Performance Controller

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In business intelligence projects, assembling the data is large part of the deal as you go about building an independent data warehouse or set one up in Business Intelligence reporting software itself.

The Pareto theory to focuses on 20% of effort to get 80% of the value does not work in business intelligence projects. You need to get 100% of the data right and cleaned up before it can be mapped and reported consistently.

Even cutting corners by doing a departmental business intelligence may work for a while. But in the end if it is not linked to the published finance results it will be soon be undermined and will eventually end in the scrap bin of good ideas that did not fly; along with those who attempted to fly them.

Using an enterprise level business Intelligence project as a focus to clean up data in itself is a great way to go. The benefits are most often immediate. In fact to get those jobs done any other way almost never happens as the business continues to struggle on with hybrid decision processes that hinder progress.

Building a consistent data-warehouse in fact is the real job in setting up business intelligence reporting. The problem there is cleaning up is often costly and the perception is by most that there is no problem or cleaning adds no value, so it gets left out of the value discussion.

As a Finance or IT manager how often have you heard, “We already have a good data warehouse and all we need is a Business intelligence tool to do our reporting from it.”

As one who lives in both worlds and in my case as a consultant too it actually tells me to beware to do much more proving work on the business case. And do more project due diligence work before locking in on contracts. 

In the case of the CFO or Business Vice President  championing the work, this should also be done before seeking the budget and letting procurement loose to go find a vendor and a competent consultant. Finding the bad data story after the fact, when the installed team and software is on deck, is far too late. No-one cares by then as they know you are between a rock and a hard place with little or no way out.

And if the business is performing well and the goal is for faster decisions information to maintain momentum, then  time to delivery as goal is seen as the most critical project driver. Then things like consistency are automatically assumed to be there or must be dealt with regardless of other change impact considerations.  But of course in this type of case given performance is relative in terms of these constraints, problems that most often show up are on the enterprise’s source systems themselves. So then the paradigm shift as a goal is stalled and the project, which may get off to a great start, quickly falters as these issues surface.

So it actually does take a great deal of resolve, process change management and team work to agree consistent business rules at all levels to solve the issues. That is at the heart of it all. And it is what can trip you up if you don’t stay focused and get it under control. The rest of the work is really just technical and is quite straight forward with limited risk.

Hence in well thought through projects where the value of cleaning is recognized and the correct value focus is brought to bear, it can pay for the project many times over. In such cases this should be recognized as a business benefit to be targeted and not just left as a by-the-way or left out as a buyer beware tactic to get unknown issues solved and cost savings on the cheap.

And in the end who cares what BI tool we use. The truth is if you don’t use one you are foolish as the disciplines they bring alone are worth the money, I should quickly add that this only applies if they are setup by people who actually do know what they are doing. I have seen too many IT selves with software still its shrink packed box never opened. Or when it does it is badly used by installation novices. As one of my software vendor contemporaries said to me recently

“if you don’t have a competent data management team included in your BI project, then I hope you don’t choose my software as I don’t need the reputation”

As too often we aim for the utopian state to exploit what comes only after the hidden work is done. getting there is often actually where the value is as your conversations across the business sort-out the issues in a more natural way. So seeing it as a burden and a delay to project is folly. Doing this will invariably cause frustration and loss of focus and may cause it to even falter and/or fail.

More to the point business leaders who provide budgets for this work, who may also have been part of the evolution that unknowingly or otherwise create the issues, invariable underestimate what it will takes to fix them. They must understand it takes momentum and motivation to get the tough and dirty job of cleaning done. And that business intelligence is about their future and not just some fancy reporting process that sends emails on delinquent performance and helps cuts the costs of doing things in spreadsheets.

As sponsors entitled to see more visible progress to the end game solution that they approved the budget for, they  should call to account project managers to bring to attention any value that gets the money back earlier than expected. By simply enforcing standards and making data process improvements before the project is even completed will delver this.

Hence the value is in the understanding the secondary benefit of cleaning up data and continually selling the value of the process it takes to get that work done is vital.

It is not just all about setting up dashboards and dials to help focus and understand the data but also about having consistent data that has universal acceptance and integrity.  This combination in turns allow business intelligence to be used to create an intelligent business

For many of us doing this do we really need to rethink our mission and how we manage.

 

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In a related post Failing-address-data-quality-and-consistency here are some very key points

Don’t fall into these traps. Don’t assume anything about the state of the data. The areas where data quality and inconsistency problems lurk:

• Data quality within systems-of-record applications may be “masked” by corrections made within reports or spreadsheets created from this data. The people who told you the data is fine might not even be aware of these “adjustments.”
• Data does not age well. Although data quality may be fine now, there’s always the chance that you’ll have problems or inconsistencies with the historical data. The problems can also arise when applications like predicative analytics need to use historical data.
• Data quality may be fine within each systems-of-record application, but may be very inconsistent across applications. Many companies have master data inconsistency problems with product, customer and other dimensions that will not be apparent until the data is loaded into the enterprise Data warehouse.

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It has been said that the best business brains are the inquisitive ones. But is it possible that this inquisitiveness will lead to its own demise as the leapfrogging emergence of global commercial processing power accelerates and unprecedented information ready to hand takes even greater control. With so much pre-programmed reactions being built in, will the human brain become redundant as a force driving humanity itself?

In pondering this, I chanced on the SAGE business brain training site which made me look at it this in more practical detail. It has some great insights into the types of business skills needed by successful people. The site, which runs Business Brain Training a quiz, also points out to me what people in business and young people learning should developed to be successful.

So in a debate with myself taking the side to argue in favor of brain keeping the power I concluded that it is actually even more critical to build management skills to ensure systems that run most of our lives don’t die.

Each of the items in the following quotes bare definitions I got from the SAGE site. I am not sure where they got them from but they are excellent food for thought. It was a fun to work thru hence I am posting it here. Perhaps someone may like to take the opposite view.

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It is been put that with much of the worlds commercial and logistics now being connected by intelligent systems, the human brain can soon be replaced.

Here are 6 reasons why that will never happen.

Foresight by analytical system only helps predict futures but to spot opportunities takes more.

Foresight is the quality that will help you identify what success looks like for you. Good foresight is the sign of a great decision-maker, and someone who is equally strong at spotting opportunities that can lead them down their own path to success

Logic is at the heart of the heart of all systems. But even the most sophisticated NASA computers and commercial aero planes still need highly skilled people to tactically interpret information and react quickly to make critical decisions.

Logical thinking links up well with foresight. It’s the ability to recognize the order of events necessary to achieve success. The logical thinker’s strength is in identifying and processing patterns and seeing how they could work advantageously. Individuals with good logic skills are good at creating a practical order of a series of facts or events.

Concentration and sustaining focus on the right things is something systems can only support.

In a fast-moving business environment, people are faced with many different challenges, often in quick succession and sometimes all at once. Concentration is the ability to provide the necessary level of focus for each challenge, so that an individual can identify the key actions needed to achieve a solution.

Responsivness can be programmed but without human intervention disaster is inevitable.

This is the ability to work well under pressure and to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Individuals who excel in rapid response skills tend to be good all-rounders who can call on a range of skills when they need them. They can balance the adrenaline-fuelled thought process that is created by high-pressure situations with the calmness and control needed for intelligent decision making.

Memory just cannot be replaced by systems. System don’t remember anything they just store and process information.

It’s rare that all of the information you need to overcome a challenge will be readily available to you when you need it. The ability to retain key facts and carry forward lessons learnt from previous experience is vital to effective problem-solving. The knowledge stored by an individual gives them the power to continually improve the efficiency of business processes.

Numeracy is about joining the dots and not only about being able to calculate and understand numbers. It’s about understanding what is at the heart of the critical numbers and how they may change dynamically. Numeracy is also about understanding and reacting to what caused the numbers not in numerical terns but in the human activity terms that created them. 

Success in business cannot be measured by profit alone. However, the ability to operate at a reasonably high level (and deliver profit) is an essential factor in determining long-term success. An agile numerical brain is a key part of making the right decisions to make a business profitable.

In conclusion it is easy to observe that good use of information systems and applications extensively improve intuition in the human brain of those who use and understand them well. And the human brain because of that improves the systems. Therefore these six highly important human abilities can never be replaced by synthetic brain power. 

I rest my case.

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Disclaimer / Acknowledgment

For those interested SAGE is one of the words large application technology companies with an impressive track record for quality business management products.

At the time publishing this post I can say with impurity that I have no association with SAGE at all nor am i aware do any of my affiliates. The information on their site referred to here is acknowledged as their material posted under international copyright and is used here for the purpose of debating arguments it poses.

Any inference or presumption that I or any of the contributors to this post represent SAGE or its views by association is denied. I do however acknowledge the excellent value of the material they posted and I recommended it.

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As a consultant most is know that much of our work is detailed and exploratory. Making change means we need to study and discuss the gaps in the “what is” position so you can have a discussion about changing that state. This takes planning thought and collaborative skill to get people to dig in to the detail and then go a new way to fix the problems we find. That process can be both continuous and radical.

Either way it happens best if the process is fun so people enjoy engaging to get detail information and explore looking for solutions and best practices.

I read something recently about teaching, and it seemed to me the parallels with consulting are similar. The article about teaching in an Asian culture pointed to quite different approaches needed to what we see in the so-called traditional west. A British teacher posted this in the Naked Farang entitled Working teaching Thais

In it he reinforces to be a successful teacher, the best advice is to steer away from boring lectures, long explanations and tests. Like we find also in consulting workshops, making your classes interactive and fun works best. Then not only do students enjoy the classes, but they also learn from them by being involved. The post goes on to explore some great examples that are thought provoking for every culture. It well worth a read.

We have to take all of this into consideration when we decide how we are going to manage change too, In addition to human cultural difference there always different business cultures which vary from business to business too. The common thread however is that people everywhere like to have fun, even at work. The corollary truism to this makes sense. “If you are not having fun it is very hard get things done”

In a work place it important, like it is with most students to win them over early. If they think that learning about change is going to be too serious, people involved will mentally switch off, turn up late or skip sessions and make minimal progress. The flip side is people will be more motivated to be productive and learn effectively if they enjoy the work and have a rapport with the leader.

This is deeply ingrained into Asian cultures more so than the west as following is more encouraged rather than making direct contributions at the risk offending or losing face. In fact, why should we want to change it? We should be flexible enough to adapt the way we teach or engage with people in any cultural styles.

In a workplace these cultural differences can be used to advantage as people who work in silos have fun with to joining the dots when you get them together.

As an example an Asia culture with students and what westerners regard as cheating in class can be of great value, In Asia this is almost pathological. As left to their own devices Asian students will typically gather round to just copy their answers. The counter-productiveness of this has absolutely no logic but you can do nothing about it.

Knowing this means at work however getting people to work things out as a group can be used to great advantage when they are given a problem to study and naturally relax under the protection of group discussions.

Another aspect of leading for results I have found useful, being foreigner is to set the scene in the common language of English then allow it to debated out in the native tongue. This can be very effective in facilitated workshops if it is allowed to run under this protection. By contrast to large passive participation in lecture style workshops, allowing time for discussion in the native tongue sees the noise levels and participation very high from all levels with occasional so called clarification feedback so you can keep it on track. That can be a tough call if your local language skill is not good. But other signals and natural group dynamics tell most of the stories as you just watch while people get comfortable and to the point. It is far from boring with the challenge to get agreement to move to the next steps.

The spoken language too is not the only tool. As we all know speaking is based on not only being cohesive with words and body language but also on the history in local cultures that have much deeper meaning. So unless you are stupid and use a Shakespearian style straight forward English is common use and widely accepted as the written structure format. Most Asians in business now have better understanding of written English even more so than a locally expressive document. Hence we often find people at all levels ask for a document before they ever ask for an explanation. The trick then, as with everyone, is it walk them thru it and allow learning process to take its course.

Another wonderful example of understanding rote learning is in the Naked Farang post.

He says, “When I was in high school in England, one of my favorite subjects was history because I enjoyed hearing about how important events and people changed the course of history.  We would analyze these lessons to see what we had learned and how they affected the present. It was, to me, fascinating and stimulating. In contrast, I hated maths because it just seemed too inflexible and boring.

For Thai students, history is one of the least favorite subjects simply because of the way it is taught. The students are simply expected to memories names and dates without actually attaching any significance to them. There is no wonder they find this boring. In contrast, moths is a popular subject. Why is maths so popular? Well, instead of rote learning names, words or dates, maths offers the students a relative degree of academic freedom because they can learn formulas and experiment with them. In an environment where everything else is so rigid, this is their chance to express themselves.

In our business world of consulting to identify problems and find solutions is always a challenge. But as always the biggest challenge is implementing in diverse cultures that by nature don’t really want to change. The process of learning how to do this is constant and ever stimulating to me

I am always fascinated reading and taking to others about their insights and experience. If you feel inclined please share your experience. I would love to hear about it.

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I want to share with you a recent experience I had negotiating a contract. During this process it struck me that even though we know there are no fairy godmothers, we still believe they will take care of us.

As a budding recruit learning the commercial ropes, my boss had once warned me about taking that approach.

You can lose your shirt if you don’t get your pricing right. But you will lose your business if you compromise on your terms and conditions.

Don’t take shortcuts on conditions as there are no such things as fairy godmothers to bail you out.

Recently at work we concluded negotiations on a deal. From the get go we thought we had covered the sales cycle well, first qualifying our prospect to make sure our lead was a genuine with substance and had genuine intent. In the education and needs understanding stage we establish our credibility and could decide too if we were a good fit us to take on the work. Then as we looked at functional matches and implementation priorities along with their organizational change capability and resolve, that placed us well to understand all the risks. This process took some time as it moved to and fro on options discussions and as the prospect employed divide and retreat tactics and checked our competitive value.

But in the end with scope, resources and pricing all agreed , as the selected provider, the final step was to agree the terms and conditions to get their signature on a work order. The terms and conditions we included in our proposal had also been part of the practical discussion so we assumed our conditions and working assumptions would not present any issue.

But their legal people did a turn about rejecting anything that had even a hint of risk as they sought to remove clauses that protected us from events not of our making. In particular one clause that was red lined dealt with redress in the event of uncontrollable organization change in their business

As we struggled to find a compromise, suggestions were made to limit the clause to good faith wording and to deal only with specific risks. The watered down clause of course become unenforceable but the temptation to close the deal was by bow very high. This compromise however was still a red flag to me as I reflected on what my old boss would have said.

Blindly relying on fluffy terms to maintain commercial balance is just like lighting a long fuse and believing the bomb will never go off. Or when it does you will be long gone.

In our example we were concerned about:

1. Many projects have bad experience when key people leave or get re-positioned out. Often too it can even be the sponsors themselves who are gone. In such cases, ongoing carriage of process and managing changes defaults to the service provider to re-sell and continue to implement without the original sponsor support. It also becomes a new ball game as well as you start again at the re-educate stage with a new incumbent and are forced to defend agreements made with a previous one.
2. In cases where of a key person working with a service provider leaves they will invariably take with them knowledge and leave unfinished work This may revert back to the service provider to back fill and or/redo. Not having redress on this can have disastrous results not only for the service provider to unfairly bear the cost but also the weakened project may struggle and fail.
3. When the company gets taken over or itself does a takeover of others, there is always a material impact. Any material change in ownership will mean inevitable organizational change which in turn will always have some impact on a current project scope.

When preparing contracts, experience teaches us that pricing is only one aspect. Working assumptions that make this up must also be included and debated well so they are clear.

Terms should never be compromised without also reconsidering the risk and the pricing again. The negotiating approach should not be to reduce mitigation and cover, but instead to sell this as a mechanism to see fairness is re-balanced in the spirit of the original negotiations so nether side in the future can take an advantage

As a service providers it is not only for the burden of added cost or the overall success and gets us paid that is at stake if we get sloppy on our terms and conditions. Doing that can also lose us our reputations that keep us in business.

Do you have similar experiences?

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Gideon Shalwick, is an experienced and widely known internet marketer and author, who recently shared a confronting lesson he had. This bears reposting here as it has something for everyone.

He says when you get to a certain level in your profession or calling, you become so “advanced” in your knowledge and experience that you often forget the basics of what it is that makes you truly successful.

After sending some marketing material to his newsletter subscriber list, feedback from a friend quite directly pointed out to him that his message lacked substance with “nothing in it me”.

From this sobering learning he decided to create a short video to share and discuss how to be more effective, where you actually touch peoples lives in a real way!

His reflections also beg of those who watch his video, to ask of themselves  “Do I make the same mistake and if so, what can I do to correct it?”

In his typically open and generous style, Gideon also gives excellent tips on how to use video to great effect.  Watch and enjoy!

 

About Gideon Shalwick

http://gideonshalwick.com/

A South African with Engineering and Master in Engineering Management degrees Gideon’s career began with success in project management and business development He soon realized that business was WAY more fun.

He emigrated to Australia and started what is now a highly successful online business. In a very short time after he started in 2006 his books on entrepreneurship, lead generation and blogging were being distributed and read all over the world. Publications, “The Roadmap To Become A Blogger,” has been downloaded over 26,000 times and a co-authored book has now been downloaded over 16,000 times. His primary focus is online video marketing and teaching people how to build profitable leads using simple tools like YouTube and blogs. 

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Few things are as critical to CFO’s and finance professionals as our systems.  Core accounting and budgeting platforms to back office infrastructure and client relationship management systems are all moving online, into the "cloud", and an entirely new business model called “Software as a Service”. This represents the largest change in technology for the Finance profession since the internet began. (Sungard)

The responsibilities that come with this change are a paradigm shift as systems control moves more to the finance roles. Quite ready too are many of the new breed of finance executives who have emerged in the last decade. This has seen them develop from being passive Information Technology users, to being savvy technology thinkers and change agent leaders, who can relate Information management to the business process and understand how to exploit it to get business value.

As cloud benefits mature and become more and more obvious, the questions being asked now are not what is it but:

• How can finance people start understanding the dynamics and plan change?  
• How can they take advantage of Software as a Service to change the business model  and / or generate new revenue?
• Why are Finance Executives now in high demand to lead this change and why should they embrace it?

Some of the answers to these questions lie in understanding the provider models and how they will shake out.  A few weeks ago in this series I wrote about an internet cloud based shift in Information Technology with the focus on shrinking corporate IT management  From the market perspective, an excellent  “Greg Papadopoulos” post sent to me since, talks about controlling dynamics of the cloud which make this subject even more compelling when we consider who will be controlling our daily lives in the future.

It was written last year when he was at SUN, a platform and infrastructure services giant who were then being taken over by another giant database software services company, namely ORACLE. In his research he also provides good explanations of how the Internet Cloud is  emerging with distinctions on various layers being infrastructure, platform and software.

In summary, the Intercloud as Papadopoulos calls it has the words  “as a Service” as the key. With emphasis on the big “S” and not on the web infrastructure it is delivered across. Then, by adding prefixes such as “P” for platform, “S” for software “I” for infrastructure it starts to make sense. That is to say cloud services comprise more than one thing. Thus the abstraction layer cake of SaaS on PaaS on IaaS).

Make no mistake, he says, I have no doubt that cloud (nee network, grid) computing will become the organizing principle for public and private infrastructure. The production question is what the balance will be.  Which cloud approach will ultimately win?  Will it be big public utility-like things, or more purpose-built private enterprise ones?

The answer: yes. There will be no more of a consolidation to a single cloud than there is to a single network

And, yes, I know I’ve said that the there will be only about five gigantic public clouds I still think that is correct, but also as suggested by that post, it will look a lot like the energy business, with dozens, or hundreds, of national and regional companies.

Papadopoulos concluded on behalf of SUN last year,  “We should expect and work towards nothing less in cloud computing.”

“Platforms” to run the “Infrastructure” to run “Software” applications, all as a service are now being built into a totally services based managed web environment. This in turn is now seeing multiple third party service providers solutions being seamlessly delivered strategically and at much lower overall costs. Understanding the mix of how these all work and where the cost and value can be exploited is where the CFO needs to be getting involved.

For the Finance and other Business Executives and key operational end users, it is more critical  to understand what this move to market driven service models cover and how to exploit them. With zero latency now part of our business time to decision mindset, it is now much more than having more efficient end to end components that traditionally could only exist on a grid based system.

What some people don’t see as they struggle with the confusion of terms, is  what is actually driving all this. The X Factor here is the race to control of the cloud by the large vendors with cost benefit leadership being the uppermost prize. The value of this to the eventual winners will be infinite. Like energy companies who have controlled oil supply for so long, the stakes on information management control are equally huge. To get there and get a consumption based model established early is vital for the big guys.Equally so mid range players and well placed early adopter firms are now moving in to get a foothold too. This is the classic model that has made so many in past rich as they cashed in on exit strategies as acquisitions and consolidations come on down the track.

Even just two years ago it was all seemed so visionary,  but now cloud based solutions are a reality as they are fast replacing in-house managed network grids. The intense IT and business integration management that goes with this is destined to disappear too.  And as costs tumble and the value of supply and demand take on new meanings, Information Technology as we know it is being redefined  with developers also getting new life and opportunities.

Evidence of impetus that is building in the finance professionals community is also showing up in regularly surveys of CFO forums. One this week forums asked its members to consider how maturing cloud services can now provide options in strategic thinking and operational processes. In this there a list of vendors already offering these services including. Adaptive Planning, Amazon, Citrix, Google, Host Analytics, HP, Intacct, IBM, Microsoft, NetSuite.

The survey also asked questions about the lower-cost alternatives to “on-premise” systems such as:

• accounting / ERP
• applications to Consolidate accounting
• planning/CRM across borders, currencies, and offer improved collaboration,
• Reduce company’s IT CAPEX and operating expenses
• Provide scalability without infrastructure build-up
• Reduce company’s operating risk
• Reduce  company’s downtime
• facilitate compliance with  company’s internal policies or external regulation

Microsoft, Google and Amazon are perhaps the most well know household names with Salesforce.com perhaps one of the most well know long time providers with  its CRM services extensively used for nearly a decade.

This week INFOR another giant of the mid ranged accounting systems (ERP) and performance management (PM) software systems. announced plans to run its product as a service on Microsoft’s Azure cloud stack. This adds further momentum to the shift away from licensing on-premises ERP vendor software to a service based model.

So the bottom line for the finance and business strategists is to understand where the investment by vendors is heading and what changes are going on in the development world as the legacy systems become less important to them to support.

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Unfortunately when we talk about Information Technology the language disintegrates quickly into acronym based tech talk .The issue then is we have trouble understanding it all. But for the technically savvy take a look at some rated posts here.

• Infor embrace Microsoft’s azure-cloud  – Author IT World Exchange

• The Intercloud – Author Greg Papadopoulos

• Proformative Member Survey on Cloud Computing & SaaS – Author Proformative

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With the recent political unrest in Thailand the strategic importance of this country in South East Asia and its place as a stable economic base is becoming more understood.

As this remarkable economy rebounds, there remains no doubt that indelible “power of the poor people” can no longer be ignored.

Moving around Bangkok you could be forgiven for thinking that the calamitous May 2010, period never occurred .  Remarkably too, if you can believe the statistics unemployment stands at less than 2% and is one of the lowest in the world.

Thailand, like the elsewhere has an underclass”. But compared to 12% in the U.S., 14% in Britain, 36% in Bangladesh. statistics,”officially” Thailand has an estimated 10% of population below defined poverty line levels.

Traffic jams and hubbub continue as people go about daily lives. Thai Stock markets also show undisputable positive growth and the semi-untied currency is strong and remains stable. Economic indicators for the past quarter shows growth of around 4% with predicted levels as high as 8% by the end of this year as demand for Thai products continues in spite of the local and global issues. As testament to resilience The Thai consumers’ confidence index in May rose sharply immediately after the political unrest ended. Domestic political stability and the global economy influences however still remain risks.

One has to wonder why Thailand has continued to enjoy fiscal growth and financial stability. This too is despite the current budget being fifth straight year of deficit spending, The answer perhaps lies in its world position as a consistent net exporter for decades which has built up foreign reserves, of $US138 billion, (THB 4,478 billion) and is 10th highest in the world. By comparison Britain has $US56 billion and Australia $US45 billion.

On the issue of poverty, retired mainstream Asian affairs journalist Robert Woodrow recently gave some insights. In his researched paper he entitled The Down-Trodden Rural Poor of Thailand – It’s not quite what you think, it commences with a bold statement that says the Thai poor are the richest poor people in the Third World.

He warns too that even with statistics being notoriously unreliable, wealth distribution in Thailand as reported no more extreme than in most industrialized countries.

The poorest 10% of the people of Thailand own 2.6% of the nation’s wealth. The richest 10% own 33.7%.Comparable figures for the U.S., are 2% and 30%, in the U.K. 2.1% and 28.5%. These statistics may not be wholly reliable, but distribution of wealth is unquestionably much more equitable than in China, India, Brazil or South Africa

Woodrow goes on to say that Europe and North American comparisons of poor are not meaningful. Thai poor, typically the rural people, tend to live on family land rent-free, pays nothing to moderate the climate, produce their own vegetables, chickens, eggs and pork, and ride their own motor-cycle to their jobs. American lifestyle seen on TV, it’s so far beyond the range of their experience, so they don’t feel deprived.

He reports too that every village in Thailand is on the electricity grid and almost every village family has a refrigerator, electric rice-cooker, TV, radio and oscillating fans. Almost all rural households have a motorcycle, and in every villagee many families own cars and pickup trucks.

The wealthy absentee landlord is almost unknown with farming families tending a small plot of land they own outright and mortgage-free  This is due to a paternalistic law preventing unscrupulous practices of the past,  forbidding land being put up as security with money-lenders. People however can borrow on anticipated small cash crop harvests which they sell a  through a co-operative.

Main roads in Thailand are well paved and equally or close to first-world standards. And most secondary roads are surfaced, as are many tracks that lead into remote villages. Last month Thailand government announced it would borrow a further THB 270 Billion from local and the world banks to revitalize its economy. At the same time it announced the plans for THB 70 billion of this to be committed immediately from a 15 year borrowing tranche to fund Thai roads being upgraded.

This will bring the national debt to around 40% of GDP.  Tax collections, of around 15% of gross domestic product, are relatively low compared to other countries, so it does leave room for improvement to repay this. In the future that will of course also level the playing fields that presently gives Thailand investors advantage while it develops more .

But it is not only foreign investors who are benefiting from a strong Thai economy. The surrounding countries Like Myanmar Laos and Cambodia all rely heavily on Thailand to be buoyant for work and as buyers of their cheaper production. Trading partners like Australia, New Zealand and others in the APAC regions, see a strong Thai economy with it 65 million people and political stability as very important.  Other factors, such as the US determination to maintain its presence and influence in Asia, relies heavily on having strong economic and political ties with Thailand And balancing that of course Japan and now China too as with many in Europe have similar reasons to keep up their long-standing unbroken ties.So as to why things continue to rebound seems to be not only due to the fact that Thailand is still developing. It is strategically important to others.

But as the country continues its  upward economics, primarily based on its rich resources and a cheap labor force, it will continue to bring with it conflicts of power. The rebellious protests and riots in Bangkok in May 2010 seriously placed the economy and social fabric in jeopardy for nearly two months and will likely fester again if there is no acceptable change. This is a concern to many watching, as this difficult task must bring with it the much-needed harmony and reconciliation of vested interest  political agendas as social demands now accelerate with the relative prosperity.

Divisions are still clear as opposition voices claim the so-called road maps do not go far enough. Academics and civic leaders have questioned the absence of concrete plans beneath the political rhetoric. In the meantime Thai justice is still making headlines as it goes after those  responsible for the killings during the protests. This has been vigorously pursuing more arrests of perpetrators who lead the unrest. This includes ex-Prime Minister Thaksin, in exile, who will likely face terrorism charges if he sets foot in the country again.

But even in the unlikely event of present leaders disabling their political opposition who leveraged poor people to want reform, there remains little doubt that the indelible “power of the emerging poor ” can no longer be ignored with social reform now in transition.

In the aftermath of the unrest the powerful people in the political oppositions at the next elections are hell-bent to take back control of the countries riches . But whoever leads, if they cannot deliver the social change and restore harmony, it will be very hard to avoid more unrest. The longer term impact is not only in Thailand, but the region and many in global economies.

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Here is something to ponder. The Corporate Executive Board Company, says five years ago, less than 25% of business leaders rated their IT function’s effective to deliver the capabilities they needed. They go on to say in 2010 the number has not changed.

IT functions have strived tirelessly to understand demand, set priorities, deliver effectively, and capture value, yet the results still disappoint. Business and IT leaders alike feel they should be getting more—more efficiency, more innovation, and more value—from technology.

In their recently published study of the IT role its findings cover  5 levels of shift.

1. Shift 1: Information Over Process

2. Shift 2: IT Embedded in Business Services

3. Shift 3: Externalized Service Delivery

4. Shift 4: Greater Business Partner Responsibility

5. Shift 5: Diminished Standalone IT Role

At a practical level, in my work in business intelligence and information, I find so many business enabling discussions these days hinge on good information. This invariably leads to a discussion on the capability or lack thereof of IT, as the traditional owners, to deliver it. 

Being in the business end of business intelligence, I also observe the shift in the tasks to set up and coordinate information. As an activity that is now largely falling to the end user business functions like finance, marketing and operations with software vendors and specialist implementers working with them to make it all happen.

Like process applications that have long since been commoditized with highly advanced process packages, management information is now being delivered the same way. In large generalized database applications with configurable end users web tools for both administration and end user use now to deliver the information. There in is the issue for IT as they have become just environment managers with limited skill to be involved in the business strategically.

In many organizations I see significant investments that have occurred on complex systems, are, aside from being in use in the core process, scarcely understood technically by IT. The fact that IT defers the information based deployment task to market system vendors means they also devolve a once hallowed territory of process change management with it. So the argued best placed leaders on joining all the dots of the business processes, being IT, is now scarcely even aware.  

Among all the talk of engagement, alignment, and “being part of the business,” one assumption is never challenged—that for information technology to grow in strategic importance, so must the IT function.

But what if this is not the case?

What if a dedicated, standalone IT function is no longer the best option and the function’s resources and responsibilities were better located elsewhere?

What has occurred is vendors have become de-facto managers of change and are more often than the resident experts in inner workings of their client’s organizations. As cost pressures increase they have also becoming less tolerant and less willing to withstand the continuing conservative commodity based thinking of now quite limited in-house IT functions who try to hold onto power with things like the control of security. For this they are still needed to manage things networking and authentication although even that is changing. There is so much more to IT of course including redundancy standards and communications but the relentless shift continues to vendor services for IT and to cloud based computing for delivery of infrastructure management. With this being cut away from IT it is fast moving the direct control of the business functions who will naturally rely on end to end serviced IT models more and more.

Typically now applications all have their own infrastructures (servers etc.) with communication and hardware to fit the internet generally. And With major vendors are now spending huge sums investing in cloud infrastructure change is now inevitable and one-way from in-house IT. This totally new world of computing in the next few years will also see business knowledge based IT skills move to the  business to work in service based mode. As is the case with most small to medium sized business now who use low cost and even free service based models the big end of town businesses will also be fully outsourced to the service providers as a demand based service.

As to the timing and transition, the huge cloud based investment vendors like Microsoft and others speaks volumes. In the last three years the massive deployment of resources now sees Microsoft, for example, emerging as a high end hosting company. Of the 40,000 or so Microsoft based developers around the world it is estimated that 90% are currently focused on cloud based applications. This rapid move of the Microsoft business too, from traditional mass markets of desktop and database services to an infrastructure provider, will be seen very soon at all virtual levels

“The IT function of 2015 will bear little resemblance to its current state.  Many activities will devolve to business units, be consolidated with other central functions such as HR and Finance, or be externally sourced.  Fewer than 25% of employees currently within IT will remain, while CIOs face the choice of expanding to lead a business shared service group, or seeing their position shrink to managing technology delivery . . . This study argues that the changes will be rapid, permanent, and radical.  We have advocated for a decade that IT leaders become demand shapers, not order takers.  Similarly, we now recommend that IT leaders devote the time, energy, and resources to actively shape the coming transition.”

The quotes are taken from the paper that you can download here, entitled The Future of Corporate IT . Authors are The Corporate Executive Board, a consulting firm. This provides research and analysis to business executives and professionals around the world. In addition on my recommended reading list is a post by   Irving Wladawsky-Berger called IT in the Age of the Cloud In this he makes balanced comment of these issues.

 

~000~

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This week in Melbourne, I had a great lunch with my son. He talked abut his city based vocation as a building construction manager It is not without hazard when it comes to parking he told me. Later he sent me a very funny letter written to the Melbourne City Council about a parking issue written by one of his aggrieved mates.

I send it to my very good friend, Lawrence Berezin for an opinion, being he is Lawyer in New York. He in turn sought  wider views in his regular web publication “New York Parking Ticket”. In this he very kindly added some great publicity about our National Song Waltzing Matilda. Plus he got some great comments from his readers including some nice ones about us Aussies. Here is his post that included my son’s message. He headed it The-Wacky-World-of-Parking-Tickets

In this fun site Larry takes what to most is an emotive subject and makes it not only advisory and educational but practical too. Although about New York City Parking,  it has huge appeal with everyone who parks their car in any city anywhere in the world.  Go and make yourself known to Larry (as he prefers to be called by his mates) and let him know what you think about the things he writes. He always replies so you wont regret it.

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Recently an ulcer in my mouth was quite distressing. I attempted to research it to find some sort of relief. You would think for such a simple thing as an ulcer in the mouth would be easy to find a remedy. But it is not so unless you ask the right questions. 

 Even so I did manage to record a short video about this dilemma. Trade work going on around me filled the air with dust hence the cover sheet hanging behind me to protect the pictures on my wall. 

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In the course of reading I found something that I believe puts a very different perspective on data management. We talk about how real time fast retrieval based analytics reporting can be used to grow the business. The truth it that it is not always so. Modern business systems have high integrity built in and can present  data to you on demand, so you can ask questions that perhaps can be of high impact . That is the real value

But when a system process is broken or poorly designed, aside from fixing the cause, it seems bad data can provide business opportunities for the unscrupulous?

The question posed in the research material I read  asked, Who profits from poor data quality? 

Well apparently, the retail industry does—sometimes.

Poor data quality (and poor information quality in the case of intentionally confusing fine print) definitely has a role to play with things such as mail-in rebates—and it’s a supporting role that can definitely lead to increased profits.

In a post by Jim Harris  dated 06/16/2010 he describes how this works. When I read it I saw how poor data engineered to be supplied this way allows some dubious business practices  to scam the consumer.  His post is also re-published in the Smart Data Collective,

It is an excellent read with congratulations to the author. I have also reposted here ~

A few months ago, during an e-mail correspondence with one of my blog readers from Brazil (I’ll let him decide if he wishes to remain anonymous or identify himself in the comments section), I was asked the following intriguing question: “Who profits from poor data quality?” The specific choice of verb (i.e., “profits”) may have been a linguistic issue, by which I mean that since I don’t know Portuguese, our correspondence had to be conducted in English. Please don’t misunderstand me—his writing was perfectly understandable. As I discussed in my blog post Can Social Media become a Universal Translator?, my native language is English, and like many people from the United States, it is the only language I am fluent in.  My friends from Great Britain would most likely point that I am only fluent in the American “version” of the English language, but that’s a topic for another day—and another blog post. When anyone communicates in another language—and especially in writing—not every word may be exactly right. For example: Muito obrigado por sua pergunta! Hopefully (and with help from Google Translate), I just wrote “thank you for your question” in Portuguese. My point is that I believe he was asking why poor data quality continues to persist as an extremely prevalent issue, especially when its detrimental effects on effective business decisions has become painfully obvious given the recent global financial crisis. However, being mentally stuck on my literal interpretation of the word “profit” has delayed my blog post response—until now. Promoting Poor Data Quality In economics, the term “flight to quality” describes the aftermath of a financial crisis (e.g., a stock market crash) when people become highly risk-averse and move their money into safer, more reliable investments.  A similar “flight to data quality” often occurs in the aftermath of an event when poor data quality negatively impacted decision-critical enterprise information. The recent recession provides many examples of the financial aspect of this negative impact.  Therefore, even companies that may not have viewed poor data quality as a major risk—and a huge cost greatly decreasing their profits—are doing so now. However, the retail industry has always been known for its paper thin profit margins, which are due, in large part, to often being forced into the highly competitive game of pricing.  Although dropping the price is the easiest way to sell just about any product, it is also virtually impossible to sustain this rather effective, but short-term, tactic as a viable long-term business strategy. Therefore, a common approach used to compete on price without risking too much on profit is to promote sales using a rebate, which I believe is a business strategy intentionally promoting poor data quality for the purposes of increasing profits. You break it, you slip it—either way—you buy it, we profit The most common form of a rebate is a mail-in rebate.  The basic premise is simple.  Instead of reducing the in-store price of a product, it is sold at full price, but a rebate form is provided that the customer can fill out and mail to the product’s manufacturer, which will then mail a rebate check to the customer—usually within a few business weeks after approving the rebate form. For example, you could purchase a new mobile phone for $250 with a $125 mail-in rebate, which would make the “sale price” only $125—which is what the store will advertise as the actual sale price with “after a $125 mail-in rebate” written in small print. Two key statistics significantly impact the profitability of these type of rebate programs, breakage and slippage. Breakage is the percentage of customers who, for reasons I will get to in a moment, fail to take advantage of the rebate, and therefore end up paying full price for the product.  Returning to my example, the mobile phone that would have cost $125 if you received the $125 mail-in rebate, instead becomes exactly what you paid for it—$250 (plus applicable taxes, of course). Slippage is the percentage of customers who either don’t mail in the rebate form at all, or don’t cash their received rebate check.  The former is the most common “slip,” while the latter is usually caused by failing to cash the rebate check before it expires, which is typically 30 to 90 days after it is processed (i.e., expiration dated)—and regardless of when it is actually received. Breakage, and the most common form of slippage, are generally the result of making the rebate process intentionally complex. Rebate forms often require you to provide a significant amount of information, both about yourself and the product, as well as attach several “proofs of purchase” such as a copy of the receipt and the barcode cut out of the product’s package. Data entry errors are perhaps the most commonly cited root cause of poor data quality. Rebates seem designed to guarantee data entry errors (by encouraging the customer to fill out the rebate form incorrectly). In this particular situation, the manufacturer is hyper-vigilant about data quality and for an excellent reason—poor data quality will either delay or void the customer’s rebate. Additionally, the fine print of the rebate form can include other “terms and conditions” voiding the rebate—even if the form is filled out perfectly.  A common example is the limitation of “only one rebate per postal address.”  This sounds reasonable, right? Well, one major electronics manufacturer used this disclaimer to disqualify all customers who lived in multiple unit dwellings, such as an apartment building, where another customer “at the same postal address” had already applied for a rebate. Conclusion Statistics vary by product and region, but estimates show that breakage and slippage combine on average to result in 40% of retail customers paying full price when making a purchasing decision based on a promotional price requiring a mail-in rebate. So who profits from poor data quality?  Apparently, the retail industry does—sometimes. Poor data quality (and poor information quality in the case of intentionally confusing fine print) definitely has a role to play with mail-in rebates—and it’s a supporting role that can definitely lead to increased profits. Of course, the long-term risks and costs associated with alienating the marketplace with gimmicky promotions take their toll. In fact, the major electronics manufacturer mentioned above was actually substantially fined in the United States and forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of denied mail-in rebates to customers. Therefore, poor data quality, much like crime, doesn’t pay—at least not for very long. I am not trying to demonize the retail industry. Excluding criminal acts of intentional fraud, such as identity theft and money laundering, this was the best example I could think of that allowed me to respond to a reader’s request—without using the far more complex example of the mortgage crisis.

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Business people, not IT, make technology work to focus the business. The general IT role is more strategic to maintain and improve competitive positions of the business infrastructure to make people’s lives easier, It is not the other way around. Ask any CIO, he knows that. especially when he asks for a sign off on what is installed.

So why when changing a process do people go straight to IT to set up technical processes. When they do IT have no choice to do it their way, Then  they give things names that are either functional, relate to the software or are way too obscure?

There is no way this should happen in the public domain as things like product names and branded access URLs are always cleared by marketing. Then image and branding are so important. But internally that does not happen as all too IT often gets little business help or involvement.

It is like having two standards, one rule for customers and other those who service them. And that make no sense at all. Setting the service delivery culture starts with teaching people the supply chain in not about them but their suppliers and customers. So why do we still insist being too lazy to put some effort into more marketing rather than functional or geeky names.

To paraphrase from another well-known idiom.

If you feed them peanuts they will look like monkeys.

So why not give internal process the same respect you give your customers and suppliers so they will be more likely to perform and respond the way you expect. That of course needs a business person to own and manage the change process. And all too often they are missing or busy.

Most often too as learning is done in the development stage where the die is cast. “A habit of one” it is often called. When you show people something that continues to work for them they may never change even if it is improved the very next day. The process and a systems life is therefore limited by the language and thought we give it when it starts. Never mind people whom may struggle later once the initial support is gone.

http://Image076/ or some such useless ellipsis name embedded in key process URLs is unlikely to move your business forward. So why use language that you don’t understand or is not service related?

As for IT infrastructure and everything upwards it is vital for management to get involved. Once instances are set and business teams take over any plea to start where we want to end up is then forlorn and lost.  It is often too hard and too detailed for managements to consider, especially in the “lets get it done urgency” cultures to have something working and adding value yesterday. So it gets underway without good thought on the impact of a later change.

Using and understanding how to set names and use aliases in not an IT role, It is vital for business managers to break this nexus so the language of technology more natural to focus the business.

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A popular myth in business and life is that it is only money that motivates. Consider why you go to learn to play a piano or join a speech club and why you find so many professionals doing more creatively work for others for free when their employer pays them for the same type of work.

End user tools such as Gmail plus backend server tools like Lynx and Apache are some of the world’s highest used technologies. These are examples of things that would have never happened were they not motivated to be created by something other than money.

It may be true that the more money works to get better results when the task being done involves mechanical skills based on a set of rules. Then the more you scale up the pay as the  reward the more likelihood there is for a better result.

However MIT and other studies conclusively find that once a task calls from even rudimentary cognitive skills, the results most often get worse when you use more pay as the incentive to get more results. Profit motive then gets unhinged from purpose and bad things start to happen.

This is discussed in this Royal Society for encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) Animate Video – “Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us”

This calls into question that if you reward something you get more of the behavior you want and if you punish something you get less.

The video that is has had extensive viewing since it was published on you Tube in April 2010.

This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink’s talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and the workplace. www.theRSA.org

It bears no more comment except to say it may the best 10 minutes of essential information you can get to help you understand and pass your next creative leadership challenge.

 

Here also is the live version of Dan Pink’s RSA talk if you prefer to see him in action.

I wonder what others think?

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I had some interesting exchanges recently that took me to a UK  firm who specialize in data cleansing, They reminded of a survey we did some time ago that asked the question, How do Business Intelligence solutions provide value?

Of the 86 replies the answers varied in weight but it was clear Sales Growth and Operating Performance are the top issues.

In my discussion with Chris Johnson at CNM in the he said

Companies waste so much money and cause harm to the environment by not regularly cleansing their data. Data is one of our biggest assets. You wouldn’t drive around in your Ferrari or work in your high rise office block without getting it cleaned once in a while would you?

Clean data means happy informed customers and less environmental impact to our planet.

In my personal opinion it should be a legal/moral obligation to clean data regularly.

This was very sound advice which I was looking for to help me in my work in Business Intelligence that relies so much on clean data.

As I looked through the impressive product list at CNM, (Yes it is one of those coveted TLA names) it seemed to focus on these needs so well so I decided to keep it as a reference list of issues that people in business face.

For example in their How can we help? section it bring to the forefront familiar issues with some pertinent questions that just make think about the quality of your data.

Telephone Number Appending

Have you got a list of contacts without a phone number? We have one of the most efficient and accurate telephone numbering services in the UK. more…

TPS Screening

Need to comply with the law? Our TPS matching service can flag or remove TPS registered records from your data. more…

Tracing Services

Lost contact with your debtors? Our tracing service is second to none, we not only find new addresses for your debtors we can also give you an indication of how likely they are to repay their debts. more…

Data Supply

Need campaign specific profiled data? Then look no further. At CNM we have access to the most up-to-date data available in the UK. more…

Their full list of Core Services, in context also provides valuable insights about uses of data. A most useful resource.

_________________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer

I have no interest at all nor do I get any benefit from this firm aside from the value of having connected at an intellectual level.  I just like what they have to say hence I am sharing it.

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The Curfew still remains in force in Bangkok as clean up operations continue and order in the city and provinces is resorted. Even so headlines of last 2 days still show dangers are still present.

The Bangkok CentralWorld management just sent me by our office provider SERVCORP gives some good news about our office in there. In it they advise the extent of the fire damage generally to the Centralworld complex on the 19th May 2010.

Centralworld management advised that the Zen department store has been completely damaged and Zen Tower is partly damaged.

Initial inspections show the following areas have not been damaged:
• Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Center at CentralWorld
• The Offices at CentralWorld
• Isetan Department Store
• TK Park
• SF World Cinema

They told me for now people will be not be permitted in the premises until more inspections are carried out.

In the face of the miseries people have suffered, we know of no-one in our circles who have been hurt. The good news is we may soon be able to return to work in our office which survived the arsonists work.

I have Been in Singapore today and now in the terminal 3 lounge waiting to board a plane for Melbourne as I write this. This will be my last post on this subject but I am keen in future to tell some of the stories about leaders in business and the community I saw who handled a very hard situation well to look after their people and their customers in the face of the crisis.  There are many lessons to learn and acknowledge. as it is still continuing.

As an information record, here are the last couple days headlines from The Nation

· Military nurse killed in drive-by shooting

· Bail applications for 114 red shirts denied

· Arisman negotiating to surrender

· C4 bomb found on pick-up truck in Pratunam

· Probe underway for three schools torched despite curfew

· Two M67 grenades found in pick-up truck of red-shirt guards

· 7 Bangkok districts to be declared disaster zones

· PM vows to move the country forward

· 13 Khon Kaen reds get suspended jail term

· Man found suffocated on fourth floor of CentralWorld

· Prosecution of reds involving in mayhem

· Nov 14 poll date should be postponed:

· Public utilities services around Rajprasong could resume Friday

· CRES sets up rapid respond units to help people

· Government sets up rally relief centre

· CRES announces it has done clearing streets around Rajprasong

· Free services to send red shirts home completed

· Dearth toll from May 14 rises to 52: BMA emergency centre

 

Footnote

Our office providers SERVCORP. who thru the crisis, kept me up to date on events in the Rajprasong area and Centralworld give us great service. When we needed they found alternative accommodation so we could continue business. I recommend them highly and include their details here if you want to have local office needs, not only in Bangkok but mostly anywhere.

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Here is some advice I got as a student. To make ends meet, I took a job selling wedding chest products. (Those old enough to remember may recall Carrigans, a boutique firm that sold a quality product range by referral based selling.

My sales coach at the time told me.

“Don’t try to sell products, show solutions to real problems” and something practical that goes with that is a mattress test” 

“What is a mattress test?” I quizzed.

It is a simple concept that alerts or disturbs a prospect unexpectedly that he or she has a problem, But the skill is to do it in a way you and your product or service are seen as part of the solution.  Most rookie sales people learn this but rarely apply it.  If you do, you will sell well”

He went on to explain the metaphor:

For example you may not know it, but a vacuum salesman knows a used mattress has a lot of dead skin in it. And he also knows any decent vacuum will pull it out easily.

So if  when he demonstrates to a prospect with a quick swipe across an old mattress it will show on the filter pad a pile of dead skin. That disturbs people and it also does a lot of the work for his sale so he needs to talk a lot less to close it.

It seemed to me as I applied that lesson, it is not about being slick and not always about having the best product or service. It is about identifying and solving problems. When a prospect becomes concerned they’ve got a real problem and you not only help them to see it but also become  part of the solution, you spend less time on vague conversations and more on working out the terms of a deal.

The use of a mattress test concept does take work to find a prospects real pain point. And to pick the timing and have skill to make it show up in a way that lets you be seen to be part of the solution. Doing your home work is the key, and it works a treat too, as you have happy customers and do good business.

At time of writing this post I am sitting on a plane with a colleague from Infor, our solution partners, who provider enterprise software solutions.  Being a seasoned salesman and someone I trust, I asked him for his experience on this. His reply was un-expected.

In that case if you are selling vacuum cleaners it may be a good idea to hook up with a mattress company. Sometimes the customer may need a new mattress rather than just getting a new cover and or a quick clean up tool”

By the way my boss at Carrigans always got mad at me for giving away fine linen table cloths and without making a sale. And I was not supposed to cannibalize my samples case either, which annoyed the stock room too.

But when I did I found what disturbed my prospect was the thought that they may not be able to get the full matching set later when I was gone. I closed heaps of sales that way as I had the solution right there or when I rang back in a day or as promised and remade the point. With a good offer on terms many then bought the whole chest and even better I always got heaps more leads.

It was great fun too as I made lots of friends of clients who we very happy with what they had bought.

Since then I suspect nothing has changed… But I wonder what others do now?

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 Tonight there is an eerie yellow feel in the city of angels with Bangkok now under a curfew . The only people on the streets are the army, police, authorized people and emergency services.

The events of today that saw the protest rallies ended and leaders arrested then transformed into lawless rioting and burning.

I just went to the rooftop of my apartment building where I can see the normally busy street now empty below. And to the north the famous Bangkok expressway hub that normally has constant flow of vehicles, now as none.

I took this photo over the nearby Bumrungrad Hospital where you can see the fire dominating the skyline as the Central World Mall just 4 Kilometers away continues to burns. Red flames are clearly visible reflecting on the billowing smoke as this landmark burns to the ground. 

I am not sure yet if the office tower attached to the Mall is burning too. If so like many others effected our business will be a casualty too as our office in on one of the higher floors.  

(Click on this picture to link  to the original CNN Video showing the Central World Mall on fire.)

In the last few days it is difficult to move around in the city. Today was worse as the army moved to control escalating events. People were advised  to do only what are essential things. Many have left the city to go to the provinces including some of our staff. For many foreigners they have or will return to their counties in fear of further escalating tensions.

I had to walk quite a distance from my home to get past the razor wire blockades set up by the army to contain and defend against the ongoing civil lawlessness. Just nearby it was curious to see a mix of soldiers crouched and behind sandbag defense lines in readiness for potential attack while people streamed past purposefully as they leave new danger zones.

For .

As cell tower towers communications were being cut in attempts to stop rioters re-grouping so many people I saw had cell phones to their ears as it seemed intent on learning of troubles ahead and where the dangers might be.

Needless to say my venture out was short as I competed my errand and returned home.

As a chronological record I have updated the detail events of today in. http://www.performancecontroller.com/blog/2010/05/being-on-the-spot-in-bangkok-is-not-a-good-scene/#comments 

I have also pasted it under the fold below: 

Bangkok Wednesday May 19th

This morning around 10:30 am troops secured the protesters stronghold areas around the King Rama VI Statute in front of the Lumpini Park. Troops used armoured vehicles to demolish the bunkers and moved in to secure the area. They then moved to secure other areas.

Natthawut Saikua announced from the rally stage at Rajprasong to stay and fight along with protesters, dismissing speculation about fleeing or surrendering in the face of advancing security forces.

Around 11.00 am, the security forces have moved passed Sarasin Junction heading to Rajprasong along Rajdamri Road.

Women, children and the elderly have been allowed to seek refuge in Wat Pathum Wanaram, the designated safety zone.

The red-shirt leaders still remaining at Rajprasong include Natthawut, Jatuporn Promphan, Kwanchai Praipana and Nisit Sinthuprai.

Arisman Pongruangrong, weng Tojirakarn and Suporn Atthawong have been absent since the morning. Police subsequently confirmed Arisman fled in a Yaris car

About 1.40 pm today, red-shirt leaders arrived at the Royal Thai Police on Rama I Road, located next to the Rajprasong rally site, to surrender. that seemed like a relief to many that it was all over. But that was short lived as riots and burnings broke out across the city.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva later issued state of emergency in Kalasin and Mukdaharn after riots spread to the provinces. The riots broke out in many spots in Bangkok after some red shirts leaders surrenders to police, ending Rajprasong rally site.

Tonight the government imposed a curfew in Bangkok from 8 pm to 6 am. which will be in place until further notice

Arisaman Pongruangrong, a red-shirt leader, was then arrested, in Plonechit area near my office at Central World. It was reported that he was taken to the Naresuan Border Patrol Police Base in Hua Hin. (That is 3 hours outside Bangkok)

The Criminal Court today also approved arrest warrants be issued against former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and nine other people on charge of terrorism.

Angry protesters set fire to 27 spots across the capital. The fire at CentralWorld was still out of control at 9 pm tonight.

Here is a full list in lastest first order of the updates I got via my SMS today Bangkok Wednesday May 19, 2010

• Fires erupt at 27 spots across Bangkok
• Thai Airways International will operate regular scheduled flights
• Arisaman arrested: reports
• Court approves arrest warrant against Thaksin, 9 others on terrorism charge
• Police Hospital evacuates patients from building opposite from Central World
• Central World building may collapse after arson attack
• Transport Co cancels bus services after 8 pm
• Outbound travellers need to show travelling document
• Kalasin and Mukdaharn under state of emergency
• Protesters set fire to at 1east 15 spots in Bangkok
• Curfew imposed 8 pm to 6 am
• Protesters loot Siam Square, set fire to Siam Theatre
• BTS suspends service Thursday
• Looting taking place at Central World
• 4 troops, 1 reporter injured in M79 attack on Thai-Belgian Bridge
• Angry protesters set fire to Channel 3
• Fire breaks out at 7-Eleven shop at Din Daeng
• Nation staffs told to go home
• Gunfight continues at Din Daeng Intersection
• Curfew to be imposed in Bangkok Wednesday night : defence minister
• Protesters set fire to Central World
• Protesters burn tyres on Lard Prao Road
• Pockets of red shirts continue to riot
• Summary of operations to gain control of Rajprasong
• Italian reporter killed in Bangkok clashes
• Red-shirt leaders surrender to police
• Jatuporn pleading with his red shirts to end protest
• Banks to close at 1.00 pm
• Jatuporn to surrender at police headquarters
• Natthawut vows to fight on at Rajprasong
• Thai stocks exchange closes 12:30 noon Wed
• Panithan: Red-shirt leaders have fled
• Troops detain 20 red shirts protesters
• At least two killed at Saladaeng clash
• 20 armed men in black captured by soldiers, Arisman believed fleeing
• 2 injured in clash at Samyan Intersection
• Troops secure area in front of Lumpini Park
• Panithan urges public members to stay away from besieging areas
• Thai stocks open down 5.27 pt, 0.69 pct
• Thaksin responsible for collapsed negotiations: Korbsak
• Senate cancels mediation talks
• Banharn calls for decisive, swift action to contain terrorism
• Protesters seized Thai Com satellite uplink station in Nonthaburi
• Rubber tyre fire near Chulalongkorn Hospital put out
• Gunfight erupts at Saladaeng
• Protesters set tyres alight at Saladaeng Intersection
• Protesters torch ONCB’s cafeteria building
• Troops push protesters back from Saladaeng Intersection
• Govt troops prepares to disperse red shirts at Rajprasong

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 Bangkok 6:30 PM May 17, 2010

As I post this I am getting live reports via my Skype

I just heard that in Rama 4  in Bangkok, four people have just been shot. 

One is dead and three injured.

Since my post on Saturday I have kept it updated in the comments section as events occur,

Tonight as tensions seem to be heightening I have included this as a separate post too.

Here is an update on events in Bangkok before to 6PM., Sine then a critical meeting between the opposing sides has been cancelled. The casualty count as reported is 60 dead and 1000 hurt.

Bangkok 6PM May 17, 2010

Right now as I am watching the TV reports here in Bangkok there are signs that violence will erupt again in the Indra Hotel Area with tires being paces in front of the hotel in readiness to burn.

It is not sure if it is protestor or other ill meaning people The Soldiers have prevented anyone from entering the area so no civilians are present.

Soldiers have also let people know that three shots in the air means warning if people intend to set them alight or cause trouble.

In the Bang Kai and Ding dang area are still critical area. There was a tanker stolen from a petrol station presumably full of fuel that has been rolled into the road and people shouting fireworks constantly at the truck in attempts to ignite. The TV news reporter nearby is trying to find out if the truck is loaded and if there is full on board.

Wireless s road just now is quiet and peaceful just now.

Gun fire has been regular in Rama 4 but other than this. it is quite just now.

It seems from the reported information following a phone call at 4 from the government to redshirts official who since have had a meeting it seems they are ready for negotiations. The content of the conversations is not known but it presumed it was somehow persuasive.  (meeting since cancelled)

At Victory monument it is difficult for security as protester have taken control of the area .One of my staff lives in the Victory monument area and who is on the line to me now says she is staying indoors as there is shooting nearby and a lot of redshirts and police and army are there. It is very dangerous on the streets.

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Bangkok 2PM May 15 2010

This week  when I returned to Bangkok the scene is far from good.  While I was at a business dinner last night in the peace of the famous Enocteca Italian restaurant, violence was erupting just nearby in the city for the second day running.

This morning when I awoke 16 more people are dead including some foreigners with scores more injured as the government tries to end the two month long protest rallies.

Heading along the 2 Km stretch from my home in Sukhumvit to our Bangkok office in Central World in Chilton is not an option as it stands in epicenter of the troubles. On that stretch all business there is now closed.

All around the city in the last few days I have seem army and flak jacketed police which tells the tail of the tensions here. To visit one of our clients in the east of the city means I have to go past the Prime Ministers home which since the trouble began has been heavily guarded.

Following last nights violence as I went for some breakfast nearby this morning, I was most disrtubed at hearing a motor bike rider say he had just seen three people lying dead on the road near the rally zone. He said  they been left unattended because no-one wanted to risk their life to remove the bodies.

As an insight to the perspective of some who is involved in the troubles, sadly this morning I read a former senator and secretary of a children foundation, Wallop Tangkhananurak, called on leaders to immediately evacuate children and aged people from Rajprasong rally zone. Wallop said about 70 per of the demonstrators are children and aged people.

And this morning Silom Road, which is always bustling, became deserted. It has just been reported that only a few 7-Eleven shops are remaining open. At 10:30 am , troops used orange plastic roadblocks to set up several layers of barricades to seal off the area.

The escalating gravity was lifted on Thursday when Seh Daeng, who is one of the protest leaders was shot. He remains in critical condition after being shot in the head while engaged in an interview with foreign press.  This and ongoing events is reported to be fueling calls by protest leaders for people in some provinces to come to Bangkok to bolster the protesters.

I just heard report of two explosions being heard in front of the Ua-Chuliang Building near the Saladeng Intersection  (11:40 am Saturday.) The sound of gunfire followed the explosions.

The major area of troubled activity is in the clusters around the Rajprasong intersection as shown on this map

Needleless to say, it is not a safe scene to be in the streets near the troubles so the advice is to keep a safe distance and don’t venture far. I intend doing just that until I leave for Australia next week.

~000~

 

Following May 15, 2010 chronology published in the Nation earlier this morning shows events of a military operation to close in on the red shirts’ protest site.

12.12pm: Five thousand troops start blockading Suan Lum Night Bazaar and fire tear gas. Gunshots are heard shortly afterwards.

12.15pm: Soldiers fire tear gas to reclaim the area near Suan Lum Night Bazaar that was occupied by the red shirts on Thursday night. Protesters try to besiege the troops inside the night market, and smoke is spotted coming out from inside Lumpini Park.

12.30pm: The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration rejects police request for city officials to drag away a police truck set ablaze by protesters at Sala Daeng intersection, saying its officials would be under threat from the gunfire exchange.

1pm: Protesters burn car tyres opposite the Lumpini Boxing Stadium, about 100 metres from the Thai-Belgian Bridge. Sporadic gunfire is heard. A clash between security forces and protesters kills one man and injures 20 others, three of whom are journalists.

1.30pm: Protesters outside the boxing stadium attack security forces with slingshots and petrol bombs, while soldiers respond by firing several rounds in the air, followed by teargas and rubber bullets. Twenty protesters are arrested.

1.50pm: Protest leader Jatuporn Promphan announces on stage that the situation could lead to civil war.

2.30pm: Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, spokesman of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, tells the press that government forces have secured the area around the Thai-Belgian Bridge and set up road barricades on Wireless Road.

3pm: Reinforcements of troops are sent to guard Government House.

3.20pm: Troops and red shirts clash at Rajprarop intersection and there is noise of gunshots. Protesters retreat to the Pratunam intersection.

4.20pm: Red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua calls on the government to order troop withdrawal and rescind the emergency decree.

4.25pm: Residents of Rajprarop Soi 4 and Soi 6 try to boo away red-shirt protesters, who are armed with petrol bombs and looking to confront soldiers.

4.30pm: Ruam Katanyu Foundation worker Sarayut Amphan is accidentally shot in the arm during a clash in Soi Ngam Duphli.

4.50pm: Protesters throw burning tyres from the Sala Daeng overpass at soldiers waiting at the foot of the bridge. Noise of gunshots and firecrackers is heard from the protesters’ side, while soldiers fire into the air periodically.

5pm: There is a confrontation between both sides near Dusit Thani Hotel and the Thai-Belgian overpass. Burning tyres cover the area with smoke.

6pm: Two grenades, believed to have been launched using an M-79 grenade launcher, explode in Soi Sala Daeng and in front of the Dusit Thani Hotel. There are no reports of injuries.

6.20pm: Explosion is heard at the red-shirts’ stage on Rajprasong intersection, as speakers jump down and tell protesters to duck. No injuries or deaths are reported and the cause of the explosion remains unknown.

6.40pm: An armoured vehicle moves into Sala Daeng intersection from Wireless Road. Protesters throw bottles, petrol bombs and lit firecrackers at troops.

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The process of writing this blog often puts me into another level of human commutation. Many do blogs to make money while others have different motives. My sister for example posts recipes for fun. In my case I do it with some forsaken idea that the those who know me in business will pass on the word because we try attempt to share our ideas. Noble for sure but maybe not so smart you must agree. We work in Asia Pacific and now have readers all over the world who will never hear of or even care about engaging our consulting firm.

But the upside and one of the delights is meeting like-minded people who also blog. For me as I attempted it increase my traffic twitter face book and so on were obvious choices. Three I got a surprise one day when I got a warm welcome to the community from a New York Lawyer who runs a blog with a difference. He bases it only on NYC Parking Ticker issues where he helps people understand the law and their rights.

 Larry Berezin, who runs the blog and who is a principal is the law practice it promotes, is now a great friend who I enjoy sharing ideas with.

But, you may ask, how does a Lawyer make any money out handling issues from such a mundane commodity service like parking. Yes you have to wonder?

Just now while reading his blog for this week I noted a testimonial from one of his practice customers, It tells the story in one shot

Clients say:

“My company manages a large fleet of trucks. We’re on the road daily in the five boroughs of New York. Our parking ticket fines between December, 2007 and July, 2008 were $663,321. New York Parking Ticket saved us $456,372. My company paid only $206,949, a 69% savings. 

New York Parking Ticket will save us more than $1M for the 12 month period ending December, 31, 2008. I heartily recommend New York Parking Ticket. They keep their word, deliver significant savings at a very reasonable cost. It’s a no brainer.“

Jonathan Smokler Uptown Communication & Electric 

Even though you may not live in New York or even in the US like me, I recommend his blog as informative and common sense. He turns what is a very dry and sometimes painful subject we all relate to into a load of fun as he provides valuable information.

When you look it you will see the experiences and law is mostly the same everywhere and does not just apply to New York

Larry also hosts a radio show where he talks on the subject to make it human and very enjoyable.

In keeping with his sense of humour this banner ad says it all too!!

One question I have for Larry is “When are you going to go international?  Perhaps we could be your APAC rep!!

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