The issue of private business schools versus traditional government owned universities has been burning in my mind, I have been looking at private business schools in Australia as a study option, I want to know if employers are taking private business schools seriously?

INSEAD, the leading French business school and IE, the Madrid based business school are both privately owned and according to the Financial Times, are rated among the top schools to hire graduates – that should answer that one. Of course, this is two extremely prestigious European schools, would private institutions in Australia be viewed in the same light? Not so sure.

Throw in IMD from Lausanne, Switzerland into the mix, a third non-university aligned business school providing solely executive education and the status of business schools is suddenly very impressive. Given their lack of government representation, their competitive advantage is their quality, they can only survive by being better than their government sponsored competition. They not only survive, they appear to be setting high standards attracting high quality candidates.

These institutes are bricks and mortar establishments, until recently I had never heard of the IE Business School until I took massive open online course through Coursera. I’m pretty impressed now with this particular private business school and its innovative courses. Now it is a case of gaining credits under the Australian Qualifications Framework – that seems less likely in the short term.

Getting into these business schools is extremely difficult and one would assume very costly, taking into account that talented people with a wealth of experience apply for such schools, it is not unusual that graduates are highly sought after. Alumni associations and networking opportunities are also a marketing factor, this is very much a consideration for candidates. 

I recently received my copy of Simon Pridmore’s new publication Scuba Confidential, having worked through the book on a flight from Bali to Perth, I was generally impressed with the book. I feel this is an excellent book for newly certified divers seeking to avoid the mistakes of over confidence after their open water course and advanced open water course taken immediately after their certification dives.

I undertook the bulk of my technical training at Professional Sport Divers, Simon’s Guam dive facility in the late 90s, I feel I know pretty well what Simon expects in regards to attitude, motivation and self discipline. The mental preparation for scuba diving to build in-water confidence is an excellent starting point along with the focus on breathing and mental preparation techniques. As you move through, I didn’t read from cover to cover but used the contents page to guide me to the topics I wanted to review.

The book is isn’t directed at technical divers, nor it it overly technical in nature. This publication does not try to be a training manual per se, I read with much interest Simon’s philosophies on diving attitude and execution. The what ifs of technical diving combined with a number of case studies allows real world relevance to decisions divers face, accident analysis is covered along with instructional philosophies is very helpful.

Simon, well known for training IANTD instructor trainers in the South East Asia region is credited with introducing technical diving to the region. Simon, a former Hong Kong resident is now writing for a number of diving publications including magazine articles, travel guides and further dive publications from his Bali base. This includes Bali and Indonesian dive guides with leading photo-journalist Tim Rock.

The last race of the national series saw Peter Chappell sailing The Lizard not even needing to show up, Race 6 had him already claiming his 5th Australian Sharpie championship. The Lizard scored 2nd over the line taking his championship finishes to 1st, 3rd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st and 2nd for the seven race series, when your worst result is a third – you could strongly argue you had a pretty good regatta. A light day with less than 5 knots greeted sailors, a delayed start, a start, general recall, a delay and more milling around. A crowded start line saw plenty of boats over the line and a general lack of maneuverability caused by light winds early on.

The restart saw a better line with no one over this time, a much better start favouring the pin end on the eastern side of the course.

The Lizard was at the front of the fleet (top 10) after the first work making a big tactical decision behind Vern Tidy to not follow the leading boat east and instead went west chasing the incoming wind.

Getting the spinnaker up at the top mark, clean crew work had the kite up before they rounded the mark.

Boats had a choice of two rounding marks depending which side of the course you came from and where you wanted to go next – it worked well.

The light winds remained for the first spinnaker run downwind, working the wind shifts saw a number of interesting position changes throughout the race.

Setting the pole in light winds took a degree of finesse, preparing the pole in advance reaped rewards for tight crew work.

Moving in a manner that was less likely to disrupt the boat moving through the water was better than flat out setting sails, of course, picking the wind shifts and being in the right position on the course was the difference between the leading boats.

A morning race is normally a light breeze race with Perth’s sea breeze usually arriving late morning, the light southerly breeze gave way for the off-shore south west sea breeze half way through the second windward work.

With his hand on the tiller, The cows are loose had one of their better races of the series.

The Asylum did well in the light breeze gaining a handicap win for the race.

The boats heading east along the South Perth foreshore for the first work did well, likewise, heading west buried plenty of boats on the first windward work.

There were times the sheet-hand was able to get up on the side, most of the first windward work saw them sitting leeward. 

Once you were back in the fleet, you had no chance on this course, everyone got away from you.

As the sea breeze filled in, the rides improved with the forward-hand able to support some weight on the wire.

I am taking my first Coursera course, a MOOC, that is, a massive open online course run through IE Business School, starting on the 13th of January and running for a period of six weeks. I will take this course with a friend who has not only a fair amount of practical management experience, but also a strong academic background and is pretty intelligent to boot.

I am looking forward to working together, discussing concepts and case studies and looking at the learning systems both Cousera and IE adapt for their learning platforms. I took this course as both the content looked interesting, the length of the program relatively short [not too taxing] and between one to three hours per week is required – all in all, not bad for an entry level course.

I had not heard of IE Business School before, a web check tells me this is a graduate school founded in 1973 as Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain. The school ranks highly with Forbes, Financial Times, The Economist, Businessweek and the Aspen Institute for MBAs, Master of Management and Master of Finance.

The facilitator looks very well credentialed with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from McGill University and PhD from Northwestern University. Despite being a Spanish institution, the course will be in English, but I note courses in Madrid can be both in Spanish and English, that is a pretty good deal.

Coursera has teamed up with some very interesting institutions ranging from the Wharton School of Management, Stanford University and John Hopkins University in the United States to the University of Western Australia, University of Zurich, University of Melbourne, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, University of New South Wales and the World Bank. I am looking forward to my first MOOC experience, this course has so much potential.

Are people totally mad? The large contingent parked outside the French hospital must be driving everyone involved in the running of a hospital absolutely potty, let alone patients, family and friends of patients. The doctors and nurses tasked with the efficient care of patients in their charge are being hindered in performing their job effectively.

We all know Michael Schumacher was a top formula one driver, now once again retired and recently seriously injured in a skiing accident. Doctors and nurses are the real heroes, their knowledge and skills are superb, performed on a daily basis saving lives, reducing pain and affecting people’s quality of life. Michael Schumacher is a driver – courier drivers, taxi drivers and truck drivers all drive vehicles for a living, we need a little perspective here. I have to say, I hold ambulance drivers in higher regard than race car drivers, their role is vital to the efficient running of society. Go park your sorry arses outside the Ferrari factory instead, the media circus is driving this frenzy is a joke, people need to seriously look at themselves.

Race 6 saw some stronger winds, average wind strength for the start was 18 knots, as the afternoon progressed, the wind increased to slightly over 26 knots. Now sailing is getting interesting, energy expelled is a whole lot more with the guys sleeping well that night.

For me, the hardest part of the day was keeping the camera dry as waves washed over the yacht I was on, fortunately this was a much larger cruiser. I was running down into the cabin every 10 minutes to clean the salt spray from the lens.

After the first restart, these guys closed in on fast and sailed straight through our line, I hardly had the change to focus the lens on them as they nearly collected our rudder on he way through.

Punching through the chop proved to be hard for some who were unfamiliar with such conditions, difficult to keep the boat fast and level. The forward hand low to the water is fast, because of the chines on the hull, these boats sail fastest when the hull is flat in the water.

When the waves hit, you certainly know about it, great feeling to be moving fast across the water.

The open layout of the modern sharpie with lowered centre board casing and sheet console that the skipper and sheet-hand adjusts gives great mobility for the crew.

Powering through the water, sails are set well with plenty of main outhaul and cunningham eye keeping the luff tight, the traveler is tight keeping the boom central with plenty of boom vang pre-bending the mast.

The forward-hand is high on the trapeze wire, not the fastest way to move through the water but it keeps you about the water.

Flat and fast, there was plenty of speed upwind for those who did it right, some very fast upwind rides. The mainsail on Perth Pathology shows good shape with not too much traveler played out allowing high pointing potential.

I noticed all the many of the main leach adjustments were set very loose, this generally affects pointing ability making the depth of the main sail fuller, I am very interested in these new settings, they are quite unusual.

The Sharpie was designed by the Kroeger brothers of Warnemünde in 1931, being the winning design in a German contest, the lightweight version was designed by the Addison brothers in the early 1960s and still sailed today.

These are old design yachts, evolved from the 12 square metre class sailed at the 1956 Melbourne olympic games, despite the age of the design, these small yachts are ultra competitive and owing to the narrow beam, somewhat temperamental.

Having difficulty getting the spinnaker pole organised, keeping the boat driving through the water is important even though speed is reduced, places are being lost and the pressure builds.

The hull sits low in the water, I notice the centre board is partly retracted allowing leeway reducing pointing ability. A fair amount of water makes its way inside, a venturi drainage system empties the water quickly.

Many years back I sailed Australian Lightweight Sharpies, I still sail, but now on the bigger cruisers, you miss the thrill of the dingy though. The national championships were just held in Perth, Western Australia, held at the Mounts Bay Sailing Club, the club I sailed from in the 1980s and early 1990s. Forty two yachts lined up for the start of race one, a crowed start line saw a little action with most boats getting off to a hotly contested start, if you aren’t up there for the start – you can kiss the rest of the race goodbye.

The fleet splits with some working south and the rest heading west for the first windward leg, the first start was a general recall with too many boats over the line, the second start was a black flag, that is, if you blow the start then you are disqualified – unfortunately, six boats headed back to the club after breaking the second start.

Looking pretty relaxed on the reach, with the wind at a steady 13 knots, the rides didn’t get too out of control with no boat going for a swim mid race – a couple came close though.

Working the wind shifts is the key to any race under sail, the pointing ability of these yachts is pretty good, I noticed they have hardly changed since I sailed my last race on a sharpie.

The fleet split after the start with most boats heading west and into the south, the westerly work proved to be best for the first work to windward.

The reach wasn’t that tight but when things go wrong, all the hard work is lost when you watch the rest of the fleet sail past you.

Getting a little interesting as a gust hits, going for a swim mid-race is not only embarrassing, it costs you places and pride.

A luffing dual between this pair ensured an interesting tussle, but as with all luffing duals; other boats slipped through underneath their line as they focused too much on the individual dual and less on actual race.

Running downwind from the windward mark with the wind behind them, the gybe on the mark tests the crew work.

Rounding the wing mark, a gybe and then tight reach towards the bottom mark before working back up to the windward mark.

Setting the spinnaker pole proved to be fairly simple in the light winds, the leading boats kept their spinnakers filled during all maneuvers, the crew work on the leading boats was exceptional.

Perth city in the background, this older style yacht is off the pace, it is still great to be out there competing.

The leading three boats heading towards the bottom mark, fourth and fifth were along way behind these guys unable to mount any challenges.

This was a good afternoon for most, not all got the placings they were after but competing is the attraction here.

Another shark attack in Western Australia, the great white shark is immediately held responsible and calls to cull re-emerge. Attack, such an emotive word, is it better to use the word incident? 

Of course, more than likely, the great white shark is responsible. The great white, bull, tiger or even bronze whaler tend to be the shark species that tend to be involved in the majority of bites and deaths. The death of a surfer is tragic, no one denies this, I never knew the guy so I probably lack the emotion of losing one of my friends, however, friend of not – I believe culling is a bad idea.

So how would you cull sharks? As seen by the tracking data from South Africa to Western Australia, this particular great white shark possess no passport. Heading to Australia\’s north west coast from South Africa was almost a straight line with more deviations on the return trip. However, if the great white is not territorial, hanging around a certain area is not likely so they tend to move in and out of certain areas. The chances of slipping past baited drums must increase in such a case making baited lines in certain areas less effective.

The Drowning Report, tabled in parliament listed 284 deaths for 12 months ending June 30, 2012, this is of course awful. The latest report to 2013 lists 291 deaths, a slight increase on the previous year. One has to ask about the risk to the public from shark attack, from 1788 to present, less that 200 people have perished nationally from shark attack, there is also 700 non-fatal attacks in that period. In Western Australia, 185 deaths are attributed to traffic accidents (2012) yet the public outcry is far less emotive. 

The baited lines will catch and kill unrelated species. Sharks are alpha predators and having no limbs to feel, the method to explore tends to be through a bite with most victims receiving a single bite before the shark swims off. That being said, it is not a small bite, a single shark bite to a human is definitely life threatening, it is not something I would like to treat as the damage to the limb is extensive with massive blood loss and shock.  

Shark nets are not the answer either, they are too indiscriminate, capturing non targeted marine life that may also be on the endangered or protected species list. Size doesn’t appear to be an issue either, whales are routinely trapped in shark nets, they are an ineffective measure that causes widespread damage to the whole marine eco-system. 

Abbott’s first 100 days as the Prime Minister of Australia have been interesting to say the least. The left wing Guardian newspaper teamed up with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to release sensitive security information regarding spying allegations.

It is expected the Guardian will be releasing further information as the Abbott government settles into office, the Guardian could have released the information when it was first obtained in May. But why would a left wing socialist newspaper embarrass a Labor government when it was apparent it would lose office shortly? I am more than just a little suspicious of their motives. All in all, the government handled its first major hurdle well, there will be more challenges to navigate.

Holden announced it would cease manufacturing in Australia, as expected, Bill Shorten claimed the iconic Australian manufacturer (owned by the Americans) was lost on his watch dutifully forgetting this government was less than 100 days old and the policies of the previous government (of the last 6 years) had no bearing on the decision whatsoever – ouch.

Lets not forget both Ford and Mitsubishi had announced closure of their manufacturing facilities during the Labor government. Abbott moved quickly to abolish the fringe benefits tax debacle of the Labor government for business use of vehicles, but in all fairness to the previous Labor government, it was not one single action that brought Holden undone. In soccer – they call it an own goal, that is exactly what Bill Shorten did. Now Toyota is the only manufacturer in Australia, the plan to reskill South Australian workers from car building to defense projects such as the air warfare destroyers is warranted. Can\’t really see Toyota staying much past five years as the infrastructure for other vehicle manufacturers will soon shut.

Likewise, the Australian taxpayer shouldn’t subsidise the car manufacturing industry if it is unable to survive on its own merits. Any fool sprouting the line that the Liberal government looks after its mates in big business had better look hard at themselves, the Labor government poured billions into the highly unionised and inefficient auto industry for no net return.

The Gonski funding model was a disaster for the Abbott government, they should have been more pro-active in this one – another own goal to Abbott. There is some interesting literature on schooling success from Finland, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and Switzerland – all advanced economies not necessarily spending huge amounts but instead concentrating on quality. Funds have also been diverted from higher education and vocational education – this has all the makings of a disaster.

Asylum seeker boat traffic is significantly reduced, not withstanding Indonesia withdrawing cooperation over the spying saga. Carbon tax scrapping is held up in the senate – that was always going to be the case. Same too with the mining tax – an inept opposition not wanting to admit their failures. The commission of audit to identify waste was an excellent plan, with so much wasted over the past six years – we need to be smarter how we spent sparse funds.

The media policy was warranted to start, after six years of daily press releases amounting to nothing, the public had grown tired of white noise – time to start building a narrative in the new year. 2014 is the time to get spending under control, the budget needs to be brought back into surplus and I hope Abbott and Hockey have the political will to make this happen.

Another night out in Perth and another glassing attack, people are so concerned about shark attacks in the West, but your chances of being glassed at Perth’s popular nightlife venues are far greater than being bitten by a shark.

The Broome police officer, still in uniform at the hospital required 18 stitches to his face after a bottle was thrown at him while making an arrest in 2011. This is an unbelievable workplace injury, he will be scared for life, the justice system requires a massive prison term for the perpetrator of this attack, no minimum sentencing, the maximum available.  

We need serious action by the government, most likely in the form of mandatory sentencing of no less than three years (with no parole) for anyone involved in a glassing attack with the magistrate having the power to impose a harsher penalty when required. There has been so much press regarding shark attacks, the real danger though happens to be nowhere near the water.