Mir Moiz’s Weblog
Life is meaningful, only when one wishes to make it. We are creatures of time and we’ll wither away in it. The little moments of joy we find and create are all that will live with us.Archive for Global Affairs
What could go wrong for BlackBerry now
BlackBerry is headed for a down turn…
Fortune on BlackBerry
MIR
Dubai – What to expect!
Debt seems to be the number one killer in todays economic space. It’s becoming a necessary evil that no one is certain for when it will bite!
With the US looming into similar shadows, what can be expected of all those dependent economies across the globe. The UAE is vastly dependent on the trajectory of the US economy. It visibly proved its interlinked relationship in the last financial crisis. What can now be expected with Dubai itself being so heavily debt burdened, remains to be seen.
This is what Bloomberg projects:
Dubai Debt Costs to Rise on $7.1 Billion Expo Spend: Arab Credit
In this increasingly uncertain climate one thing that can be taken as certain is that only those economies will show stability or growth that are self sustained. Those who have their debts in control and those that have been prudent not to let trade deficits take place.
In times like these it’s always the basic economic formulas that work.
Do not spend beyond your means and invest wisely.
© MIR
Super Cognition, Super Human
It seems a new turn of events is about to happen. The new era to unfold for mankind, yet again, is called ‘Cognitive Computing’.
Soon IBM, the world’s largest maker of super computers is unfolding the power of its super computers in a product that’s been dubbed ‘Watson’. A cloud based cognitive computing platform that will enable instant big data processing for high cognitive outputs for general professionals.
This basically means that in layman’s terms people will now be empowered with super computer cognition to deliver their objectives. Their thoughts and projects will be supported with super cognition borrowed from IBM computers over a cloud-based provisioning model.
A whole new world can be conceived with this potential. Good or bad, perhaps only time will tell, best.
© MIR
Why can’t we do this :-/
It beats me to see that true and original innovation is not something, perhaps, we as a nation are really capable off… If so its very rare.
Basil seeds are something I ate when I was a little toddler and my father used to propagate the great benefits of using them during summers to quell the heat.
A Thai company came up with this drink all the while Basel seeds are just pathetically cheap and easily available in Pakistan yet our brilliant people ‘none’ could think better.
This is an exceptionally original demonstration of value addition at its best… When I mentioned this to the shop keeper who was selling this for PKR 100/- per bottle, like hot cakes, he said “sir our people can only copy, not invent”.
Sad to say and experience that what I find when I meet people and exchange ideas is superb critique alone. There is no constructive thought even at the highest echelons, to propel ideas and support new initiative if that benefits and uplifts the other guy and not themselves.
We need to change this negative attitude in our people’s minds – or else progress is harder to come by even over next few decades.
© MIR
Innovators and Manipulators
If we agree to the fact that the present day challenges lay between the two scales of ‘Innovation’ and ‘Manipulation’ then it should be understood, what defines the competition between them and within each itself.
While capitalism is not about this distinction for it simply focuses on the capacity to capitalize on any given market opportunity.
The world that we face today is more so about manipulation than innovation.
The reason is simple, not everyone can innovate!
In the earliest parts of the industrial revolution some 200 years ago. Innovation feed into the engines of capitalism. Ideas where plenty and every conceivable aspect of life from living it to making it better was being innovated.
That trend continued on into the beginning of 1900. From then on the muscle of massive innovation weakened and manipulation started to manifest which twisted a few ideas and technologies to bring out something new and especially, the field of information technology feed this beast very well. It allowed for a lot of things to become convenient far more than it was ever before and so true innovation got replaced by part-innovation. From that time to the point where the IT bubble bursted and markets consolidated to find equilibrium with reality… Very many things gained stagnation and innovation became a prized possession.
This is also the time when the spotlight, on the need to innovate, increased signifying that there was a visible lack of it!
While all this brought the world from A to Z in a jiffy. It also provided, manipulators with the opportunity they were always seeking.
While innovators have always been far and few in the history of the world. There certainly has never been a shortage of manipulators, in every industry and in every field.
We now live in a time where increasingly innovation is being focused upon because, the continuation of innovation and original thinking is beginning to fall in a worrisome state for the next coming 100 years.
More people in the world does not mean more ideas and new developments. It means more of both… Innovators and Manipulators, with less of the first who are the real problem solvers.
What needs to be seen is how far will the world ride off, of this dissipating wave of past innovations, before it faces a stone wall.
After all every writer experiences a writers block.
We can’t expect more people to mean more innovation because innovation requires not cunning, but in-visioning. In many ways, that is not an education – it’s a gift.
© MIR
Elon Musk
When people view successful people, most often they consider that their success is attributed to some exceptional back or support system. That there must be someone behind them to propel the success of those who do find it and find it good.
This guy proves it wrong.
Being born in humble beginnings does prepare those with brains and vision, both. To persist and find a realization of their dreams, and for everyone of those with vision, success means and stands for different things; you just have to know, what exactly you are looking for!
I meet this guy in Zanzibar on the eve of 2012 New Year. He does not know me and I did not know him either. A chance meeting, probably even he does not remember for what I come to know of him now. We exchanged a strong handshake at the reception desk of the Kendwa Rocks Beach resort and I offered to help in the matter he faced at the desk, to which he thanked and appreciated.
A year and a half later I come to know who he was.
This is a great video to watch for those who aspire to grow as business people. Who feel their vision will one day see the light of day and who feel, critics are not the yard stick to measure our successes or failures by…
Cheers to all those of my dearest friends. Enjoy.
Vimeo Video: http://vimeo.com/38542529
© MIR
CEO Sharing Bonus. Now that is News!
Lenovo Chief Yang Shares Bonus With Workers a Second Year
Lenovo Group Ltd. (992), the biggest personal computer maker, said Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing will share at least $3 million of his bonus with workers for a second straight year after posting record sales.
About 10,000 workers will get payments this month to recognize their contributions, Gina Qiao, senior vice president of human resources, said in a memo to some workers. The memo was confirmed by spokesman Jeffrey Shafer, who said the total payment will be about $3.25 million.
Lenovo posted revenue of $34 billion and PC shipments of 52.4 million units in the 12 months ended March 31 as the company gained market share and expanded sales of smartphones and tablets. The 48-year-old Yang, who gave $3 million from his bonus a year earlier, led the company past Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) in the June quarter.
“This is quite rare, especially for a chairman of a Chinese company, to use his personal money as a bonus to reward employees,” said Kirk Yang, a managing director at Barclays Plc in Hong Kong who rates the shares overweight.
Lenovo, which has headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina, rose 0.7 percent to HK$7.55 in Hong Kong trading. The stock has climbed 7.6 percent this year while the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index has dropped 2.1 percent.
Payments will be made to Lenovo staff in 20 countries, while about 85 percent of the recipients are in China, Shafer said. Yang spends time in both the Beijing and Morrisville offices, the spokesman said last year.
Month’s Pay
“This payment is personally funded by Yuanqing,” Qiao said in the memo. “He believes that he has the responsibility as an owner of the company, and the opportunity as our leader, to ensure all of our employees understand the impact they have on building Lenovo.”
The average payment of about $325 is almost equal to a month’s pay for a typical city worker in China. The average annual wage of urban workers at private companies last year was 28,752 yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said in May. That’s equal to about $392 a month.
Yang was paid $14.6 million last year, including a bonus of $4.23 million and long-term incentive awards of $8.94 million, according to the company’s annual report. Yang holds about 744 million shares of Lenovo, or 7.1 percent of the company’s outstanding stock, as of the end of March, the report said.
Dell, HP
Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, received nearly $15.4 million in fiscal 2012 after the company posted a net loss for the year. Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Inc. (DELL), was paid $13.9 million in the year ended Feb. 1 when the company posted lower sales and earnings and its share price declined.
Lenovo had more than 35,000 employees globally at the end of March. Employees who received the bonus from Yang were mostly those in manufacturing paid on an hourly basis, who are not eligible for other bonus programs or sales commission, Shafer said.
Other executives to share their bonus include Oleg Deripaska of the world’s largest aluminum producer United Co. Rusal (486), who gave his $3 million bonus for 2012 to 120 employees, UPI reported in July. Simon Wolfson of Next Plc (NXT), the U.K. clothing retailer, awarded his bonus of about $3.7 million to 19,400 staff, the Telegraph reported in April.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Edmond Lococo in Beijing at elococo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
Source: Bloomberg
No FaceBook, rather Face to Face.
I have seen ICT take an upswing right from when the world openly began to learn the word ‘e-mail’.
Those were indeed the times, e-mail was a new age marvel and people were clamoring on to it to find more meaning and substance in their communications. No sooner than later, we were acquainted with the word ‘Spam’ then ‘Malware’ then ‘Spam Filters’ then ‘Internet Security’ then ‘Security’ then ‘Search’ and so now since more than past 10 years Search (having taken on the task of ‘simplifier’) has become synonymous with ‘Google’.
Social Networking emerged as a powerful force that mobilized the capacity to network with a multitude. All sparked by a little know thing called ‘e-mail’ that mutated into a multitude of variants all from IRC, ICQ, AOL, MSN, Yahoo to now emerging more maturely as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp.
With the advent of all the above the need for ‘Sense’ prevailed and suddenly people had a lot many other people to keep track off.
With every conceivable connection or chance contact the worry of ‘is it important’ emerged that caused people to have huge lists of other people always available and mass messaging became known.
Rooted in the concept of BBS (Bulletin Board Services), ‘Orkut’ first identified this market as a viable commercial landscape, and started working on building the concept of ‘Online Social Communities’. As the model matured it found a precise balance with ‘FaceBook’ and so the medium to formulate viable online communities emerged.
Now in all this story what I sense was lost was ‘Peace’ and ‘Trust’.
The maturity and longevity of a face to face connection started to take a back seat, as people had less quality time to give to one another in face to face meetings and preferred to take it conveniently over chats and wall posts.
The medium is certainly growing – indeed like a wild fire and will continue to grow. But is it growing now because of a genuine need or rather a sense of deprivation and worry of loss. Is it the fear of staying in the loop? People want to be in the loop because they don’t want to miss out on the next best thing. Its fashionable to be on FaceBook, not sensible.
Our world is changing, as a place of 7 Billion people and counting ‘exponentially’.
There is definitely newer things developing and emerging by the day. The evolutionary path will continue.
I just felt that its best to balance this new development with a break from the constant sense of being in the spot light. Like a vacation with family and friends that helps put us back in touch with nature and the natural ways of things. Taking a long-term break from FaceBook helps to retraction one on one relationships and nurture strong bonds that last a life-time.
For now my social evolution will cease to be limited to e-mail, LinkedIn, Skype and Viber.
I will see our FB friends in later times and take this time out to build lasting one on one relationships for a new future.
Please follow my blog at www.mirglobal.nl
FB: 2007 ~ 2013
© MIR
Mir Moiz's Weblog 