I’ve been reading with interest the reaction to Morgan Stanley’s publication of the research results of their 15-year old intern, Matthew Robson.
While I’m sure that he didn’t actually learn all about banking in a week – as alleged in the FT article – it’s been amazing to read what everyone else has written about the report Morgan Stanley published, which was subsequently posted and blogged over ad infinitum in the past week. Click to continue »
I’m spending a few days this week in Singapore – I think this is my fourth visit so far this year. I spent a lot of time here in the late ’90’s with Tandem and then Compaq, so remain pretty familiar with the island.
It has been interesting to take stock of the economic situation up here; while I’m somewhat detached from the rigours of the local property market, there are some telling signs that Singapore is as challenged as most other countries by the GFC, yet better-equipped to deal with it. Firstly, the government announced yesterday that it was way ahead of its public service recruitment goals for the next two years, and unusually for Singapore, was making quite a number of mid-career appointments – usually public service recruitment is restricted to new graduates. One can only suggest this acceleration is at least in part due to a higher than planned unemployment rate in the private sector.
Secondly, it was telling to hear of Chip Goodyear’s sudden withdrawal from the CEO-in-waiting position at Temasek, with Ho Ching remaining as Executive Director and CEO. And this despite a multi-year, well documented succession process. The Straits Times remains coy on the reasons, quoted as “strategic differences” between Mr Goodyear and the board. But as one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, I can’t help but wonder if its a case of the board now simply wanting to maintain the status quo with the proven – and politically safer – existing leadership team.
Finally, I’ve been continually fascinated with efforts the government makes to stimulate progress in the technological and innovation sense; part economical, part through piloting fresh initiatives and seeking private companies who can deliver and lead public technology efforts. We’re aiming for involvement in several of these projects, and while time will tell whether or not we are successful, I think it will be far from my last visit to the island republic in 2009.
On the downside, it’s raining this morning, and sans umbrella, I have no idea how I am going to get to my meetings without getting soaked. Because it’s Singapore, of course – and that’s what happens here. And I love it.
I’m in the UK this week on a business trip, before heading to my favourite island republic for a few days on Sunday.
Specifically, I’ve been representing the company at a two-day GSMA OneAPI project meeting in London; it has been great to be in the room for a change, as normally we participate in these meetings via a teleconference bridge. The OneAPI is an initiative to create a standard access API for mobile network enablers – messaging (SMS/MMS), location and charging. Our own OneAPI reference implementation has just been deployed for testing, and we are leading an effort to run a commercial pilot in the Asia-Pacific region by November.
So far we’ve had an enthusiastic response from operators in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and several other countries in South Asia. (If you are interested, either contact us or follow the Locatrix blog for more details and announcements of participating operators and developers).
Anyway, while in the UK I’ve also been doing the rounds of the local operators to learn more about their initiatives in the areas we focus on: enablers, location-based services, social networking and mobile marketing. I’ve been pleased with the reception to our solutions and hosted services focus, and am becoming optimistic about our expansion in this part of the world over the next 12 months.
While I’ve been here I’ve also taken the opportunity to sample, as a pre-paid consumer, several local mobile offerings – mobile broadband, on-portal mobile VAS, as well as regular voice/text services. It would be remiss (not to mention commercially dangerous) of me to go into specifics, but I’ve been struck by the percentage of dodgy SIM cards I’ve been supplied – I’m on my third from the recommended mobile broadband network, and my second from one of the other operators for general use. As in SIM cards just not registering in devices, and having to be replaced. Quite frustrating, not to metion time-consuming. In all the pre-paid SIM’s we’ve registered in Australia, I’ve never had this happen.
I’ve also got to note how I now take decent quality mobile broadband in Australia for granted – I’ve been really surprised at the low 3G performance here in London (using a standard Huawei USB modem). I’m now posting this from a bar in Camden, as England finishes day one at six down for 300-odd runs. Better value than hotel WiFi for sure, but I miss my NextG from home.
That said, I love visiting London – I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up with some old friends (both Brits and Australians) who live here, but frustratingly haven’t been able to get tickets to the Ashes! I’ll likely be spending more time here as we ramp our export efforts, so it is fortunate that I’m starting to be able to navigate my way ’round the capital and surrounding area more effectively.
So I’m in London, still, and despite some 3G hiccups, am having a productive trip.
*Sincere apologies to The Waifs for my blatant plagiarism of the title from one of their excellent songs!
Sue and I had the pleasure of attending a book launch last night at Mary Ryan’s Paddington store for Stephen M. Irwin’s The Dead Path. Stephen’s a Brisbane author – and a friend of a good friend – who’s just had this first novel published. The publisher’s spiel compares The Dead Path to Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, and while King was never in my interest space, I have to say that this Stephen’s work is absolutely compelling.
The Dead Path follows the story of a Brisbane man returning home after 17 years in the UK, following the tragic death of his wife. And sees people. Dead people.
Before you say “oh, that’s just like a movie…..” – don’t. It’s original, creative and really well written. Nicholas Close sees re-runs of the deaths of others. Over and over again. But he quickly gets caught up in a real-time battle against the supernatural.
I really enjoyed the author’s brief talk last night, detailing his childhood in Brisbane and the events that led to him finding himself in a position where he could devote his time to long-form fiction, as well as the sequence of events that led him to finding an agent (it seems that in Australia literary agents are the one class of professionals who are less accessible to the outside world than venture capitalists!). I also enjoyed the way in which his main character rediscovers the city of his birth, rapidly progressing but retaining pockets of timeless history – this is a view that many Brisbane-born folks who have spent a lot of time away will appreciate and empathize with.
Full marks too, to Mary Ryan’s continuing support for local authors. The outdoor area in which the launch was held is a stunning oasis in Paddington, and the event itself was wonderful. Irwin’s publisher (from Hachette Australia) announced that the novel has just been sold in the UK, and is “being read” in the US as well, a fantastic outcome for any first-time Australian author.
And after reading the first few chapters last night I’m not surprised. The Dead Path is terrifically written, and deserves to be read. Find it, read it!