Kaizen Bits

I was reading about the Two Factor Theory based on Herzberg work and I found it interesting for one of my lectures at one of my courses (via Seth Godin):

It turns out, though, that there isn’t just one curve, there are two. The second one is about hygiene. Not just being clean, of course, but being in an environment in which certain requirements are met. All the farm-fresh groceries in the world won’t make you happy if your kitchen is filled with bugs. A high-paying job that delivers a screaming boss, no job security and a home life fraught with tension isn’t a stable place for most people. Not because the money isn’t there, but because basic “hygiene” needs aren’t being met.

Just that, this was interesting and I am just thinking at it, it´s one of those normal comments to give it a thought…

Yesterday I was having a couple of beers with Alejandro, one of my Master in International Business students, from Venezuela. He was explaining me that there was a reason for what President Hugo Chavez was behaving as he usually does, trying to increase the tension and making insane statements almost every week.

Having worked in the Central Bank in Caracas, Alejandro pointed out the big dependency of the Venezuela economy on oil prices. Since the evolution of prices was by far downperforming the worst case analysis and the prices are directly proportional to tension, each time President Chavez opens his mouth, prices go up (even being outside the Middle East spiral) and that is good for Venezuela.

So there can be an strategy behind bullshit after all…

Techcrunch reality check of the iPhone App Store as a hype was very interesting for me for one very reason: I even did not know it existed. Actually, I might have heard about it, but never used it or met anybody using it (probably, same as the iTunes store, it´s only working in the US).

One of the quotes about the app developer work is specially interesting:

So here goes: The App Store probably will not make you rich.

To underscore the point, let’s go over some of the stats presented by Strom. His application Zen Jar ranks #34 on the Social Networking top apps list. And while most of us would probably assume it would take at least a hundred daily downloads to place there, the reality is quite surprising: Zen Jar reached the 34th position with only 30-35 downloads a day (or around $20 a day for a 99 cent app). Similarly, Sprint Board Pro, which ranked 95th in the Board Games section of the store with 6-8 daily downloads. Granted, these aren’t exactly the most popular categories, but If it takes fewer than 10 downloads a day to make the top 100 bestsellers of any category, that’s saying something.

This means products are being downloaded on a 30-35 download per day, an optimal case. However, I think this is quite a good number for a propietary one-platform device-based app. Would it be possible to overperform the App Store? For sure, but using an open-source environment like Sourceforge. I could not find the stats from Sourceforge but it is easy to imagine the huge difference. So, yet again, my main problem with Apple products is that they are great (the Audi of Computer Science) but too closed.

I found out this group when in England. Read about it last weekend, Time Out was flattering an English indie rock band and specially their last album, Kingdom of Rust. So I thought of giving them a try and found out a great group. Far from some of my favourite bands, such as Franz Ferdinand, Doves is melodic pop and each song is different. Every song encompasses different topics and the sound is very hard-worked, despite having a common trace.

It´s always good to find new bands to cover the huge emptiness of the typical massive easy pop flooding every radio station these days.

Four weeks ago, before I was heading Amsterdam I had a terrible problem. Soon after some vacation, I came to my place and plugged in my Mac. There was a power supply breakdown and I had to call the landlady to replace it. I need to get a new one and there started a nightmare. It was impossible to find a charger for my MacBook Pro in three different El Corte Inglés (where they have a special Mac corner, very much visited in the electronic department).

Finally, I went to K-Tuin. They were really efficient and now I know for sure where to buy any Apple stuff. Firstly, they checked my serial number and checked the battery. It was fine. I just had to buy the charger, which was 80 euros. Bloody expensive, like any Mac stuff.

Also, through this world-wide Apple registration system, they could locate an iPod I bought at San Maarten in the Dutch Antilles in 2006. What really surprised me is how efficiently they have access to the equipment data, guarantee and solutions. It´s like a follow-up of the Apple model but in a shop!!

These days I am at the Universidad de Murcia teaching a Web Trends 09 course for the Computer Science Master at the UM. Las time I was also invited at the Conferencias de San Alberto. There was a press coverage straight away.
In the course, we are working on several cutting-edge topics, such as SaaS, Cloud Computing and, specially, I focused on Business Models for the (so-called) Web 3.0. This course is also a totum-revolutum of previous tutorials, talks and courses at the EAE Business School, but that is why I am loving it so much. On the one hand, I integrated all in a coherent syllabus and, secondly, the group is really cool

I was in London this weekend and I couldn´t wait to come back and get hands on to shout loudly and widely: Lond has changed, London is Spanish. Let me explain.

First time I went to London, I enrolled on a Business English course at the prestigious Central School of Lond in Tottenham Court Road. It was a great experience, to the point that the city of the Thames became my favourite destination and for many years, my favourite city.
In one of the lectures, we were discussing what our country was producing in a very multi-national environment. I partnered with a (very attractive) German girl who pointed out that Germany exported cameras, TVs and mostly, cars. “What does Spain produces?”. There was a huge silence in the class. Among them, my friend Panizo. We were unable to say. I mumbled “sun” and “olive oil” if I remember. But got quite ashamed.

Now we are back to 2009 and I am strolling along Oxford Street with my parents and brother from Oxford Circus to Tottenham. And I simply can´t believe what I am seeing. There are four fashion shops in a row: Mango, Berskha (Grupo Cortefiel), Zara (Inditex) and Massimo Dutti (Grupo Cortefiel). The four are Spanish. Just in front, there is an O2 shop (O2 was bought by Telefonica in 2005). But mostly, and boy, this is amazing. There is an Abbey bank branch with the red flame of Santander. Amazing. How the world has changed, how Spain has become a top world economy in these last ten years. Simply, it is amazing.

Remember Tim Hartford? Yep, the guy who convinced us of the hidden logic of why we spend $9 for a double frapuccino in Starbucks where we can get the same amount of coffee for a third of the price in our local bar. Well, he is back here and actually, posing again a number of interesting questions and shocking the world with his “theory of rational decissions” which, in a nutshell, implies that everybody is rational even if he is not aware .

The thing with The Hidden Economist, a book I recommend my students, especially those at management majors, is that it was funny and insightful. But this one is a bit more researched, less fresh perhaps and obviously showing the author learned a few things from the previous one (also about marketing and books). In this book, he explains how prostitutes in Mexico decide consciously not taking contraceptive measures or about the “market of love” where singles attract (or not) and the governing laws (food for thought for some of friends ).

But guys, don´t run to get it, I bought it (and read it mostly) at Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport, you might wanna find it in Amazon.

Oldies but goodies, I discovered Metallica very late. It was in the mid-90s and I was starting in college. One of my friends handed me a tape (yes, a tape, I know this is unbelievable, but we exchanged tapes those days, forget about the P2P controversy ) and I listened to it over exams. It was June and the summer was starting.

The really cool thing of Ride the Lightning (recorded in 1984) songs, especailly from Fade to Black or For Whom the Bell Tolls were their melancholy, their dark sound and how they made you feel good. A couple of months later, I listened to Metallica (recorded in 1991) and also loved it (mostly Enter Sandman and the Unforgiven), but definitely, later on, there was nothing like that sound. Metallica vanished for me and they just popped up in newspapers simply because of IP related scandals. That´s why I love old music songs, because they were the past, the glorious past, not the ridiculous present.

I saw a really impressive job posting from one of my interest groups in Linkedin. Usually I pay almost no attention to that kind of things, but this one, an enterpreneurial / senior faculty position in Accra, Ghana, to foster the leading start-up African leaders of tomorrow was really shocking. The first two questions of the posting are enough clear:

Have you thought about doing something completely different in you life?

Have you ever felt that you want to make a difference?

Well, I did want to do that and I strongly believe I have accepted (almost) all different things I was proposed. For example, in 2004, when I was requested to go to Brazil (well, I know this is not the same, since Rio is just the best place ever ), I thought it was an impressive challenge. And it was at that time, but what happened is that since then on, more and more challenges were coming and they changed my life.

Currently, some students come to see me and ask about studying abroad. Some of them are also asking for references or help to get a PhD position (Australia and Ireland being the recipients). I always give the same advice. GO FOR IT. It will change your life, it will be great and it will make you better. That´s my life motto.