any Acid tests? Davies report on Women on boards, Feb 2011 (pdf)

Great summary below from 30% club:

Fact of the matter is, if boards are aware of the material impact on the bottom line having women on the board.. then surely the competitive pressure and opportunity cost would mean they would also want to appoint women!??

of course if there is also a good pool of talent around! or am I missing something!?

"We welcome the recommendations contained in the Davies Report, published in February 2011, which calls strongly for concerted voluntary action by UK companies to redress the gender imbalance of UK boards.

The report requires that all Chairmen of FTSE 350 companies set out the percentage of women they aim to have on their boards in 2013 and 2015. FTSE 100 boards should aim for a minimum of 25% female representation by 2015.

Furthermore, all CEOs are required to review the percentage of women they aim to have on their executive committees in 2013 and 2015.

The deadline for announcing these goals is September 2011."

'via Blog this'

Amazon Kindle Fire’s Silk browser sounds privacy alarm bells | Naked Security

Amazon Kindle Fire’s Silk browser sounds privacy alarm bells | Naked Security:

food for thought indeed.

"It sounds as if Amazon will install a trusted certificate in the Silk browser allowing them to provide a man-in-the-middle (MITM) SSL proxy to accelerate your SSL browsing as well.

As Amazon is a US based company this would enable a US court order to intercept and record your secure communications.

Fortunately Amazon will support an "off-cloud" mode for Silk. This lets users opt-out of the benefits of using EC2 while retaining the traditional privacy benefits of connecting directly to remote web sites.

While most of us roll our eyes when confronted with long privacy policies and pages of legalese, privacy risks lurk around every corner. If you buy a Fire device, think carefully as to whether your privacy is worth trading for a few milliseconds faster web surfing experience.

"

'via Blog this'

I would like to argue its 1) Vision, 2) balls & then 3) courage! CEOs Need Courage - Jeffrey Pfeffer - Harvard Business Review

CEOs Need Courage - Jeffrey Pfeffer - Harvard Business Review:

I would like to argue CEOs would need:

1) right Vision first,

2) then balls to make it happen

3) & then courage to stick to it as this article mentioned!

"One might think that in a world of soaring CEO salaries, the high pay would have produced innovative and courageous leaders who both know and do the right thing for the long-term well-being of their enterprises. But that's not what goes on. For the most part, CEOs hire outside experts to help them benchmark — as though you could benchmark your way to the top. And they pay way too much attention to business pundits and analysts who are great at commenting on what has gone on but poor prognosticators of the future (if I had a dollar for every person who has written Apple off in the past as being irrelevant in the market, I could retire).

"

'via Blog this'

How to kickstart your co-creation platform - 20 examples

How to kickstart your co-creation platform - 20 examples:

very interesting!

How to kickstart your co-creation platform - 20 examples

View more presentations from Board of Innovation (BOI)

Pew Finds Many Children Fall Out of the Middle Class as Adults - The Pew Charitable Trusts

Pew Finds Many Children Fall Out of the Middle Class as Adults - The Pew Charitable Trusts:

"Those who are divorced, widowed or separated are more likely to fall down the economic ladder than those who are married.

If men and women raised in a middle-class home obtain education after high school, they are less likely to be downwardly mobile.
"

very interesting read.

suggest you check out the full report pdf.

'via Blog this'

catastrophe insurance vertical hit (naturally) UPDATE 1-Australia's QBE cuts insurance margin fcast, shares hit | Reuters

UPDATE 1-Australia's QBE cuts insurance margin fcast, shares hit | Reuters:

plus other verticals within insurance/re-insurance being hit, it is surprising that not much visible efforts been done to look for 'new markets'... it is surely a bit strange!? ;-)

"Large catastrophe claims for the financial year to date came from storms and a cyclone in Australia's Queensland state, storms in the state of Victoria, other storms in Australia, New Zealand's Christchurch earthquake, the Japan earthquake and eight major tornadoes in the United States.

QBE is not alone. Global insurers including Travelers Cos (TRV.N), Allstate Corp (ALL.N) and MetLife (MET.N) have also warned of difficulties following an unprecedented start to the year for the industry. [ID:nN10172421].

"

'via Blog this'

UK commuters complaining!? look at how crammed Photos of the Day: Aug. 30 - Photo Journal - WSJ

Photos of the Day: Aug. 30 - Photo Journal - WSJ:

My comments re: THE APPLE INVESTOR: The Changing Of The Guard. What's Next?

my comments to the post above.

Acid test would be the next 3-5yrs..

gut feel is that no one (Tim included )cannot replace Steve.

Tim can sail for 1-2yrs max on tailwind of what Steve's put in place, remember, running a ship is very different from pioneering it to uncharted territories and managing (in some case squeezing/coercing) partner boats along the way by sharing the pioneer's vision AND Faith of where the destination is...

Industry dynamics dictates that it would also depends on whether the PC & mobile industries can get their act together AND collaborate and take down the beast of Apple (in some of their eyes, but for some Church of Apple) whilst during the transition..

One thing is for sure, it would be interesting to watch, hope Tim can still be the captain in 3 years time, good luck & god bless to both Steve & Tim indeed..

A still not yet Apple user (I did buy the at the time top of range 40G iPod, used few times as backup HD whilst travelling)..

@GarethWong

Future of gaming & media (converged entertainment) & social network (Facebook): @Guardian ITV signs gaming deals for Simon Cowell's Red or Black?

This is a very significant piece of news for the converging entertainment sector (media+gaming) for multiple reasons. Because if the show is a success, it will provide:

1.) Strategic incremental source of income:

Media & rights owners are all looking for sustainable incremental revenue in addition to creating & selling new AAA formats (given the state of media fragmentation & decreasing of traditional advertising revenue)

2.) opportunities to find /define the right business model(s) for the converged gaming entertainment category

(media sector has been looking for hits like "Deal or No Deal" for years.. what they need is something more fundamental, like a 'black box' that can be added to program to easily monetise and bring value= that can easily be replicated across international markets in terms of interactive engagement & business model.) Do note that even Facebook is now accepting gaming dollars this week!

3.) a bridge to bring "trust & confidence" between media & format owners AND the gaming gambling sector.

[i.e. Simon Cowell's Syco (production co.) and ITV Studios were looking to have partnership with Camelot (UK national lottery) but since that discussion broken down, they settled with Gamesys (who has long experiences of partnering with published newspaper and media brands already...]

ITV has its unique challenges... since the closure of ITV Play due to PRS (premium rate services) scandal (despite it earned reportedly £26m within six months of launch, on Guardian 5Mar07!), and after a then new chairman Michael Grade come & gone (with Adam Crozier in power, but despite"ITV turns the corner but still needs direction for the future (1Aug10)". ) Therefore, ITV is desperate to find the 'next big thing' in supplementing cash flow without jeopardising their brand/trust with consumers.

Given the above piece of news, no doubt the whole media & entertainment sector worldwide is watching with eagle eyes to see "Red & Black"'s launch & results with muted excitement (no doubt secretly hoping it will be successful, but not that successful.)

Acid test that Red & Black will prove itself in terms of combination of:

A.) ratings & big draw of audience AND interactive participations..

B.) technically resilient (as no doubt it will need to scale up)

C.) the revenue model and expectations of not only viewers (participants) are managed & met

D.) being done responsibly given the previous history of PRS...

E.) given early success of A-D, we will see a lot of copy cats from other production companies (maybe via other formats) or indeed coming out of brands and might even host the games on their corporate B2C website (note the news above or on excerpt below that it will not be on the ITV.com website as yet! arms length still)

F.) as & when likes of Virgin Games (existed since 2006) ramp up, the basis of competitions for the hearts & mind of the consumers will be very much different indeed (or indeed from other trusted brands in the local market, how about "Saks fifth avenue's Black & White weekend" or "BBC coin flips for charity"...

We might not need to wait too long to find out!! let the Big Boy's games begin!

===

"ITV strikes deal with gambling company Gamesys and social TV firm Monterosa for paid-for and free games based on show"

"ITV has signed deals with two companies to produce a range of free and paid-for games based on Simon Cowell's new big-budget primetime show Red or Black?.

The show, which will be fronted by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, gives contestants the chance to win £1m on the spin of a wheel.

ITV has signed a deal with online gambling company Gamesys to produce a series of four pay-to-play games based on the branding of the gameshow.

The games – called Red or Black Slots, Red or Black Instant, Red or Black Hi Lo and Red or Black Stacks – will be available at www.jackpotjoy.com.

The games will be promoted with a TV ad campaign and will cost from 5p to 50p to play. They will not be made available through ITV.com." Please do refer to full story above link or here.

Convergence of On&offline, the only real opportunity! Google agrees to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion - latimes.com

Google agrees to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion - latimes.com

forget about the valuations etc.

key is future cash flow and how to protect it..

only way is to create/buy and protect IP .. more offline business (manufacturing, distribution/brands) the better.. yes, sometimes (short-term) it does not make sense from valuation and shareprice point of view.. but hey, it make perfect sense now to 'change the game'..

this is a brilliant start, and hopefully others will follow..

Now the next challenge is how best to do the post merger integration AND re-invent oneself... golden standard would be how to beat apple at its game..

Google may have a chance here .. but as offline tech.people might be able to remind google the buyer, MOT might not have been best in creating user friendly solution (despite technically very competent and one of the market's best!)..

It will prove to be interesting indeed. I for one want more choice vs. IOS/iPhone/iPad..

@GarethWong