Wednesday 23 January 2013

My comments re @NYTimes In Davos, a Chance to Rub Shoulders With the Elite of Business and Politics - NYTimes.com

In Davos, a Chance to Rub Shoulders With the Elite of Business and Politics - NYTimes.com:



that is if you are "invited" and can afford the six figures sum cost plus travel and accommodations etc.

real cost was eloquently reported by Andrew Ross Sorkin "A Hefty Price for Entry to Davos http://nyti.ms/13ZkXx3 "

& of course Andrew's latest piece on " Prophesies Made in Davos Don't Always Come True  http://nyti.ms/10kdrYS "

seems to be WeF is doing great stuff but for their own target audience but it is a brilliant and super efficient marketing machine, lets hope it is used to making measurable and sustainable impact ... we live in hope.

Don't forget, a lot of these top business leaders that go to WeF now are as reported out of touch and not easily emphasise with "not so well off" (must read: by Paul Piff: The Money-Empathy Gap http://nymag.com/news/features/money-brain-2012-7/ )

IMHO, I think we need a trusted network of pre-qualified business leaders of mid-market plus firms and focus on key deliverable rather than PR sound bites.. make sense !??

BR
@GarethWong

http://GW.CXOVIP.org

Monday 21 January 2013

My Comments re "active monitor" vs "auditing", Time for a new era - Real Deals

Time for a new era - Real Deals:


Totally Jon
but of course failure of bad business, rather than good business right??
as the freed up resources could hopefully be better used by good, sustainable firms with good future.
Key challenge is abundance of bad information or lack of good information/data that arrive in the timely manner...
It always baffles me why even big firms would have months if not years saying they are doing great with turnover hundreds of millions but then suddenly would say they needed more Cash desperately that week!?? Surely Cash management is key!!!??? maybe it is time to think of something that is "beyond auditing" but "actively monitoring"... we should be able to find out the firms in dire trouble and make Jon's dream come true!!! They can't hide by playing with various domicile/accounting standards or transfer pricing etc.
BR

Friday 18 January 2013

my comments and slight disagreement to this New market watchdog head lacks experience - lawmakers | Reuters

New market watchdog head lacks experience - lawmakers | Reuters:


I would suggest the title of this article to be changed..

maybe John is comparatively inexperienced but who has a lot of financial regulatory credentials?? and given the failure of credit crunch and lack of solution nor recognition/real identification of faults; surely new eyes are much better!?? 

(my short blog in June2012: Must listen, particular interesting insights from John Griffith-Jones Chair of KPMG, &+ my comments, re BBC - Global Business, Called To Account program http://bit.ly/XjCVDV )

and of course Martin Wheatley used to be CEO of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission .. other than NYC, HKG could probably be the best training ground for London!??

please take that into consideration.

Challenge we have is that NO one country can legislate and regulate the world, even if UK regulate the best market, but if it is considered as too stringent or unreasonable (from the being regulated institutions point of view) it will still be ineffective... it is not easy!! glad it is not our job!!


BR
@GarethWong

http://GW.CXOVIP.org 

Thursday 10 January 2013

my honest feedback & thanks to this post: Plus-One This: Proof That Google Plus Will Prevail | Fast Company

Plus-One This: Proof That Google Plus Will Prevail | Fast Company: "G+"


hmm.. thanks to your post Dave, I am willing finally to try out google plus (despite I am a long term google/gmail supporter, not happy with how they strong armed me so I lost my legacy price plan but that is another story; thanks to nice lady, got 1yr courtesy plan though but would prefer back to my legacy plan!) 

I have turned G+ on now but last I checked, it does not provide much privacy control, very much like twitter (which still does not do it well, nor improved since I last blogged about it back in 2009, Protected tweet or not? http://bit.ly/11jfyBc

Reason why I waited a whole year before I used Twitter was due to short term VC/startup market, and rightly so ruthless nature of google cutting Buzz and Wave reconfirm to me that given all the startup and new technologies available, I adopt same strategy: 

1) by all means signup 
2) try it as & when; no hurry, for me I would wait a year or so
3) fingers crossed the investment of time & effort will bring at least equal benefit

Well, it is great that you put your reputation on this; and lets think ahead till end of the year, What is your address? just in case.

I see that you are not active on twitter; could that be reason why you are putting all your eggs, reputation and face for a few pies on google plus?  curious :)

@GarethWong 

Sunday 6 January 2013

My comments & only 1 question need answered b4 hand. re @NYtimes "can social media sell soap"


@NYTimes "Can social media sell soap"?

Only one question need to be asked: Key is how much money is being "transacted" for products or services... Not how much money been spent on "likely eyeballs/click through" that might bring some businesses....

Is it not madness that not much media /research is being done on how much money is actually spent online or via social media? (pls point out if you know of any!) Only thing is being reported worldwide is Internet or mobile penetrations... Which sadly as mentioned by this very article in fact very difficult to find what actually matters... For any new phenomenons.. And pls don't get me started re market capitalisation as it's only sentiments and sadly is easily manipulated and bear no relation whatsoever with viability nor soundness of business model of the listed firms!

It still baffles me that as B2B and B2C customers, onus is still on us to
1) know what we want/need
2) search for solution/products
3) look through all options or take easy way out & view sponsored providers
4) despite earning millions, likes of Google still let us do due diligence & take "buyers beware" stance and sadly quite a few got short changed by unscrupulous providers..
5) some. Igt argue that the web is still wide west and understandably & rightly so that most still are cautious and do not transact online!

(on the side, despite being early adopters of Gmail from invite only days and one of few that started paying to support them, they unilaterally changed my plan to new expensive options & their decision is final, just shows how much we can trust them??!!)

Social media is ofcourse worst as T&Cs get changed without consultations (and who are each person really when they can hide behind aliases, I'm not against aliases and for protection of privacy but no kyc is done on people's. Identity!) and just think back to compuserve and even usenet/fidonet days.. No trust mean no loyalty and of course no transaction, period!  Therefore it can't even sell a piece of toilet paper.. It does other things well though but I'm still learning and keen to hear other people's views.

@GarethWong (real name)

Saturday 5 January 2013

Erm, no! & my predictions...(death of @Facebook in 5yrs) At 30 years old, the internet is inescapable - Telegraph

At 30 years old, the internet is inescapable - Telegraph:

Erm; yes internet is very pervasive .. getting there but sadly still not secure nor pervasive enough

Internet will really take off when there is one system or company/entity that we can trust with our utmost secrets/confidential and that information collected is distributed for our benefit ONLY (rather than them focusing how to sell our info for a fee or kickbacks; let's face it, who can we trust REALLY in 2013!? firms that will exit or change hands in 3/5yrs!?) 

acid test: when majority of joe blogg 8 to 80 years old would use different devices to do what they need in a trusted manner (not only on media consumptions or buyers beware environment)

Internet, in fact any technology is not be all and end all.. sadly we have less people or companies "making things" now and everyone trying to get into finance or internet and "making deals"... real on and offline business opportunities at present are sadly overlooked ...

as I bet end of last year (on reputation, rather than money though!) facebook will not exist in its present form in 5years (if that) and we will not miss it a bit as it never is a "real business" .. just like we do not miss "Fidonet" nor "usenet/newsgroups" nor even "compuserve" community after they became not popular..

IMHO, 
1) end to end trust and security and 
2) "Reverse of search" (yup: antithesis of google)  are the future, sadly limited of firms are in that space!!

BR
@GarethWong