Twenty years ago I passed on a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy assets in Europe.  i have regretted it ever since. In 2012 I am happy to say - here it comes again.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 3:08 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

In 2012 I will say goodbye to the junk economy.  It is the economy stupid that is creating all the problems in the world today.  Specifically it is the junk economy.  Government too big says The Tea Party.  Wall Street too greedy says Occupy Wall Street movement.  Both complaints should really be directed at the junk economy.  Problem is we all built and maintained the junk economy - we are all to blame for its growth and now for its failure.

The junk economy lasted nearly 30 years and in its final throws it was  based on wasteful consumption fuelled by cheap goods (low cost production in china) and easy credit (too much liquidity in banks). 

The junk economy is over...... what's next?

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:17 AM EADT

Updated: Tuesday, 3 January 2012 10:27 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Deviants needed to fix the world - apply within.  Are you a deviant?  Do you know a deviant? Can you get a deviant to apply for this position?  Will you become a deviant for the cause?

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:03 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

It is often claimed by expert commentators that there is too little discipline being shown management and employees within today's large/national/global  organisations.

In Australian organisations there is rather too much discipline - corporate life changing discipline - rather than too little.  Management and employees, alike, strive to maintain the discipline they need to live in negative, reductive, blaming, meaningless workplaces.  What is missing is not discipline but FOCUS. Because there is no long-term view - there is no long term view because nothing, and I mean nothing, would get done if it was not labeled urgent, immediate, due yesterday - there is no FOCUS.  Focus is needed to sort out what is important, valued, appropriate work effort and what is not.  No amount of discipline will compensate for a lack of FOCUS. 

Focus is what Steve Jobs enabled/facilitated at Apple, Pixar, Next, etc.  Without FOCUS success is an illusion.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 2:31 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

being trustworthy is the biggest asset a person, company, government,  or country can possess today... to be trustworthy in a global digital world one must be transparent, accountable, and equitable.... 2011 has not been a great year for trustworthiness...  let us all hope that 2012 will be better - the thing is it all starts with you and me, not them and theirs,....

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:40 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

an abundance of data/information creates the illusion of thoroughness, risk management, and good decision-making.  the opposite is often the case.  it is much harder to get the right information in the right place/hands/minds at the right time.  information is like gold.  it is only precious when it is scarce.  an abundance of data/infromation persists today, so be careful because it may turn out to be 'fools' gold'...

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 5:09 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

its the small stuff stupid....  the small stuff is super important....  I know because I bought the book 'don't sweat the small stuff' and lived by that rule.... but today, more than ever perhaps, it is the small stuff that really counts... it is the small stuff that differentiates us....

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:03 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

deleveraging is here to stay for awhile it seems.... perhaps a decade.... may be a generation.... the interesting thing about deleveraging is that most people get it...  what goes up must come down is all we really need to know...

excessive cheap credit supported by expansive governments in the US and Europe led to debt fuelled 'leverage' for consumers....  big houses, fancy cars, international holidays, secure jobs, etc.....  everything was leveraged by the fact that China emerged to feed the world with cheap goods backed by even cheaper labour..... China also picked up the debt tab for a leveraged Western World....  but in 2007/08 the music stopped and the leveraging ceased...  so what went up must come down and it did with a bang....  we are in for a sustained period of deleveraging.... 

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:44 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

your time is coming, perhaps here now, if you are focused on delivering quality.... if you are generous, not mean, in the way you treat others...  if you are confident about your view of the future... if you are determined to produce goods or services that consumers 'love'...  if you are aware that tecnnology change is only useful when it makes life better or more enjoyable for people who use it or rely upon it....

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 8:05 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

has the tide now turned from max to min....  for the two decades the West has maxed-out on cheap goods from China... spending was maxed-out on housing, travel, entertainment, etc so long as it could be bought on credit..  the home or shares were the backstop for consumer credit because housing and share prices were booming...  then the tidal waves stopped coming... so now we have to deleverage our debts...  we have to min-out our housing, travel, entertainment, etc because credit is hard to get and hard to sustain without booming house and share prices.... the maxed-out tide left the beach with such a rush it caught most people by surprise...  in its place came a new tide with far less energy and much less excitment about it...  but the surprising thing is that this new tide is just as powerful...  it seems a paradox but surely those of us who can ride this new tide of min-out will do just as well as we did with the old max-out tide..... to learn to ride it is the trick... new rules must be set, obeyed, and practiced but there are a lot of new opportunities coming with this new tide... who is willing to ride it all the way back to the beach?

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 2:07 PM EADT

Updated: Monday, 5 December 2011 2:23 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

social cohesion is not usually a subject raised by business people...  it should be and it will be more and more in the future if the Occupy Wall Street and The Tea Party mean anything...

beyond 2011 business can be more and more profitable, sustainable, robut, and global if it facilitates social cohesion.... social cohesion will prosper if there is ease of access, inclusion, openness, transparency, and shared values.... but to sustain social cohesion there must be a sense of value in belonging or at least in not being excluded...  Facebook is a platform for social cohesion but it is not yet a business venture that facilitated it... Amazon is a business venture that facilitates social cohesion as is Google, Apple, Twitter......  the core asset of social cohesion is trust....  if your consumers or users trust your business then they will form networks of social cohesion to support you.... 

its simple really....

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 1:37 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

I suspect that being predictable is the essence of a good brand....

How predictable is your brand?  Can I depend upon your brand to serve me well in the future?  How can you assure me that the innovations you are working on are consistent with what I expect and respect about your brand?

What is it that makes the experience of your brand predictable to me? 

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 7:29 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Occupy Wall Street was always about the lack of social cohesion in the US today.  The maths is simple - 99% of people feel hard done by in the land of the free.  The distribution of wealth and power is skewed to the 1% who run companies, governments, and major institutions.  The claim is they act in their own interests which are not those of the 99% of people who have become disengaged.

The occupy protest has spread like mushrooms in a fertile field after a solid rain.  The rain effect is the internet.  The world wide web has now decentralised access to information but power remains centralised.  Power in a world democratized by the internet has become more and more concentrated within big government and big business. 

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 11:41 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 2 December 2011 12:07 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

We live in a world of abundant information.  A world where Google is a door opener to knowledge and information we never previously knew existed.  This is a world of opportunity. A new world of experiment and exploration.  A new world where we can be, and do, so much more because we have access to new forms of knowledge and information.

We also live in a world of mounting risks.  Personal and financial security is at risk in ways never before experienced by humans.  Assessing these risk should be made easier by our new found abundance of information, right?  Wrong.  When it comes to assessing risk in our world today we often have too much information.  In fact we drown ourselves in both data and information to the point where we can become paralysed by the mere fact that there is so much of it.

We often need to return to the flight or fight instinct that has guided our survival on this planet.  We need to rely upon our intuition more and less on our access to information.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 10:19 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 2 December 2011 10:30 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

The 2012 challenge for all of us, perhaps, is to change our legacy mindsets.  We are beholding to a world view that is now obsolete.

We are heading into a leaderless world.  A world of interconnection and sharing that works best with self-regulating groups not command and control heirarchies.  A world of interconnected information flows that enable ideas, goods, services, and people to move from here to there at speed.

The rules in this world are simple.  There are just three; transparency, equity, and accountability.  Transparency means less privacy and more freedom for the individual.  Equity means sharing the rewards of effort or wealth building across the base not just the elite contributors.  Accountability means the buck stops with me.

A leaderless and sharing world is coming are we preparing for it? 

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 9:34 AM EADT

Updated: Thursday, 1 December 2011 9:01 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  a-ok

Facebook is in trouble again because its privacy settings do not work for all users.  It raises the key issue, again, about what is private information on a social network.

Facebook is getting grief because it is open with our privacy.  It is a moot point for me whether we are expecting too much accountability from Facebook in terms of our privacy.  We offer up our information to Facebook and they share it for us.  If we simply think of Facebook as a modern verison of the old schoolyard rumour mill or grapevine then we know how to act.  We only share with Facebook what we want to share with everyone in the world.  Simple.

Facebook is open and will share our information with everyone.  Where the problem arises for me is that Facebook is not necessarily transparent.  We offer our information to be shared but it is not always clear how Facebook cuts and dices the systemic information it gleans about us.  If as they claim they are not using the systemic information they have on each of us - our likes, dislikes, membership of groups, etc - then we have nothing to worry about at Facebook.  It they use such data to drive their revenue models and thus to sell us stuff then we do have issues to raise with Facebook's management.   

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 12:42 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  a-ok

For me the looming issue in 2012 is social cohesion.  The degree of social cohesion you depend upon now is easily evaluated.  Examine your current and prospective relationships to ascertain if they are based on trust.

Trust is a key commodity for all of us in 2012 given the unsettling nature of human affairs on our planet.  Economic activity is being reframed.  Political discourse and decision-making is being reshaped.  But if we have trust in ourself and in those we deal with on a daily basis then our future is bright.  When you have trustworthy relationships around you then the impact of ambiguity, uncertainty, and volatility being reported in the media 24/7 is so much easier to handle.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 2:24 PM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mood:  a-ok

Myth busters is a great program for a time.  Once you get the drift of what they do it becomes less and less exciting.  What is exciting is to learn that so many myths can be busted.  Get that and you get an insight into what life might be like if you busted the myths you believe in.

So much of my inner talk is based on assumptions that are myths.  Toyota builds great cars, perhaps, the best in the world.  i have never owned nor wanted to own a Toyota and yet until recent events I believe that myth.  There are many more that just sit there in my head unchallenged and doing harm to me.

I am a crusader right now, I want to become my own myth buster.

Posted by richard-lipscombe at 9:15 AM EADT

Updated: Friday, 11 November 2011 9:23 AM EADT

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink