Monthly Archives: October 2008

The Ross and Brand row – a sense of perspective please

Is it just me, or has the whole row about Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross got completely out of hand? OK, what they did was crass and in poor taste but should the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition be … Continue reading

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It’s the culture, innit?

Newsnight’s economics editor Paul Mason is presenting a programme called Credit Crash Britain on BBC2 this evening. As part of his investigation, he discovered an internal document from HBOS, written in 2004, which shows:  – the bank knew there was a … Continue reading

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Link and I’ll link back

A quick shout for Stonecast, a blog that linked to Flip Chart Fairy Tales recently. Stone Caster’s off-beat take on the world of work makes an interesting contrast to the considered, sober analysis you get here.  Ahem! Moving swiftly on. There … Continue reading

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Hedge fund managers run over by Porsche

It’s not often that you read the funniest story of the day on the front page of the FT. Forget Brand and Ross; this is much better. There the hedge fund managers were, happily short-selling Volkswagen shares when, suddenly, Porsche announced that … Continue reading

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See me in my office

The stories about Peter Mandelson, George Osborne and David Cameron jetting off to meet bankers, media tycoons and Russian oligarchs on their yachts got me thinking. You can tell a lot about power and hierarchy in an organisation by who goes to see … Continue reading

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The Norman Conquest: the original leveraged takeover

Every October, several hundred lunatics celebrate the anniversary of the Norman Conquest by re-enacting the Battle of Hastings. I’m told that it’s a great show. The people who do it train hard and put on a convincing display of medieval warfare. I keep promising … Continue reading

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Financial crisis is HR’s fault. Of course!

HR managers are used to taking the blame when things go pear-shaped. It’s just as well because now they are in the firing line for the credit crunch too. According to Personnel Today, a number of people are pointing the … Continue reading

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Bonus as usual

I was having a beer with a friend of mine who happens to be the head of PR at a well known company. He remarked that, in PR terms, the whole financial crisis has been a disaster for the banks. No one from … Continue reading

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Powerpoint – making the dull even duller since 1990

HR Wench is at a conference and, probably along with hundreds of others, is getting sick to death of Powerpoint presentations.  Which reminded me of this video by Don McMillan. As he says, Powerpoint can just suck the life out of … Continue reading

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Which employment laws would you dump?

I meant to comment on this piece by Luke Johnson (yes, him again) last week but then forgot about it until Mike Berry reminded me. I have my own views on this but I’d be interested to know what the readers of this blog think. … Continue reading

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