Finished my MBA

Well it has been a great year and lots of new exciting things to learn but it is over now. I picked a few books that lecturers were throwing out the other day on strategy, economics and strategic audits...so I am not done with learning things yet. I am now looking for a job in consultancy which is permanent. The reason for this is that progression is hard to carve out within the freelance sector and I desire to work as part of a team and get access to working on some more challenging assignments. I did the MBA to up my game and that is the objective that I have achieved as I am coming out with a greater range of knowledge that complements my previous skills in consultancy and project management. It is a really exciting time and i am starting to get some really good nibbles of work.

The Strategy Hypercube

I have just found a really great article on a 'strategy hypercube' in banking and how it affects the profitability and relates to customers. Really amazing and very thoroughly done by Duncan A Robertson.

Alternative Vote

Nick Clegg interestingly apparently described AV as a 'grubby little compromise' but the Liberal party and Labour seem to be getting behind it. They seem to have got the wrong end of the stick from the last election.
The rhetoric states that we are being offered AV because we are unhappy with the voting system. The reason that no party won an outright victory at the last election was not due to the voting system and how fed up we were with it and wanted a change.
The reason was after the expenses scandal (duck ponds, moat cleaning and questionable viewing for ministers husbands), Iraq, the banking crisis and the subsequent recession the nation has no confidence in any of the political parties.

That is why we got the result that we got at the last election. It was a national protest vote at all the political parties and seems to have been equally distributed. No party won a majority and from all the calculations, an AV system would not have resolved the position of a coalition government. A coalition is probably the best solution at this time as it provides a level of bi partisan politics that would not be an option with an outright win for any political party and so necessitates the parties working together for the good of the country.

Also it seems that very few countries in the world have AV and those that do want to get rid of it. This hardly stands as a glowing endorsement of a voting system that we should be adopting in one of the longest standing democracies.

Strategy in Investment Banks

I am trawling through a whole mountain of documentation looking for the needle in the haystack. I am working towards doing my literary review for my dissertation and there is so little written on the subject. There is stuff written on IT strategy, Risk strategy etc. but corporate level strategy there seems to be very little written, did find an excellent piece by a lecturer at New York university. My lovely wife though just came up and gave me some food, what a great women she is. Well it is due in on the 14th so better get back to it!

Independent Commission on Banking Public Event

I went to the Independent Commission on Banking Public Event: the role of banks in the UK on Friday. The main concern seemed to be about banks finding ways around the regulation that are in place and this is an inevitable that individuals will find a way round any legislation that you put in place. The worry that compliance with regulations would hold back small backs as it is easier for a large bank to comply with, than for small banks. This would cause an extra burden for small banks. There was no representation from the larger banks that countered this argument (there was no-one on the panel from any of the large banks). It was an interesting evening with a large number of questions from the audience in the Yorkshire Bank lecture theatre at LUBS. Francesco - one of the members of the panel that we need a diversity of banks so as to not be exposed to the same risks. I am though not in favour of this government trend to break the banks up and segregate the investment arms from the standard high street banking functions. I think there needs to be a clearer delineation between the funds held by both and LESS cross-transference of funds to mitigate risk from the investment banking arms. I though also believe that the investment opportunities offered by the investment arms of the bank gives the potential for higher returns for the man in the street. If the man in the street does not want his money put at this risk then there should be some opt out that he does not have his money exposed to this part of the business. The press has done a great job to demonise the Investment banks, yes some of them have been involved in some less than savoury conduct. But that does not mean that the entire business is bad, it is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. People think that banking should be risk free, yes you could have a risk free banking system and then you would have the public complaining that they are getting low returns for their investment. You cannot remove risk from life, risk is not necessarily bad but it needs to be controlled. One of the things as a project manager that made me amused about the credit crisis was people making the assumption that because they had created these very clever financial instruments and fine sliced them around them around the world that they had got rid of risk. You can never get rid of risk you can reduce the risk or avoid the risk (by not doing the thing in the first place), but you cannot never entirely get rid of risk.

The new power dynamic in america

I am fascinated to see how the new power shift in the mid term elections affects the power plays in American government whether it will aid or hinder the US recovery. It certainly creates an environment where bi-partisan co-operation is a must instead of a nod in the Republican direction. It will probably be a boon for US industry I imagine with the republicans coming in and pushing for less constraints on businesses and less control from government. The US is still the economy to watch when you are looking for a barometer in alot of characteristics in the global marketplace.
The medicare bill I am also interested to see if it survives in it's present form. I have said that I believe that we are going to pass America going the other way as we go to a more private model of healthcare and America embracing a more public model.

The Queen on Facebook

I was encouraged to hear today that the Queen is going to have a Facebook page. Apparently she already has a twitter account and a Flickr account. I can just imagine her Majesty out on the moors of scotland, shotgun in one hand to shoot grouse and a phone in the other updating her Facebook status with 'One is presently grouse shooting on the estate at Balmoral'.