Possibly one of the best known brand logos in existence, Visa Inc is a global corporation based in California, United States. This business model has pretty much encroached on every life in the developed world as there aren’t too many people without a credit card; there are plenty of lives in the developing world taking advantage of easy credit as well. 

Interestingly, Visa Inc does not issue credit cards, instead banks and increasingly so general businesses issue Visa branded credit cards with Visa Inc providing financial solutions for payment. I find it extraordinary that such a financial services business could be built without actually issuing their own credit cards, instead relying on payment systems generating a percentage of the sale. 

This is a highly profitable business now relying on electronic transactions as opposed to the old style paper transaction that also required a phone call to verify the purchaser’s credit worthiness. Visa Inc is offering new financial products to ensure this business maintains its competitive advantage and is well placed for the future.

I was sitting at a bar in Brussels with a local beer on my table looking out over the street. In front of me sat a blonde woman, I\’m guessing late fourties to early fifties reading a book alone at a table sipping a white wine. She looked engrossed in her literature, generally looking up to flick pages and clutch at her glass of wine. Sitting at a table alongside her was a lone male roughly of the same age, he was unshaven but one never knows if he was trying to look chic or he was overly scruffy.

His choice of clothes was casual, but slightly devoid of style, you could she he didn’t make much of an effort to dress up. Maybe this is Brussels chic, could I be the one just not getting it? A glass of white wine to be arrived at her table, she looked up astonished and he smiled at her – she never smiled back. Well, this was awkward their eyes never locked in a long glance, she waved her hands indicating she didn’t want the drink. She packed up her belongings, paid her bill and left abruptly. He sat there nursing his drink glancing over at the full glass of white wine left at her table and left too. The waiter came along, picked up the glass of wine and took it back to the bar.

Sitting in my reclining seat looking out the window at 39 thousand feet flying from Frankfurt to Dubai, it was amazing to look down at all the cities over the landmass that we were flying.

The Airbus A-380 is a comfortable aircraft from a passenger perspective. Whilst airlines are looking at newer smaller aircraft manufactured from composite materials leading to amazing fuel efficiency, the A-380 remains a passenger favourite – it is certainly mine. Flying to South East Asia from Australia at night, it is usually dark unlit ocean I can see from the safety of my window. Even at my age, I am still excited at seeing such sights, I never grow tired of this.

I love an espresso, more so a double espresso to really add some volume to what is a small beverage. I like a strong espresso, Italian style where you can stand a spoon up in it, I am unhappy if they try to pass it off in a cardboard cup.

If I am out at a café by myself then I am happy to purchase an espresso and pull out my tablet, notebook computer or a book to get some work done. When overseas in Asia, the American coffee chains dominate so I can’t drink that river water they serve up so an espresso is my only option. However, if I am out with someone and they are drinking a flat white, long black, cappuccino or latte then it is pointless me sitting around for them to drink their coffee as my espresso is long gone. Italian style is great, an espresso leaning against the coffee bar and off, the truest application of an espresso coffee.

Having read a little bit about game theory, it didn’t take me long to find Stanford University had a course running on Coursera and I was quick to sign up. I am glad I did as the course was in its last week and I just had enough time to download all the video they have uploaded. I am not going to sit through the whole course and undertake all the sessions, reviews and assignments. Instead, I will view all the video lectures at my leisure over the Christmas break building a foundation of knowledge to apply in future business endeavours.

Designing and implementing strategy is one of the joys of management, for the bulk of us, this is achieved through small business management and entrepreneurial activities such as start-up business enterprises. Most of us are unable to rise to leadership of large corporation, this is a pretty tight and well-connected market that the majority of us can only dream about. For the majority of us, we are employed in mid-tier positions if we are lucky and shop floor level in our younger years.

Game theory has been described as the study of conflict and cooperation with the concepts of game theory formulating, analysing, implementing and evaluating strategic interactions between interdependent individuals, groups and firms. The mathematical foundations and internal consistency of game theory ensures this remains a prime tool for modeling for the design of automated decision-making processes in interactive and complex business environments.

Factors of production include resources that may be defined as inputs, primarily consisting of land, labour and capital to produce an output, for all express purposes to produce a finished product.

This may be defined as value adding as the raw materials are improved at stages along the length of the process. Entrepreneurship is the process of starting and managing the business process adding value whilst undertaking risk to generate a profit. A primary resource such as iron ore is mined in Western Australia, contrary to what many people think, a high degree of technology is utilised in the mining process. The ore is then stockpiled on site where the primary product undertakes primary finishing.

This involves crushing the raw ore to fines and mixing and blending grades of ore. The crushed product is loaded onto trains and transported to ports on the coast for shipping internationally to mills. Fixed costs may include mining leases, milling costs and shipping via train and marine. To a degree, milling and screening costs are relatively fixed as with shipping via train and bulk ore carrier.

The cost of a crew for the train or ship is the same regardless of whether the train and ship are half full or fully loaded, increasingly these modes of transport require minimal crew. The process of mining is very equipment intensive, no longer do men physically dig rocks, instead large scale machinery is utilised; as such, I am grouping machine mining into the labour component.

To increase productivity, larger more efficient machines are utilised, a variable input. In order to dig and load ore more effectively, no further personnel are required to operate a larger more efficient digging machine although operating and maintenance costs usually increase. Technology gains have allowed the manufacture of larger machines, it is inefficient to merely increase the number of smaller machines due to congestion, access to ore haul roads.

Utilising the optimal size and number of digging machines and trucks, the cost curve slopes downward until diminishing returns cause an upkick in the curve from inefficiencies. The raw ore is loaded onto larger trucks for transport to the primary crusher, once again, productivity is improved by larger trucks although only one driver per machine is used.

Increasingly, trucks are now becoming autonomous being driven via computer in Perth, trains will be next when union opposition is overcome with the loading facilities using minimal staff. Even with autonomous truck design, only one driver is required, costs are reduced as although the technology initially costs more to design and implement but is achieved through wages and living in in remote areas with the costs involved.

The ore is then carried by conveyor belt through a series of crushers that progressively crush the ore to various sizes before screening and stockpiling. The ore is delivered to international mills where the primary milled ore is fed into furnaces and converted to steel. The finished steel is then sold to produce products such as automobiles, bridges, mining equipment and crushing plants. At all stages of the process, the raw product been improved and value added.

I love the Italian espresso bar, you walk in, place your order and your espresso is delivered to you immediately – no messing around.

You lean up against the bar and drink your coffee whilst standing and chatting to a friend or group of friends and you are on your way. That doesn’t mean you have to gulp your coffee down, you are given a reasonable time to drink and I have never seen anyone pressured or moved on. Want to have a larger coffee for longer? No problems, there are tables and chairs available, these however come at a greater cost. You want some food, no problems as snacks are available. I believe the Italian cafe has plenty of character, great espresso coffee and you don\’t need to burn up too precious time.

After a successful career in training and assessment, I decided to undertake a return to industry initiative to reacquaint myself with the real world of mobile mining equipment maintenance instead of just discussing it in a classroom setting.

But in all honesty, my decision was mostly get out of la la land that the public sector has become. All of a sudden I was applying the knowledge and skills I learnt during my business studies, it felt like a huge awakening – I feel empowered. I was already paid at the highest rate in my government training role, this I achieved through a highly competitive merit selection process that involved a high failure rate. I achieved both levels in minimum time on first attempts – pretty much unheard of based on my observations in this particular workplace.

I believe this experience equipped me to perform the role of coordinator; however, this is an unusual role as I have supervisory duties as an expat. I wasn’t not even sure what a coordinator’s duties were as they run parallel to the national workforce. I know what I did all day though, I was busy throughout the day but I don’t think it is exactly as the job description stated and activity without results is actually rather meaningless. Really, what I’m doing is a technical adviser, that suits me fine as a coordinator’s role should be all about getting results.

Having been employed in the state government for a considerable time frame, I have seen firsthand the government sector mentality and work ethic. Based on my observations, motivating these employees is a difficult task, sometimes punishment is the best option. Work ethic ha ha, that’s a good one. All I have seen is a lack of accountability, the ability to shirk responsibility, take credit for other people’s work whilst actually dodging work, create a toxic work environment and become professional YouTube viewers.

What you cannot do is clean out the deadwood, this is an almost impossible task. I have seen pretty much two management styles, one is an anything goes laissez faire attitude where people do as they please. The other style is the authoritarian micro-manager that drives the motivated workers mad sapping their energy and enthusiasm by relentless scrutiny. I have never been a fan of the micro-manager, to my way of thinking, all it does is de-motivates high performers.

So what is the answer? My belief is you pick the worst performing employee in terms of attitude, motivation and output and drive them hard. Give them the opportunity to improve and if they won’t comply then transfer them to another section. The motivated employees can be guided by a delegation style, set the requirements and leave them pretty much to their own devices. Check up on them on a regular basis by giving them the support they need to achieve their agreed upon goals.

Make an example of the non-performers, this sends a very clear message to the rest of the workforce. Likewise, the performers are rewarded with the best assignments, conditions and rosters. If your efforts are going to be rewarded then why wouldn’t you put in the effort? However, the less motivated are invited to increase their workload and output, make sure everyone knows this isn’t an exclusive club that is only open to friends and followers. You earn your membership, if you perform then you are rewarded.

The deadwood are faced with a decision, no longer can they do bugger all and get away with it. They are going to face increased scrutiny and be made accountable; they have a choice, they will be rewarded for increased effort or face increased direct supervision and accountability. No longer will the lazy non-performers be rewarded with the lightest workloads whilst the performers are required to pick up the slack. All too often in the government I see the lazy individuals have and easy ride. If you want to clean out the deadwood then make them accountable.

Sitting in the centre aisle seat tapping away on my Samsung tablet, I wasn’t paying much attention to my surrounding environment. I was taking only a few glances out of the window of the Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner as we came into Changi Airport – boy, was I in for a shock. We touched the tarmac with a large jolt, that certainly got everyone’s attention – it got mine. It was raining as we dropped through the clouds so it is difficult to see even out of even the larger Dreamliner windows. Despite surrounded by cloud until the last moment, I should have been paying better attention.

I always leave my seatbelt on just loosely when flying and tighten it for just take-off and landing. This time I forgot, as the aircraft skidded on the wet runway as the pilot applied the brakes remarkably hard. I shot forward into the seat in front; needless to say, I was starting to regret my inattention to my seat belt adjustment. Still, no damage sustained, my head didn’t slam into the seatback so I learned my lesson, pay attention to safety issues. The rough touchdown should have been an indicator of what was to come, I was surprised when I shouldn’t have been. I am a frequent flyer so this should have been no surprise to me.