An evening with Michael Bublé

I just haven't met him yet, terrible cliché, but unfortunately true until now - Sunday night, the second of the Perth shows was my chance to redeem myself. Full-time entertainer and part-time comedian - the showman oozed personality. 

Plenty of laughs and an entertaining evening was had by all - it was great. The band sound kicked off with a flash of flame shooting from the stage, the brass section played hard and tight, a change of sound a little later saw the brass retire backstage for a while and the strings arrived to accompany the piano, guitar, percussion and double bass.

I had tickets to his outdoor concert at the luscious Sandalford winery in 2011, but a mix up saw me miss this incredible concert because I had set the concert date in the calendar section of MS Outlook months ahead. The reminder popped up on Sunday telling me the appointment was 12 hours overdue - I was livid.

What I learned is, I never will never get that moment back. I knew I missed an excellent show at Sandalford that Saturday evening drinking wine under the stars entertained by one Mr M Bublé. Sunday night should have been a whole new entertainment experience, instead of the attempt to resurrect the experience that I missed - oh well.

Reef hooks - a great idea or environmental damage?

On a recent dive trip, I was discussing diving in currents with a local instructor and he was totally against reef hooks. I was surprised, my experience told me they saved reefs from careless divers, he however felt otherwise. This got me thinking, what is the real value of reef hooks?

Strong currents are detrimental to novice divers and weak swimmers, it is not always possible for all dives to be drift (drift in the same direction as the current) and divers may need to either swim into the current or hold position. The reef hook is perfect for underwater photographers; unfortunately, the damage I have seen from photographers to get that perfect shot is disturbing.A home made reef hook is generally fabricated from a large fishing hook with the barb ground down and a length of line to hold onto, a loop for the hand is tied or snap clip attached. The diver secures the hook under a section of the reef and clips or holds on in the current whilst hovering above the reef causing no damage to the environment.

Of course, the diver has to show some discretion to where they place their hook, careful not to attach to a coral mount or allow their line to contact corals. Common sense, I thought, nonetheless, reef hook attachment should be covered in the briefing. I have seen new and novice divers hang onto delicate corals in a not so delicate manner causing untold damage to the reef when faced with strong currents. Little care or concern is considered in such circumstances, the reef hook followed with instructions for use has the ability to prevent reef damage.

These days, you can purchase a commercially made reef hook from your local dive store for a very reasonable cost - of course, the cost to the underwater environment of not using a reef hook is so much more than a couple of dollars. The counter argument is reef hooks poorly attached causes reef damage by uprooting parts of the reef is a strong argument, I counter however with, these same divers normally hold onto coral heads causing significant damage.

Properly trained, suitably equipped and correctly supervised divers makes the reef hook an invaluable environmentally sustainable tool. I'm all for it.

Philippines mini-MBA

I have had the opportunity to take a look at the mini-MBA presented by the Chartered Association of Business Administrators in the Philippines after viewing their course materials in 2012. The Canadian not-for-profit professional association states its mission is to raise the standard of management competency to raise the status of business administration as a profession.

Based on the knowledge development materials I viewed; their program includes human resources management, marketing management, accounting and finance management, information technology management, organisational management and leadership. That's a fairly rounded program with the main disciplines represented; the delivery is fairly condensed over an eight week period with face-to-face tutorials, presentations, case studies and written examinations.

The certificates awarded at the end of the program carries weight; successful completion allows advanced standing at affiliated international universities including but not limited to Edinburgh Business School, Edith Cowan Business School, the University of Liverpool and Charles Sturt University.

Its all very good gaining qualifications, however, implementing your newly acquired knowledge and skills in the workplace is the true test of graduate competency. As the majority of the student cohort are employed professionals; one can assume knowledge and skills are transferred to the working environment.

Shark fin soup

The environmental destruction caused by shark fin soup is not limited to the main culinary regions of Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China. The devastation of the oceans is not regionally confined; sustenance fishing in poor communities offered large sums is a worldwide problem fueled by Chinese demand.    

Shark fin soup, a Chinese style soup made with the fin of a shark and flavoured with chicken and other stock, I have no idea of the taste as I have never and will never will eat a plate of shark fin soup. The fin itself, I am informed, ironically has minimal flavour; is used as a primary ingredient to add texture to the dish - as such, it is seen as a delicacy.

A plate of shark fin soup is not cheap; this ensures a steady supply of fins at high prices for fishermen, wholesalers and merchants wantonly slaughtering sharks in large and unsustainable numbers to satisfy the market demand. With rapidly increasing prosperity and the growth of a middle class in the South East Asia; shark fin soup is now consumed in vast quantities placing crippling and unsustainable pressure on shark populations.

Claimed to possess health benefits; kidneys, lungs, bones and appetite, however, there is absolutely no evidence to support such claims. Taking 7 to 20 years to reach maturity; shark populations take extended time frames to recover. Current demand for fins makes it impossible for populations to recover to previous levels. Sharks are apex predators – when populations are placed under such severe fishing pressure - the entire eco-system suffers.

I ran dive tours within Western Australia, shark fin soup is not illegal here but we as consumers have choices. While I personally would never purchase a plate of shark fin soup, our clients on tour would request this from the menu. Education is the key, we had a policy of never purchasing shark fin soup for our clients, we would then follow up with the reasons why this policy is enacted and not one client ever argued once suitably informed.

I feel it is our duty as scuba divers and eco-tourists to provide reasoned arguments why consumers should boycott shark fin soup. Once the demand has been negated, the supply chain no longer has a market seeking big profits.

UNE's Future Campus

The future of tertiary education is eLearning for certain aspects of knowledge dissemination, how that is achieved is the challenge of instructional designers and practitioners. Of course, not every course is suited to an online paradigm, face-to-face is going to be around for a long time yet.

The collaboration between learning institutes around the world will increase; strategic alliances enhancing, not cannibalising client bases and student cohorts will be an important issue with the globalisation of learning and higher education. No longer will employers, businesses and public sector enterprises immediately liaise with local education providers; collaboration with the most proficient provider no matter where they are located worldwide is already the preferred option, this looks likely to increase in the future.

     

I view with interest the University of New England and their Future Campus model, this student-centred paradigm ideally suits highly motivated individuals with open plan learning spaces, online conferencing, video-walls, virtual meet-ups and live-cast presentations. It would appear younger students seeking the university social experience may soon be the minority. It begs the question, is the traditional university lecture dead?

VR Technology closed for business

I am a big fan of VR Technology computers; I own an older VR3 dive computer hoping to upgrade to the VRx when the time came, that being said, my VR3 has a lot of life left. VR Technology is now no longer trading, this is, of course, an unfortunate turn of events for technical diving in general.

I currently have the opportunity to purchase a near new computer; I might well now take up the offer now, computers in this condition won't come up for sale too often. It wasn't the time frame I was looking at, but I will now have to accelerate my purchase.

VR Technology was at the forefront of technical diving from its infancy to present day; well known for their dive computers, their range of rebreathers was and still is cutting edge. It appears Vobster Marine Systems in the United Kingdom will supply PINs and some limited servicing capability to dive computers. Their main role will be to manufacture, support and service the range of Sentinel rebreathers as per their licence agreement.

It would appear the Ouroboros rebreather will no longer be supported to any great degree, even though the unit ceased production in 2010, I believe a strong community dives the units with approximately 120 sold overall. However, it appears Vobster Marine Systems is willing to support these rebreathers where possible when viable orders for parts are received.

I first met VR Technology owner, Kevin Gurr at Professional Sports Divers of Guam when guys like Kevin, Captain Billy Deans and other IANTD personnel were out searching for a Spanish galleon presumed sunk in the area with a supposed load of Inca gold and silver on board. Since then, I have met Kevin at a number of dive shows and technical diving conferences. I didn't know it at the time, but this was one of a number of proving grounds for technical equipment and procedures in a fledgling industry. Kevin's tireless work has significantly progressed closed circuit rebreather and computing technology benefiting the technical and wider diving community. I am neither a friend or colleague of Kevin, I seriously doubt he would even recognise me despite the fact I have met him on numerous occasions - I certainly acknowledge Kevin's service to the industry.

I was busy undertaking my IANTD Technical Nitrox (extended range) course with Simon Pridmore, owner of Professional Sports Divers of Guam. Simon was performing a large number of exploratory dives with trimix at the time, Simon was the IANTD franchisee for Micronesia at the time and now a regional training director. Simon is a leading dive author publishing a number of dive books and is regularly published in dive magazines and journals. The pioneering of the technical diving community was taking place in Guam as well as Florida, Maine, Red Sea and the United Kingdom. For me, it was a great time to be involved in the technical diving community, a chapter of the evolution of technical diving has now closed.

Manila Police - probably not doing roadworthy checks

Out and about in Manila, I came across this police vehicle near Rizal Park, viewing the state of the police vehicles in Manila, I am guessing they are not actively patrolling and pulling vehicles over for roadworthy checks.

I'm guessing when their vehicle is back road worthy, that is, after they pull the tyre off, repair the puncture to get the police car back out patrolling, they will probably find it can only be used during daylight hours as headlights are damaged. I wonder if their indicators are working? I would probably run a licence check on their vehicle too.

The demise of trade unions

We need unions; a balance of power in any series of negotiations relies on equal representation between parties. Instead we have these old dinosaurs in charge of trade unions holding power at all costs, never cross these guys - unless you want to learn lessons the hard way.

 

There are many forms of unionism, from the professional associations of the Australian Medical Association, Airline Pilots Association, Certified Practicing Accountants, Engineers Australia and numerous other professional registration bodies. The professional associations, unlike the trade unions are run for the benefit of their members.

The leadership of trade unions is sadly lacking, fundamentally criminal in nature and grossly deficient in structure and implementation whilst feeding their suffering membership propaganda and outright lies. The lack of criminal charges laid against union leaders who misappropriate union funds for their own personal gain is a sad indictment on the power and reach of trade unions.

The Craig Thompson corruption scandal is a case in point, former Australian Council of Trade Unions president Sharran Burrow investigated Thompson and hindered police efforts preventing Thompson from losing his seat allowing Labor to relinquish their grip on power - this is a terrible conflict of interest, former union leaders investigating union leaders with public funds.

Criminal organisations such as the former Painters and Dockers Federation, the deregistered Builders Labourers Federation, CFMEU, Electrical Trades Union and Plumbers & Gasfitters Union.

Self serving unions are well funded by gullible members, Kevin Rudd was assisted by 30 million dollars of member's funds to assist his 2007 election. Even former Prime Minister Julia Gillard is facing probable fraud charges over her slush fund for the AWU, it would appear the corruption is endemic.

Once upon a time, it was no ticket - no start, fortunately the days of compulsory unionism are over, although Joe McDonald still yearns for the 1970s and 1980s when union power was at its peak. The days of striking over ice cream flavour, bottom of the harbour schemes and stand over tactics are hopefully consigned to the history books.

The role of training of management

The role of training of management may be observed from two viewpoints; that is supervisor training and higher management training or mid-level management and upper management.

Employed at a large registered training organisation (RTO); I lecture in the engineering trades at apprentice and post-trade level. I also see the world from a Western Australian mining based viewpoint; as such, while I read about a two tier economy, I have yet to experience a major slow-down since the early 90s. Whilst I have also developed post-trade training, this is very much shunned by the average tradesperson due to a lack of commitment by employers.

As a young tradesman in the late 80s & early 90s, it was very difficult to be accepted into post-trade night school courses – you had to arrive early at the college and be prepared for a long line. These days, we are unable to receive enough applications to run viable classes. I do not feel the quality of tradesperson has improved, indeed the opposite.

The current engineering workforce does not need qualifications to be promoted, furthermore, liaising with senior management, they lament the people they are forced to place in positions of responsibility – they tend to use what they can find in a loose employment market.

As an RTO, we do consulting work for clients (companies) who require further qualifications to move from a tradesperson to supervisor level. Generally we conduct post-trade training in the workplace for already promoted personnel. However, this is at individual company level and not industry level; since the career path currently does not require further training in management skills.

The Karpin report of the mid 1990s identified many technically orientated workers were promoted without any formal management training. These workers then tended to mimic former supervisors but tended to lack both communication and conceptual skills.

The frontline management initiative, while not solving all of these problems has improved outcomes based more on my personal observations that scientific research. I deal with numerous examples of successful mining contractors, equipment manufacturers and miners who have diploma-level managers who turn loss making divisions into successful enterprises.   

Higher management training tends to funded by the individual and not by the company, although it doesn’t always guarantee success. After observing our end of year budget at my employer; I was astonished to find our strategic portfolio spent $0.00 on training the previous calendar year. A training organisation that does not invest in the maintenance and up-skilling their personnel is now the domain of budget conscious managers.

The only training & development that took place the calendar year is one staff member’s self-funded enrollment at university - mine. Ironically, for academic staff to be promoted to a mid-level leadership position, the candidate has to meet educational requirements such as a higher education degree, a minimum of five years in the organisation and provide extensive material proof to be accepted for consideration for the pool of candidates. 

Then a formal application is lodged, a panel rates the written applications, the line manager has input and then a series of formal presentations are made to the panel. The presentation is timed with an electronic stop watch placed on the conference table, then the panel questioning begins - the failure rate is pretty high.

Variations for the next academic level include a case study where the candidate is locked in a room, given thirty minutes to prepare before being marched before a panel to present findings. It could be argued that university level examinations require similar strategies, I personally enjoy the challenge, many people wilt under the pressure and fail.

Ironically, when employed by the government, management requires no formal education, experience or demonstrated proof of success. What is interesting though, the technical personnel employed in government departments must be fully qualified, the members on the panel are generally not qualified to the level of the applicant (apart from a four hour panel member course) and may require technical representatives in attendance - go figure.     

Leadership at Facebook

During a contemporary management class, we were asked, what leadership style do you think would be most suitable for Facebook at this particular point in time?

   

When discussing leadership at Facebook; I tend to mostly consider founder Mark Zuckerburg as although there are four other founders, they are not currently involved in the enterprise. This would immediately indicate a high task structure and a low relationship orientation, throwing in a number of high profile (and extremely expensive) lawsuits into the mix to confirm the lack of relationship bias.

Zuckerburg, at a young age was a visionary leader providing drive and enthusiasm to a start-up organisation. Without such drive, Facebook could have easily been a great idea that ultimately failed. As Zuckerburg was a computer programmer studying at Harvard University, one would imagine he held a high level of technical skills; however, his technical capabilities would not be enough to sustain momentum to grow the organisation.

Other internet social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster pre-dated Facebook; however, these businesses were nowhere near as successful as Facebook – I believe this was a leadership issue. It would not appear that Zuckerburg was an autocratic leader as he successfully recruited Sean Parker as initial president and such a leader would not dilute their own position power, nor would it appear he was a laissez-faire leader as a great deal of direction was needed to launch such a successful enterprise.

It would be hard to believe a start-up internet business was successfully launched with a bureaucratic leadership style with rigid rules and procedures. Further supporting the recruitment of Parker, a democratic leadership style is the most likely classical management view in the growth phase of the enterprise.

Now Facebook has been listed as a public company, the organisation faces different competitive pressures. Facebook already has the dominant position in regards to market positioning, advertising revenues and social acceptance. However, as a publically listed corporation must report to the market showing revenue growth, this would likely be through advertising growth to drive share price growth.

This may be difficult as it is assumed that Facebook held a 95% market share in the United States and can now only contract in the future. Rivals such as Gree (Japanese), Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Twitter and collaborative sites such as Wikipedia & Wikispaces are making inroads into the social media segment. Due to the public nature of the business, it now has institutional style investors who seek a return on their investment.

A change leadership style from a start-up to a mature company is now required – the need to secure long term growth may require a somewhat more bureaucratic approach without impeding further innovation and future growth. The initial public offering is viewed as a failure, more so regarding the fines of banker, Morgan Stanley.

Breaking the major classical leadership styles further down into a contingency approach; the path-goal theory will benefit the organisation with a move away from the achievement orientated leadership approach to the more consultative participatory leadership approach with a concentrated emphasis on relationship orientation.   

Tioman Island - an Easter trip

Coming from Perth, trips to South East Asia is an obvious choice for people seeking short holidays of one to two weeks. Likewise, people who live in the many Asian countries of the region have so many amazing choices in close proximity, all within a couple of hours flight. Malaysia is a very interesting country, from the peninsular, Borneo and the various islands between the two major land mass.

A favourite of mine is Tioman Island on the southern east coast of the peninsular, Tioman is a small island accessed by either ferry or a short flight from KL or Singapore. My last trip to Tioman started with a flight to Singapore, a bus trip up the east coast to Mersing and a ferry ride across to the island.

The last trip saw us stay at Ayer Batang, a small village on the west coast of the island towards the north. The advantage of the west coast is the sunsets, like many Asian sunsets, Tioman, like much of South East Asia is amazing in the late afternoon. Frequented by Singaporeans on diving holidays, local Malaysians from KL and backpackers.

I was unable to dive on one Easter trip as every dive shop was bursting with activity and I was unwilling to part with hard earned cash for crowded dive sites. My first dive trip to Palau Tioman was mid 90s staying at the Berjaya Resort and making a number of dives at Palau Renggis, Palau Chebeh and Tiger Reef amongst other sites. I was disappointed to miss my chance diving and I hope to return to Palau Tioman in the future for more dives.  

The carbon tax repeal blocked

"There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead." 

These are the words of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, well, we got a carbon tax nobody but the Greens wanted after Julia Gillard allowed three independents and one Greens MP to form a minority government in 2010. Most would strongly argue Labor policy was dictated by a single Greens MP in the House of Representatives and passed unabated through the Greens controlled Senate.

When Kevin Rudd was reinstated as Prime Minister, he announced the Labor government will scrap the carbon tax and install an emissions trading scheme in its place. I now have to ask why former Rudd/Gillard/Rudd minister and current opposition leader Bill Shorten is now blocking the carbon tax repeal in the Senate?

Has Shorten the kingmaker suddenly had another change of mind? First he supported Kevin Rudd, then Julia Gillard, blocked Rudd's multiple return attempts before deciding just before a leadership spill to change his support to Rudd ensuring Gillard was defeated as Prime Minister.

When Shorten was a minister in the Rudd government, lets also keep in mind that he was the lynch-pin in the 2012 downfall of Gillard and reinstatement of Rudd. He was also was a key policy advocate in the failures of the Labor government that supported the carbon tax. 

Rudd always made policy on the run, the NBN plans were scribbled on a napkin, the disastrous pink batts scheme was costed over a long weekend and the idea to move the Royal Australian Navy from Sydney to Brisbane to shore up his personal vote never gained traction in the now lethargic community tired of big public statements and lack of action. 

Why then does Bill Shorten, who supported the dismantling of the carbon tax in 2012 now block its repeal in 2013?