Inspiration to learn about yourself

In this Credit Suisse emagazine article by Javier Santoso, Director and Chief Economist of the OECD Development Centre , I read this: "OECD countries, which five decades ago accounted for 75 percent of world GDP, today account for less than 55 percent. The US stock market accounts for 35 percent, and falling, of world market capitalization, compared to 50 percent just 10 years ago."

About half way through this interesting posting by Guy Kawasaki, I read about and watched photos of Dhobi Ghat, an outdoor laundry in Mumbai, India . On Wikipedia , I read this about a dhobi: “A dhobi is a washerman in Pakistan and India.” “Dhobis usually operate from door to door collecting dirty linen from households. After a day or two, they return the linen washed, sometimes starched and ironed. Dhobis were the forerunners on the Indian subcontinent to modern professional dry cleaners. Since the dhobi charges are much lower than dry cleaners, they are popular with most households.”

To all of you living in places where Autumn is coming up, I wish you a good start on the season. Enjoy the music and photos in this 3½ minute video.

Get some good tips in this 3 minute video about searching more efficiently for information on the Internet. I became aware of the video through this posting from Mandy Schiefner. Web Search Strategies in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo .

For £35 annually, you can become a member of MyFootballClub that owns Ebbsfleet United . The team plays in the Blue Square Premier, four divisions below the Premiership. Home of the football club is in Kent, England . As a member of MyFootballClub, you have the possibility to participate in making a number of decisions, I read on the club's website. For example, MyFootballClub members have a say in team selection before every match. They can back the coaching staff's judgement, or choose to pick the team and formation themselves. Members also get to vote on other decisions such as the setting of the weekly playing budget, season ticket prices, and the approving of sponsors. MyFootballClub members communicate on the club's internet forums, which have several thousand forum posts from members each month.

Together with many thousand other runners, I participated at Greifenseelauf on Saturday, September 20th. Start and finish were in Uster, Switzerland . I came across some good pictures of the well organized event on this Innovation Wings posting . Main sponsors of Greifenseelauf were COOP , UBS , and adidas . Number of participants at Greifenseelauf since 1980. Click to enlarge. Statistics source: www.greifenseelauf.ch

In this Education Innovation posting , the assembly lines of GM and Toyota are compared. The following is written about the Toyota assembly line: "The Toyota assembly line was drastically different. Employees were regarded as members of a team, and each team member was considered as an important contributor and given a high level of autonomy. What happened if an employee stopped the line? A pleasant “ding-dong” would sound and teams would carefully study what was going on, in an effort to continually improve the process. Line workers were constantly encouraged to make suggestions ." To what degree are employees at the company, you work for, encouraged to make suggestions, for example using a blog?

On InnovationsTools , I came across an interesting article by Paul Sloane. For example, I noticed this part: "How can you harness the energy of your mavericks? How can you turn negative energy into positive? The answer is to throw down a challenge. Rebels can be very critical so turn the situation around and ask them how they would do things better. Don’t get into an argument with them. Take their ideas on board . Praise them for good proposals. Encourage them to find new and better ways to do things. Thank them for their criticisms but insist that they make positive suggestions too." Regarding the term maverick , I read the following definition on Wikipedia: "A maverick is a person who shows independence of thought or action; a non-conformist or rebel. The word is from Samuel August Maverick, a Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle."

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2008, which is illustrated below, is a graphic representation of the maturity, adoption and business application of specific technologies. The hype cycle also shows how and when technologies move beyond the hype, offer practical benefits and become widely accepted. In this Gartner press release , I read that Web 2.0 will emerge within two years to have transformational impact, as companies steadily gain more experience and success with both the technologies and the cultural implications. Note, for example, how far corporate blogging is. You can listen to a 12½ minute discussion on the topic between Gartner analysts Jeff Comport and Jackie Fenn by clicking here .

In this BILANZ article , I saw this chart illustrating that the sale of 3D TV's will increase considerably over the next years.

One of the many things I like about Switzerland is the chocolate the Swiss make. On the question why there is a trend towards more dark chocolate, Mr. Patrick De Maeseneire, CEO of Barry Callebaut , said the following in this intersting Handelszeitung interview : ”Am meisten wird immer noch Milchschokolade konsumiert, aber der Trend zu schwarzer Schokolade ist weltweit festzustellen und hält immer noch an. Die Konsumenten achten mehr auf die Gesundheit . Dunkle Schokolade hat weniger Zucker, keine Milch und mehr Kakao. Die Leute werden älter, der Geschmacksinn nimmt ab und deshalb bevorzugen sie mehr dunkle Schokolade, weil diese einen stärker ausgeprägten Geschmack hat.” Photo source

On the slideshare blog, I came across this interesting posting featuring 5 presentation lessons to learn from Forrest Gump: 1. Understand that presentations are like a box of chocolates Prepare for your presentation. You never know what you are going to get, what's going to happen. 2. Run, Forrest! Run Move around in the room. 93% of human communication is nonverbal. 3. Repetition is the Fruit of the Sea Repeat key aspects of the presentation to help the audience remember what you say. 4. Become a Presentation General Your presentation is your opportunity to educate and motivate. Take that opportunity. 5. Know What Passion is Your IQ and knowledge of the material is critical, but your tone and passion for your subject is what your audience will remember. Try reflecting on the 5 inputs while listening for 2½ minutes to the theme from the movie Forrest Gump.

To have a look at and listen to the fascinating way Montblanc presents its Collection Villeret 1858, click here . I came across this through this flashgordon.ch posting .

Comparing quality content in blogs to brilliant diamonds, I read about the 4 C's of quality content in this copyblogger posting . 1. Clarity Make it totally clear what you want to say. 2. Cut Clean up in words that are not directly relevant to your topic. 3. Color Tell a great story. 4. Carats Make sure your posting adds real value to your readers.

Did you ever come across the expression “I’m too old to learn that” ? In this posting , I saw the drawing below challenging that way of thinking:

In this interesting 4 minute speech by Ms. Carly Fiorina, I noticed, not least, that change has to have enough energy and force to overcome people’s fear and the power of status quo. Do you find the topic interesting? If yes, have a look at this presentation featuring 5 reasons why people resist change.