Author's posts
May 11
Share and Share Alike
For Vehicle Finance, 2013 started quickly with the news on 2nd January that ZipCar, the world’s largest car-sharing network, had been acquired by Avis Budget Group for nearly $500m. At first this would not seem to be of that much immediate impact to funders, but it is a significant step for the whole car industry, …
Mar 08
Peer to Peer
After peer to peer lending this Economist leader points out the next big thing could be sharing. You might think this is no different from running a bed-and-breakfast, owning a timeshare or participating in a car pool. But technology has reduced transaction costs, making sharing assets cheaper and easier than ever—and therefore possible on a …
Feb 19
Beefy Lessons for the FSA
The Food Standards Agency and the Financial Services Authority, as well as sharing an acronym, could both learn lessons about regulation. (I know that the Prudential Regulation Authority is technically becoming the regulator but the pun of the FSA was too good to resist). No tests had been done for Horse DNA in beef for …
Feb 18
From Micro Loan to Micro Banker
Amira was not well served by banks. In fact she lives thirty miles from the nearest bank. She didn’t have any money either, since her husband died five years ago. A man came to Amira’s village from an agency offering micro loans to help people buy chickens or anything that would provide villagers with alternative …
Feb 17
Lean Beef
The current uproar in Europe over the food supply chain, after horse meat was found in products labelled as beef, shows an immediate benefit of Lean production and supply chain. To produce something cheaply the traditional supply chain tries to screw suppliers to get raw materials as cheaply as possible. The suppliers in turn will …
Dec 20
Let It Snow
The joy of community supported software is the features that developpers will add just for the hell of it. WordPress 3.8 introduces a new feature that is very appropriate for the season:
Nov 30
A word of advice for Movember
Congratulations to all those who have completed a month of Moustache growing and commiserations with those colleagues who have had to endure living with a Mariachi band. A word of style advice from Private Eye:
Nov 14
Bigger is Better
The benefits of Mergers and Aquistion are simply economies of scale. But are there limits to growth? – This article in the Economist argues that there are – and that it is common to overestimate the benefits. This article from McKinsey looks at where mergers go wrong. Most buyers routinely overvalue the synergies to be …
Jul 15
Business travel: Keeping mobile roaming headaches at bay
With summer holidays coming up and international roaming data at £1 for 1mb – thats one email with an attachment, it’s time for drastic action. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14129868
Apr 30
From Global Solution to Big Problem
In six easy steps: Central: “Here’s our Global Solution” Local: “Does it work for me?” Central: “We will get down to the detail later but it can do everything we need. We will work together on this, now let’s get on..” Local: “But I can’t use it because it doesn’t do this” Central: “This is the …