Bali holidays

It is well documented that Bali is not the destination it used to be, this can be evaluated a number of ways. Bali is no longer the cheap holiday location it once was - true. In many ways, Bali has improved, it is now longer the open sewer it once was according to some. As a Bali holiday gets more expensive, what are the choices? Just take it or seek alternate sites elsewhere?

So where will replace Bali as the cheap destination for international tourists if the droves decide to desert the resort island? Another Indonesian location maybe? East Malaysia, Peninsula Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or the Philippines? What about Brunei or Myanmar?

I guessing East Malaysia, the longstanding reputation of Tourism Malaysia, the competitive management of dive destinations is a positive, a significant downside is the issues facing Malaysian Airlines. Are the regional budget airlines suitably equipped to handle passenger traffic? For me, that is the main question to be asked.

Master in Management employment prospects from 2014

The Master in Management (MiM) employment report for 2014 doesn't make great reading from an Australasian perspective. Just 1% of London Business School MiM graduates from 2014 headed to Australasia; Asia offered better prospects to graduates indicating the carnage of the Australian job's market hasn't yet bottomed with plenty of downside ahead.

One could argue the United States job's market is poor too; however, capacity is filled by MBA graduates from the multitude of US business schools. This would appear to be less so in Australia with London Business School graduates likely to be well received south of the equator. 

Why I will never own another dive business

The dive business is a low margin, capital intensive lifestyle industry. Whilst the experiences in life can be great, the social costs however can be enormous.

I chose to work in the recreational dive industry after completing a four year technical apprenticeship and working ten years in my technical area. I was due for a break after working on average eighty seven hours per week - the recreational dive industry suited my personal goals at the time.

I went travelling and gained employment as a divemaster, dive instructor and dive centre manager. When I returned home, I maintained employment in the dive industry. The pay wasn't great, the hours long but I was enjoying life again and I could afford to live a life of poverty. So who actually makes money out of the diving industry?

The certification agencies are rolling in money, they sell training materials, dive centre licencing, instructor trainer (course director) training courses, instructor evaluations, insurance, dive centre support materials, promotional materials There is even discussion of private equity firms buying into the larger certification agencies.

The dive equipment manufacturers are making huge profits, they support wholesalers, technical representatives, sales staff, logistical staff and a layer of management. I know this from personal experience, honesty and integrity don't rate highly in their vocabulary.

The dive equipment manufacturers and wholesalers strongly dictate terms to the retailers,with pricing policy, product lines, availability of inventory and refusal of service. Price fixing, cartels and non-competitive practices are outlawed yet dive equipment manufacturers engage in such illegal activity.

Dive centres can be profitable, they are however build on a foundation of low paid workers, internships, that is, paying money to work for free so you can graduate to the minimum wage and part time retail workers. The required capital investment requires an elaborate compressor system, hire equipment, learning materials, safety equipment and the requirement to meet ever increasing regulations.

Most fail, but if you get the formula right, you can buy yourself a great job in retail with some excellent benefits. You just try not to look too hard for a return on equity and a return on investment. I should have stuck with investing in engineering where the return on investment is much greater. 

The dive certification agencies dictate the terms that the dive centre operates, now, you would expect the retail outlets to hold the upper hand in negotiations with the agencies vying for their business, this is unfortunately far from the truth. Dive resorts fare even worse, minimal equipment sales, reduced dive courses with the major income being certified dives.

Google Drive

Annoyed with having to pay a yearly subscription to Microsoft, I have decided to forgo MS Office and seek alternative software for my computer. So I decided to start using Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drawings and My Maps as my software of choice on home computers.

All in all, this is a pretty simple suite of office products and while you need an internet connection to use the product, I hope the future is an online download and a program for use on any computer. My preference is the ability to access my working documents from any computer terminal without having to plug in drives and USB connections.

Increase in MBA hires?

I was hoping 2015 is going to look up after a very tight 2014. Whilst a 3% increase is an increase and not a decrease, the MBA employment market is tight. Newspapers and websites are not yet reporting increases in job ads, hopefully over the worst of it is over by December. Yet I am feeling 2016 won't be much better in terms of employment as the market is now saturated by retrenched workers.

The GMAC is the Graduate Management Admissions Council, an American based organisation that developed the entrance examination used by many post graduate business schools. In 1953 the GMAT was formed with offices opening in London in 2007, India in 2009 and Hong Kong 2010 - one guesses job market information is US based as I just don't see this currently reflected in the current Australian job market.

Why bother with the PADI Deep Diver course?

Once upon a time, there wasn't much in the way of deep diver training, so was it worth doing a PADI deep diver course? Even back a long time ago, the answer is no, the question may well be, how far back? Maybe the 1970s, I doubt the 1980s and definitely not the 1990s and beyond.

Did you learn new equipment configurations? No.

Did you follow customised dive tables? No.

Learn decompression software maybe? No.

Did you learn to perform in-water decompression stops? No.

You don't even require extended safety stops.

Learnt gas planning such as rule of thirds, turn pressures, respiratory minute volume, surface air consumption? No.

What about physiological aspects of deep diving; topics such as hypercapnia, nitrogen narcosis, blood perfusion or gas diffusion? No.

Decompression theory and on-gassing, off-gassing, m-values and the half-time concept. Learn how to identify decompression sickness and treatment for suspected decompression sickness. No.

So you used standard scuba equipment, learnt no new procedures, stayed within no-decompression limits, learnt no advanced dive theory or the use of decompression tables and/or software - ouch.

Keeping in mind PADI treats any dive deeper than 18 metres as a deep dive, you may be left feeling that this deep diving course lacks substance. You can even use the deep dive from the advanced open water course as a credit so your four dive course has now been reduced to three dives - exactly what you need to learn deep diving.

I never saw much value in going down to the bottom, kneeling down and looking at colour changes at depth and performing a timed task that you already did on the surface.

The answer is a resounding no, better to take a course from Technical Diving International, a competing dive certification agency and their Intro to Tech course.

Coaching versus Mentoring

In a business setting, much emphasis is currently placed on mentoring and coaching, but like buzz words that get floated around, do we know the differences between coaching and mentoring?

The differences between mentoring versus coaching are subtle but distinct; firstly we should start with identifying the differences between coaching and mentoring. Coaching is primarily focused on skill acquisition whereas mentoring involves skill transfer from an experienced person to a less experienced person. Coaching is performance-based and highly focused as evidenced in professional sports from teams to individuals. 

Therefore, a coach is someone to learn with while a mentor is someone to learn from. When identifying mentoring, a mentor need not be employed in the organisation, in fact, in many cases, mentors are often external to the organisation. Typically, a mentor as as benevolent, mentors act with goodwill as opposed to coaches who are normally remunerated.