be one unit per trimester so not so arduous now, I have broken the back of the task, over the hump and on the downhill run. What I can't allow is myself to be drawn down this path again; I need balance starting with a healthy lifestyle, plenty of rest and recreation overcoming the total exhaustion my life had become.

I am still drinking wine and coffee; yet I don't require daily Mylanta tablets in the mid-morning around 10:30 am to 11:00 am and sometimes an afternoon one around 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm. So what has changed?

I would say stress; while not an expert opinion on the matter, I have no research or empirical evidence to back up my claims, the results seem to speak for themselves. The one component removed from this equation is work related stress - now all I need to do is ensure it doesn't creep into my life again.

University management

Why is it at not just leading universities around the nation, also second tier institutions as well; the academic staff must have formal vocational qualifications in their field, but management are not required to hold any qualifications at all?

This also holds true for the government run Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges and private institutions. With no exceptions, no manager needs to be qualified to even a minimum level or hold full membership in a professional management association.

This is not limited to middle managers charged with controlling the great unwashed; that is, the frontline academic staff. This holds true for IT managers, HR managers, accounts managers (the accountant must be qualified though), maintenance managers, facility managers, customer service managers, divisional directors, general managers and finally, the CEO. 

The person sitting across the desk asking questions at your job interview is likely to be intimidated, maybe scornful and resentful of such candidates, but they need no licence or qualification to do so.

After all, universities churn out in their droves business and commerce students, accounting majors, postgraduate graduate certificates, graduate diplomas and master degrees, even a PhD in Management is available. A Master of Management or the highly prized MBA (and priced accordingly) is a qualification not seen in too many educational establishments.

So why do educational institutions not require their managers to possess the very qualifications they sell? They are in the sales business, the business of education. Do they not rate these qualifications they sell? Are the skills and knowledge not transferable to their business model? Are such qualifications designated for sole use in the private sector? 

I wouldn't think so, contemporary management practice is still management, accounting standards still apply to education and while leadership concepts change as per the situation, you still need to learn the theory, best practice and review case studies. Or really, you don't need to be qualified to be a manager, this is just a commodity for sale where educational facilities don't require the very qualifications they sell.

Matirx organisational structures in organisations

When asked about some famous instances of matrix structures for a university management course and how have they fared; I immediately though about the macro task force for the Claremont serial murders.

Residing in Western Australia, the Claremont serial killer case dominated the news locally for years and at this time is still unsolved. In 1996, an 18 year old woman disappeared followed by another two disappearances later in 1996 and 1997 from the same location almost without leads despite extensive CCTV technology erected after the first disappearance.

The Western Australian Police Force (WAPOL) assembled a task force after the second attack, to be known as the macro task force. The task force was assembled with personnel from a number of police units to investigate the disappearance of the then two women, with a further third disappearance, who at this time has never been discovered is missing presumed deceased. The bodies of the second and third victims have been discovered.

A criticism of the formation of the macro task force was that a team needed to be assembled from scratch with unfamiliar team members from different units losing essential investigative opportunities when leads with still fresh. At the time, police funding cuts and force structure change did not allow smooth transition due to internal restructuring efforts to achieve organisational and cultural change. The macro task force could be considered a matrix structure; viewed in a similar style to a project team.

Since then, the major crime squad has been reformed in 1997 with personnel holding investigative, forensic and intelligence expertise and skills. The initial leader of the macro task force was also involved in the recent Lloyd Rayney murder trial (no conviction recorded) and the Iveta Mitchell disappearance, presumed murdered but unsolved. The macro task force has been subject to 11 internal and external probes with none reporting errors or oversights.

Martin Luther King's legacy

Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee is the site of the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the prominent civil rights activist. Naturally, I knew of the "All men are created equal, I have a dream" speech. I must profess, I was unaware of sanitation worker's strike or the events leading up to the fateful day. Today was the day I learned a little of contemporary American civil rights history without even going inside.

I was sitting outside on a retaining wall over the road; I was listening to these elderly southern ladies chatting. In their thick southern accent, I very much enjoyed listening to their colourful stories, they were joyful and happy, some of the things they said were just gold.

As I, she was waiting outside, she didn't want to go inside to witness the museum for different reasons than me when she came out with "I don't find this so exciting, I lived through the time, I don't want to relive this." I opened my tablet and started tapping keys, this was a defining moment in my United States trip, I wanted to make sure I recorded this moment.

The other lady came out and started describing the museum tour, she didn't like it much, it was a little crowded and she was unable to go at her own pace when she came out with "I don't like no confining, I like my freedom."

My blog is observations in an undemocratic world; my short time sitting on that retaining wall outside the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee listening to these two wonderful southern women defines what I am trying to achieve, I only hope I do this moment justice.

The PADI Advanced diver certification

Does anyone really seriously believe a diver can not only be awarded an entry-level certification in three days, but a further five dives in two days allows them to be considered an advanced diver?

Apparently PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors does. An advanced diver in less than a week with less than 10 dives logged, all training dives too. But what does this really mean? What do you learn on a PADI advanced diver course to make you an advanced diver? The navigation dive is good, no qualms about that, one dive won't give you excellent navigation skills, it does introduce the diver to the compass in more detail, navigating a square using distance estimation underwater although I have never used fin strokes in a dive to navigate.

The deep dive is pretty worthless in its current form, anything deeper than 18 metres and no deeper than 30 metres, underwater tasks are more for giving you something to do so you can sell the course as a training dive. Most of the other dives don't even require in-water or direct supervision. Is a boat dive, underwater photographer dive, fish ID dive, underwater naturalist dive, digital underwater photographer dive, multi-level dive an advanced training dive, the list goes on.

You are only performing only five dives needing a minimum time of 20 minutes per dive and only needing to exceed a depth of 5 metres (with the exception of the deep dive) to log the dive. This is purely a course for dive centres to sell courses to newly certified divers, PADI sells course materials and the certification fee allowing instructors to sell further marginal specialty diver courses. That's about it.

What happened to Kodak?

During business courses, we look at case studies identifying strategy seeking to establish a cause and effect, the question arose, what happened to Kodak?

As we know, Kodak was the world's leading photographic film producer, an iconic global company brandishing a solid reputation before seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in early 2012. At the height of Kodak's dominance in the mid 70s; the company held a 90% market share in the United States as well as worldwide market leadership. Eastman Kodak's main business divisions now include digital printing, graphics, entertainment and commercial film technology, but what happened?

Major rival, Japanese based FujiFilm is not only still operating, the company is actively engaged in the digital photography business. The digital camera market is highly competitive; dominated by the traditional camera manufacturers of Nikon, Canon and Olympus; newer entrants of Lumix, Sony and former competitor FujiFilm add further competitive pressure. Who really uses a Pentax camera anymore?

The modern smartphone boasts an impressive camera and editing options for Samsung, iPhone, Blackberry, HTC and Sony users. Whilst the high quality DSLR will not be replaced for serious photographers anytime soon; both the compact and point & shoot camera market face stiff competition from mobile phone handsets.

Financially struggling throughout 1990s, the severe decline in sales of photographic film coupled with delays transitioning to digital photography technology caused severe financial duress for Kodak. Despite inventing core digital camera technology; Eastman Kodak failed to take advantage of its dominant position rapidly losing market share and revenue - profits diminished quickly.

Nokia is an example of a market leader with a dominant position rapidly losing market share and plunging revenues through slow rollout of technology due to technical issues, Microsoft beat Apple to market setting Apple's development back years. Microsoft bought out the faltering Nokia handset and smartphone business and has now been eclipsed by Apple.

Early in 2013, court approval was granted allowing refinancing; Eastman Kodak emerged from bankruptcy in mid-2013. Eastman Kodak proceeded to sell numerous patents to competitors including market leaders Samsung, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, HTC and Adobe Systems after attempting to generate revenues through somewhat aggressive patent litigation.

The revitalised strategy now involves Eastman Kodak focusing solely on digital photography and digital printing. During 2012, Eastman Kodak announced the company would no longer manufacture digital cameras, video cameras and digital picture frames, instead focusing on the targeted niche of the corporate digital imaging market.

During 2012, Eastman Kodak announced the sale of photographic film, with the exclusion motion picture film technology, their kiosk operations and commercial scanners to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Kodak still exists as a company; however, the restructure saw the company slip from a consumer based enterprise to a business focusing on corporate clients. Will Eastman Kodak under the revamped strategy continue into the future, or will the sale of intellectual property undermine future earnings?

Windows XP

As I travelled through eastern European countries, I became aware a large number of computers were still using the Windows XP operating system. From private shops, hotels and train booking counters; despite the fact Microsoft had withdrawn support for the now outdated software some time ago, the operating system was still in use despite the potential security risks.

Could third parties provide sufficient protection? I work at a state government college, we still used Windows XP right up to just weeks before the Microsoft support ended. I had asked the IT guys two years earlier why we hadn't upgraded to Windows 7, they replied that this was not a stable platform as yet.

This begs the question, if a company like Microsoft is building obsolescence into their product, why not switch to a provider operating on different fundamentals? Business enterprises like Woolworths are making the switch to the Google operating system, Apple is providing business solutions to rival Microsoft and a host of providers such as Linux and Oracle offer corporate software packages. Why support a company with a business plan that basically shafts you?