Must Be Acknowledged: MBA round 3

After beautiful three months of summer holiday (yup I am in southern hemisphere I started going to daily classes again.
This time it’s Master of Trade and Diplomacy on Monash University. Basically it consists of core politics/economics and elective mostly from the department of Management. So far it seems to suit me better because my initial guess was right and a course with such a name obviously attracts people who are either already experienced in government and non-propfit organizations or simply students who are fed up with business. In both cases it is slightly different bunch than your usual MBA student (especially young one, I still have respect for proper MBAs)

And you know what? It has a tremendous impact on the educational aspect of the classes.

Basically as my electives I am taking the same classes that I would if I were enrolled in an MBA. There are even some MBAs in some of my classes, but majority of people are from different backgrounds. How is this relevant to my MBA bashing? Because I realize that the vibe in the classes is quite different.

My classes now are more relaxed, more open and actually it seems more inclined towards learning rather than showing off.

Most students in my MBA started their questions towards the professor in a manner such as: “In my professional experience…
“ or “In my company we do this…” That would sound might fine from a 40 year old executive, but when a guy whose experience is summer internship on his uncle wool processing plant, you start to get pissed.
Once you get to know your classmates a bit more, you will realize that some people are vastly exaggerating their experiences or even that they call on experiences of others as their own. They are simply trying to preserve an image in face of their classmates. And this actually prohibits learning.

I know I might be simplifying the issue a bit, but my brief experience tells me that when compared to the average, MBA students tend to brag more and are more stubborn students, which of course will reflect on the whole class experience. This goes mostly to the young and less experienced ones that maybe feel threatened by the proper MBA students and thus start pulling these stunts.

I did not realize it until now and I also understood what was bothering me about the atmosphere in the classes so much. So I will repeat what I said before. Do an MBA only when you are ready to do an MBA and pick one in which you barely fulfill the requirements. That was you can be sure that you will gain the most and be saved from all the BS you would have to endure otherwise.

The Global Gamble: Understand what 1990’s were all about

Before starting my new course at Monash I wanted to finish all my readings left from previous courses I took. One of the last remaining books was Peter Gowan’s The Global Gamble. I just finished it today and I can’t simply pass over it, I need to share some thoughts here.

This book was published in 1999 and some of the articles precede it by couple of years. It is concerned with economic power of US and its imperial tendencies, war in Iraq I and about half of the book is about politico-economic aftermath of the 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.

To those of you that know my political opinion on these events is obvious that the take on these events must be far from the mainstream accepted explanations. And it is. In fact, Gowan manages to describe the issues and struggle of the early 1990’s with such a precision and insight that I must say that I will never think about our post-revolutionary development in Czech Republic and other countries ever the same.

Maybe I was a sceptic before, but now I understand three things:

1) We got screwed and we are still paying for it.

2) There was not much else we could have done in those days because we lacked the power and awareness.

3) The right-wing parties in countries like Czech Republic should be the one redeeming themselves now, not the Communists.

The last comment might seem extreme, pushing my opinions even more left then they have been before. Don’t be alarmed, but seriously after reading this book you will think twice about voting for your friendly right-wing ODS which in light of recent elections in Czech Republic and electing a “hero” of the privatization era as a president once again is an eye-opening experience.

But then again, maybe you won’t like Gowan’s fact heavy, a bit repetitive and leftist style as much as I did (or should I say tolerate it as much as I did), but I really recommend getting this book if you want to understand the world we STILL live in and what forces are shaping our future.

Qantas/Jetstar do not know how to treat their customers: A study of corporate stupidity

It’s funny how real experiences can ruin your long-held image and how a brand can’t start deteriorating once it starts cutting corners.
I mean it is a no brainer, but let’s see why I will do my best not to fly with Qantas/Jetstar more than I have to.

I always liked Qantas. They have a nice logo, nice image, I always wanted to fly with them since I saw Rainman. Well now I did. Maybe you remember that they made me pay for 4kg overweight on my luggage. I still managed to forgive them after observing an excellent in-flight service. Now they are pushing their luck again.

I do not like when brands try to prevent their competitors from stealing their market share by creating a diluted versions of them. Qantas cannot compete with low-cost airlines, such as Virgin Blue, so they created Jetstar. (For those of you interested, British Airways is trying to do the same with their Open Skies knock-off, erghh) And Jetstar naturally competes on price. But when two companies are so closely connected, it is impossible to prevent spill-over effects.

For example how would you feel if you purchased a ticket on a Qantas website and when you get to the airport you see you are flying a Jetstar plane with Jetstar crew (and a full plane of annoying kids who got their tickets dirt-cheap). Wouldn’t you feel that you are actually subsidizing in a way the flight (in the same way that business passengers do)?

And to get to the point, yesterday Jetstar had a 1 hour sale, where some tickets on SELECTED routes on SPECIFIC dates were sold for 1¢ provided that you have only hand-baggage. I thought it might be a good idea to grab a ticket or two to Sydney and so I actually waited for the sale to start in front of my computer.

And you know what happened? Their server went down.

I wasted 1 hour of my life trying to get those damn tickets. Needless to say that I did not manage to get through once.
At 9pm the sale ended and the server returned to normal.

How many tickets did they sell?

How many people will fly with Jetstar because they will remember that they offered once a ticket for 1¢?

And how many people will get pissed off for their inadequacy and get annoyed with Jetstar as well as with Qantas and try to fly other companies instead?

I am definitely in the last category. I was so annoyed with their handling of the situation that I almost changed my Frequent Flyer scheme over to BA (except that I found out that BA’s Executive club sucks real bad). Maybe I am overreacting, but in the news yesterday was also a piece about Qantas passengers stranded in Perth for 24 hours without getting any accommodation or even being let into the lounge. They simply let them stay at the gate the whole time. And the PR person said that they did all they could because they provided them with refreshments. None the less one passenger collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital.

Or like the Jetstar passengers who have been thrown out of the airport at night couple of weeks ago because the flight was cancelled. No accommodation provided. Bang!

And did I mention that my flight with Jetstar to Gold Coast last week was delayed by 2 hours because of engine problem on the plane! (How can a sensible airline employee go on the intercom and tell all the passengers waiting at the gate that they need to wait a little bit more because an engine check failed and they need to perform another one! Nice handling stoopid)

So all in all I will do my best now to avoid Qantas/Jetstar and fly Virgin instead. But you know what? In my opinion doing a sale such as the Jetstar 1¢ sale is stupid.

Why?

You will manage to piss off more customers than you please. What Jetstar should do is recognize that so many people were unable to get in (they even know which ones as the links in emails had unique id) and offer them a 10$ coupon for their next flight purchase. It might cost them less than the whole 1¢ sale and at the same time they would put a positive spin on the failure. They even have my name, so how hard would it be to say:

“Dear Jakub,
we have seen that you tried to access our booking system during the 1¢ Special Jetstar sale, but due to heavy traffic you did not manage.
We are very sorry for this and would like to offer you a 10$ discount coupon for your next purchase with us.
Please use the following coupon code in our booking system:
XXXXXXX”

Seriously, how hard would it be? And if you are stingy, then at least send me email to say that you are sorry. I would STILL feel better about it. Now I think that they are morons. Great marketing guys!

Microhoopla ain’t gonna happen

I have been without the net for a couple of days (what a bliss) and when I come back, I read that the whole MS-Yahoo acquisition will be a tad bit harder that stealing candy from a toddler (are toddlers even allowed to eat candy?)

Anyways, there is a lot of coverage on the fact that the board wants to reject the MS bid (but in the end are bound to fail anyway, but that would be a different story).
And now since the awful reality is starting to settle in, there are people popping up and saying that maybe it won’t be so bad, like John Gruber on Daring Fireball.

But what if Microsoft does the unexpected and keeps Yahoo separate and distinct? On a vastly smaller scale, that’s what Microsoft has done with its Mac Business Unit. Microsoft created the Mac BU in the wake of Word 6 for Mac, which was, more or less, a direct port to the Mac of the Windows version of Word — and almost universally abhorred by Mac users. To succeed on the Mac, Microsoft needed a (relatively) independent Mac division, and so that’s what they created.

To that I have only one thing to say: Wishful thinking guys. There is a slight difference between a Mac BU and potential Yahoo BU. It is about 45 billion $. Can you see Ballmer paying that amount for Yahoo (7$ per every person on this planet) and then say: “You know what guys? Let’s find some charismatic new management for you, clean up a bit and then you can do as you please. Run your business, make some money, but do whatever you want.”

Ain’t gonna happen. More likely it will follow soggy business strategy that Microsoft guys are masters of. They will apply all their know-how and Ballmeresque charm (oxymoron right there) to pull Yahoo out of the gutter.
Rrrright

Time Machine saves the day!

It’s not every day that you need to use a restore from backup, but it is every day that you should backup.
Today, for the first time in my life, I screwed up and deleted my email archive that I did not back up to an external drive as I always do. Couple months worth of email would be gone.

I was starting to get really pissed at myself, when i remembered Time Machine – Leopard’s new backup function.

So I went into the appropriate folder, clicked the Time Machine icon and voila, I went back couple of days and restored my mailboxes.
I mean I used to backup my whole drive in the past, especially with my notebook, but I did like once a month or something. Time machine backs up my whole system every hour! So my advice? Buy an external drive, or even better, the new Time Machine dedicated Wifi router with integrated HDD and let Time Machine do its magic. One day a similar thing like this would happen to you and you will be grateful.

Why digital media should be free and how we still can make tons of money on it

Going through hundreds of unread RSS feeds, there was one today that struck me. It was Kevin Kelly’s argument about evolution of “free” (via Seth Godin)
It really strikes a resonating note with my way of thinking. Especially when applied to music, Kelly writes:

Patronage — It is my belief that audiences WANT to pay creators. Fans like to reward artists, musicians, authors and the like with the tokens of their appreciation, because it allows them to connect. But they will only pay if it is very easy to do, a reasonable amount, and they feel certain the money will directly benefit the creators. Radiohead’s recent high-profile experiment in letting fans pay them whatever they wished for a free copy is an excellent illustration of the power of patronage. The elusive, intangible connection that flows between appreciative fans and the artist is worth something. In Radiohead’s case it was about $5 per download. There are many other examples of the audience paying simply because it feels good. [emphasis mine]

I paid also about 5$ for this album. I could have it for free. But I paid because I wanted to. Do the Radiohead guys NEED my money? Of course not. But I simply felt like paying them for their work and also to support this kind of distribution model.

I also needed to choose a price. I thought that album on iTunes is about 10$ so I would pay about half. 5$ is what I feel an optimal price for an album. Songs should go down to 50¢ each so their purchase would be absolutely no brainer.

I used to have tens of GB of illegal music. Now my library is as legal as licensed prostitution in Denmark. But still when I go shopping to iTunes, I put things in my cart and leave them there. Then couple of days later I remove a few until I limit my spending to about 20-30$….well more like 20$. That’s what I feel I can spend in one go. Believe it or now, if music would cost half, I would buy twice as much. If it would be free, I would spend money on music videos, on merchandise and access to subscription only materials. Why?

Because I want to have some kind of connection with my music and with the people who make, however virtual this connection is.
Why not with other media. This is where books wait for the big revolution (and another reason why I think Kindle is incapable of revolutionizing the industry, but let’s leave that for other time). I can’t wait until media will be free. Not free, but with ads, but simply free. The time is almost here and the market is almost ready…

Kindle….er what?

And to mention something about my beloved technology, I just found an old article about Kindle and how it might start a eBook revolution (thus helping other products to come to the market).
You can read it here.

But beware. It has been a few months and Kindle seems already like a big flop for Amazon. Have you heard anything about it since then? Nah, I thought so.
They even purchased Audible, so maybe the eBook concept was dead before it even took off. Maybe it was good they wasted their own dough on its development rather than me

Future of tourism is bleak

Technology revolution does not always translate into better and more convenient products. Well it does, but sometimes the marketers are stupid enough to misuse technology to increase their already fat profits.

For example Wynn resorts in Las Vegas uses RFID tags in Snickers bars on top of the fridge to determine whether you have moved an item. (via Upgrade:Travel Better) Ok, so maybe it is not just Snickers, but you get the point.

So I assume they must either put a huge sign in all capitals saying: “DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING OR WE WILL CHARGE YOU FOR IT” or let it stay in small print on your booking and charge your card on checkout, probably pissing you off.

Which one is better? Neither. Both are perfect examples of terrible marketing and unfortunately it will only get worse.

But it’s not all bad. A hotel in Holland is charging customers rate by weight!
Now this ain’t too bad. I can say that maybe because I am not overweight, but I always thought that airlines should have a set weight per customer including luggage and pay extra for overweight stuff only then.
How fair is it that I have to pay extra 5kg of my luggage and the traveler next to me smuggles 50kg extra under hist shirt? Well, don’t let me start on that again…

I am flying to Gold Coast this weekend, so that’s maybe why I procrastinated on travel blogs today Have a great winter, I am off to 30 degrees of sun in Surfer’s paradise.

Clash of the Titans…. Mircohoo! one more time

Another article reviewing the MS-Yahoo deal on Arstechnica made me think gain. Is it possible that this is simply is strategy to eliminate competition and the MS is ready to skim Yahoo of its assets and customers?

If so, I am sorry to see that Microsoft, once great and evil mastermind needs to sugarcoat it like this. If you have the dough to make a 45 billion dollar hostile takeover, why don’t you actually flash your balls while doing that?

Why didn’t Ballmer (and I know he would love to) stand in front of the press and say something like: “We are big, we are bad, we will crush our enemies! Google just wait, we are getting ready for you as well!” We could have like a big bad clash of the Titans kind of thing. Now that’s good entertainment. Google-don’t-be-evil vs Microsaurus.

I bet you MS stock will rise instead while Yahoo! would plummet even more. That would make the whole deal cheaper, but alas I suppose not simpler. I don’t think that the deal would be approved then.
So maybe it is a big scam. Maybe MS is not weak and struggling for the last resort, but I bet ya it must be eating Ballmer’s head that he can’t look down on Jerry Yang and say: “Amigo, the only thing in this world that gives orders is balls. Balls. You got that?”

(Quote from Scarface for those of you who don’t love gangster movies as much as I do

I’ll sell Microsoft stock for 15$ in 2011, anybody interested?

MS is trading on 30$ now. If anyone is looking for a deal let me know

You maybe heard about the proposed Microsoft Yahoo! deal worth 45 billion dollars… Well mark my words, I said it before and I will say it again. We are witnessing a slow and inevitable downfall of a giant. Two in fact because they will pull each other into that deep deep abyss where only AOL and Time Warner dear entering. Why?

It’s simple. Do you think Yahoo! people want to work for Microsoft? Of course not or else they would have already done so. In their struggle to beat Google, I am sure MS was offering nice packages to anyone who would like to jump the ship. So the best and brightest in Yahoo will quit and look elsewhere.

Do you think the big-brains at MS will be eager to acquire and implement Yahoo’s systems and ditch whatever they have been working on for last couple of years?

And do you think users who got already pissed about Yahoo buying for example Flickr will be ecstatic to having to put now with their Live logins MS BS and other crap?

Finally, do you think the stockholders will be happy with the almost inevitable decline of value?
Heck, when no ones seems to be happy about this, how can this new venture be a Google killer?

Once again Fake Steve Jobs nails the issue right on the head.

Me and my friend Michael went to see Ballmer aka Monkey Boy once in Copenhagen. I can tell you that if I ever had any doubts about the future of Microsoft before that, after the speech I would rather by Enron stock and hope for the best than put up with that bullshit they were trying to feed us.

So if anyone is interested in a little forward agreement, I would gladly sell MS stock in 2011 for 15$. That’s a loss of 50% in 3 years. Radical? Well, let’s see about that

The only thing that can happen now is that MS will smarten up and back out once the alleged takeover bid is not going to be approved by the anti-trust. Then MS could turn Yahoo into its bitch anyway because by that time Yahoo stock might be in dumps anyway. But let’s see. I was wrong (many times) before