• 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.

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.

• 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.

• I am completely new to the business domain, so it feels a little as if I am not contributing anything.    My old manager stated that it takes 3+ months to become really productive in a new environment.    I am hoping to do it in less than that.   :)
• The development method is new to me, but I must say that I really like the principles behind Agile
• Staff came back from long leave within week 2-3 week of the month
• Members of the team I belong to have been flying around the globe on various work assignments

Lastly, I received the first notes from Stellenbosch on how the research thesis should be structured.  It is going to be a LOT of late nights in the first half of the year.

• Managed to get through all my assignments and I surfaced in one piece.   :)
• Passed the IFS exam.   I honestly think that I have never studied so hard for anything before.
• Had an extremely difficult time at work throughout the exam and final set of assignments.
• I resigned from IBM on the 30 Nov 2010 with last working date on the 23th of Dec 2010.
• Will start with new challenges at Fundamo on the 10th Jan 2011.  I am really excited about it!

...2011 will bring its own set of excitement with 3 assignments, the thesis for the M.Phil and of course starting afresh at a new company...

There are two things that struck me whilst reading this article.

• The same pattern is visible around me. People conforming to a higher standard of living than what they really can afford. The flashy lifestyles are often maintained by credit. It took America 30 years to reach the state they are in. Our credit act might have protected a lot of people from following the same trend, but the root cause of the problem is still there. “Keeping up with the Joneses and following the Madison avenue lifestyle”.   There are of course major exceptions to this.   In most cases loosing your job is not something that people ask for.

• The salary expectations of people. South Africans are pricing themselves out of the global market. Do a quick research on the salary expectations of South African jobs compared to similar jobs in Europe and the US. It is no surprise that some of our work is moving to lower cost centres in the world.

“The men clustered in the shade of trees, in the 32°C heat of a car park in Atlanta, form the lowest layer of America's so-called middle class. They stare, alert like greyhounds, at the vans leaving the hardware store. When one pulls up they rush, 15 or 20 together, to the driver's window to negotiate. The hired man leaps in with his bag of tools: he'll earn $10 an hour, cash, for basic building work.

Go to the pristine cul-de-sacs where this supposed middle class lives and you will find, every couple of streets, a lawn as high as a wheatfield, indicating a home that has been repossessed. Even the survivors hang on by a thread. Juan and Kenyoda Pullen have been renting here since their home was repossessed. Sometimes the rent does not get paid. When they lost their jobs -- as postman and bank clerk -- their combined income dropped from $75 000 to $14 000 a year.

 Do you still feel middle class, I ask them. They do, they say, "though we're not really certain what that means any more". America's "middle class" was always a construct of ideology, indeed the expression of a dream.

 Yet America's middle class is disappearing. A lifestyle sustained for 30 years by rising debt is dissolving as the credit dries up. And the question beyond the crisis is: can it ever come back?

 Figures released last month by the US Census Bureau show it will be hard. Middle incomes are lower, in real terms, than in 1999. The median income, stagnate for a decade, fell by 4,2% once the crisis hit. Since December 2007 more than six million Americans have been pushed below the official poverty line.

This sudden collapse in lifestyle will have economic and psychological impacts long after the crisis is over. Since the 1980s US growth has been driven by the spending power of the salaried workforce. In turn the consumer has been the dynamo of global growth.

 To get things back to the way they were the US has to find a way to create nine million jobs, plug the gap in disposable incomes and reopen the personal credit system to the millions excluded from it. Judged against that, the Obama fiscal stimulus has failed.

 Meanwhile, some states have begun a race to the bottom: slashing welfare, labour regulations and local taxes to attract investment. High-wage companies close and relocate to low-wage states, and foreign investment flows to the towns where labour costs are lowest.

In a free-market society the real middle class is always a minority: if your street has a gate and a security camera at the end of it then you are middle class. A real middle-class kid can afford a college education, not a web-based degree. The real middle-class family does not skip meals or find its cars trapped in the repair shop because of unpaid bills.

 And even in America, if you are standing in 32°C heat, jostling with 30 other guys for a few hours' work, it is the man in the station wagon curling his finger at you that is middle class -- not you.”          [56%]

I now need to get my mind in order to study for the exam in Nov.   This is not going to be easy.

According to Prof Reich, the crisis in the American economy can be partly attributed to the stagnation of wages in the middle-class for the past 30 years. In this time-frame the bulk of economic wealth moved to the higher end of society. The middle-class then cut back on consumption resulting in massive job losses. The answer, according to Prof Reich, would be to rebalance the American economy to ensure that financial benefits are more widely spread.

I know the South-African context is completely different, but there are some things to ponder:

• Spread the economic wealth. More people will spend and work will be created. (Not just the rich in the consumption of “upper market” produce.)

• Take care and built the middle-class. They are the “consumption lungs” of the economy.

• Be wary of the impact that the “higher end of society” has on the economy over a long term. Especially if richness is gained at the expense of others!

“With unemployment in the stratosphere and the midterm elections weeks away, politicians naturally want to show voters they’re committed to getting jobs back.

So now they’re getting tough on China.

On Wednesday the U.S. filed a pair of complaints against China with the World Trade Organization, alleging China was unfairly denying American companies access to its market. Meanwhile, several Democrats facing elections in November are introducing measures that would allow companies to pursue sanctions against China for manipulating its currency.

It’s true China has kept the value of its currency artificially low relative to the dollar. If China allowed its currency to rise, Chinese exports would become more expensive to us and our exports would be relatively cheaper to them. This would help shrink the trade imbalance.

But it’s naive to assume all we have to do to get Chinese to do what we want is to threaten them with tariffs.

First, they might retaliate. Remember, China is the biggest foreign investor in U.S. Treasury securities, with holdings of more than $843 billion. If China were to start selling off large amounts, America’s borrowing costs would soar – and we’d end up worse off.

What worries me most about all this tough talk about China is it diverts attention from the real problem. American isn’t suffering high unemployment because we’re buying too much from China and not selling them enough. Trade with China is a small portion of the U.S. economy.

Twenty million Americans lack jobs because American consumers – especially America’s vast middle class – can no longer spend what’s necessary to keep nearly everyone employed.

After three decades of stagnant middle-class wages, during which almost all the economic gains have gone to the top, we’ve finally reached a day of reckoning. The middle class can no longer borrow vast sums by using their homes as ATMs. They can’t squeeze more working hours out of two wage earners. And they have to start saving for retirement.

The central challenge we face isn’t to rebalance trade with China. It’s to rebalance the American economy so its benefits are more widely shared.” [43%]

There is nothing really new in this article, but it strikes me how "easy" solutions might look from the outside.  Our problems will be solved when:

• crime is controlled
• upliftment has occurred and poverty has been reduced
• corruption is lessened

...and in the process we also need to manage:

• millions of needy people outside South Africa putting strain on our current infrastructure
• impact of world wide terrorism also impacting us

Now can any person or group supply only 2 serious and workable suggestions on solving just ONE of the items above?   The suggestion must include a thorough thinking pattern on how it will influence the outlying contextual and transactional environments impacting the problem statement.

“After successfully hosting this summer's World Cup, the challenge for South Africa's government is to make a serious dent in urban crime, tackle corruption, lessen poverty, and shape South Africa as a model for a continent wracked by economic and political problems.

 In 2007, the US State Department asked me to go to South Africa to meet with leading newspaper editors. With the 2010 World Cup looming, they wanted to hear the experience of an editor who had managed coverage of a major sports event, as I had in Salt Lake City with the 2002 Winter Olympics.

It helped that I had some knowledge of South Africa. I began my journalistic career in that country. Years later, The Christian Science Monitor based me there for six years as its Africa correspondent.

Remarkable improvements

When I visited in 2007, I found a country drastically changed from the one I had known in the days of racial segregation and apartheid, when a white minority basically suppressed the black majority.

 But it was also a country with dangerous levels of crime, and unfulfilled expectations of millions of blacks still living in shanty towns.

 ... concern that the infrastructure needed to handle hundreds of thousands of World Cup visitors could not be ready by 2010. Airports needed to be remodeled, hotels built, rail lines laid, ambitious stadiums constructed in different cities.

There were questions as to whether huge, crowded multiracial gatherings of blacks and whites could take place without violence. ...

 As we learned in 2010, the fears proved groundless.

 With more than $5 billion spent on preparations, the facilities were more than adequate. Transportation and lodging were abundant. Crime at the various venues was controlled. International TV showed cheering multiracial crowds in fabulous stadiums, against backgrounds of stunning South African scenery. It was a splendid coming-out for the new South Africa.

A model for the continent?

 With the festivities over, the question now is whether the government can make a serious dent in urban crime, tackle corruption, lessen poverty, and shape South Africa as a model for a continent wracked by economic and political problems.

 South Africa’s challenges are compounded by the presence of several million, often-illegal, refugees from elsewhere in Africa, especially Zimbabwe. Though South Africa has its own poor, its economy is the largest in Africa and thus attracts the dispossessed from elsewhere on the continent.

 ... tension and sometimes violence between individual black South Africans and arrivals from other African countries competing for jobs.

 Another potentially worrisome development for South Africa is the intrusion of Al Qaeda-style terrorism, until now confined to the continent’s Muslim north, into black southern Africa, specifically Uganda.”... [64%]

• Analyse the existing causal models between what is measured from a performance appraisal point of view and what the objectives of the organisation are.
• Propose a model through which systems thinking can enhance the alignment between measurement and objective outcome, thus narrowing the gap between the organisational intent and its behaviour.

My employer has a relatively complex appraisal method, so it will be interesting to work this one through.