American business ideals

What I like about the American psyche is their ability to engage in business enterprise with their entrepreneurial spirit. The United States now has a service based economy; you exclaim, that's not exactly true, unfortunately the majority of their manufacturing base has been transferred overseas. 

Design is still undertaken onshore, technology and innovation still rank highly. Manufacturing in the US is pretty much redundant these days, but not entirely; so much technology and capability has been exported overseas increasing the decline.

Americans are traditionally very strong at marketing and sales, this once again harps back to retail and services, the United States is very much a consumer driven economy. Financial services has been the growth industry, this has however been their undoing in many respects, this was the downfall.

The purpose of finance is to raise capital to fund business activities, by sending manufacturing and the respective technology offshore, economic capability is inadvertently lost. Are we witnessing the decline of the United States as a manufacturing and economic powerhouse?

The KFC fake chicken hoax

I don't recall the first time I saw the KFC fake chicken hoax appear on social media, I guess it was about seven or eight years ago and I see this is still doing the rounds. I can't say I'm a fan of KFC, what I don't like is people pushing fake rumours that hurt not only KFC but also their suppliers and employees.

In Australia at least, KFC is supplied by both Steggles and Ingham, I am also informed Turi Foods also supplies chickens as well but I know less about this company. As Australians know, you purchase both Steggles and Ingham from the supermarket so one could argue you are getting the same chickens as the supermarkets.

I didn't know too much about Turi Foods so checking out their website I see they make a commitment to no steroids or hormones and also pledge to monitor suppliers for GM free products in their cereals and grains fed to the birds. Their chicken food includes wheat, barley, oats, sorghum and soy protein so one would believe the birds are reasonably fed and not the beakless and featherless mutants force fed nutrients via tubes the internet sharing community would have us believe.

They did get in trouble from the ACCC, that's the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission as their suppliers claimed they were offering free range chickens to KFC where chickens are free to roam. The chickens were free to roam within the confines of a large air-conditioned barn with access to clean water and food but fell short of the definition required.

We all know Kentucky Fried Chicken changed their name to the abbreviated KFC, we all thought it was in response to health concerns with deep fried foods. This may be true but is also related to a strategic move to change their menu to offer more than purely chicken. Clearly they wanted to remove the term fried from their name, that is understandable and while I can't say I'm a fan of their product, I can see why they want to expand and differentiate their product in a tight market.

Boracay set to reopen after six months closed

I have been a little critical of the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte over his style of governing, death squads, locking up of political critics and general demeanor.

I understand he is popular with the largely uneducated citizens hoping his tough talk and promises will pull them out of poverty - you can't blame people for seeking a better life. However, I have to agree with him on the state of Boracay, the raw sewage pumped out to the nearby Bulabog Beach is just sickening.

Authorities have also dug up illegal underground raw sewage pipes pumping out effluent to their famous White Beach - it's disgusting. So with Boracay set to reopen on the 26th of this month, one can only hope the notoriously corrupt government officials have been able to sort themselves out.

They need to stop the large resorts discharging human waste straight onto the beach where people swim, dive and relax. Let's hope they have pulled their heads in and put the environment, people's health and the sustainability of the island above their short-term profits - if not, they should be shut down for good.   

The bloomberg terminal

Working as a Wall Street trader, Michael Bloomberg was successful in his own right as a general partner heading up equity trading at investment bank Salomon Brothers; a corporate buyout can be a real career killer and Bloomberg was offered a $10 million redundancy package in 1981 - not too bad at all. Using the funds from his payout, he took his intimate knowledge of Wall Street finance to develop a terminal system with features and screens dedicated purely to finance.

The terminal is not cheap, professional stockbrokers and investment firms have the revenue to justify such expenditures, all but the most successful investors have to seek other options placing independent investors at a disadvantage. The exorbitant price is not purely for the hardware, the terminal is loaded with real time information for traders to make buy/sell decisions in a multitude of markets for a multitude of products. Supporting the Bloomberg terminal, the Bloomberg finance is channel shown on cable television is an informative program designed for the finance professional but equally informative for novice investors.

A meth whore

I am recounting a story told to me by an acquaintance from the high school we both attended, I had spent some time with her post high school. As she was a couple of years younger than me at high school; I can't ever recall knowing her at school but apparently she knew of me. I was pretty much biding my time at high school and wasn't interested in the social aspects of the education system and I met her a number of years after leaving school.

We went to a pretty low grade high school, we lived in an area that would be considered low socio-economic, in other words, we were poor. She left school early, never had a job, her boyfriend hadn't worked either and they had their second child before age twenty one, they had both spent their entire post high school on welfare. She was on a sole parent benefit and he was on unemployment benefits although he was also part time in the army reserve. The army reserve hadn't hardened him up, he was like a big kid and he would burst into tears like a five year old.

Despite their economic situation, they were lousy parents and I would be loathe to blame their parenting skills on their financial status, we all know rich families can also have poor parents. Unfortunately, this is pretty indicative of of the area I grew up in and hence the reason why I moved away as soon as I completed my apprenticeship. There was plenty of social issues in this area, they were not the only ones with issues but their issues were remarkable for their depravity.

That being said, I had spent some time with her and it was clear she was a poor parent as her former boyfriend would come around to fight on pretty much a daily basis. The mother of the boyfriend would also come around and they would have a punch-up on the kerb outside her house. There would be screaming, swearing, pulling hair and punches thrown, the mother of the boyfriend used gutter language pretty much all the time. The mother of the boyfriend was a nasty woman, it is no coincidence that he was a loser.

He went to the same high school as well but I never knew of him either, but once again he knew of me. Apparently he had been picked on at high school, although it was not unlikely he was bullied, he wasn't smart, acted like a fool and he was soft. He had hooked up with her and all they did was fight, she had lost custody of her oldest child as she was charged with child abuse after breaking his arm during a fight with her boyfriend.

The daughter was the one I knew, she was a fantastic child and had so much potential but unfortunately her family circumstances would ultimately be her downfall. Her brother introduced her to drugs and she immediately became addicted on crystal meth, her life spiraled downward after that. She was selling her family goods such as furniture to fund her habit and was kicked out of home. She had a child and I recall seeing her at a shopping centre pushing her young child around in a stroller, she had a nice lookng kid.

She was not communicating with her mother at this time and they were in a legal fight for her grandmother to take custody of the young child. The child was in and out of foster care as her mother was homeless, drug addicted and selling herself for drug money. Is the grandmother the best option? Well, my experiences dealing with her were less than positive, she had lost custody of the first child after she was charged with child abuse, the second child, her daughter was left in her care but she was obliged to receive weekly visits from the department of child protection to check on her parenting.

The third child was left with potential brain damage after a breathing issue required hospitalisation, instead of calling an ambulance. She called her boyfriend and they stopped on the way to have a fight on the side of the road delaying important emergency care. So she had lost custody of two of the three children and probably should have lost custody of the girl. Her family life was a shambles although I had lost contact with them at this time.

When Facebook took off, the mother sent me a friend request and I accepted. She had used a different surname than I knew her as and used her daughter's profile picture. At this time I was working part time in a dive centre and receiving daily friend requests from customers and staff of the dive centre so thought this was a dive shop request. I didn't delete her immediately as I had a fascination with this family, this is a sad story that I am a little embarrassed to want to follow.

I knew her parents kind of briefly, she was a troubled teenager and this followed through to to early 20s before I lost contact with her. She was well known to the local police and had made numerous reports to the police making outrageous claims against a number of people. She had been in counselling for pretty much all of her adult life but this hasn't helped her or her daughter.

The family cycle continues, it started with her parents and step parents, she was the worst of the worst and now her daughter is proudly selling her sexual services to support her drug habit whilst a custody battle rages for her daughter. I just hope the daughter breaks the cycle that this family has brought upon itself.

A regional World Skills competition

World Skills is a pretty big trade-based competition, this allows apprentices to apply their diagnostic abilities in a skills based competition. The World Skills organisation operates at an international level with competitors participating at a regional competition to qualify for national selection with national winners heading to the international competition.

One of our apprentices who did very well in the last regional competition and headed off to the national competition acquitted himself well picking up a third place. His employer was pretty impressed gifting him a $10,000 toolbox and a significant pay rise - great news.

There are plenty of reasons to compete at World Skills, this is a learning experience, a great skill to add to the resume under achievements and there is the stress of competition and learning to perform under pressure.

Now a second apprentice from from his company has qualified earning himself similar financial benefits and credibility. I am glad I am part of the World Skills competition as a judge and I really love seeing our apprentices succeed.

The 2016 Leeuwin Estate Siblings Sauvignon Blanc Semillon

I had a taste of this Sauvignon Blanc Semillon on the last week of winter, but for me a SBS is a summer wine and I still had the heater on. Ok, spring was on it's way but it just didn't feel right - still way too cold for me.

The Siblings SBS is a blend of 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Semillon that is pale straw in colour with a faint green tinge. The tasting notes told me this SBS had notes of tropical fruits, nectarines, grapefruit and citrus with herbaceous grassy characters.

To be honest, I struggled to identify some these flavours and found this SBS a little non-descript on this particular evening, this is maybe due to my pre-conceived notions of what determines summer wine.

I can say I pretty much hate winter, I am always looking forward to summer taking the bulk of my overseas trips during the winter months. In the future, I am hoping to engage in overseas travel and live the endless summer in my retirement.

I look forward to spending half the year in the northern hemisphere during the Australian winter before returning home for the summer months.

Now that we are officially in spring and the weather is improving, I look forward to revisiting this SBS on a hot Sunday afternoon as I enjoy a refreshing white wine in the warmer months.

The Gillette razor/razor blade business model

As a former business student, I have an ongoing interest in business models and their accompanying marketing strategies. The Gillette razor/razor blade model is an interesting concept; needless to say, the money is in the blades and not the razor.

The Gillette razor/razor blade model revolves around a loss leader with the razor being sold at a loss with the razor blades sold at a substantial profit. The loss leader razor is complemented with a razor blade requiring repeated purchases. Naturally, the razor/razor blade combination is unique ensuring that you have to purchase razor blades from a specific manufacturer, in this case Gillette.

The psychological factor at play is the perceived bargain of purchasing a razor that is considered to be better value than competitor's products. This is especially true when the consumer is now locked into a product with the razor purchase. Instead of creating a one-off sale, a continuous revenue stream is generated by the consumer needing to not only make repeated purchases who purchases less out of product loyalty and more from force of habit.

The model was further refined with the printer/printer cartridge offered by computer hardware manufacturers. This can be circumnavigated by third party firms offering refillable cartridges at significant discounts, although with printed circuits added to cartridges, this became less cost effective. The Nespresso coffee machine/capsule model is another example, slick advertising with George Clooney endorsing Nespresso is critical to success, the coffee is decent, easy to make and easy to clean up.

This business/consumer model also encompasses e-commerce with digital industries adapting the model. A business like Google doesn't even offer a product as a loss leader, instead a portfolio of services and applications is offered to the consumer for no cost assembling a large audience for advertisers to target consumers. Applications are offered to consumers free of charge with opportunities to upsell premium products, ironically sometimes to escape aggressive advertising firms. This is the ultimate example of the old school bait and switch in a digital application.

So where is Google+ going?

I have been a user of Google+ for a number of years now but I am unsure how much time I need to invest in this media platform as it's future is somewhat uncertain. I read many an article stating that Google+ is finished yet the network is still running - nay the naysayers.

Barely just two weeks after the June 2011 launch of Google+; its follower base hit a staggering 10 million users - impressive. By the end of the 2011, more than 90 million users had Google+ accounts - this was a highly successful product launch. I tend to feel that most of these users are pretty much inactive; G+ holds plenty of accounts but not many are regular users. I follow a number of the photography pages and the quality of uploads is outstanding.

The social media platform has some interesting communities and the followers seem less inclined to attack each other in a way that Facebook users get really personal and trivial. When I publish a post on Blogger, that post is immediately shared on the G+ network and whilst people may disagree with my views, they are generally respectful. I enjoy publishing on G+ and I really hope this social media site continues although I have to admit I really only log onto G+ when I am using my tablet.

A morning in Glenelg

We were looking to stay in and around Adelaide but didn't want to stay around the CBD or riverbank area so another option was needed. The botanic gardens are apparently very good but Gramps wasn't in the mood for walking too far so a line was ruled through that idea.

The tram runs through the Adelaide CBD with a stop not far from our hotel on South Terrace right at the back of the CBD. We wandered over to the South Terrace stop and boarded the tram for the beachside suburb of Glenelg, the tram staff were extremely helpful helping us purchase tickets on route. The centre of Glenelg is reasonably small, by what Glenelg lacks in size it certainly makes up for with natural beauty, the beach is magnificent.

We wandered out on the pier to view the beach looking back, a tractor was out raking the sand whilst only a few people lay on the beach. The beach was great although I never took a swim in South Australian waters, I suspect they would be a little colder than I have been used to, I doubt it would be a pleasant experience. We wandered around to the marina and adjoining parks before heading back to piazza for a coffee and catching the tram back to the CBD. I probably wouldn't spend the whole day at Glenelg but a weekday morning was a pretty good experience.

The Rolex Air King

Rolex gained a well earned reputation among professionals with their robust range of tool and sports watches. Rolex as a brand was a well respected and sought after timing tool among commercial and professional users before targeting the luxury goods market when a large number of Swiss watchmakers were going broke - the brand's reputation aided the transformation.

I would choose the Air King Reference 116900 as a daily timepiece despite not being a huge fan of a number of Rolex timepieces for reasons of style - that's personal taste.

For me, the Air King is simple yet robust, the 40 mm 904L stainless steel oyster case of the modern Air King is borrowed from the Milgauss demonstrating plenty of anti-magnetic properties.

The Air King was introduced in 1945 with possibly the 5500 reference of the late 1960s as the most recognisable timepiece of the series, although at 34 mm I would expect to be a little small for my tastes.

Unlike the aviation inspired Breitling Navitimer range with a specific purpose of utilising the radial slidewheel for calculations, the dial of the Air King is simple and uncluttered. Modern commercial aircraft are computer controlled rendering such a tool redundant.

The dial of the Air King resembles a cockpit instrument aesthetically. Similar to the 5500 reference, the 3, 6 and 9 markers are Arabic with the remaining hour markers running in multiples of 5 to give the instrument look.

The italic Air King naming logo has been moved from the upper dial to the lower dial, similar to the 5500 reference, no date is displayed. The smooth angled bezel is similar to the Explorer design, I have always hated the fluted bezel design and love the smooth angled bezel.

The chronometer certified automatic 3131 movement, similar to the Milguass is fitted with the paramagnetic blue parachrom hairspring ensuring magnetic fields do not disrupt the performance of the timepiece.

The movement is COSC certified to -2/+2 precision and would via a bidirectional self-winding perpetual rotor. A screw-down crown and screw-in case back ensure 100 metres water resistance of the oyster architecture with a scratch resistant sapphire crystal.

The new Air King is closer to the Milguass with a redesigned dial than the older references of the 1950s and 1960s, I like the Milguass but always hated the lightning bolt second hand. Whilst not a true aviator's timepiece, I really like the dial of the Air King and the case of the Milgauss.

I appreciate many people really dislike the dial design. My choice of a Rolex is the Air King, I like the new Milguass with the exception of the second hand so the Air King is closer to my tastes.

Business class envy

I read that economy passengers who walk through business class to reach their seats are angry with travelling in cattle class. I am more than happy to travel in the rear of the plane, envy is not an emotion I suffer from, I prefer cheap airfares. If my company is willing to pay for business class then great, I am more than happy for them to increase their travel bill, but I don't want to empty out my bank account just to pay for premium seats.

Would entering the plane through the front door be better? Well yeah, they are clearly the better seats, they serve better food, provide more attentive service and the list goes on. Naturally, premium service comes at increased cost  - a bill I'm not willing to pay the extra charges.

For the airlines, business class provides increased revenue with higher margins and if you are willing to pay the extra costs then so be it, but don't get all envious and angry if you see what the extra charges get you. There are choices and we have the ability to select business class at time of booking - pull your head in.

Watch collecting - it's getting expensive

Prestige watch owners are a funny bunch, I read online forums on occasions when I am doing research and they seem more intent on arguing with each other over small and petty issues than enjoying robust discussion in an area where we have a mutual interest. Needless to say, I have never joined in such discussions. However, I am interested in quality timepieces after graduating from my first TAG Heuer after more than twenty years of constant service.

I like Panerai but own none, I like IWC but own none, I like Omega and own three, I like Bruguet but own none and I like TAG Heuer and own three. I can't say I'm a big fan of Rolex and don't own any, if fact, I own a Longines Conquest but I'm not that interested in the Explorer. Paradoxically, I prefer the Conquest over the Explorer and I certainly wouldn't purchase an Explorer II.

Before all the weird Rolex owners shake their heads, I am well aware the Explorer is fitted with the 3132 in-house movement whilst the Conquest is fitted with the base ETA 2824-2 automatic movement. I am comparing aesthetics and not engines in a way that an automobile is more than just a powerplant.

If I wanted an Explorer, I would own an Explorer, but I would take Panerai or a Bruguet over a Rolex without even a second thought. I generally limit myself to sub $5000 timepieces so all three of these are certainly out of my price range but I can still admire these fine examples of haute horlogerie excellence.