Transient Random noise bursting from Cava Baja

Sobre imbéciles y malvados | Web oficial de Arturo Pérez-Reverte

2011-11-22T06:31:00.000-08:00

Sobre imbéciles y malvados | Web oficial de Arturo Pérez-Reverte

National Geographic: New horizons for the Organization

2011-06-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Below this lines you can find the full Executive Summary presented on May 4th for my Final Exam of the International MBA at IE Business School. This document, along with the final presentation, was ideated, developed and completed by myself and Radek Jezbera, my partner for the Exam.

The document explains our plan to undertake a deep organizational and functional change in an Organization that has continued to exist for over 121 years: The National Geographic Society.

For your information, this is how A-graded (best 5%) Final Exams at World's top business schools are ;)

Dear Mr. Fahley,

The National Geographic Society, after 121 years of existence, is facing great challenges that will define its future for the present century. In an exponential fashion during the last years, the media industry has evolved in a way that forces National Geographic (NG) to redefine its business model not only to keep its competiveness but to adapt and to survive to the new environment.

The following roadmap identifies the existing problems and major risks for the Organization, their impact, solutions and guidelines to drive the profound change that NG must face:

1) Definition of the problem

2) Company analysis and problems encountered

3) Recommendations

4) Financial Impact

5) Alternative Solutions

6) Risks & Countermeasures

7) Implementation Plan

1) Definition of the Problem. External and Internal Causes. Impact on NG

We have identified these problems according to its external or internal origin, accordingly establishing their consequences:

External factors and market trends in the Media Industry

As more and more the world turns paperless, overall sales of printed magazines, books and newspapers are going down. Tablets and smart phones, more and more improved and affordable have dramatically contributed to speed up this process.

The process in which TV and Internet are converging is changing the power structure of content producers, distributors and broadcasting companies. The potential customer base is now broader due to an increasing number of information channels.

With more and more channels available to communicate, more contents and free or very affordable access to them, loyalty has decreased dramatically. This has led to a tougher competition in the media industry to attract customers offering a wide range of free contents and features.

Internal factors that need to be addressed

While continuity and low risk may have been a valid driver during decades, deriving in slow decision making processes, this philosophy should be eliminated to allow the change. The current structure leads to inefficiencies and duplication of activities through harmful internal competition, missing business opportunities.

Overlapped activities and misaligned price strategy are affecting the brand credibility and diluting the name and recognition of NG. Besides, the Organization lacks an effective information system, impeding employees to collaborate across business units and accentuating the silo perception.

NGS is aware of the need for change, but it is lacking a clear strategy to face these changes, and the shift to a customer oriented approach is a fact that have been envisioned but not shaped.

2) Company analysis and problems encountered

We are using McKinsey’s 7S framework enriched by overview of strategic resources to provide and integral analysis of the NG organization:

Strategy: NG shifted from being a national US magazine promoting American topics to a global ecologically concerned magazine with 34 international editions. NG is a diversified corporation spanning publishing, media production, and travel industry. It’s revenue stream include magazine, books, and educational material publishing, TV content creation, travel agency, educational games development, branded merchandize. NG is funding and organizing scientific research and exploration that later popularize in the magazine and books. NG is aware of the current trends in media convergence and plans to adapt by creating new content delivery channels (internet, social networks) which NG calls e-commerce.

Skills: NG has one of the world’s best nature and travel photographers resulting in world class photography skills. NG products posses the capability to inspire and evoke customer’s imagination, which is one of the main reasons they continue to buy the NG products. NG is able to generate unique contents hardly matched by competitors.

Shared Values: NG staff is proud on NG rich history of popularizing science. Working at NG is rather a mission than just work. The mission is educating the world promoting ecological awareness.

Structure: NG combines non-profit and for profit activities in separate business units. The Mission Program unit is partially funded by donations and profits of revenue generating business units. Business units function as isolated silos of information and competencies limiting cross company synergies. An organizational structure divided per products promotes product orientation where products compete among each other for customers. On top of that, separated P&L for product groups creates unhealthy competition for resources and ideas.

Staff: NG staff is loyal due to a sense of belonging and identification with the NG’s mission and heritage. However, they criticize poor conflict resolution, unclear marketing strategy and silos in the organization.

Systems: NG governance processes allows duplication initiatives, which leads to internal competition and inconsistent brand presentation. Moreover, activities and programs do overlap e.g. seven different loyalty programs.

Style: The organization culture is process and consensus driven rather than results driven. Risk aversion prevails as failures are punished while successes are not always rewarded.

Strategic resources: NG brand awareness and typical yellow frame image is well positioned in customer minds as source of reliable information about the planet. The NG brand attributes help customers to identify with the brand and promote by word-of-mouth, which can be further leveraged at social networks. With 10.5 million original pictures, NG has one of the world’s largest databases, only surpassed by Shutterstock (15 million[i]). Pictures can be licensed for use in other magazines or accessed by NG community members as a membership benefit. 40 million readers around the globe position NG magazine as a top choice for readers with post-graduate education and top management positions, which represent an attractive community with potential for new revenue streams.

3) Recommendations

We have structured our recommendations based on the following pillars:

a. Brand and Core Values: Reformulation of the mission

Based upon the mission described in 2004 (“To inspire people to care about the planet”), we would like to propose its reformulation, linking it to what we believe are the pillars for a sustainable growth at NG: Planet => People => Profit => Prosperity => Peace

“A service oriented approach, and adapting to the 21st Century’s customer behavioral patterns, are key factors to position NG as the leader of the community that takes care of our Planet and Prosperity of its People.”

These premises should be included in the activities representing the NG brand. We have considered the following actions:

· Coherence with the mission, sponsoring or building strategic alliances with companies sharing common values.

· Education and value sharing, focusing philanthropic activities to broadcast its educational contents in developing areas.

· Increase the sense of Community beyond the present sphere of influence of NG.

· Walk the talk: Apart from being ecological organization, NG can use its brand reputation organizing forums in a systematic way e.g. TED Talks[ii].

b. Organizational Change

Current NG organizational structure is characterized by organizing around particular products with separate marketing and branding functions. We believe that current structure is not only entrenched in the traditional now declining business model, but also hindering the transition to the business model for the digital economy. Hence we propose radically changing the organization design to promote innovation, cooperation, and multi-channel interaction with customers.

Exhibit 1 depicts the new organizational design, which is centered on three types of customers. The ones who use NG free services, NG paying members, and those, who engage with NG in isolated transactions on pay per content mode. NG delivers the content and products to customers via four channels Print, TV, Web and Mobile platforms, and Retail Shops. The interaction in each of the channels follow both-ways while customers give feedback, comments, and also submit their own content like videos, pictures, blog posts, etc. The Sales & Channels business unit is in charge for the Channel Management, Prints Distribution, Ad Sales, and Licensing. In fact, it is the major revenue generating business unit within NG.

The Content Factory combines all content creation capabilities previously scattered around product units. Bringing Journalism, Audio & Video, Education, and Community Generated Content into one business unit, prevents duplication of activities and promotes re-using the content in various products and channels.

The Mission Programs is crucial differentiating part of the NG business model. For that reason we propose to concentrate it in separate business unit together with NG Travel.

We propose to create new business unit Marketing & Community Management that will cover all NG marketing activities across all products and channels. Marketing encompasses product management with dedicated product managers for each product, Community Management main goal of which is to develop NG customer community by not only managing the on-line platform, but also cooperating with product and channel managers to deliver coherent customer experience. Similarly, the Brand Manager will assure consistency and development of the NG brand across all channels and products.

Under Operations, the Media & Technology unit is the centralized successor of previous IT teams that will constantly look for emerging technologies that can leverage NG value offering. Also, the unit will provide IT support to all existing NG activities together with development of new tools for both internal and external customers.

The Production unit will be supporting the Content Factory with publishing specialists including pre-press and distributed printing through partners around the world. It will also cover all aspects of Audio & Video production that cannot be handled directly by the Content Factory like operating recording studios and performing advanced editing.

We are convinced that such a major organizational and culture change requires top-down coordination and support. Therefore, we propose to create functional position of E-Commerce Program Manager reporting directly to the CEO. The E-Commerce Program Manager will facilitate establishing the E-Commerce competencies in four areas of the NG organization Community Management, Interactive Products, Web & Mobile Channels, and Media & Technology projects. When the Program successfully finishes and the E-Commerce competency is deeply rooted in NG organizational capabilities, this position will be dissolved. She will be evaluated on the project performance metrics like alignment with scope, budget, and timing and on additional revenue and costs saving generated by transition to the E-Commerce business model. The proposal of new organization chart is contained in the Exhibit 3.

c. Embracing Internet and Social Platforms

On-line platforms

The future of the organization will depend on the ability of NG to make its own content and resources available for the largest number of people, generating traffic and becoming an opinion leader in the race for a sustainable planet. In our view, this scenario can be possible by creating and developing a social platform bringing together the scientific community, travelers and all people concerned and sensitive to the core values of NG.

In this “Freemium” social network (See Exhibit 4), NG content will be displayed, as well as content from other sources (users, scientific community, travelers) creating a much larger base of content, available for all the users of the platform, increasing traffic, creating network externalities and providing an additional value to the users.

The Free area with community-generated content and some content provided by NG is free with aim to generate traffic to the platform. Premium content from NG like access to articles, download hi-res photos and full-length videos can be accessed on pay per content basis. Additionally, an advertisement is another revenue stream to support the platform.

The Free level is the foothold for the Premium area that will generate revenue from the membership fees. Member’s choice how to consume the content (NG printed magazine, Web, Mobile, etc.) and possibility of interaction is the basis of the new concept of NG Membership. Also, NG Members have access to all the historic data base of the NG archives.

Off-line platforms

For NG magazine (Exhibit 5) we suggest considering upgrading to an exclusive high-end product:

Delivering a collection’s magazine with a high-end look and quality.

Magazine enhancing / augmented reality allowing readers access to dynamic additional content at the Web e.g. Esquire Magazine[iii].

Exclusive contents not available on-line to endow NGM with a uniqueness that will attract readers and NGS followers.

Higher price and margins for delivering exclusiveness.

In parallel, we suggest to consider creating a new editorial in line with NG’s philanthropic spirit, focused on a low-income segment in developing markets with room for the local community contents. Its characteristics would be:

· Content creation, edition, distribution and sale in developing countries

· Educational focus publishing books for schools at affordable price

· Use of recycled paper from local plants and ensuring fair trade policies for printing and distribution process

· Contribution of the local communities to the contents of the local edition magazine, completed with contents from NG

d. Enabling the Staff with Technical Skills and Fostering Initiatives to Achieve Result-Oriented Organization

The change is driven by employees well knowledgeable about the road map, technically competent, result-oriented and concerned about the mission. Our recommendations are based on:

Technical skills’ internal evaluation process: We suggest the formation of a team of experts in new technologies in charge for conducting test of employees’ technical skills, determining the bottom line of expertise required. We recommend ensuring that employees in New Media & Technology and Content Factory are “web savvy” esp. in blogging, social networks, email marketing, mobile applications.

Information technologies: The Marketing & Community business unit (see Exhibit 3) is suggested to provide a plan for a simple and scalable Enterprise Resource Planning Software, agreed by a commission including members of all business units and your personal supervision. This should result into more efficient internal communication and a faster decision making

Training: Rotational programs for selected employees should be implemented in order to acquire a global understanding of the organization, employees’ development and minimizing the traditional territorial behavior of the different business units.

Employee compensation: We propose changes in the variable salary structure: the weight of the individual performance should be higher than the Business Unit or company performance, fostering internal competition and instilling a result-oriented style.

Fostering initiative and entrepreneurial spirit: To foster initiative and the entrepreneurial spirit at NG, we propose that employees can choose a project of their own, aligned with the core values at NG, and dedicate up to 10% of the employee’s working hours to it.

4) Financial Impact

From the financial statement analysis, it is apparent that Catalog Sales & Licensing has highest gross margin amounting 21.92% at the end of 2009. Also, NG Magazine enjoys fair gross margin 18.82%. On top of that the gross margin keeps improving. Unfortunately, the remaining products have either negligible or negative gross margin. In total, NG reports gross margin 9.3%.

We projected NG financials until the end of 2013 in order to understand NG situation, should current trends continue assuming retaining 2009 gross margins. We believe that the decline in NG magazine sales of 21% from 2004 to 2009 was partially caused by the economic recession. Hence, we assume the decline to slow down to 2.2% per year. Additionally, we assumed slower growth in School Publishing, Documents Production, and Catalog Sales & Licensing as the market will become more saturated over time. In result, the overall gross margin will decrease from 9.3% to 8.86%. On the other hand, the Consolidated Operating Income will be $5.5m higher in 2013 in comparison with 2009 as the drop in the NG Magazine income will be replaced by the Catalog Sales & Licensing. Detailed calculation is in the Exhibit 6.

Apart from current trends analysis, we calculated financial benefits of finding new revenue streams from the on-line community platform and savings resulting from organizational transformation. The on-line platform revenue will come from cross sell of NG products and advertisement sales. We utilized the revenue per user model while we benchmarked the future NG on-line platform with per user revenue at Facebook and Twitter[iv]. The resulting user revenue $.80 per year is an average between Facebook and Twitter data. Then, the contribution is calculated using 9.3% gross margin on NG products in 2009. We also assume that the costs of the platform will not be higher than current non-consolidated NG on-line offerings, hence the revenues are incremental. The platform will generate $18m revenues and $1.68m of contribution in 2013. NPV in the course of five years amounts $6.04m at 15% discount rate.

The organization transformation will centralize many functions and remove duplication of activities. Resulting savings can be benchmarked with Shared Service Centers projects as they aim at similar goals. AT Kearney study^{^[v]}claims that such a project typically results in 17% cost savings. We used this figure to estimate savings from the Product Expenses and S&GA. The savings will be realized gradually starting with 30% in 2010 and finishing with reaching full savings potential of $67.6m in 2014. We estimated the cost of transformation to be 50% of the actual savings. The five year NPV at 15% discount rate amounts $153m. In 2013, the savings will contribute with $55.76m into NG profits. Detailed calculations for both incremental revenues and savings are in the Exhibit 7.

In conclusion, by implementing proposed savings and revenue generating initiatives, NG can improve the gross margin to 21.72% and triple the 2009 Net Operating Income. Projected financial statements after the implementation of proposed changes are in the Exhibit 8.

5) ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

The proposed recommendation can be implemented also separately. However, the effect of the recommendations will be strongest when they are implemented together.

Alternative 1 – Implementing the on-line community platform without radically changing the organization structure will bring NPV of $6.04m in five years without major investments. On the other hand, there is risk that the platform will remain isolated initiative within NG product portfolio that won’t be able to deliver the synergies with the NG content from the various products. We see this alternative as a quick win approach without gaining sustainable competitive advantage.

Alternative 2 – Introducing only the organizational changes while gaining cost saving advantages from centralizing certain functions will result in NPV $152m in five years. Financial results of Alternative 1 seem almost negligible in comparison with this financial gain. Although, the savings and increased organizational capabilities will certainly “buy time”, the market trends will eventually lead to further decline in NG traditional business model.

In conclusion, we propose to implement both Alternatives at the same time as only integrated approach will yield sustainable results.

6) Risks & Countermeasures

We foresee risks on the way of the changes implementation. Firstly, the there is a risk that the pace of changes will not be fast enough to cope with changing customer preferences and substitutes. To prevent that we propose to create great sense of urgency by the NG management in the whole organization with little tolerance for delays in the implementation of the changes. Secondly, potential resistance from the staff can hinder the changes. We believe that by radically changing the organizational structure, the staff will be forced to cope with the new situation at the workplace. At the same time, it will create momentum for the further changes in the business model. Thirdly, not being able to attract top talent in the e-commerce area can endanger successful launch of the on-line initiatives. Communicating externally in interviews and conferences about the changes NG undertakes, will create interest among e-commerce professional community. Additionally, targeted hiring of top e-commerce specialists from successful companies with the on-line business model will immediately bring required knowledge and talent to the organization.

7) Implementation Plan

The full implementation comprising all the recommendation is estimated to take place within the next 33 months with a pre-implementation phase of 6 months. The detailed plan is in the Exhibit 9.

APPENDIX

Exhibit 1 – External & Internal Analysis

Exhibit 2 – New Organizational Design

Exhibit 3 – Proposed Organization Structure

Exhibit 4 - NG on-line. Configuration of the NG social network

Exhibit 5 - NG off-line. Configuration of the NG Magazine and Green Edition

Exhibit 6 – Revenue & Income as Projection of Current Trends

Exhibit 7 – Cost and Benefit Analysis of Proposed Recommendations

Exhibit 8 – Revenue & Income as Projection of Proposed Recommendations

Exhibit 9 – Implementation Plan 2010 - 2013

REFERENCES

MARKET TRENDS

Valerie A. Haugh, The Dawning of the “E” World –How Will the Paperless Society That Is Predicted to Come Affect Your Commercial Space & Your Business?, Gardner Carton & Douglas, November 1999 http://www.drinkerbiddle.com/files/Publication/8fb4f6bb-59d3-4e32-8ce4-f2770da8031c/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/de422b7c-ee1a-40c1-ac53-0fd4371867de/Dawning.pdf

Who killed the newspaper?, The Economist, August 2006, http://www.economist.com/node/7830218?story_id=7830218

Ramzy Baroud, Making room for a paperless world, Arab News, May 2010, http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article57545.ece

About ebooks and the future of printed media:

Joshua Benton, Takeaways for journalists from today’s Apple announcement: Better reporting tools and an ebook boom, Nieman Journalism Lab, March 2011, http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/takeaways-for-journalists-from-todays-apple-announcement-better-reporting-tools-and-an-ebook-boom/

Joe Pompeo, Are ebooks about to change everything in the long-form media world?, March 2011, http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110323/ts_yblog_thecutline/are-ebooks-about-to-change-everything-in-the-long-form-media-world

American publishers association, http://www.publishers.org/

Nate Hoffelder, One in 4 Americans Read eBooks, eBooksNewser, April 2011, http://www.mediabistro.com/ebooknewser/one-in-4-americans-reads-ebooks_b9892

iPad Sales to More than Double Next Year, eMarketet, December 2010, http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008098

required Technical skills for staff in digital publishing

Tech Skills Every New Graduate Should Possess, Domain.com, May 2010, http://www.domain.com/blog/domaincom/tech-skills-every-new-graduate-should-possess/

Technology Competencies for Library Staff, Oakland Library, Fall 1998, http://www.oaklandlibrary.org/techcomp.htm

DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS

Freemium, Wikipedia, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium

How to bring interactivity to traditional media

Matthew Humphries, Esquire enhances magazine with augmented reality, Geek.com, November 2009 http://www.geek.com/articles/news/esquire-enhances-magazine-with-augmented-reality-20091110/

EXAMPLES OF Organizational change to be ready for 21^st century

Organizational Transformation at the BBC, 2006, http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Business%20Strategy/BSTR231.htm

Russell Grossman, Pamela Smith, Humanizing cultural change at the BBC, Melcrum, 2006, http://www.melcrum.com/presentations/ukmca/presentations/07_Cultural_Change/grossman_and_smith.pdf

[i]Number of images at Shutterstock, http://www.shutterstock.com/?gclid=CIqOgbbkwqgCFYYTfAoda1BWrw

[ii] TED Talks, http://www.ted.com/talks

[iii] Augmented reality at Esquire, http://www.esquire.com/the-side/augmented-reality

[iv] Putting a Reasonable Price on Facebook and LinkedIn, WSJ, December 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704146904574579543239159268.html,

Mark Raby ,Twitter on pace to reach...200 million users by 2011, TG Daily, November 2010, http://www.tgdaily.com/software-brief/52284-twitter-on-pace-to-reach200-million-users-by-2011

[v] Corporate Center and Shared Services, AT Kearney, 2011, http://www.atkearney.com/index.php/Our-expertise/corporate-center-and-shared-services.html

Today's song is an energy shot by Pacific...

How to do business in the Gulf: some cultural tips (in Spanish)

2011-06-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

First of all, my apologies to my English readers for posting something in Spanish. i have been recently asked to write some characteristics of what means to do business in the Gulf, and these are my conclusions. It is more focus on some cultural aspects than purely technical aspects of bidding processes. Your input, however, will always be very useful. Thank you

Cómo intentar hacer negocios en el Golfo Pérsico y no fracasar en el intento:

- Tan importante como el "know how" lo es el "know who", y la sociedad árabe es una sociedad muy relacional en la que el boca a boca no sólo es efectivo positivamente sino que puede hundir un proyecto empresarial. Como ejemplo: En Kuwait (así como en otros países del Golfo) todas las noches los hombres cabeza de familia se reunen con sus amigos y/o familares en la Diwaniya: éste es un espacio anexo a la casa en el que se toma el té y se habla del mundo, pero también donde se cierran tratos, y se habla bien o mal del trabajo de una empresa u otra.

- La paciencia y el aprender a conocer el ritmo en el que se producen los acontecimientos es clave para entender que no siempre se respetan los tiempos para una resolución de una licitación, o incluso te pueden dejar colgado en una reunión cancelando a última hora. Conocer estos factores, entenderlos, y tratar de minimizar su impacto en nuestros objetivos, es posible: Anticipación, doble o triple confirmación de fecha y hora de la reunión, prescindir del corrreo cuando cláramente nuestro cliente no lo usa y prefiere el teléfono para las comunicaciones, y ser insistente aunque nunca descortés a la hora de entablar una relación profesional.

- El prestigio y reputación internacional como vehículos para el éxito. En el mundo árabe, los números y el tamaño sí cuenta. Valoran mucho la trayectoria internacional de una empresa que quiera hacer negocios con ellos. Desde luego, ser anglosajón ayuda a ello, y el hecho de que prácticamente todo el Golfo fuera antigua colonia suya, les da una ventaja con la que los españoles no contamos. Saber encontrar alianzas con otras empresas más internacionalizadas, se convierte, por tanto, en la clave para, sin tener que crecer orgánicamente, poder dotar a nuestra empresa del "currículum" que nos van a pedir de proyectos internacionales.

Como este blog tiene la característica de que siempre hay una canción recomendada después, este post, aunque en español, no iba a ser menos...

Crystal Stilts, Flying into the sun:

Gaddafi: from tyrant to good guy, from good guy to dictator. The narrative changes again

2011-03-01T04:35:00.000-08:00

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in a desperate try to control and preserve his more than 40 years regime, is using all of his destructive power to fight those who rise up against him, a majority that is quickly taking control over the country even as I write these lines. UN Security Council has just announced sanctions against Gaddafi for crimes against humanity and US President Obama recently said the Libyan leader must step down and leave the country immediately.

It was in 2004 when Tony Blair visited him in Libya and the world’s leading countries started to recognize Gaddafi as a good guy. In 2003 Gaddafi made a crucial change in his speech and publicly announced the cancellation of his weapons of mass destruction programs, allowing the international community to check that these were not just empty promises. That same year the regime took responsibility for the actions of its officials in respect to the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 and in 2001 Gaddafi was one of the first Arab leaders to condemn the 9/11.

These gestures, among others, seemed enough for the world’s media to start changing the narrative about a person who was once called by ex-President Reagan “the mad dog of the Middle East" in the early 80s. A look at the biography of Gaddafi shows the profile of a person who has incentivized and supported terrorism until the 90s, oppressed the country with his authoritarian ways for more than four decades, and, according to most online dictionaries, that is precisely the definition of “dictator”. Although he changed his approach in what regards to terrorism –or at least he manifested so- no indication whatsoever was shown about a change in the way he ruled the country, ways which are precisely what defines what a dictator is.

So, if nothing has changed in the way Gaddafi rules the country and he is still not restricted by a constitution, or laws or a recognized opposition, why did the world all of the sudden start to reframe his profile and turn the page from “Mad Dog” to “Good Guy”?

Libya’s oil production is interestingly correlated to the level of acceptance of the regime by the Western world: During the 1980s the production remained constant around 22,000 million barrels, and only in the mid 1990s did the production start to increase to almost double by 2004, and keep growing until another 16% as of last year, as long as foreign companies stepped into the country to renew the infrastructure and maximize the productivity of the oil rigs. In similar proportion Gaddafi’s fortune boosted with his shares in Tamoil among other assets. It wasn’t a secret that Europe (and Spain as well) had been also selling weapons to Libya until last year.

We all know by now that starting just a few weeks ago President, Leader and Father of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (Libya, for most of us) has once again been framed as a dictator and tyrannical oppressor of the Libyans—ready to do everything to retain his absolute power, including bombing the citizens or execute those in the military forces who refuse to defend the regime and follow orders.

It is clear that the term “dictator” fits Gadaffi better than ever. However, I can hardly find any good article denouncing the hypocrisy of those who didn´t hesitate to present and accept Gadaffi as the new friendly “regional strongman” and now again frame him as a cruel dictator.

We all have seen this changing narrative in global politics already framing the solution: the enemy of our society that has to be eliminated. From Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden or Chavez all the way to Gadaffi, and every new reformulation of somebody from evil to good person or vice verse is simply accepted as it comes. What accounts for this change in discourse framing? Have we been fooled again or are we fooling ourselves consciously?

It is tempting to mention the resemblance of the story with Orwell’s 1984: Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania keep changing their enemies and the system keeps us busy by instilling in us a new story of war which responds to the economic interests of the people in power to preserve a constant state of control, fear and shortages. However, this is no longer attainable when people in western societies have access to many sources of information and each individual can express his/her position through many channels.

Many people are now posting in blogs or social networks about the winds of change in the Arab world, stating that a change is needed and democracy in the region is the only plausible option. Wasn’t this change needed one year ago? Or twenty? Nobody is denouncing our leaders for collaborating with the regime during the previous years. However, weren’t we free to have denounced that too?

In my opinion, the narrative in global politics is not necessarily created top-down (as in Orwell’s 1984) and simply accepted. We, as informed individuals, are constantly creating our own individual narratives that frame the reality we need to preserve our status and continue to fulfill our expectations of a prosper future. We tend to ignore when our leaders are doing business with dictators like Gadaffi either because we think it is somehow beneficial for our country hence for us, or because we think it doesn’t affect us at all. If there is any doubt about what to think, there is always the “official” main source of information provided by our Media!

My conclusions are the following: let’s get some perspective and let’s use the information available to build our own narratives based on a greater prosperity than ours: a global prosperity. It would be a gigantic step for us if we were able to identify not only the current events in regards to Libya (or any other world conflict) but the social and historical context in which these events have taken place.

During the interesting and stimulating sessions of Connections and Inflections, our professor Rolf Strom-Olsen proposed the debate about continuous growth versus equilibrium. I think that to perpetuate these changing narratives will only respond to our interest of maintaining our status to keep growing, but, to what expense? Increasing the existing gap between nations and moving away from this equilibrium will only result in a scenario where our societies will be worse off and our prosperity at stake.

Now we have the choice to express ourselves as individuals through many channels. Next time we read about relevant decisions in global politics, let’s ask ourselves: Why is it happening? What are the consequences of these acts? How can I connect this to past events? How does this affect me, but also how does this affect citizens in the country relevant to the decision? Are our leaders’ decisions looking for our profit or our prosperity?

I already got tickets for Cut Copy next March 22nd in Madrid, so here is one of the song I expect to listen that day...Cut Copy, Hearts On Fire:

Job search in Spain - Myths and truths

2011-02-18T03:02:00.001-08:00

For the first time in this blog I am personally involved in the topic I am bringing up for a post...I could also add dramatically involved, if we look into the cold numbers that this not long ago promising country is yielding nowadays.

Yes, I am talking about finding an attractive and challenging job in a country that has the worst unemployment rate among the OECD members and its productivity has just abruptly fell from the 33rd to the 42nd position! A country that has seen how the brand Spain is losing the prestige that took years to gain to become almost and stigma for those Spanish firms that are doing well.

I consider myself fortunate by the quality of the education received and the professional experience accrued in Spain and abroad...I have no doubt that I would be eligible for a number of job positions if we were now in 2007...but does this guarantee me a job today?

In 95% of posts starting this way, the remaining part tends to be an exercise of pessimism, complaints and a gateway to target and shoot some of the factors that surely have created this situation: Real Estate bubble, high market expectations of high returns (buy low sell high) and boomerang effect and depressing consequences on the people. Also general conformism when things were fine, lack of anticipation and even larger lack of reaction by our politicians are the drivers of all that. I could spend a long time describing, for those who don´t know anything about it, the political arena of Spain...but my time and your time are very valuable and neither you nor me want to waste it talking about supreme mediocrity.

As I was saying, since most of this approaches to the "Spanish Issue" are rather pessimistic, I decided to follow a different path, and focus on the reasons why I believe I am going to find not just a job but a job that fulfills my expectations, realistically accepting that maybe salaries haven't increased the way we all expected a few years ago (It is also true that the price index has gone down, so the real buying power may even not have been affected). A thorough search, proactive use of ALL the resources available, intensive in time and effort search, drive, stamina and self-convincing attitude may have not even been necessary all at once during the good times. Now this is only a pre-requisite to start the search. Call it exhaustive (the job search is a job in itself) but nothing undoable. So far so good?

The criticism up to here is quite obvious and the aforementioned is already written in many "find-your-dream-job" books. Besides, there is no job for everybody...But, are other variables considered? Meaning, are people looking into the possibility of considering: a different town or city or region for the needed/expected/deserved job? A different industry in which their capabilities can also be useful? To create your own job and become an entrepreneur? To propose formulas in which an employer can be less reluctant to hire (part time jobs, a voluntary lowering in the salary)?

Out in the street one listens to people, the shelter of deciding to study something seems to be the most suitable way for many to pass these bad times...but haven´t many just surrender to the "unemploymentality"under the comfortability of the unemployment salary? (low in comparison with other eurocountries but enough to have a decent living in most parts of Spain).

Let me just leave this question lingering in the air, and let me also add something else: the family and kinship's strong influence in Spain: it clearly becomes the soft cushioning for the falling of many not contemplated in the figures that is letting the country free from any social riot or protest whatsoever. Whereas you couldn´t even contemplate this option in many other western countries, the newspapers are full of stories about families coming back to their parents´house.

Last, but not least is the underground economy in Spain that, for some is keeping active to one third of the officially unemployed population. The Ministry of job affairs affirmed that between 16% and 20% of Spain's GDP is the size of the underground economy...

So, to summarize: people are broken, unemployed and not even (longer) looking to reverse this situation in some (many) cases because:

- The unemployment salary covers their basic needs and more, depending on where you live.

- The family structure creates a network in which sons, daughters, cousins...can always come back to the nest and have temporary financial support or shelter.

- The underground economy is providing an income to many families, benefiting also from the unemployment salary in many cases.

- On top of that, although this can be challenged as everything written in this blog, is the conformism and reluctance to change of the people of Spain, the worst enemies we have always had. The crisis provoked diverse reactions in the countries, whereas some (Germany, USA) where driven by a non acceptation of a potential downfall and fought to recover at the earliest, I have the impression that Spain has always perceived this crisis as a storm: It can be more or less strong and harmful, but it passes and then comes the sun and as if nothing had happened.

With all the above, and again, not forgetting that I have been raised in an environment that allows me to be in a position where I can choose to some extend where and how I want to work, I believe that others in my situation should push to the limit their chances and avoid being conformist. Better times won't come if we think this is just a storm.

Yesterday I attended Laetitia Sadier's concert at Sala Neu, it was amazing to see her with just her guitar and unveiling the way she probably starts composing her songs for Stereolab. The song I'm posting today is called Un soir, un chien.

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Dubai 1990-2010: how to build an evil paradise

2010-11-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

I have been in Dubai no less than 12 times, either for business purposes or for leisure escaping from time to time from the boredom of Kuwait and to be able to have a glass of wine while having dinner. For those who don´t know it, alcohol is not legal in Kuwait.

We all have heard so many times about the wonders of this small non-oil producer Emirate of Dubai: the city has been achieving many "records" in the last years: world's highest skyscraper, largest airport, largest shopping mall...whether we like it or not Dubai has become somebody, a new city name to write at a hotel front desk international time's clock! London - Paris - NYC - Dubai...Wuaw! (is there a punctuation mark for irony in a keyboard?)

However, this is what transcends to most of the people overseas, but it hides the basis this city has been built upon. I am not an expert but "I've seen things" and for me the underlying truth of Dubai city makes me state that what has been built there from 1990 until now represents the worst values of the modern society.

Let me put the context first: Historically, Dubai has been a trading hub between Southeastern Asia and Europe, the Creek was (and still is) crossed everyday by thousand of small boats and is populated by only 17% of UAE nationals, as a sign of the crossroad of cultures that it has always been. With a extraterrestrial heat and humidity in the long summer, local construction used millenarian techniques to keep some freshness on the inside during 8 months per year. However, the city, built on the desert sand was still a hostile place for the human being and so the population never exceeded 100,000 even well advanced the second half of the XXth century.

And what happened around 1990? The Gulf War made a lot of people (many palestinians scaping from Kuwait) and a lot of money (big Kuwait fortunes scaping from the iraqui sack) landed in Dubai. Jointly with the support of the Emir to shift into a touristic alternative for the arab world all this turned the city in an ocean of cranes during years up until now...The scenario today is completely different, as you know, with a landscape of towers crowned with the recently inaugurated Burj-Khalifa of 820m. But the desert is still there, and probably hotter than before, and the levels of energy consumption grow brutally every year in order to keep the indoor areas at a comfortable 24º temperature.

For those who have never been there, i will put it in simple words: it is the closest sensation to a sauna that you will ever have in your life. And when you spend a lot of time in a sauna, you generally die...

So the context is there and these are my reasons to strongly state that Dubai, a respected and honorable trading hub and gate to the west, has become the showroom for many of the things that the civilization should avoid this century:

- The power of (laundry) money: Dubai never had a plan but real estate developments here and there. The ultimate goal of the city was never to provide a better place to live to anybody, but to convert God-knows-coming-from-where money into the most short term profitable investment at the time when the bubble was growing: construction of residential buidings.

-Human rights: The fictitious fairytale of freedom in Dubai comparing to other arab countries: it simply cannot be believed if we just look at the conditions so many thousand of South Asia's labor were cheated to come to work there and have a better life whereas their passports were taken upon arrival and they were confined in indecent camps working indecent number of hours...Slavery was abolished almost 200 years ago...but modern forms of human abuse have taken place to build this city. But let´s be fair, many western companies operating there are responsible of these abuse.

- Lack of need: there is no need to have a city ready to host 6 million people in the middle of the desert, it has never been full capacity and it will never be. Specially with the crisis and specially with only 4 months when you can enjoy with the outside temperature and hence the sea! With the number of square kilometers built for nothing and no one many rural areas or areas affected by tsunamis or earthquakes worldwide...could have been completely rebuilt. Just one figure: one third of all the world's cranes were operating in Dubai by 2007!

- Sustainability: only supported by one of the largest oil producers this city can shine or be cooled...but having the fuel doesn´t mean you can use it obscenely. It´s easier to get a cold in Dubai in summer than anywhere in Europe in a cold winter due to the excess of cooling throughout the year. The message sent is devastating for those seeking for alternatives to fossil fuels: We will burn until the last drop of oil to keep our malls cool!

-Building efficiency: despite of having one of the most intelligent traditional construction systems, the new "intelligent" buildings with its glass walls are the least efficient way of building in a constantly sun-exposed region. The refrigeration loads become even more extraordinary, and the explanation for it is purely formal. In a world turning into an efficient way of building, Dubai's proud of still erecting XXth century's icons...

- The consumerism as a religion: proud of balancing prudently between Islam and western culture, Dubai forgets that the real devil is not in the "depravated" expats but in the culture of hyperactive consumerism as a single way of entertainment. To be fair too, this is something you can find everywhere in the Gulf.

However, nothing is black or white only, and UAE has also very good initiatives that should make emirati people proud of their country: on the opposite side of Dubai, the city of MASDAR is the first serious (and real) attempt to build the first zero-emission city for 40,000 people as a prototype that will hopefully be replicated and improved in the future.

Besides that, the good values of the emirati family and the religion, such as generosity, their humble past still recent, and the respect for their culture and traditions, jointly with the interest to diversify their industry and businesses when depending only on oil is tempting (see Kuwait or Venezuela)...makes me believe that Dubai is simply a wrong understanding of modernity and development. And also that someone from abroad has made a lot of money at their cost, building castles in the sand...

By the way, the title of this post is taken from Evil Paradises by Mike Davis.

Arcade Fire are playing in Madrid in less than 10 days. I already got my ticket!

XIXth century retail in the heart of Madrid or the lack of (interest for) innovation in Spain

2010-10-06T02:46:00.000-07:00

Very close to Plaza Mayor some business are still devoted to the traditional needs of the population of the city since the past centuries.

Nowadays people still buy textiles or fabrics for curtains, sofas, or simple cotton string to tailor anything, and this particular area in the very heart of the city is ideal to find all this items and more, linked to traditional straw hats or baskets. It has been like this for centuries and apparently in the era of Ikea there's still a demand for this stores in the best retail locations in Madrid...

So far so good, I pass by some of these stores almost everyday when I leave / go back home but I have never stepped in, simply because I don't need any of the things they sell in there...until last week when I decided to get in not one but two of them to look for a specific item.

The outcome couldn't have been more depressing but it was also a travel-in-time experience...

As soon as I stepped in, a million square meter of fabrics rolled and spread randomly all over the poorly illuminated place, which by the way appeared to be a nice interior if one could be able to remove the rotten and falling paint of the wall. No less than 3 people waiting to the hours to go by behind the counter, not even asking me what I wanted or how could they help me. I asked for the price/sqm of one of the fabrics that I liked, which I find by moving by myself a pile of other rolls of fabrics. A bored fifty-something employee looking offended for me daring to interrupt his boredom, answers to me and starts cutting the dimensions I asked him to cut.

While he was doing so, some thoughts came to my mind and they are the core idea of this post:

First of all, I have nothing against these traditional business, but I can't skip the fact that some of the prime locations of the most expensive city in Spain are occupied by business that have been equally run for ages, no matter how the customers have evolved in their behavior or the changing needs of the people even within an specific sector like the textile industry...and for me that's not just an anecdote but another sign of the lack of innovation of a part of the small industry in Spain.

I was asking the employee when was this store open, and he came to say that almost a century although before there was a similar store run by another family. Something must they have done right during all these years, I thought...but I also thought that such an inertia had also a pernicious effect...who will dare to change something that has more or less (definitely not with flamboyant outcomes) worked for 100 Years? My Spanish readers surely know this: "virgencita que me quede como estoy" (Virgin Mary, let me remain as I am now). Well, this is a very paradigmatic sentence that represents pretty well the lack of flexibility/ambition/interest for challenge that characterizes Spaniards sometimes...

I am not saying that these business should be closed down, but I am sure there are ways to adapt them to the needs of the new population of the neighborhood: young people, tourist (a relatively new phenomena) and, specially, make an attractive layout that invites people to step in these stores, not in a fashion or top end design way, I don't mean that, but at least in a way that facilitates people to find things, choose what they want easily and feel they're welcome to enter rather than a necessary inconvenient.

I may be asking too much, and the critic to this post is very obvious: I'm no one to blame the structure of the business, I don't know the industry...so no recommendations today, but I am afraid that one day there will be a Bershka or Starbucks or H&M in a wonderfully located place where a nice textiles shop with colorful samples and also complements for home and decoration and great personnel in an inviting environment to step in and buy could have continued to exist...

Today´s song is posted just to celebrate that I have tickets to watch MGMT playing live in Madrid in December...

A biased solution for the Spanish crisis

2010-09-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

Everybody talks about it but nobody seems to find it: I would like to share the (my) solution for the big, enormous, financial crisis we are suffering in Spain nowadays, and I am going to share it with you, basically because the solution maybe affects to you too.

After this introduction, allow me to highlight some aspects that none of the Spanish politicians are taking into account and could drive us to change our downwards trend. Whether you agree or not, that's a different story!

-Go where the job is: Spaniards tend to remain stable within the "comfort zone" but the world around has been moving fast while we were immerse in our inner demand, and focusing our investments in the Real Estate sector and hardly looking overseas (why doing it if things here are off the hook?) we became the "new rich" of Europe and nobody worried about the future (although we could have learn from previous bubbles with horrendous effects like Japan in the 90's)

20% of the existing jobs in 2007 don't exist anymore, hence the job seek is no longer useful for many people: they won't find a job because that job is simply not there anymore. Taking this into account, we have to look back in time and remember we were once a emigrant country: Switzerland, Germany, France...still have thousands of spanish families who went there to have a better future. Things have changed, the world has changed, you have to change too, Spain has to change:

There are many places where lots of opportunities are now available, are we also going to miss those opportunities? Middle East, BRIC countries, Europe (above the Pyrenees)...what make us refrain from trying whereas other much richer and developed countries are freely switching jobs, countries, continents...? This leads me to my second part of the "prescription" against the crisis:

Learn English, speak English, think English: Spain remains as one of the few countries where movies and series are not set in the original language and are dubbed into Spanish, eliminating one of the few chances that the static Spanish population has to listen something in a foreign language. But despite the 400 millions of hispanohablantes in the world, the world speaks English, from Dallas to Mumbai, from Manila to Finland, but we seem not to care about and some people still brag about not being able to say a single word in English...

Beyond our low level in English language is the fact that, in general, foreign languages terrorize Spaniards, and there's some background factor that must explain this (isolation during our dictatorship, Spanish pride, the "no other country like Spain to live" effect...?).

I want to believe that something is changing in this regard (mandatory English from primary school, internet, easiness to fly...) but reading things like this also discourage me...

But i was trying to "solve" the crisis: let's imagine a scenario where a considerable amount of people decide to try a better future abroad: our population will decrease, and the demand will adjust so we go back to levels of 10% (reasonable for Spain although still high for the rest of the EU).

Export Export, and then Export: Our industrial net will is badly damaged (no local demand, paralysis in the construction...) what to do? Let's focus on the exports, no more dependence on local demand or usual importers of our products. Let's encourage with subsidies to the exports our products to be sold abroad. We must create bonds with emergent economies to become their suppliers for quality products and "know how" and let's specially do it with the medium and small companies, those who are struggling to survive, Ribera de Duero's wines can compete with Bordeaux ones, Cava with Champaign, Cabrales cheese with Rochefort, construction materials...Let's not just believe that Spanish products are good, let's test it in new markets where the stereotypes of Spain are still those that you're thinking about. Working in the Middle East i could experience myself how Spain is still perceived as a friendly country but when it's time to talk about business we just don't count.

Think globally, act locally...or just think and act! I strongly disagree with the resignation of many Spaniards since the crisis started. it's socially accepted to quit searching and surrender to the eternal complain: there will be better times! It must be cultural, but at some point, rather than seeing riots in the street people just accepted it and pray for the crisis to pass...but, how to invert the tendency and send the message that times of crisis are good to try things that otherwise we would have never tried? Entrepreneurial ideas, a lush cultural and creative scenario, more NGO's volunteering...I may not be entitled to judge this, but my perception of the streets is resignation rather than persistence.

I know that the counterargument for many is easy: my view is rather pessimistic and doesn't invite to think in a better scenario in the short run...

But yes, there are also things that for a while leaves me the impression that things can change: A few weeks ago I spend the night in a beautiful hotel in Peratallada, the Hostal Blau, a beautiful medieval village in Gerona (Cataluña, Spain). There we had the chance to chat with the owner, Azucena, an under-30 madrilenian entrepreneur who decided one day to stay in this wonderful village and has recently undertaken the management of the hotel . She is now struggling to save the business because the number of visitors has decreased brutally due to the crisis...She is constantly thinking of new ideas (wine and food tasting, seminars, courses...) to regain the clientele she used to have...no credit or help whatsoever has been given to her to any of the numerous ideas she had in order to boost the business. If one day Azucena has to close down as she suspects, the loss will be not just one hotel less, but the loss of the hope of another young entrepreneur who, on the hard work basis, is actively doing something to get out of the hole. And that loss is not quantifiable in numbers and it doesn't show up in any indicator...

Today's song is We are kids, by Lacrosse. I went to their concert last Saturday, it was good, except for the audience constantly talking (is Spanish, of course)

Stars and how to be cyberstalked on Foursquare...the old debate about privacy or exposure

2010-07-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

UK-led international team of astronomers have discovered the most massive stars to date, one which at birth had more than 300 times the mass of the Sun, with the name of R136a, frankly not a very attractive name considering we are talking about the largest piece of something existing in the universe as we know it so far.

Almost at the same time, I made another discovery almost as important as that, at least in this side of the universe: It is in this article in The Guardian about how easily you can be cyberstalked on Foursquare...scary!? For those who are not familiar with this social network, Foursquare allows you to "check in" in every place you go in your city, and getting some discounts by checking in hence visiting certain places, generally restaurants, cafes or bars. The thing is that the social network is made to let your friends know where you are and let you know where they are as well, but...what happens when you also have among your so called friends people who aren't, or are just acquintances? The writer of the article, Shea Sylvia, a frequent blogger and twitter user explains how she received a misterious call when she was in a restaurant from someone called Brian, who resulted to be also at that moment in that restaurant. of course Shea was scared to death and Brian never showed up, but that made her realized how expose we all are (me included, it's just that i don't have stalkers so far...) but actually...do we care?

We all have probably be involved in esterile debates about privacy admitting how easy is for anyone to know about you and how dangerous it is, but, are we restricting our comments on Facebook yelling we are here or there? The answer is no. Maybe we all need a stalker at a certain point to change some habits, but even with that, and as Shea says, in the long term we are not going to change our level of involvement in on-line communities whatsoever!

However, i would like to respectfully recommend Shea -and to you too dear readers- to think it twice when you click on "accept as a friend", at the end it is in your hands to open your data to whoever you want, it's needless to say that privacy options on Facebook are there for a reason and if you guys don't use them is because you just don't care...!

This is a song's blog, and these are today's picks: Miranda! is an Argentinian band almost unknown in Spain but very succesful across the ocean, and "Enamorada" with a very catchy melody that keeps lingers in my head and just pops out of it from time to time. Yo La Tengo's Autumn Sweater is (or should be) a classic of 20th century (of course i am biased, specially since i saw them again live in Madrid a few months ago for the second time 12 years after the first time - in the FIB 1998-)

Summer and Los Directivos

2010-07-18T04:17:00.000-07:00

Finally writing again after some weeks of intellectual holidays, and after having seen Spain win the World Cup. This weekend is being the B-day parties weekend, seeing some people i haven't seen since 2008 when i went to live to Kuwait. By the way, people say it's a very hot summer, I shouldn't complain about this weather, my friends in Kuwait are struggling now with temperatures of...41º....during the night! 54º during day hours.

Although they shouldn't have released their album until next world cup (they promised to do it only when Spain got kicked off the world cup, which never happened) the new album by Los Directivos is finally available online. And why should i care about that? Because Los Directivos are actually friends of mine and because not every day friends of mine release an album. And because the album is freaking different. Sorry, foreign readers, but this album can be only understood by spaniards, and not by many, by the way. Referees, Olympic games, Guardiola, Royal family, Lofts...everything fits in the most subversive album since Derribos Arias released their "En la guía, en el listín" (GASA, 1983)

You can -and you must- download it at islam records, if you want to pretend you are cool, (although the songs are actually making fun of people like YOU or me), and because it is a matter of time that their songs start appearing on the worst programs in La Sexta or Telecinco (sometimes with the best music).

HOWEVER, i miss a number of things in the album:

- A song about Esperanza Aguirre

- A song with Iñaki singing

- A date for a future concert, which I am not sure if will be possible one day because one has become a father recently and lives abroad and the other isn't a father (as far as he knows), lives in Madrid but just don't like playing live.

Do listen to their album and don't ask questions, if Los Directivos say it, it must be right. Lo indie es lo indie y el resto es el resto.

Today's songs are here: http://www.islamrecords.com/

Casadellibro.com

2010-06-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

The bookshop Casa del Libro was founded in 1923 and is currently the second bookseller in Spain after El Corte Inglés. Nowadays Casa Del libro has 22 bookshops all over Spain and 9 of them in Madrid. Since 1995 is selling books on the internet, at the beginning through a non-sofisticated web site and later in 1999 with a new technological plattform that turned out to be a fiasco because it couldn't be integrated by the consultants hired to develop a new business plan for casadellibro.com, due to mistakes during the design process.

In 2002 a meeting with Planeta, editorial owner of Casa Del libro, took place. in that meeting the board had to decide between two possibilities: To stick to the previously developed UNIX platform, or switch to a new Microsoft platform...In today's post i am going to shine a light on the following questions:

1. Would you stick to the previously developed UNIX platform, or switch to the new Microsoft one?

For the first question, I would have decided to shift for the new Microsoft platform. A hint of what should have been done can be found next 15th July when Libranda, the largest spanish platform for on-line books will be launched, containing (only) 2,000 books from the editorials Planeta, Random House Mondadori, Santillana, Roca Editorial, Grup62, SM, y Wolters Kluwer.

Libranda's web in its beta version describes (in spanish) its function:

"LIBRANDA es una plataforma que ofrece servicios auxiliares para la comercialización de contenidos digitales y para la promoción de los mismos. LIBRANDA actúa como un operador logístico que presta servicios de almacenaje y distribución digital a las editoriales y a las tiendas on-line. Su principal objetivo es poner a disposición de las tiendas on-line el contenido digital de las editoriales con las que trabaja. Paralelamente, y con el fin de aportar valor tanto a las editoriales como a las tiendas on-line con las que colabora, LIBRANDA ofrece herramientas de marketing digital para la promoción y la difusión de sus contenidos. El modelo de negocio de LIBRANDA permite respetar la cadena de valor del libro, promoviendo la labor cultural de los autores y agentes, de los editores y de los canales de venta del libro. En este sentido, LIBRANDA no vende directamente al público final. La labor de venta la desarrollan las tiendas on-line".

2. Which are the most relevant criteria for you to make the decision? Name each criterion and explain it very briefly.

My answer for the second question once I have decided that it would be more convenient to shift to the new Microsoft platform, based on the same ideas that LIBRANDA expect to accomplish in order to succeed (extracted from publishing perspectives and summarized the most important aspects below) in the on-line books market:

- Availability: Libranda's services are offered through 21 online stores and it is important to note that the ebooks will not be sold directly to end customers from this platform, Libranda is targeted at bookshops, who will in turn sell to consumers.

- Price settings open: All decisions about release timing and pricing, as well as negotiations with retailers on terms and discounting, are left up to individual publishers, which enables to each seller to develop a more competitive price strategy.

- Competitive advantage in prices: For me, the most important competitive advantage of having a new and strong platform is that the average e-book from Libranda will cost 20-30% below the print book price (about 6 euros for paperbacks and 11-14 euros for hardcovers).

- Growing number of e-books: Although the initial number of 2,000 e-books available at launch seems small, Libranda hopes to grow the number of titles to 8-10,000 by year’s end.

- Large number of downloads: The number of downloads is not limited to one file, but up to 12 devices: 6 desktop and 6 mobile files protected with Adobe ACS4 DRM that a. Individual publishers can put a lower limit on the number downloads if they choose. All files will reside in Libranda’s digital warehouse and will be sold exclusively through their online retail partners.

- Possible agreement with Tech Giants: In a future second phase the platform plans to negotiate agreements to offer their e-books through tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google (though publishers will have to kick in an extra 2% for this service), and will also contemplate different models including subscription, streaming and lending.

- Potential expansion to Latin America's market: Also in the cards for the immediate future is expansion of the platform into the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, planned for early 2011. Libranda is negotiating with publishers in Latin America and hopes to work with local online retailers and booksellers (some of which have a more mature market and established customer base than their counterparts in Spain).

- Possible VAT reduction to equalize with physical books:The VAT is stuck at 18% for any book without a physical component, though the Spanish government has promised the publishers it will fight in Brussels to convince EU regulators to reduce the rate for e-books to the same preferential 4% enjoyed in Spain by paper books.

- Space for smaller booksellers: Libranda will offer marketing tools like widgets and samples, though it’s up to publishers whether or how they will use these. The platform will also create white pages for booksellers who don’t have their own retail website set up.

- New Website — http://www.libranda.com — will allow readers to search for available titles but to purchase e-books they will have to go to one of the participating online stores. Publishers using the platform will be able to use the website to manage their catalog of titles, upload new books, and access sales figures.

- Break even in about 5 years: 2 million euros have been raised to set up the platform and request exclusive digital distribution rights from all participating publishers, though with some flexibility. Planeta’s Badenes admitted that the platform expects to lose money in the beginning and likely won’t turn a profit for the first five years.

All the above presents a favorable scenario and could have been applicable to the case in 2002, and probably without the pessimistic expectations that surrounds every new venture nowadays in Spain.

Brit sound for today's songs! "Michael Caine" by Madness has been my favorite song of the band, and "Something for the weekend" by Super Furry Animals is one of the songs that kept my attention for brit pop music in 1995 when this style was in his highest peak. Enjoy them!

TESCO to what extent do they enjoy an IT generated advantage? Where does it come from?

2010-06-18T04:58:00.001-07:00

TESCO, this is getting complicated...(as a blog writer as well as for you dear readers) I promise that once the Information System sessions are over I will go back to a more day-to-day topics in this blog!

However, today's topic is: TESCO: to what extent do they enjoy an IT generated advantage? Where does it come from?

First of all: What is TESCO? TESCO is the largest supermarket chain in UK, and the second largest company in the food and drugs stories' industry in the world after Carrefour. it was founded in 1919 and is now present in 14 countries with 2,329 stores outside UK, and 2,329 stores only in UK.

TESCO has been characterized by being a value-for-money retailer since their commencements, which has been translated into different formulas to engage the customer and gain its loyalty: From the Green-shield stamps (every purchase you get a stamp and after several stamps you get cash or a gift) to the Club Card, with which the customers could accumulate points, convertible into vouchers, for every £5 that the customer expend for purchases exceeding £10. The importance of the Club Card as a way to collect data about TESCO's customers is crucial for the success of the company and created a trend among the mayor supermarkets and retailers worldwide, and it helps to understand my conclusions for the question at the end of this post.

Since March 2006, TESCO is undertaking a IT standardisation in order to prepare the path for a global expansion. Business processes and systems used for in-store planning in the UK have been chosen by Tesco executives as part of the global standardisation programme.

Tesco-in-a-box

TESCO has developed an operational model - a set of processes and technologies that is going to be used in its business around the world. For IT this involves four main areas: planning and architecture, development of systems, deploying systems, and operation and support of IT, as the Tesco group IT director Colin Cobain said, "Technology is an important part of the international growth strategy. What we want to do is create a common suite of processes and systems that we can use in all of our countries." This common suite of processes are integrated in what has been defined as "Tesco in a Box" . Philip A Greenwood, Head of IT Development and Support at Tesco defines it the following way: "We are now in the process of implementing a set of applications that include retail ERP (Retek), Teradata Data Warehousing Solution, reporting tools from Business Objects, a human resource solution from PeopleSoft and a finance package from Oracle Financials. We want to integrate these new systems and maintain a common database at a central location in the UK. The integration exercise will be known as ‘Tesco in a box’.

What TESCO is now doing is a good exemple of a necessary ERP, in first place, and a reasonable implementation in order to gain efficience by using the same processes throughout the thousands stores that TESCO has.

But, can we say that the expansion and success of TESCO is due to a policy of high investment in IT when the retail sector has been historically not a big spender on technology?

My conclusion for this post is that TESCO has a track record of using IT to perform better and with the time this has resulted in a competitive advantage: A case that illustrates this was when the company rolled out technology to improve its "one in front" initiative, consisting in installing cameras that use sophisticated thermal imaging technology to measure and predict customers' arrival at checkouts, enabling managers to react in real-time to ensure the right number of tills are open to deliver the best possible service to customers.

To analyze where does this advantage come from, in my opinion, TESCO, since the time they lauunched the Club Card, has understood the importance of the data that is collected from its clients when there is a purchase and the club Card is used. they have been able to understand customers' trends, analize the kind of buyers that benefit from the discounts or promotions and create a very detailed segmentation of its customers, which is clearly a competitive advantage of the use of IT in this sector.

What can be better for any retailer than knowing who, when and how its customers are purchasing their products? Hence, based on the experience of TESCO, it is fair to admit that a huge investment in IT is widely justified and has brought to the company a outstanding market position and revenues.

Today's song was posted in my FB profile some time ago, but here it goes again...This is the last dance

should companies be adapted to ERP or the other way round?

2010-06-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today the crucial question is: Should companies be adapted to ERP or the other way round?

Maybe some of you don't know what an ERP is, but i am sure most of you have heard about SAP, or even dealt with it at your companies...

Let me, in first place, define what is an ERP: According to Wikipedia, "Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an Integrated computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. It is a software architecture whose purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders". Although this description gives more light about it:

What can ERP do for me?

ERP streamlines processes within your organization and helps you meet business needs more efficiently and quickly. To take a simple example, if you are a manufacturing concern, your ERP system comes into action from the point your sales representatives in different parts of the country or world, book orders, and feed them into the system. The system helps you track what inventory you have of raw material and finished goods, how much more you need, and how much time it will take you to deliver. Your customer service department can then use this to tell the customer when to expect his order. Your manufacturing department uses the same information to set its production schedules, hire temporary staff, and so on. Your finance department uses it to arrange for money, collect money from previous customers, or pay suppliers. As the goods are produced, the packaging and logistics department can gear up for shipping. Customers can track the shipping status online.

As per my personal experience, I have worked in two companies with ERP systems...and in both cases the experience was painful because I had the chance to work by the time the ERP was renewed and updated or implemented for the first time...so i am biased when i am asked if the company should adapt to the ERP or vice verse: I truly think the ERP should be adapted to the company needs, but I am also aware that the fact that an organization has been working for decades (in my case, FCC Construcción) without any of these tools doesn't mean that there is nothing to improve in the organization of the company!

However, and specially for big corporations, my opinion is that an ERP must be adapted to the needs of the company in order to be fully efficient. If we take into consideration that a ERP has been designed by a limited group of people and for very different types of companies...how can we rely on this tool to manage a giant like, for instance, FCC (more than 60,000 employees).

The cost of a non-effective implementation or just a substantial delay in reaching a cruise speed in the use of the ERP is definitely much higher than an initial rethinking of the tool in order to adapt it to the reality of the Firm.

In order to provide a more detailed answer and to summarize this post, these are the steps that should be follow can be found in the image attached:

Diagnosis

Detection of points if existing processes to be improved

Development of new processes

Development of ERP Information System

Incorporation of Logistics

Training of users

Pilot application

Improvements

Delivery of ERP in full operation

Today's song is because we are not angels...

What Dell should do? Me in Dell's shoes for the "Dell Hell' case.

2010-06-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...in my last post i should have debated what would I do as Dell in the case of Jeff Jarvis, but actually i did it the other way round, putting myself in the shoes of Jeff, now I am DELL and this is what i would do:

(If you dear readers haven't got a clue about what i am talking about, read my last post or just the following lines where i explain the case of Jeff Jarvis and his war against Dell)

In 2005, a blogger called Jeff Jarvis posted in his blog Buzzmachine the purchase of a Dell laptop along with the most complete guarantee available for the item purchased. Right after receiving his laptop, it turned out to be a lemon: it didn't work, so he called to get the assistance he paid for, but they were unable to fix the problem at home and they had to take the laptop with them...this was just the beginning of the story: Dell service resulted to be completely incompetent to fix the problem, which was extended for months...and Jeff Jarvis started blogging about that: dozens, and then hundreds of comments in his blog transcended the blog sphere, and magazines like the Business Week started highlighting the case, the issue became so popular and powerful to the point that the stock price of Dell went significantly down when the news were spread in the magazines...

But, let's suppose for a second that I am a decision maker in Dell and i have to decide how to go about this guy that all of a sudden has mobilized the whole media against my company: what to do?

First of all, it is interesting to know what is actually Dell doing right now: did they learn from the experience? It seems they did: In a presentation by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger at Dell in 2007, 2 years after the Dell Hell Case, the sensitivity towards the customers was definitely a core issue, as per the following conclusions (Taken from Customer Think and its blogger Mei Lin Fung) i have selected the most relevant for the case:

Customers are in control. Work with them and learn from them.
Address any form of dissatisfaction head on.
Be aware that any conversation can become global at any time.
Size doesn't matter—relevance does. Just as one journalist can trigger a newscycle, one blogger can do the same.
Don't be afraid to apologize.
Develop direct links to customer community (IdeaStorm for Dell), listen for how we can improve.
One customer is part of many communities.
Teamwork, transparency and frequent consistent communication are key in this new world.
No shortcuts are possible. Implementing business change requires much effort across departments.
Which leads to the new impetus at Dell to ... Engage our people to make it work
Tools are important but people drive processes.
Feedback digital media tools for email and chat, inside and outside of Dell, are becoming as vital as call data and traditional online support.
Working globally means anticipating difficulties and always requires coordination with regional team members to adapt central core solutions to the local situation.

Well, reading all the above, i can affirm that that I would have chosen those as a proper way to go about the problem.

But what is not written above is the nature of these good intentions in what regards to Dell's customers: is Dell just reacting to save face or there is a true intention to offer a good customer service and avoid problems like that?

As I am the decision maker in Dell (CEO for a day...!) I would try to implement the above with a "customer service within a customer service". Means that a regular survey should be followed to include comments, failures, suggestions, improvings...proposed by Dell Customer Service's staff. What do I get with this? A service that takes himself seriously and believes in their nature: provide solutions for customers who believed in Dell as the right choice for their needs.

To conclude for the case of Jeff Jarvis, the actions to be taken would have been the following:

1) Detection of the unsatisfactory outcome of JJ's laptop by a survey team who is constantly tracking the web.
2) Analysis of the reports sent about the state of JJ laptop's fixing.
3) Once concluded the iterative failure of the laptop, immediate substitution or reimbursement to JJ.
4) Letter to apologize for the inconveniences.
5) Extended and free-of-charge guarantee for the new product in case JJ decides to accept the new Dell laptop.
6) Wrap up the story for further study in training new employees of the Customer service.

A few sentences that I have found that make so much sense to end the post:

In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.
ALICE MACDOUGALL

Customers don’t expect you to be perfect.
They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.
DONALD PORTER

Customer service is not a department, it's an attitude!
UNKNOWN

22 years before this mess, REM appeared for the first time on TV presenting "murmur", its first album. There was a time where Michael Stipes wasn't bold / shaved...

What would I do if i was Jeff Jarvis? "Dell Hell" case

2010-06-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

In first place, let me brief you about the subject of this post:

In 2005, a blogger called Jeff Jarvis posted in his blog Buzzmachine the purchase of a Dell laptop along with the most complete guarantee available for the item purchased. Right after receiving his laptop, it turned out to be a lemon: it didn't work, so he called to get the assistance he paid for, but they were unable to fix the problem at home and they had to take the laptop with them...this was just the beginning of the story: Dell service resulted to be completely incompetent to fix the problem, which was extended for months...and Jeff Jarvis started blogging about that: dozens, and then hundreds of comments in his blog transcended the blog sphere, and magazines like the Business Week started highlighting the case, the issue became so popular and powerful to the point that the stock price of Dell went significantly down when the news were spread in the magazines...

But the question to be answered here is what would i do if i had the same problem?

In first place, and knowing what happened to Jeff Jarvis, what I would have clear is that...I don't want a Hell's Dell!! So as soon as I started realizing things are not going better, I would definitely try to get my money back and buy the new Ipad!! (Yeah, I've just disclose my next purchase...)

But let's suppose that I have gone through Jeff's nightmare and I have to decide what to do Well, I am not a prominent blogger and the repercussion of this blog is almost zero, so I think i would start a bunch of initiatives to make my case known:

1) Create a Facebook group to gather attention of those who sympathize with my problem or those who has already suffered it (with a little bit of luck Mr. Jeff Jarvis will also join the group!).

2) If the group becomes popular I can probably create a page and maybe make some money enough to purchase my desired Ipad and give away my Dell!

3) Forward the case to the Spanish consumer's association OCU and be patient...

4 and not very probable...) This is Spain, what really makes people or news popular is the social repercussion in certain TV programs like El Diario when people -generally with low class and even lower education- expose their problems: maybe i had a chance, but i really have to be desperate to do it!

Anyhow, I have one notebook and one laptop, both HP, It's not like they are perfect, but i am relatively satisfied with them, and if something happens I'm afraid that the guarantees are already expired...

Again, although there are some posts where the subject is actually requested by our professor of Information Systems, Enrique Dans , this intends to be a personal blog, and what i promised at least is to upload a song which i may, for one reason or another, be identified with...

The sweetest song ever by My Bloody Valentine, and then a Carlos Berlanga song from "Indicios" from 1994. Have a good day!

Facebook 2012 . We know who you are!

2010-06-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

How I see Facebook in 2012...It's probably naïve not to expect big changes in social networks nowadays, but i think that the biggest thing in Facebook for the coming 2 years rather than any technological upgrade will be the number of users: i think there will be a drastic increase in the existent 400 millions, and having an active facebook profile will be common among the new generations.

The debate about the privacy in Facebook will still be on the table by 2012, but i believe that in a more relaxed way. The coming years will be fundamental to resolve the lawsuits that are now arising...but the sign of the battle, for me, is clear: privacy, or the way we understand it, will change, and it is a matter of time only. I think it is very significant that the current privacy policy of facebook includes a sinister sentence such us: "We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time."

But, all the above mentioned can be more or less what many people would say about FB in two years, what can we expect beyond this? Maybe the most reliable source to know what's going to happen in the coming years is through Facebook prototypes where a number of new applications are shown...to be frank, none of them seem to be able to change the world, but improve existent applications...The business of the adds is also mentioned as a potential change in Facebook...

The facebook application for cell phones is probably the tool that will receive more attention in the coming years, every thing becomes mobile, and Facebook -as well as google- knows that nowadays being present in our iPhone or Blackberry is being present in our lives. In this regard, i truly hope that the application becomes more efficient for 2012 than it is now. At least for me, as a user, and not really worried about the privacy issues, that would be enough advance for the coming 2 years...

Before i finish for today, here's a funny video about the social network wars...

Today's song:

Google Street View and Google Earth

2010-05-30T01:19:00.000-07:00

Describing all the services that nowadays Google is successfully offering is even too much for a thesis...however, this is not a thesis although this post aspires to give some useful ideas and research about what Google Earth, Google Street View and Google Chrome (actually my preferred applications and my preferred browser).

Google Earth:

Google Earth is a Google program based on a idea of Michael Jones and produced by Keyhole Inc, company specialized in geospatial data visualization applications, but developed by Google and launched in 2005, which consists in a virtual earth globe where one can navigate throughout its surface. Google Earth provides with satellite images which are constantly updated offering a aerial view of the earth with different levels of definition depending on the importance the area.

Although it is in principle a program oriented to provide visual information, there are also derived educational uses, information about places, and a outstanding way to "travel" offering a view that only astronauts or a vivid imagination could provide us, with the Flight Simulator application

But Google Earth is also a business, and as described in the Google Earth Blog:

"There are already some businesses forming around the Google Earth application. Some are focusing on providing online resources to find unique places in the Google Earth data - for example: gearthhacks.com has an extensive online gallery of GoogleEarthPlaces. They are getting thousands of visits per day to their site. So far, their primary source of revenue is advertising space on their pages. Others are offering services to sell to businesses to provide Google Earth reference data to help customers find their products and services. A real Estate broker is offering information on homes through a large database through the Google Earth interface. Another company, called GlobeAssistant.com, is offering services to help businesses in the travel industry, real estate, and news services to use Google Earth to enhance their businesses. For example, they are selling a service to take recent news stories and present the location of the story through an RSS feed in Google Earth format".

Particularly interesting is the case of EarthPlot, a data analysis and visualization tool for Google Earth which allows you to draw and input data on Google Earth images, becoming a essential tool to implement the images for research purposes.

Conceptually, the launching of Google Earth was one of the most fascinating things that the digital era has offered to us, because it deals directly with the ancient (and modern) dream of the space travel flying along the continents of the human kind...as a dream, let's then dream about, why not! a Google Earth in real time with thousand of satellites sending us trillions of Gigabytes with videos of what's going on around the world...a real Big Brother where our perspective becomes literally global and concern about our planet, the Earth...a Google's Earth...?

Google Street view:

Google Street view is a technology featured by Google Maps and Google Earth, consisting in offering panoramic views of the streets of a number of cities worldwide. Currently mayor cities in Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and also some cities in the South of Asia have this feature available.

Google offers a very detail explanation about how the system works and it is probably best understood by saying that GSV is "the last zoom layer on the map" actually this is true, and it shows a citizen's scale view that really tells you where you are and what's around, dealing effectively with the usual misunderstanding of the aerial views for those who are not good at reading maps.

Google Street view is a powerful and useful tool to locate places by visual recognition, whether for business or personal purposes...however the debate about the lack of privacy (for instance, England's streets are covered by GSV in a 95%!) is also very vivid these days...however this is not the purpose of this post! However, allow me to post an interesting set of curious pics posted in Mashable regarding the potential intrusion of the cameras into our lives.

Regarding the business model, Google Street views improves the way customers can reach a place, for instance, Orbitz has recently reached an agreement with google to use google street view as an option to gather more information about the hotel selected and the area.

To finish today's blog, the following video shows in a funny way how Google Street View is done:

Today's songs, by Cocteau Twins (it was about time to post them!)

Microsoft or the Dark Side of the Force

2010-05-24T00:26:00.000-07:00

I find quite peculiar the new campaign to promote Internet Explorer 8, using Yoda to introduce us the new version or the Microsoft navigator: "ayudarte podría" (to help you I could) he says...

It's not that I am a Star Wars superfan, but when I saw the 4x3m ad in the metro with Yoda making a campaign pro Mr. Bill Gates company latest's product, I really lost my faith in the Rebel Alliance! If Yoda also has a price and he has no problem to sign with the Dark Side of the Force...what's next?

Actually what bothers me the most is that campaigning for Internet Explorer 8 is like purchasing shares in the Death Star 1.0, the one that miserably exploded in the 1977 Star Wars movie...you know there's going to be another Death Star! There's no glamour at all in promoting the 8th version of a quite debatable navigator...!

As you may know by now, I don't like Microsoft (I don't even link to MSFT's page...see how BAD I am?) very much, but as many like me, i still use windows, which, to keep on track with Star Wars references, is like pretending to be a Jedi and having the robotized hand of Luke Skywalker...

And up to this point I wonder: why there are so many people somehow against Microsoft if Microsoft is not our boss who doesn't understand us, or the annoying professor who is always doing surprise-exams, or the mediocre politician trying to convince us that the economy is getting better...then, why so many people don't like Microsoft??

My humble opinion is that we actually apply the same criteria to Microsoft as to a government, probably realizing about how powerful it can be...this feeling of rejection is probably shared in what regards other big fishes of the business world...I have heard some crazy stories about Bill Gates, one of them as lunatic as saying that he is actually the Antichrist as you can see in this carefully detailed explanation. On the contrary, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc. appears nowadays as a reference and a guru whether for geeks or, for instance, MBA students.

So, why we don't like Bill/Microsoft and we like Steve/Apple? I think the open source software has to do a lot in all this...and Mr. Bill doesn't want to let us know how Microsoft is run from inside...To put it in another words: I am ordering a steak with sauce but the chef wouldn't let me know what is the sauce made of...would you eat it? It seems that we actually eat it, but until when?

To corolate this post with Star Wars again, it seems that the Empire will not give us the code to switch off the Death Star's shield...but the Rebel Alliance may soon destroy the base and there will no longer exist any protection...unless Bill Gates hires Hans Solo for the future Internet Explorer 9...!

Today's songs...well, things go better with a little bit of razzamatazz...and a little bit of ELO too.

CK - leather belts

2010-05-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

This afternoon i was on my way home and i passed by a retail business called CK (not, Calvin Klein but Cinturones de "Kuero" -leather belts-). Usually it is closed in the morning when i am on my way to the underground, and also closed upon my return, let's say they have a very relaxed timetable -or that i don't have too much free time-. But this time it was open, so i came in, in part because i have never seen a shop selling ONLY leather belts in such a weird location -actually the area is full of tapas bars, restaurants and cafes, but there's no much more rather than that-.

The first impression is that really those belts were made with real leather as per the undoubted smell of leather all over the place. The second one was that it was difficult to not to find a belt that you like in there. Whether due to my consumerist nature or a real need, i did buy also one, 14€, good cow leather and...made in Spain!!

The owner really seemed the person who knows the most about belts on Earth, and really seemed to like his job very much...

No doubt, if you need any kind of belt...your place is CK - Cinturones de Kuero!

Today I'd like to post a song that used to be the opening for one of my favourite radio programs ever "Viaje a los Sueños Polares" the second song gives name to the program, from a spanish band called Family who lasted just a few years and released only one album that some have considered as the most relevant of the last 20 years in Spain (Un soplo en el Corazón, 1993).

Speed of life and zooms out

2010-05-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

It happened entering metro La Latina, line 5, Madrid's metro, a couple of weeks ago, 8.35am, slightly late for class, someone with not a very good aspect at the turnstiles is asking something to the people going down the mechanical stairs, as I am approaching the mechanical stairs too, this man also says something to me, an unclear sentence which i basically ignore (another homeless or mentally disrupted, I cannot be late, gotta be on-time, and so on).

But as soon as i go down and head the second mechanical stairs and take them, my brain starts compiling and arranging the information received a few seconds ago: The man upstairs was actually asking for help to go down the stairs, he had motor skills problems therefore his voice articulation wasn't clear, and he had difficulties to go down the stairs reason why he was try to ask for help.

I don't want to preach here -actually i never went up to help him, my rush prioritized my actions- but it just made me feel how selfish we -I- can be and how limited we are sometimes in our ability to zoom out and see what's going on around-

Of course I never saw again that man in the coming days, i just hope someone could give him a hand and the man could get to his destination on time, as i did that day.

The coming two videos were constantly played in Spotify at my last job -which i left just a couple of weeks ago- they are dedicated to my colleagues with whom i have spent great times and made the hours, the days and the weeks and months of intense work much more pleasant with their constant sense of humor, intelligent irony and generosity. Dedicado a mis compañeros de Proyeco:

Foursquare, what is it? How is its business model?

2010-05-08T05:08:00.000-07:00

Foursquare is a(nother) social network based on the location of the user which allows you to register in different places such as museums, restaurants, bars, etc...so your friends, acquaintances or followers can know where you are and which are your preferred places. Using Foursquare in your Blackberry or i-Phone allows you know at any time a large number of entertainment options near your location, and be able to know about these options through other's tips. It is not the first one, actually Brightkite has this honor, combining location sharing and friends' connection.

For a more accurate definition, this is what the webpage of Foursquare says: Foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. We aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways"

As every social network, you only start benefiting from its features once you dive deeper into it and become a relatively frequent user.

When this application become really useful -and potentially addictive- is when it's downloaded to your Blackberry or i-phone and the updates of your preferred places can be done in real time. Features like the "mayor" (you get points according to the number of times you visit a certain place, becoming a "mayor" of the place) are definitely useful tools to make it more and more essential for the night-lovers, gourmets, music, theater and cinema fans...and in general everyone who likes to enjoy the amazing entertainment offer that a city like Madrid (in this case) has everyday.

The business model

Foursquare is conceived, from the business point of view, to understand and recognize the customers' preferences in what regards to their entertainment. This information is provided to the managers of the business (restaurants, cafes, etc) so they can understand the needs of the end-user and keep their attention based on offers, discounts through coupons or special promotions, in order to gain loyalty from their clients or reach to new clients. As you can see in Mashable, there are several ways where Foursquare can benefit retailers, Hoteliers, Tourist offices and of course their users. The idea is to make the client feel special by using these tool, accesing to extra features: Wynn and Encore hotels in Las Vegas offers to Foursquare clients enjoy a glass of champagne at the luxurious Blush Boutique nightclub.

Rodolfo Carpintier Santana describes it in his blog the new social networks business' models such as Foursquare as the business of geolocalization, and Enrique Dans in his blog is foreseeing the exponential increasing levels of acceptance this tool is achieving based on a game-like component in order to complement its social and funtional features.

The use of Foursquare in Spain - other alternatives.

For the spanish readers, most of you probably don't know about Foursquare (i actually did only two weeks ago, although i have to admit that i have become a frequent user nowadays!) but you may have heard about Tooio, (pronounced "tuyo" which means "yours" in English) an alternative to Foursquare for spanish users, run in association with Idealista, one of the most respected webs in Real Estate searching in Spain. You can know more about Tooio here.

As this blog is about music although it will be used from time to time to submit my Information Systems' assignments, I am not going to disappoint my readers and here are today's selected songs (let's go Japanese today...) one of them is protected by BMG - Ariola so I can't get the embed code, however here's the link: Mecano - Japón (1984)

the Madrid's East - West axe

2010-05-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's kind of curious my relationship with one the most important communication axes of Madrid: a street that crosses the city from East to West, which, as many of the streets in Madrid, changes the name unexpectedly even though they are all actually the same street, starting as Cea Bermudez and changing to José Abascal, María de Molina and Avenida de América, exiting the city as A2 (the road to Barcelona which actually is c/Alcalá too, although most of people even born here don't even know.

I was saying that this E-W axe is important for me and this is why: I spent almost 10 years of my life living with my parents in Cea Bermudez, 3´5 years working in km. 16 of Avenida de América and since last month being student again at IE business school in María de Molina for the coming year...and before all this i remember i attended to an English course the summer of 90 or so also in Cea Bermudez (is that 20 years ago already?)

My obvious question is: is there a next stop in my life along this axe? Probably not, but life is sometimes ironic and playful, so who knows...

Happily someone uploaded a very convenient for the occasion home made video, it's a song of The Radio Dept , which i love by the way, recording from the car all the way from María de Molina to the airport, all taking place from West to East, where the sun rises, in Madrid too. Here it goes.

My second song (for some reason i am uloading two instead of one in every post, must be my Catholic-Roman-Apostolic feeling of guiltyness for not writing in this blog everyday :P) is by The Divine Comedy. Enjoy them if you can

Madrid me mata (Madrid kills me)

2010-05-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm about to go out for dinner. For some reason, one of the two following songs came to my mind this morning, probably because near my place there are plenty of gift shops with all kind of touristic merchandising.

The following video is actually containing all this s"typical spanish" souvenirs in one of the most bizarre videoclips of the spanish "movida madrileña" song that i discovered just a few weeks ago when i couldn't imagine this could happen, considering myself a "master" of this music time frame.

The second video is absolutely random but i simply love the song...

b-songs

2010-04-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's defeat of FC Barcelona has made me think (which is something...) about how sometimes in music we just ignore those songs which are not "winners" Let me explain myself: if you're familiar with spanish radio stations, you probably know about M80 or Kiss FM, mainly oriented to the classics from 70's 80's and 90's. Well, this is true, but are they actually playing classics or just some classics? to be more precise: a very limited number of classics which after listening to them over and over again, become unbearable mainstream songs: yes, how can you enjoy "with or without you" by U2 when it has been played 3 times in 3 hours of listening? not a very different feeling than listening to any Lady Gaga song...(maybe it's too much of an assumption that you all don't like Lady Gaga, actually my brother does like her(?)).

Anyhow, today's song is an hommage to these songs which have had the misfortune to be released in the same album of a superhit...those songs that will never see the light in radio stations which play "classics from all times" .

This B-log is today for those B-songs, actually two, listen to them here because you will never listen to them anywhere else. B-lieve me.

Why a blog? Why now?

2010-04-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

This blog is about songs and a daily life soundtrack which will be random and diverse. I don't expect you to follow my adventures or if I am out of time to read the 100 pages my marketing or finance classes, or if my workmates don't understand me...This blog is an experiment, although the music contained is not, and for me this is the important thing about this blog. I don't pretend to teach or impress or play easy roles of "today I feel blue and I am uploading this or that song..." no, it's not about that, as the name of this blog, by the way not at all original but taken from the album Transient Random Noise Burst with Announcements, by Stereolab, one of my favourite bands (I've just revealed today's group) this blog is random explosion of songs, probably linked to a thought (probably superficial) about something happened to me (or to you) during the day

I have never published any blog or any web before in my life, and to tell you the truth I may have continued like this if I wouldn't have been "forced" to do it this morning...

For those who don´t know it, I am currently studying (yes, studying again after...when was that? 2002 when I finished my Masters in Architecture, my goodness, I'm getting old...), I am studying an MBA program at IE Business School , and what has this to do with writing a blog? Well, a have a subject called Information systems, whose professor, Enrique Dans encouraged us in a very enthusiastic way to start our own blog, so me, traditionally obedient with profs after 12 years at HH. Maristas School....BORING!!...nobody cares about where i studied (at least me I would never waste time knowing where an acquaintance studied...) I said i was going to upload a song everyda...as many days as possible, and this song is for you, anonymous reader, random, transient...bursting sometimes.

The night outside my balcony looks amazing...you better go out and grab some beers and f*ck the crisis (yes, in Spain we still speak about that, actually today we just reached 20% unemployment...) No, seriously, go for that beer, It can be even worst!

Stereolab - Ping pong (Mars Audiac Quintet, 1994)

And the 2x1 promotional campaign of this blog:

Stereolab - Miss Modular (Dots and loops, 1997)