The Corruption and Crime Commission

The role of the Corruption and Crime Commission, known as the CCC in Western Australia is to investigate misconduct in the public sector. There are actually two bodies with the CCC dealing with serious misconduct and the Public Sector Commission dealing with minor misconduct.

I am looking into the future and I think I might be conversing with them in order to provide information in regards to corrupt government practices. This is taxpayer's money funding vital services we are dealing with here; I have an obligation to report wrongdoing and even undertook online training along with all other staff in the organisation to ensure we understand the principles of ethical decision-making.

Naturally, you really don't want to have to go through this route, surely there must be better ways to improve workplace practices and stamp out corruption before it takes hold, the longer individuals get away with such practices, the more brazen and confident they become even rationalising their behaviour but some times you just have to do what is right.

The Omega Railmaster

I have long admired the Omega Seamaster and the newer variants; the Speedmaster whilst initially released as a motorsport timer soon gained a reputation at NASA and ended up on the lunar surface. The third timepiece of the 1957 master trilogy is the Railmaster and until just recently, I knew nothing about this timepiece.

The Railmaster, intended for professionals working near to strong magnetic fields and electric currents features an anti-magnetic case to protect the device. I am unsure of the naming of this timepiece but I guess engineers were a target group.

I'm unsure of the relationship between the anti-magnetic capabilities of working in the railway so more research is warranted on my part. I believe the timepiece was designed with scientists, electricians and medical staff in mind although this is not reflected in the name.

The Railmaster began it's production run in 1957 along with the Seamaster and Speedmaster but the Railmaster lacked the mass appeal of either the Seamaster and Speedmaster ranges with the production run ending in 1963.

Due to the relatively short production run as compared to the Seamaster and Speedmaster ranges, the Railmaster is considered particularly collectible among watch enthusiasts.

Due to the popularity of re-release heritage ranges, Omega issued an updated version in 2003 named the Railmaster Co-Axial Chronometer; however, this model has now been discontinued. On the bright side, Omega has now released the Railmaster XXL Chronometer in 2012 and the legacy continues. 

Dive Sipadan

Schooling jacks swarming on top of the reef at Sipadan Island, you have plenty of choices of dive sites here. There is so much marine life here, the question is, where do you look? There is so much going on during every dive.

Sipadan Island is one of the ultimate diving destinations not just in the South East Asian sphere of diving, this is a major international diving destination. You can no longer stay on the island as the Malaysian authorities quickly worked out the human toll on the eco-system and quickly moved to protect Sipandan Island from adoring dive tourists. I have only ever been to Sipadan Island the once, I really want to return to this great dive location in the near future - it is really as good as they say it is.

The MBA and entrepreneurship

I was lucky to meet a Spanish guy engaging in an entrepreneurial business venture when I was in Madrid at an IE Business School dinner a couple of years back. The energy this guy bought to the dinner was amazing, he was preparing his start-up business plan and offered us plenty of insight into venture labs.

Whilst I can't remember exactly his business venture, I became interested in the notion of an MBA education and entrepreneurship. This is the real purpose of the MBA is to engage in entrepreneurial business activity and he was working towards bringing his start-up business from and idea to a reality. He was a student at IE Business School in Madrid and he also attended the free Coursera online offering Critical Perspectives on Management to round out his education.

What really got me interested was his participation in the venture labs to develop entrepreneurial business opportunities. This is an important component of modern MBA education, the ability to create new business ventures is at the core of MBA importance. Worldwide there are many business school graduates hitting the employment markets and not every MBA graduate is set to become a management consultant, CEO or board member. The purpose of the MBA education is to transform business orientated graduates who are willing to take risks to create the future businesses employing people to create value for shareholders and not just become employees of large corporations.

Integrated Project Management Processes

My final MBA unit has been completed, first the anxious wait for results begins. For me, this wasn't too bad as the final assignment was worth 20% of the marks and the course facilitator had been very expedient with marking so I already knew I had passed the unit with 80% of the examinations completed, I also knew the worst grade I could receive was a credit with 66.48/80 unadjusted.

So what did I learn? Well, this is the second project management coded PROJ600 unit after the initial PROJ6000 Project Management unit introducing the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (PMBoK) as a study resource. As a text book, the Richard Wysocki authored Effective Project Management - 7th Edition was our reference text for the first unit and I had to use this again as the proprierty text by Burke titled Project Management Techniques was unable to be used as an ebook issue prevented access and hence download. I was unable to source a pdf version so I unfortunately had to do without throughout the duration of the unit.

The unit focused on integrated project management processes with emphasis on the project management life cycle. We were broken into groups for group assignments where we we required to identify areas where efficienies could be gained. Our group started well and I was able to get reading completed on a flight from Perth to Singapore where I had a long layover. I worked from my laptop and began writing up my agreed upon section of our report.

However, our three and a half thousand word that was supposed to be shared among the group of four participants suddenly became a group of two. Whilst we had to write up more sections than what was required, coordination between two group members is certainly less complex than four members where team dynamics and group interactions may cause issues.

The second and third sections of the assessments required online posting of relevant topics related to the selected case study/project in regards to risk management, human resources, quality management, time management and financial management of five hundred words. We were then required to provide specific feedback to team members critically analysing their online post in three hundred and fifty words; naturally all online submissions were referenced and supported with contemporary published principles.

The second main assessment of one thousand five hundred words further focused on the identified project short-comings with improvements identified in the initial report aligned to environmental enterprise factors. Once again, a series of graded postings of three hundred and fifty words were required that were referenced and adhered to a strict word count of plus or minus ten percent. We also provided critical analysis of peer reports with areas of improvement of two hundred and fifty words. Finally, a reflective review of learning, short-comings forming a personal critical review of one thousand words was required as the final assessment.

I have been involved with peer-reviewed marking previously and while you learn to critically evaluate project work, it is a little lazy of the facilitator getting you to do their work for them. Do I feel confident to become a project manager now this unit is complete? Well no actually, but I do know more than I did before and should I be put in charge of a project; I know a little now as opposed to knowing nothing at all of project management previously.

Raiding retirement accounts for budget repair

We elect politicians to act on our behalf, but do they really? Recently the Turnbull government in Australia enacted legislation that has serious affect to accumulation type superannuation funds in the name of budget repair, that is the retirement funds of the majority of Australians. That is a detrimental effect to the vast majority of retirement plans in Australia. But while the government was quick to raid the benefits of working Australians, the legislation didn't affect defined benefits type funds - the exact funds held by senior bureaucrats and politicians.

In the name of budget repair, we need to strip back the benefits offered by such funds as the country just can't afford such generous allowances. It is time to raid the very funds that were set up to protect these individuals from the market forces the rest of us are subjected to. They, the politicians and senior bureaucrats receive a pension for life that is not subjected to market fluctuations and global forces. We need to retrospectively scrap these funds instead allowing them access to their personal contributions only - just like the rest of us. It is time for this rorting to end and all people are treated equally.

Wandering down to Wall St

Whilst in lower Manhattan, a stroll down to Wall Street is worth a look if for nothing more than a quick photo opportunity at the heart of America's financial hub. There is not really much to do there; with all the security surrounding the financial district, forget about trying to get anywhere close to the New York Stock Exchange, let alone inside. Yet strangely, I wouldn't have missed this New York site.

However, I find it strange standing outside a cordoned off building snapping photographs; because oh no, we are not allowed inside to view the goings on, we plebs are not insiders. This pretty much sums up the American financial system; like minions, we are all affected by the decisions made inside the New York Stock Exchange but not made privy to the dealings made inside the walls of the NYSE.

The fact that this building is located on Wall Street is not lost on me, they have erected a wall around the NYSE to keep the great unwashed at bay. This building is a monument to insider trading and corporate fraud, naturally; we need markets, the system requires liquidity and a place to trade, we need stock exchanges but not ones run like this one.