I am sitting in Brotzeit, a German themed bar in the Philippines at the Shangri La Plaza alone waiting for my friend with a German wheat beer on my table and my Galaxy tablet in hand. I am seeing staff running around serving customers and what springs to my mind is the dedication of the staff. They have remembered me from previous visits and have been very polite and accommodating, this is the type of service that keeps people coming back. I like this place so it is a pretty easy decision, this is a pretty good place to hang out.

The hospitality industry can be brutal on staff, retail and service is now the mainstay of the domestic economy with so much outsourcing the main strategic weapon. None of this worries me right now, I am enjoying a German wheat beer waiting for Mecky who is spending time with a high school friend returning to Canada the next day. Until late 2016, I hadn’t had a beer for close to twenty years until no options were available and I had a Tiger beer on Clarke Quay in Singapore and actually liked it. Now when I am at the Shangri La Plazza in Edsa, I slip over to Brotzeit for a quality beer on the sidewalk watching people wander by.

Of course, you can’t gain MBA level knowledge in a day, although many I have worked with think they can. What you learn from this book is an overview of an MBA program without actually spending two years of your life and anywhere from $30k to $200k on a program to see if you should invest in an MBA.

Reading this book will give you some insights into MBA programs; it is then up to the individual to undertake further research on each subject area to gain a deeper knowledge. Stralser has written a fairly broad overview on MBA curriculum that while light on detail makes for a pretty decent read on the train or bus whilst on the way to work and back.

The Conquest series by Longines is a sports watch evidenced by the screw-in case back, screw-in crown and 300 water depth rating, yet I purchased my Conquest automatic as a dress watch. As a diver I prefer dive watches, but I thought I had a pretty good dive watch and something a little more formal was warranted. As the Conquest uses the HydroConquest case and movement, apart from the missing uni-directional bezel, this is dive spec.

I decided on the L3.677.4.58.6 sporting a stainless steel case and 41 mm in diameter, when we looked at the catalogue at the jeweller, this confirmed a 41 mm case but on my return home a similar watch indicated a 39 mm case – this is getting confusing so more research was needed.

The hour markers have painted Arabic numerals and indexes with a Super-LumiNova ® coating along with the indexes. According to searching the Longines site, the Caliber L633 is a self winding mechanical movement beating at 28’800 vibrations per hour giving 38 hours of power reserve. Although I am no watchmaker, some extra searching tends to indicate the L633 is an ETA 2824-2 base movement, this makes sense as ETA is an owned subsidiary of the Swatch Group that owns Longines.

A number of versions of the Conquest exist from the Roland Garros, Horse Racing, Alpine Skiing and St Moritz variations firmly locking this timepiece in as a sports watch despite my thoughts of a dress watch. I try to match the series numbers with the current Longines website for no joy and I tend to think I don’t have the current release so I tend to wonder just how long this watch was sitting in the display case.

There is no return lower than not getting your money back, a capital loss is an absolutely devastating loss of your savings. Therefore, the first and foremost rule of investing is protecting your capital.

We invest our spare cash in order to make a return on investment to finance our retirement, purchase a property or to support a lifestyle. We forgo the short-term benefits for hopefully a long-term gain – but what if we lose our capital? You no longer have the capital to generate a return, first you have to generate an income stream to rebuild your capital or possibly pay off the debts incurred from loans.

This is usually from the sale of labour, we trudge off to work and I think of this as units worked in terms of hours, days, weeks, months or years to get back to zero again. Let’s not even calculate the opportunity cost of returning to zero; that is why with every investment my first thought is capital preservation, then and only then do I calculate my potential return.

The most famous variation of the classic martini is the vodka martini sometimes know as the vodkatini or James Bond martini. Fictional British MI-5 spy James Bond demanded his vodka martinis to be “shaken, not stirred.”

The James Bond vodkatini follows the blend Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930 prescribing the shaking of their martini drinks. I have it on good advice that gin based martinis are to be stirred and not shaken as the cocktail comes out cloudy whilst the vodka based martini is to be shaken. The proper name for a shaken Martini is a Bradford; however, Somerset Maugham was often quoted as saying that “a Martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another.” I’m not so sure about molecular alignment but I have always followed the rule of a stirred gin based martini and a shaken vodka based martini.

The Freedom of Information Act 1992 as applied to Western Australia gives the public the right to access government agency documents managed by the Office of the Information Commissioner. The FOI Act is designed to protect the public and the Information Commissioner is an independent officer reporting directly to the Western Australian parliament.

I was sitting at home one Saturday evening; sad really, as I should have been out enjoying myself, I was reflecting on workplace issues. Instead, I was thinking about my workplace experiences when it suddenly occurred to me that I could access the corruption investigation documentation. As I have been the one identified in less than lawful circumstances in regards to the baseless accusations leveled at me – that gives me the right to search for these documents to defend myself. Naturally these accusations were off the record as has happened a number of times previously and strenuously denied when challenged.

My former manager had leveled a number of accusations at me without any evidence and despite my denials, he wasn’t listening. This guy has history, a former colleague has been driven out of the workplace after he had been fired when he referred to him as a fat @#&%. He took action in the Industrial Relations Court of Western Australia winning his case through his union lawyer. He was not only reinstated but he was paid for the time off work; this was a very expensive lesson for my employer and highly embarrassing.

But it gets better, as he was reinstated he wasn’t allowed to work directly under the manager who created the issue so he was moved to another work site. This came at a large financial cost to my employer, it was an inconvenience to all involved and also a personal cost as he was not given much space to operate as manager’s meetings are really gossip gatherings.

It would have been easier to just move the manager on, he was the guilty party after all but this would never happen due to their arrogance and incompetence. Finally the manager was moved sideways after a Corruption and Crime Commission investigation made by an anonymous source. I am guessing this delayed action was the net result of the CCC investigation and since they pointed the finger at me, it might just be in my best interests to delve deeper. What this means is they broke the law with fines and possibly prison time for the perpetrator; that now means I cannot be dismissed in retribution unless they want to end up in court.

There is currently a strong emphasis on leadership in not only the business world, but non-profit organisations, government departments, churches and religious organisations as well. Such institutions all espouse the attributes that quality leadership provides and I think the INSEAD selection process is very rigorous with the character of candidates under the microscope.

Underpinning the foundations of personal leadership is the character of the team, the function of the leader is to instill within the team the values that the team operates under. In many respects, management is out – this is the process to achieve results. Leadership is all about bringing out the best qualities of the group as the leader; as such, the character of the leader drives the success of the team.

I am a strong believer in empowering team members as the role of the leader is to produce more leaders built through a formal succession plan. For me, leadership is all about producing high performance teams. When the team is eventually disbanded, the legacy of the project is the character forged through mutual experiences.

By far my favourite brand of sunglasses is Ray Ban; I have always liked the glass lenses and the frames of the older series were both stylish and robust. My choice of Ray Ban sunglasses was Cats; much to my disappointment, these vintage sunglasses are near impossible to get hold of now for a reasonable price. I did find a pair online for $585, I nearly passed out, I’m not chasing a pair at any cost and I am guessing they are secondhand and I wouldn’t trust the condition.

My first pair were destroyed by my friend’s uncontrolable children who belted me from behind while I was sitting on a chair. My second pair were wrecked by a former fat-arse girlfriend who stole not only my sunglasses but a whole load of other stuff and smashed them in one of her irrational outbursts. Back in those days I have some semblance of taste but I let myself down in my youth.

Everybody knows the old adage of buy low and sell high, yet why do so many people buy high and sell low? I love entrepreneurship and the decision of many people to take risks and either start up or purchase a business should be appalled. I also like trading by buying and selling. A profit is a profit and traders shouldn’t be upset in making too small a profit – naturally profit maximisation is optimal.

Likewise, I also believe a trader should never chase a product or service and pay a fair price, there is no value in paying a premium. I know, I have unfortunately done so on many occasions. I have chased shares where the price was too high, the market decided the valuation was too high and the price tumbled. Likewise, I have considered the price too excessive only for prices to rise considerably and I have missed the opportunity. I am never concerned, I have missed out on potential profits, but this is still better than actual losses.

So I was surprised when I was down an old dive shop where I was employed chatting to the owner when he told me he had sold the shop effective June 30. I know the new owner and I now find out with his mortgage and business loan he now owes the bank a million dollars. We are possibly not at the bottom of an economic cycle, the situation is dire for many but may yet get worse.

Interest rates are at historic lows, but they are at that level for a reason. A rise in interest rates on loans of that size could quickly sink business earnings and we are in the throws of a two-speed economy. Currently the east coast economy is taking off, the residential property market is hot and the Reserve Bank of Australia will one day move to curb speculation. Should the east coast residential property market crash, this would have dire consequences for the economy at large.

I hope he has made an informed decision, any further downturn in economic activity on the west coast whilst the east coast is improving will have major consequences for the local Western Australian economy. The majority of the population lives on the eastern seaboard, the Reserve Bank of Australia is headquartered on the east coast and economic decisions are east coast centric. I only hope he hasn’t bought high and will be forced to sell low.

Having dived at Subic Bay on numerous occasions, I would consider myself a reasonably loyal customer. So it takes me a lot to change businesses yet my usual dive centre and accommodation finally ran out of chances. So, I decided to try a new dive centre and accommodation just down the road. In the Philippines they use the word resort very loosely, this isn’t a classic resort in the true definition, what it does represent is a well run small business. I was being taken advantage of as a return customer – I was not happy with this situation.

The dive centre attached to the accommodation is managed by expat Australian Kent Simmonds, a keen diver and extremely approachable guy. I will not be changing dive centres in the future while Kent is there, I love diving at this place. I have dived Subic Bay extensively; I was aware of other dive sites in Subic Bay but my former dive centre would just never offer more than the usual sites. What Kent offered me was the opportunity to explore so many new sites that were previously unavailable.

This isn’t exactly a man crush, what this is amounts to a new found respect for a business proprietor who offers extraordinary customer service to a relatively experienced diver who has been buggered around by plenty of dive centres taking an arrogant view of the people who support their business. I am not offered free dives, accommodation or special rates nor have I ever requested special conditions for favourable reviews, I am a paying customer just like everyone else. So why do I choose to promote this dive centre? That’s easy, Arizona Dive Centre is the premier dive centre in Subic Bay and I have dived at a number of Subic Bay dive centres.