Travels etc.

We all have probably seen on the Web pictures which may look like the following: It implies that if someone quotes to a customer low (or lower than average, I presume) price for the services or products it necessary means low/lower quality of the services or products provided. This is very interesting assumption and I had a short conversation a while ago on Twitter with another SharePoint specialist about it: Original Bjørn's article should be here http://t.co/36brwYq4Kf A study in Journal of Consumer Research http://www.jstor.org/userimages/ContentEditor/1351717003127/DevalRelease.pdf in regards to the subject clearly shows: '" Consumers rarely have complete information and use various strategies to fill the gaps in their knowledge as they consider and choose products. One of these strategies involves using naive theories : informal, common sense, explanations that consumers use to make sense of their environment. For example, consumers may believe th...

Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Shaped the Modern World by Jane Gleeson-White My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is very interesting. While reading it becomes clear why bookkeeping today is what it is. I liked to see historical information about it and some outstanding people who influenced the way people administer business. Despite the main idea of the book, this quote shows us that nothing has been changed for centuires: "Money, wrote Alberti in the 1430s, ‘is the root of all things’: ’with money one can have a town house or a villa; and all the trades and craftsmen will toil like servants for the man who has money. He who has none goes without everything, and money is required for every purpose.’" View all my reviews

Review of employee performance or enquiry about it is necessary. It is important from the business process perspective. However usually some critical items are missing from the picture: a) Clear metrics of performance; b) Communicating to the employees what is their career path or responsibility-compensation evolution; c) Information about necessary skills or competencies the employee is missing to reach potential role within organisation. At my first ever interview with a huge multinational software company in 2001 when I just finished university as a Software Engineer, one of the questions I still remember was "How many lines of code have you ever written?" I didn't know exactly and estimated it as approximately 10,000. The interview was unsuccessful, but I presume not only because of that reason. If I had this question at an interview again I'd reply to an interviewer with a proposal like "Would you also like to know how many lines of code I delet...

As I explained in the previous post , communal ownership like strata title implies duties and responsibilities of all owners. This is not quite comfortable idea for majority of property owners. If we consider current unit/apartment prices in Sydney as an example the reasons of it would become apparent. In addition there is a particular feature of Australian lifestyle which is politely described as being laid-back. Strata owners have to regularly contribute money into an account specific for administration and maintenance of the building and common property. Here’s where majority of property owners in such titles limit their duty and responsibility in relation with the communal well-being and problems. However this is not enough. Some owners contribute their time to present at the meetings as an executive committee and once a year for all owners meeting, i.e. out of 28 units there are 4-5 units that consistently are involved. That doesn't mean involvement after or in betwee...

It’s hard to underestimate importance of planning. It is (or should be) integral part of any conscious activity that requires more than 1 step and implies a target. Especially when we deal with complex processes of various kinds. Contemporary prejudice about planning is that it’s only relevant to big projects like construction, IT, space exploration, military operations, massive production etc. However any activity that involves setting up a goal and steps to achieve it requires planning. Why is it necessary? Because we need to: 1. Estimate approximate date/time to reach the goal 2. Understand what/who is required to achieve the goal 3. Measure success or failure 4. Review and adjust the plan if needed. So planning may help not only at work, but also in personal life which will in turn positively influence our so-called work-life balance. Planning should only serve one purpose – reaching as close as possible to the target. Very often this idea is being overlooked and burie...

The History and Psychology of Human Conflict by Mohr, G. A. My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book does not have depth enough to cover its' subject. It seems like bits and pieces from history, some research on behavior, some cliches on propaganda and marketing which all falls apart so after finishing this book it's hard to say how does this all work. It was ok to refresh the memory on some historical matters, however in this book it is very concise and doesn't correspond to either psychology or to what the author wanted to say about the conflicts. Not recommended. View all my reviews

If you talk to people who own apartments/units in NSW 99% of them will say something like "our strata is totally dysfunctional" and some of them might say "our strata management is quite good". Below I will explain what they mean by saying that, because what they are referring to may be quite different from what they say. Term "strata" is used by majority as something that relevant to ownership, management and ongoing maintenance of a block of units. The concept of strata title was introduced in 1961 in Australia to deal with property rights of apartment blocks. Strata title allows individual ownership of "a lot" which is part of the building (apartment, unit, townhouse) together with shared ownership in the "Common Property" which is the remainder of the building that is not included in the individual lots (i.e. walls, roofs, foyers, planters, pathways, parking etc.). This is a type of communal ownership and living. The keyword...