The terrorist siege in Sydney has certainly woken up the nation, the police were fantastic – on the scene within minutes of receiving the call. While authorities may have originally thought it was an armed hold-up; the gunman forcing hostages to hold up an Islamic flag certainly dispelled that theory – terrorism had arrived in the centre of Sydney.

Surrounded by the Indian, Southern and Pacific oceans to the west, south and east plus the Arafura Sea to the north; we thought we were immune to terrorism due to our isolation – that myth was dispelled forever. When the Islamic State sought to behead an Australian on Australian soil earlier this year, planned to be uploaded to social media – that act of barbarism was thwarted by authorities. Australia has been on high alert since September this year with an attack deemed likely although no specific threat was identified at the time.

The human face of the hostage siege, hostages were rotated through duty to be displayed on the shop window. I have been somewhat disappointed by some commentary on social media, while no doubt has been raised as to the origin of the siege, I hope Muslims living in Australia are not targeted in a manner that could be linked to intolerance, bigotry and racism even though this act could be considered an attack on our values, ideals and lifestyle. We need to be strong and rise against the challenge as we have done before.

I have an intense interest in business case studies, the discussion of first movers, early adapters and followers frequently comes up in such discussions. The first credit charge card was Diners Club International; despite their early success as a first mover, they are now pretty much obsolete in Australia.

Diners Club is a pretty good example of a first mover, an innovator that has been left behind in a marketplace dominated by American Express; a competing charge card plus Visa and Mastercard, the leading consumer credit cards. Being first to market doesn’t necessarily ensure success; indeed, later adaption does hold a number of distinct advantages.

Then there is the rapidly expanding credit card business model with Visa, Mastercard and American Express issuing credit cards via retail department stores like Myer and David Jones, airlines like Qantas and Singapore Airlines, department stores like Coles and Woolworths and car manufacturers like Holden and Ford. These cards are linked to reward programs allowing consumers to redeem points at department stores, airlines and specialty stores among other things.

Some history, as the story goes, Frank McNamara was out to dinner with his wife, much to his embarrassment, he left his wallet in a different suit pocket and his wife had to pay the bill on his behalf. The next day he discussed his credit idea with the restaurant owner, between them, they came up with a charge card and account; within months, he had nearly 30 restaurants on the books.

The company was appropriately named The Diners Club; later, this name would alienate potential clients. The business indeed went international with vendors in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and Africa adapting the Diners Club business model. I recall my father having a Diners Club charge card throughout the 1970s and into the 80s, these days his card of choice is Visa.

So, Diners Club International was a charge card; that is, credit may be accrued over the course of a month, however, the account total must be settled at the end of each month. A pretty fair deal, if you don’t live beyond your means. Changes in attitude to personal debt saw rapid growth in consumer credit. Paying off a credit card bill every month suddenly seemed uncool, accumulating short-term debt long-term at unsecured rates of interest was suddenly very much in vogue.

The major competitor of Diners Club in the United States was American Express, running a similar charge card business model. A number of factors contributed to the dominance of American Express; these are, a concentrated marketing campaign explaining to consumers to “don’t leave home without one” with the American name on the card with the green representing American greenback banknote colour.

The rise of consumer credit has left the Diners Club International business somewhat exposed, the charge card model does not allow the continued accumulation of debt. Consumers don’t seem concerned with ballooning credit card debt, minimum monthly repayments, increasing debt limits and decreased abilities to make repayments in this consumer orientated economy. The name confuses consumers believing the card can only be used in restaurants and not as a general charge card, after all, a Visa or Mastercard is now accepted in all restaurants almost without exception.

Acceptance of Diners Club International at retailers is low due to misconceptions over the name with finally the fee structure on similar levels to rival Amex but higher than competitors Mastercard and Visa. Amex has sought to reinvent itself with a strong rewards program, credit cards and finally a debit card. Diners Club International might still have a decal on the glass at selected vendors alongside the Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover and Amex decals. Despite being the architect of the charge card, their span of control and market share, Diners Club International is pretty much limited to a decal on shop windows these days.

Many business sectors have a lifespan influenced by technological advancement or economies of scale. We once had a corner shop, a butcher, a baker or delicatessen in most streets selling basic groceries, nowadays supermarkets offer economies of scale, convenience and prices small business are unable to compete with.

So too with technology, are there any photo processing businesses left? The local video rental library morphed into a DVD and Blu ray rental business and is soon heading to obsolescence. Online video streaming brought about by fast Internet connections with media companies distributing movies on demand, pay television through telephone cables. There is no need to drive down the DVD rental shop, select a couple of movies to watch in a certain time-frame and race back to return them before late fees are applied.

You can now watch a movie or TV show at your leisure, how many times did you return a movie unwatched so as to not incur late fees? The media companies are not only technologically advanced as compared to the DVD shop, they incorporate economies of scale. DVD retail shops still exist, one suspects their cost structures remain high with suburb by suburb coverage with real estate and associated costs forming a significant and increasing burden. During the 80s and 90s, many small video rental entrepreneurs were forced out of business by the large chains; we are now seeing the large multi-media consortium doing exactly the same to them.

I have starting to play around with Pintrest, it is an unusual social media concept very much like an electronic scrapbook. The advantage is now any interesting articles, pictures or graphics may be pinned to a board and now saved in bookmarks as I had previously done.

I often wonder how firstly someone comes up with this idea initially and then proceeds to build an electronic platform, organise finance, entice investors and then get people on-board as users. What I have found out is this social media platform is very engaging attracting plenty of fans around the world.

It was once a non-decision, if you wanted to get ahead in business, you undertook an MBA. These days, is a Master of Management (MiM) rated just as highly as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) by many employers, so what is the difference?

Whilst primarily a European qualification, the MiM has spread to South East Asian universities as professional experience is not required to apply. As such, MiM programs tend to have a younger cohort whereas MBA programs gain value from the professional experience students bring to course discussions and case studies. So, MiM programs are primarily designed for students in early career stages directly preceding an undergraduate degree with MBA programs, by contrast, targeting people with management experience of at least five years of workforce experience.

According to analysis, MiM and MBA programs tend overlap by about 30% with both programs providing an overview of general management topics, fostering team work utilising case studies simulating real-world problems as well as written exams and essays. The MiM tends to focus on the theoretical side of management with the MBA requiring strong analytical and mathematical skills; as such, MBA programs primarily emphasis practical application. The MiM tends to be shorter in duration than the MBA and tend to run cheaper course fees than the MBA.

Ultimately, the MiM is a qualification for young and ambitious people who perceive their initial bachelor degree as insufficient for early career progression. MBA students have begun careers requiring updated knowledge, analytic tools and networking opportunities or may have hit a career wall seeking the qualification to gain a promotion or change jobs and/or industries. The question now remains, do employers rate the MiM as highly as the MBA?

I was appalled at the volume of rubbish in the water after a recent trip to the well-known Philippines macro dive location of Anilao. Floating in the water was all kinds of plastic from bags, wrappers and packaging of various sizes. It was not only disgusting, it is harmful to not only the local marine environment but to the broader regional marine eco-system and ultimately the dive tourism sector.

Anilao is the first choice for most Manila based divers for weekend dives, just a short road trip towards the port city of Batangas before veering off to the Mabini peninsular. Batangas is the port connecting the island of Mindoro to Luzon; it is busy, heavily polluted and reasonably close. There is plenty of dive infrastructure at Anilao, this is where all the dive resorts are located, pretty much side by side in the bay, you then chose where you want to stay and who you want to dive with. 

Not that far from Batangas and Anilao the somewhat famous village of Puerto Galera on the island of Mindoro, known for diving and nightlife. If the Philippines wish to become a world renowned dive location, the issue of marine rubbish must be identified and acted upon immediately. No reasonable person wants to go on holiday to swim through rubbish infested water when pristine sites beckon.

Of the South East Asian competitive markets, Malaysia is outstanding diving that is well organised and managed, Thailand has been the tourism leader for decades in terms of volume, Indonesia is excellent diving and emerging as a place to dive, Vietnam is improving dive infrastructure and slowly gaining in popularity while Brunei still sadly lacks.

Attending a recent lecture at the University of Western Australia, I had the opportunity to listen to and chat with the editor of The Australian Newspaper. With much anticipation, Paul Kelly outlined the structure of his latest political commentary; Triumph & Demise: The broken promise of a Labor generation.

He spoke about the failings of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd government with the current and future consequences on Australia discussed at length. He argues leadership was, of course, an important issue; however, the real problems stemmed from enormous and systematic policy failure.  Paul spoke about the legacy of the Hawke government and why Hawke and not Whitlam must be the standard future Labor governments aspire to. I must say, it’s difficult to disagree with Paul’s analysis. I look forward to reading my signed copy of the tumultuous 6 years of power of the Labor party that wasted the goodwill of the Australian people.

This week, the funeral for Australian cricketer will take place, his death at the crease after been struck on the head by a short ball was untimely, he was just short of 26 years of age.

Naturally, there is no good age to lose your life, in the context of his career, he was just about to perform once again on the international stage. Phil was just about to be recalled to the Australian test team to cover for Michael Clarke who was expected to miss the upcoming test against India through injury. He started the bay fighting for a recall to the Australian test side and ended the day fighting for his life – he tragically lost that fight a day later.

In Australia, we are understandably upset, he was, after all, one of ours. What has really struck me was the outpouring of grief and respect from cricketing test nations. We have seen very respectful condolences sent from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, England, the West Indies, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and New Zealand to just name a few. These condolences have been very much appreciated. Now we find out an umpire and former national captain, Hillel Oscar has been struck in the jaw whilst officiating in a game in Israel. He died this week, this is another tragic event in world cricket.

I love the old style schooner, for me, the schooner was a two mast vessel with the aft mast larger than the fore mast. Whilst initially defined as two mast vessels; three mast vessels were introduced around 1800 with multi mast vessels introduced soon after and these vessels remained as schooners.

Whilst maybe not being entirely correct, the gaff rig, topsail, hull shape and bowspit with stay sails define the schooner. Of course, many vessels of the era featured bowsprits, so such a feature alone can not define the vessel, for many, the shorter fore mast is the defining feature of the two mast schooner.

Cutter rigs predominately feature a centrally located mast and a bowspit with multiple fly jibs. There was three and more mast schooner types, the two and three mast schooners were the sleekest with all the sails working together in a complementary fashion optimising airflow and forward drive through the water.

The immense sail area of the schooner with gaff rigs extending the main sail length, topsails filling void between the gaff upper boom and mast and multiple fore stays secured to the bowspit. The schooner is an elegant vessel from a bygone era eventually replaced by bermuda rigs and then later the ketch rig. I love the multiple masts with the foremast smaller than the aft mast, the topsails completing the gaff booms is fantastic. The old style schooner on the water is a sight to behold, they are fantastic working upwind with the full sail compliment hoisted, hard work to get the sails up, but when they are up, the schooner is a beautiful vessel.

I was in Subic Bay on a dive trip in the Philippines just recently; interestingly, I overheard a couple of American marines discussing the CIA ice bucket challenge. I had never heard of this before, so my ears were up, this sounded interesting, was the CIA really cool?

As we know, the CIA is not allowed to waterboard anymore so enter the ice bucket challenge; what a novel way of bringing alleged terrorists and their associates into mainstream society and popular culture following contemporary internet trends. I wonder if there were allowed to plank as well, or is that so 2012?