All assignments are done and the thesis is now consuming most of my spare time.   After the exam in December last year I attended a few more classes and submitted three assignments.

• Demographic Profile of Nigeria and the United Kingdom for the period 2000 – 2050
• An Exploratory Forecast on the Adoption of NFC in the Retail Mobile Payments Industry
• Perceived Strategic management challenges (at a company of my choice)

I am struggling to find enough time to work on the thesis.  Ideally it should have been in a draft state by now, by I am still stuck on chapter 3.   The literature review took considerably longer than what I anticipated.   I still need to conduct a scenario workshop and some "structure interviews" to hopefully be in a state of having enough information to complete it.  At this stage I am aiming/hoping for completion in November.

I am normally relatively sceptical when I read books that borders on some type of "conspiracy theory".    Whilst reading this book I tried to confirm, as far as possible, the verifiable statements made in the book since any good conspiracy theory borders on mixing some truth with some lies.    Ultimately the strength of the theory borders on how believable the parts are that are not possible to verify.   I experienced this book to be very good with that.   :)

There were many touch points between my little bit of experience dealing with big corporations and the book.

page 128 "...it is self-centered, self-serving, greedy and materialistic, a system based on mercantilism.   ....it will use whatever means it deems necessary to help its rulers gain more power and riches.  ...these workers were blind to the consequences of their actions, convinced that the sweatshops and factories that made shoes and automotive parts for their companies were helping the poor climb out of poverty, instead of simply burying them deeper in a type of slavery reminiscent of medieval manors and southern plantations."

Some touch-points:

• Before reading this book I recall often asking myself to what extend the big global corporations "investing" in the developing markets are really doing it for the well-being of the local people or whether it is done with some side agenda.   As some close colleagues in the past might recall this often made me utter the words that I have a "clash in ethos".    I experienced the intent and the actions of companies to be in conflict with each other.   Examples would be appraisal systems deployed resulting in employees sacrificing all for the sake of the company whilst the company is stating that work-life balance is important.   Another example might be where a company off-shores work away from local people without thinking twice about the socio-economic impact.    I know the equation is slightly more complex than the examples above, but the difference in intent and experience by staff still stand.

• The book does not state it blatantly, but I think the actions undertaken by the "EHM" or global corporations also negatively impacts US citizens.   The primary aim of action is to enrich the shareholder or an elite few.   In the case of the US this will include moving work away from US citizens to a lower cost base somewhere else in the world.

• Chapter 23 discussed "The Deceptive Résumé".    I giggled hard whilst reading this.  How often have I not been in situations where a CV was put forward just to "prove" capability with a cliënt even though you know that the specific person would never be utilised.     I have also seen how CVs are adjusted to fit the context of a cliënt.   I think this is a common sickness within the consulting world and not unique to being an EHM.

In the end the book was thought provoking and it reminded me again of reading the news deeper to discover the story behind the story.    Its a little like believing that what we read in the news are symptoms and we need to get to the root cause of the issues underlying the symptoms.

I realised today that it has been a while since I wrote something.    It has really been a hectic 3 months and I am barely hanging on.   Some highlights:

• My first 1-2 months at Fundamo has been slow primarily due to an unknown business domain for me.    The pace is however picking up rapidly and I have been busy in the last month.     I am very impressed with the domain knowledge of my fellow "Product Managers".     They not only know the Fundamo product extremely well, but their knowledge of the business domain is something to envy.   They are indeed a big asset for the company.
• I started to work on my thesis.    Cannot say to much about it, but it will focus on the adoption of mobile financial services and the impact on Africa.