Proactive Paul

Fredrik Reinfeldt - a pragmatic prime minister

World Affairs on Sunday

It was refreshing to read in Charlemagne in this week’s Economist that Aleksandar Zuza of the Swedish trade union IF Metall, has a pragmatic view of Saab. When quizzed over the company’s prospects in the medium term Zuza said that if Saab cannot become commercially efficient within a couple of years “that will be that”.

To somebody who has been schooled in the belligerence of UK trade unions, I find it remarkable when I hear a Swedish trade union leader acknowledge that businesses need to be commercial! What I particularly liked was Fredrik Reinfeldt’s emphasis on workers and not companies “when a ship is sinking my main aim is to save the sailors, not the ship.”

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

In memory of the hovercraft

World Affairs on Sunday

Optimist James, has a section on his web site about International Hoverports though we have to admit that this genre extends only to England and France. It’s a fascinating web site and I found it after a personal visit to the mysterious Dr Who landscape at Pegwell Bay in Kent.

I didn’t even know that there had been a hoverport there, and whilst walking along the coast I first found a footbridge, an abandoned road, overgrown car parks and an enormous ramp leading up from the sea. On seeing the ramp I recognised that this had been a hoverport. I only ever used a hovercraft once (twice if you count the return journey) and that was on my honeymoon to Paris. We travelled from Dover and not Pegwell Bay.

The site is now abandoned, and there are no longer any buildings. It’s just like a scene from a science fiction programme where the visitors encounter traces of a “long lost” civilisation. The hovercraft was an extraordinary British invention. Sadly, only the military versions seem to warrant the high cost of running them. A visit to the derelict hoverport is quite thought provoking!

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

Sberbank Magna - the new General Motors?

World Affairs on Sunday

The world is polarised once more, at least on the subject of General Motors! On my side of the Atlantic, the newshounds focus on the future of Opel and Vauxhall. Whereas on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks like General Motors is being renamed Government Motors.

In the US, it looks like the government will be insisting that GM continues to produce cars that nobody wants to buy. In Europe it seems that the Russian Bank Sberbank will work with the car parts supplier Magna to re-engineer what Opel and its affiliates are doing. And personally, I think there will be a move down market to simpler cars like the Tata Nano.

My driving instructor (a long time ago) told me that there are only three things that a car has to do:

• It has to start.
• It has to stop.
• And, inbetween starting and stopping it has to go.

That’s exactly what Indian owners of the new US$2,000 Tata Nano will be getting . . . a no frills family car that gets you from A to B. Unless GM (or Sberbank Magna) realises that the growth markets for cars are going to be places like India and China, then they will lose out. The hybrid cars from Maruti Suzuki in India and the electric cars from Chery Automobile in China are set to dominate.

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

German Engineering

World Affairs on Sunday

For some time now I have been keeping track of my business affairs on a Zoho wiki. It’s a great tool, and it allows me to check procedures and update my “scribble pad” from any computer that has internet access. At least that was true until last weekend. I was planning to do some work on the Wiki last Sunday morning (when things are quiet and there are no distractions) and unfortunately, Zoho had the same idea at the same time. The wiki engine was unavailable for 3 hours. Both my wikis (I also use another Zoho wiki for keeping track of some private matters) were down.

And that scheduled maintenance time made me think. I have a back up of everything on Zoho, but it’s not much use without the engine. What I really need is my own wiki under my own control. Don’t get me wrong, Zoho is great, it has whistles and bells that beat the competition, but they do fiddle around with fine tuning a lot. I just get used to one way of doing something and then it changes.

So the time has come to settle for a simpler offering from a smaller competitor. I have spent hours today working on this and here’s what I have learnt. There are 5 free products on the market which fit my criteria for:

PHP scripts - TXT or MYSQL backend - Access control

• Bitweaver - more than just a wiki - a bit too big and complex to be honest
• TikiWiki - site unavailable due to a “major revision”
• Wikiwig - childish GUI - just didn’t look right
• WackoWiki - great potential , but failed at the final installation step - “must be a wikiname” is not explained and I tried everything!
• Dokuwiki - it’s simple, it’s effective and it works.

Now, I actually tried out Dokuwiki first, on one of my redundant web sites, and I did not like the syntax that I had to use, especially for tables. So I persevered with the others on my shortlist. All five wikis have had an equal chance, and I decided to implement access controlled wikis from Dokuwiki on two sites - one for business and one for private affairs. And guess what, Dokuwiki comes from Germany. As do many of the reliable goods and services that I buy!

And now that I have my own wiki engine, it will not change, so I will get used to the syntax. It will reside on my web servers, so it won’t go down (at least not for 3 hours in a row) and it is fully under my control. Given those advantages I can learn to live with a missing whistle or missing bell and some new syntax! Sorry Zoho!

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

Will you vote for a Euro MP?

World Affairs on Sunday

This coming Thursday the school around the corner will be closed, because it’s a Polling Station. Voting is taking place in the UK for local authority posts and for members of the European parliament. And it looks to me as if the subject of Europe has hardly entered the debate at all!

In my early days as an impressionable young 20 something I subscribed to the view that a unified and common set of values and behaviours could be a good thing. At about that time Robert Maxwell launched his new newspaper The European (RIP 1998) and there was intelligent dialogue across the media about the merits (or otherwise) of the EU.

It wasn’t long before I matured and began to realise that boyish ideals and members of parliament’s thoughts are as far apart as can be imagined. In my early 30s I gave up voting. I still follow politics with interest, yet I am one of those people who thinks that my vote is insignificant. It’s a commonly shared view and a number of leading journalists write regularly on this precise subject.

This past week I have been reading articles across the whole spectrum of the quality press and a few mentioned “Europe” but only in the context of it being absent from the current political debate. I have long thought that UK politics is dominated by three forces with the charisma of a cheeseburger, a hamburger and a vegeburger. I have better things to do on Thursday than vote. Unless, somebody can offer me a better menu than the one you get from McDonalds. Where are the candidates with a touch of sophistication?

As a 40 something I demand a bit of calibre in my cuisine and from restaurants, and I’d like a bit of calibre in my politicians and their infrastructure!

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

Airlines are going down

World Affairs on Sunday

This week British Airways announced record losses of $638M (£401M) and I thought it would be interesting to compare that to other airlines. I wanted to know which major airlines have performed best in a poor economy by comparing the published results for the last two years.

Easier said than done! A trawl of numerous websites, led to lots of anecdotal information, but more heat than light. I gave up when the corporate section of the Japan Airlines web site decided to show me most of the pages of the annual report, but refused to deliver the one page I wanted. I think it was a Flashplayer issue, rather than any reticence on the part of the company.

Anyway that made me think. There are two major problems with making financial comparisons of gobal organisations. Firstly, reporting standards differ in different jurisdictions, and secondly, there is no standardised approach for putting this information on the web. The first has been a headache for accountants for decades. The second could be addressed by the adoption of a “standard” section which all corporates could include in their own web sites. You could also try to have a centralised repository where corporates post their results, but I think a uniform way of using your own web site would be easier. That requires both a “standard” Annual Report and a standard HTML/CGI layout/mechanism. And could we always have the link to your “Annual Report” on the bottom left of your home page please?

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

Cuba’s subtle marketing

World Affairs on Sunday

Cuba gets some good press and some bad press, and in the eyes of the Brits and particularly the Americans, it’s a country that requires special treatment. The USA does not permit exports to Cuba. Through my contacts in the medical profession, I have learnt that most hospital eqiupment in Cuba is imported from Europe.

Not only that, they actually have some of the best hospital facilities around, and they offer free healthcare to neighbouring states. In the eyes of most of Latin America that’s very welcome. And no matter what else you think about Cuba, the idea of raising your international profile with this sort of clever strategy has to be admired. Through the Free Universal Healthcare programme they’ve made a lot of friends in that part of the world.

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

MiniBarcamp Fukuoka

World Affairs on Sunday

Mini Barcamp Fukuoka took place on 5 May 2009. It was more a Micro Barcamp than a Mini Barcamp with a total of four people in attendance.

And it all ran smoothly . . . well it would with just four people. The open space discussions meant that everybody had a chance to run a session, and we added an impromptu one at the end, on running another barcamp!

Session 1 - Co-working Japanese Style. There are currently few opportuinties for Independents, whether Japanese or Gaijin to find co-working space. What can be done to develop new ways of working for the internet age, and how can the whole communuity be engaged in this?

Session 2 - Washoku & Yoshoku Fusion. Sushi in London and Sandwiches in Fukuoka. There is a distinct shift in eating habits around the world, and this is now evident in a new breed of Okashi. A fusion of Wagashi with western ingredients leads to a sweet sort of Yogashi. There were also samples for us all to try!

Session 3 - Presentation Skills. Where do we learn those things that they don’t teach us in school (well at my school in any case). The old adage “keep it simple, stupid” still rules.

Session 4 - Blog Your Way To Fame. Katsuma-san has transformed herself from housewife to media personality in less than two years by blogging. Regular blogging and intelligent blogging - what can we learn from her system?

It would be great to run another Barcamp in the Fukuoka area, and if you’re into IT, and have an international community around you (do you study at APU Beppu) then maybe you’d like to help?

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

The 100 year old diet

World Affairs on Sunday

I am in Japan at the moment and enjoying a different twist to my usual healthy diet. By Western standards, it’s extraordinary what they eat for breakfast here. A full Japanese breakfast includes fish and rice and soya! Soya is everywhere, in the miso soup, in the tofu and in the soy sauce. I worked it out once, that in a single day I consumed soya beans in 17 different manifestations!

They can do the same sort of things with rice - there must be umpteen different ways to handle rice - and if you’re a puzzled Westener reading this just think how the potato manifests itself from crisps in England (chips in Amercia) to mashed potato. It’s the same thing, just done differently! Does a roast potato feel and taste different to a French fry? And it’s the same with humble rice, whether okaki, omochi or gohan!

By limiting their intake of meat (especially red meat) and focussing on fish and vegetables, the Japanese seem to have hit on a winning formula, and Japan has a greater population of centenarians than any other country.

Some Mediteranean countries also share a focus on healthier food and many people there live to be 100 years old. So my title for today’s blog was deliberately misleading. It’s not “a diet” which is 100 years old! I just want you to think about your diet if you want to live to be 100 years old!

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com

Iceland makes a difference

World Affairs on Sunday

Today I have learnt that Iceland acheived an 85% turn out in the general election. The fear had been that disaffected voters, tired of the recent financial turmoil, would lead to a turnout which could have been much lower!

What’s more, the election has led to two extraordinary outcomes. For the first time somebody who is openly gay has become a head of state, and the left wing coalition in Iceland has taken power after 70 years of being in opposition. The Althingi (I wonder how that’s pronounced) has just 63 members of parliament representing an entire population of 320,000.

Perhaps in the UK, we could acheive voter turnouts of 85% or more? If we thought we could really make a difference, that might happen. Clearly this time around in Iceland, the voters felt that they could make a difference, and they did!

Proactive Paul The Proactive Accountant Dot Com