Cross Posting

I am stopping my cross posting at blogger (ideas Cloud) for now. This blog was originally created in preparation of Forbes starting its Bloggers Network in Jan 2008 which unfortunately hasn't materialized yet (as we are well past June 2008). If and when Forbes launches its Bloggers Network and if I am still one of the invited outside bloggers, it will be my pleasure to blog for Forbes. Until then, I don't see any point keep cross posting stuff. Oh well, such is life.

For my latest blog entries and musings, please visit my personal blog at kempton.ideasRevolution.com. Thanks for your visit here.

Chatting with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, CBC newest Dragon - Part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of my chat with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, the newest investor in Dragons’ Den.

Before I show you the videos, I would like to point out my favourite quote by Brett was this one from last posting (emphasis mine, link added),

“I had the great privilege of working under Dan Sullivan, under Jim MacDonald, under David Wilson. People who went on to become icons of the industry were my training ground. That was my learning curve … was working under people where Integrity and a handshake meant everything. And so as a model, it meant a lot.”

Incidentally, Brett's discussion of integrity and ethics has reminded me of another wonderful Calgary businessman and leader, Mr. Dick Haskayne. His book "Northern Tigers: Building Ethical Canadian Corporate Champions (a memoir and a manifesto)" is a must read and a wonderful way to learn from the former CEO, president, or board chair/member of companies like Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas, Interhome Energy Inc., TransAlta Corporation, TransCanada Corporation, MacMillan Bloedel, Weyerhaeuser, NOVA Corporation, Fording, Manulife, CIBC.

Oops, sorry for this long “incidentally”. (big smile)

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How rich is Brett?
Brett’s views in charity

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Dragons’ Den experiences
The qualities that Brett look for in entrepreneurs or deals

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Advices to entrepreneurs

CBC vs CTV Hockey - Kodak vs Fuji

I think it was Warren Buffet (the richest man in the world) who said this -- the moment Fuji bought the rights to become the official sponsor of the Olympics, then Fuji became a legitimate equal to Kodak.

Now, CTV has bought the rights to the theme of Hockey Night in Canada, it may have pulled a "Fuji" on CBC. The 40 years of familiarity of the Hockey theme music on CBC has now been transferred to CTV.

I am a big CBC fan. Having said that, in this case, I have to send a big congratulation to the CTV business/negotiation/sports team that got the deal done and closed so efficiently. When the opportunity presented itself, and when time is of the essence, you guys get the deal done and closed in record time.

I will try to blog a bit more when the dust is settled a little more and I am finished covering the Banff World TV Festival.

National Anthem for sale? - The story of Hockey Night in Canada theme

I probably shouldn’t be blogging tonight as I am driving early tomorrow morning to Banff to attend two conferences (Future of Digital Content & Banff World TV Festival).

Anyway, I will spend a few minutes here to share my thoughts. CBC's official blog and CBC National (as the lead news item) that the deal to keep the Hockey Night in Canada theme has fallen apart. So no more Hockey Night in Canada theme. Toronto Star reports (with video) here.

Now, if you look strictly at the economics, CBC executives may be right to offer what it did and walk away from a “bad deal”. (I leave it as an exercise for the readers to calculate the present value of the estimated cash value of the theme until it runs out of its copyright protection. Hint: it is no small change.) And try to buy peace (or bribe us) by paying $100,000 as a prize for Canadians to come up with a new theme.

Because the theme has been used for closed to 40 years, it has become so well recognized and has acquired an almost national-anthem-like feeling to some Canadians. To me, the theme is a rock solid Lovemark.

In our capitalistic world, it is up to Dolores Claman (composer of the theme) and her agent to negotiate a best deal. It might be fun to apply some game theory and the PARTS strategy (the elements of a game are: Players, Added values, Rules, Tactics, and Scope) to analyze this particular business situation in a step by step manner.

P.S. In a Web 2.0 connected world, the rules, tactics and scope have been changed and redefined. Ultimately, I think missteps from either side can cause some unexpected damages rather quickly.

Chatting with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, CBC newest Dragon - Part 1

Last year, I had wonderful chats with five successful Canadian business people Arlene, Jim, Kevin, Laurence, Robert (”Dragons” to the fans of Dragons’ Den) and Dianne (host of DD).

This year, I had the great pleasure to chat with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, the newest investor in Dragons’ Den. As a bonus to me, we chatted at Brett’s beautiful home (some pictures in this post).

The following are part of my video chats with Brett. Feel free to leave a comment or feedback. Enjoy.

I will be posting the other video chats next week. Stay tune.

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Engineering & Business school,
Early investment experiences

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Early work experiences & Business School
Consumer & Buyer behaviour

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Starting his business

Links: 2008-06-02

• For the life of me - Mountaineer chronicles his Everest rescue by Calgarian Andrew Brash and defends those who left him for dead
• Quotes from Yves Saint Laurent (1936 - 2008) * "I participated in the transformation of my era. I did it with clothes, which is surely less important than music, architecture, painting ... but whatever it's worth I did it." (2002) * New York Times slideshow and obituary
• "Asset-backed insecurity" - an interesting piece about sovereign-wealth funds by The Economists
• Poor People With Checks - nicely done video "Checkmate"
• ABC Blesses Blogs, Endorses Embedding
• Owning the Clouds [via Cory

In a Dragon’s Den - Chat with Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, entrepreneur extraordinaire, CBC newest Dragon

I had thought it might take me a few weeks or a month or two to arrange an interview with Calgarian Brett Wilson, chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, entrepreneur extraordinaire, and newest CBC Dragon. So I was surprised and delighted to hear from Brett this morning (a Sunday) inviting me to have a chat with him in his home (wow, my first visit to a Dragon's home, a true Dragon's Den).

And as expected, I had a nice and insightful chat with Brett. And he was as nice in person as I have heard from others and seen from his interview with Dragons' Den host Dianne Buckner.

It will take me some time to process and upload the videos. So here are a few photos for now. Stay tune for the videos and more photos.

New Transparency Project gets $2.5 million

[via Privacy Commissioner of Canada] (emphasis added)

“The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting” received $2.5 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. [...]

The New Transparency has proposed a series of lofty goals – to make “visible the identities of individuals, workings of institutions and flows of information never before seen” – using surveillance as the key to gather this data. The project intends to focus on “three vitally important questions”:

1) What factors contribute to the general expansion of surveillance as a technology of governance in late modern societies?
2) What are the underlying principles, technological infrastructures and institutional frameworks that support surveillance practice?
3) What are the social consequences of such surveillance both for institutions and for ordinary people?

Ad Links: 2008-05-29

• QUIT - Anti Smoking Charity - a really cool concept. Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London
• Covenant House - a really neat and cool idea. Agency: Taxi, Toronto
• Big Brother Bus Stop - A neat way to use Blue tooth to advertise. Agency: Marketforce, Perth, Australia
• White wins - quite neat. Agency: Grey Istanbul, Turkey
• VW Ads - very charming "interviews", very effectively gives VW an added "personality". Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Honda ASIMO Conducts Orchestra and Dances

Honda ASIMO conducts The Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Honda ASIMO Dances, Walks, and Runs at Kennedy Center

Analog Rights missing in a Digital World

In the blog entry "Canadians Stuck With Analog Rights in a Digital World", Michael Geist talks about how rights of Canadian consumers to "time shift" television programs (record a TV show for later viewing) in the digital era have been taken away.

Canadian Mars Weather Station

• MDA Solution To Look For Clues Of Water Above And Below The Surface Of Mars
• MDA working with Mars spacecraft
• Local invention to be used on Mars

A neat post about the Mars mission (with links) from an unexpected source.

Here is a neat Google Tech Talk video about a 3D live motion video camera (blogged two years ago) that uses LIDAR. I wonder if we are talking about the same LIDAR technology as the one used in Mars?

W. Brett Wilson - The Five Million Dollar Man

I couldn't find any public record but I suspect W. Brett Wilson, the newest CBC Dragon and chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, worths considerably more than five million dollars. (big smile) Here is what Brett told Globe and Mail Report on Business in a 2007 interview,

[Reporter:] How much money do you have to work with?
[Brett:] Enough to get by. I like a model used in some private banking circles: You have three buckets of assets. The first bucket is your lifestyle assets; the second is the assets required to protect that lifestyle; and the third is your adventure assets. I have a significant adventure assets pool. I am looking at acquiring land across Western Canada, investing in the service and the power sectors, and I'm still buying into start-up oil and gas companies.

Where do your children fit in?
When you get hit by the bus in life, you've got two places to send your money—children or charity. I'm not a big fan of this practice of opening the will to determine where Dad's money went. My kids know the vast bulk of my estate will go to charity. The issue for me is giving while living, and the best way to manage that. I'll be doing a lot of philanthropic work using both my leadership skills and my money. And the kids will be fine. None of them can live on the inheritance because, frankly, there isn't one. Both my ex-wife and I hope they will develop passion in their own right.

You see, the $5 million mentioned was one of Brett's latest charitable donations, an amount donated to help create the new Southern Alberta Institute of Urology.

Sean Wise has two interesting entries here and here about Brett (with photos). Here is a link to a very well researched and written article in Avenue magazine when Brett won the Person of the Year. (highly recommended)

P.S. Brett (his plan of having "vast bulk of my estate will go to charity" and his focus on integrity and honesty) reminds me a little bit of Warren Buffett (more on Warren here).

Sun’s Art of Patent War

I am no expert in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War but I find Chapter 5 (English and Chinese versions) interesting. For example (emphasis added),

• 5. In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.
• 6. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

As Sun Microsystems‘ General Counsel, my blog friend Mike Dillon’s (here is my interview with Mike) latest blog entry “The Patent Arms Race” lays out some of Sun’s latest thinking in IP and patent strategy which I find fascinating and very sensible.

Following is an excerpt from Mike’s “The Patent Arms Race” (emphasis added),

To some degree, this topic has a very Cold War feel to it with companies growing patent stockpiles to use if attacked or as a form of “mutual deterrence”. But, at some point, a company needs to ask how many patents it really needs. And, that’s exactly what we did about three years ago. Up to that time Sun was filing well over 1,000 patent applications per year. But, in 2005, we made the decision to reduce our patent filings to the point that we had about 700 patents issued last year.

I love Mike’s and Jonathan’s frankness and desire to keep Sun as transparent as they can. I hope more companies will follow Sun’s examples.

P.S. Check out some of these links Mike provided in his article,

• IBM hopes to patent ‘dealing with chaos’
• a Live IP auction at IP Business Congress (June 25/26, 2008) - highly recommended - check out some of the 65 lots of IP assets. Wow.
• reconsidering patentability of business methods

In Memory: Sydney Pollack

I am saddened to hear the wonderful director, producer, actor Sydney Pollack has passed away yesterday at 73. Articles by Roger Ebert, IHT, and Washington Post.

Love this quote from G&M “The way he was” (emphasis added),

Asked why he interrupted his own filmmaking career to act for Stanley Kubrick ( Eyes Wide Shut) and Woody Allen ( Husbands and Wives), Pollack replied, “Because I wanted to see how they work. I was curious.

In this YouTube video, Sydney Pollack discusses his documentary “Sketches of Frank Gehry” with Charlie Rose.

Here in this YouTube video (at the 1:13 and 6:25 marks), you hear Sydney talking about his love of flying jet plane (actually a Citation X, the “fastest non-military jet”) in the documentary One Six Right (named after the most popular runway at the Van Nuys Airport). Yeap, he flew jets.

Happy 5th Birthday WordPress

Wonderful job Matt. Happy 5th Birthday to Wordpress.

Paris Hilton Inc.

You can watch this insightful documentary from CBC Doc Zone Paris Hilton Inc. about our celebrity culture that dominates our daily media and social dialogue.

Wikimedia & Sue

Two interesting articles about Sue Gardner (former head of CBC.ca) and Wikimedia.

Seed Magazine

Seed (subtitled: Science Is Culture) is a science magazine published bimonthly by Seed Media Group (founder and editor-in-chief, Adam Bly). "Each issue looks at big ideas in science, important issues at the intersection of science and society, and the people driving global science culture."

Here are some interesting ones,

• Seed Video Feature: Lawrence Krauss + Natalie Jeremijenko (Full Cut, 45+ mins) - The Star Trek physicist enters the Seed Salon to discuss participation, the politics of knowledge production, and seduction with the artist/engineer.
• The Mandelbrot chat
• The artist/filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson enters the Seed Salon to discuss artifacts, presence, and invisibility with the Stanford archaeologist Michael Shanks. - real neat chat
• Marc Hauser + Errol Morris (and video) - The evolutionary psychologist (Hauser) and the documentary filmmaker (Morris) discuss game theory, Stanley Milgram, and whether science can make us better people.

No. 5: The Film

I hate perfume (especially strong ones). Yes, hate. But I love this Chanel No. 5 ad with Nicole Kidman and Rodrigo Santoro. Enjoy.

Check out the lovely "making of" videos here and here.

Here is an excerpt from Baz Luhrmann’s imdb bio,

In late 2004, he [Baz] directed the world’s most expensive advertisement for Chanel No 5, a 4-minute short film titled “No 5: The Film” starring Nicole Kidman (who he worked with for Moulin Rouge! (2001)) and Rodrigo Santoro. The film ad, about a fairy-tale romance in which Chanel is part of the story but is not what the story is about, cost £18 million and made Kidman a Guinness World Record holder for highest paid actress in a commercial (she netted $3.71 million). Varying length versions of the film ad were shown on television, and - a first for Chanel - in movie theaters. Costumes were designed by Karl Lagerfeld and a score by Claude Debussy. Kidman wore £17m worth of real gems.

Mandelbrot chats with Antonelli

A wonderful chat between Benoit Mandelbrot (father of fractal geometry) and Paola Antonelli (senior curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, wrote her thesis on "Fractal Architecture").

Love this exchange (emphasis added),

BM: Well, it is very encouraging for me, because I'm an old man and, as I always mention at some point, I never made up my mind who I really was, which allowed me to spend my life on many things. So what you're telling me is that I can just relax, because I won't have to decide!

PA: I don't know. You're very responsible for what goes on right now. I don't think you can relax any time soon!

BM: Well, yes, but at least I won't have to become a specialist, because everybody is going to become a generalist.

Here is a beautiful video excerpt of the chat. (very well done and wonderfully shot. simply beautiful. and great to see Mandelbrot in person in a video chat. very cool.)

P.S. Have a look at MoMA's "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition which Antonelli curates. Very cool and neat.

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 15 (買手的故事, 第15集)

In episode 15, we will conclude our discussions on how to handle things when order size changes (產品訂單有變時，如何處理).

• The steps in handling a normal decrease or exceptional decrease in order size (當訂購數量有減少或異常的減少時，如何處理)
• An example of how US head office handled a cancellation of materials (美國總公司取消材料訂單的例子)

You can click here to listen to episode 15 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

Richard Florida @ Google & Banff

I was really lucky to watch a CBC National video report and “discovered” Richard Florida tonight. (smile) I am going to pay attention to Rich’s ideas and I have subscribed to his blog. Check out his latest book - “Who’s Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.”

Here is a video of Rich interviewed by George on The Hour.

The following is an hour long video of Rich speaking at Google, NYC.

And if you are really keen and have nothing better to do (smile), then check out another hour long video of Rich speaking at Google, Headquater in CA (essentially the same speech but with a different set of Q&A starting at 48:45).

P.S. On a personal note, Rich reminds me of some of the great U of Toronto professors that I had. Great job in bringing Rich to Toronto. And I am looking forward to listening to Rich live at Banff World TV Festival.

P.P.S. Here is one of Rich’s recent blog post on Jane Jacobs.

P.P.P.S. I wonder if Rich gets some money from this BMW ad? (smile) By the way, I think I actually first read about Rich here in this UT magazine article.

Chief Design Officer - Johnson & Johnson

In the current issue of The International Design Magazine, Chris Hacker talks about his job as Chief Design Officer of the $61 billion Johnson & Johnson. The article is not the engaging but the pix and the captions are worth a scan.

Seeing Hungry, Mood & Money, Bad Belly Fat

Saw these three interesting science news. Enjoy.

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Seeing Hungry

“Why does food look more appealing when you are hungry? Scientists are finding that the same chemical in your stomach that causes hunger also changes how your brain perceives food, as this ScienCentral News video explains.“

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Mood and Money

“Feeling sad and bad about ourselves is not only unpleasant — it can also be hard on our wallets. Psychology researchers have found that these emotions can cost you three times more for the same item than being in a better mood, as this ScienCentral News video reports.“

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Bad Belly Fat

“Scientists are finding more about how that bulge around your belly is more harmful than the pounds you may have elsewhere on your body. As this ScienCentral News video reports, belly fat may cause blockages in the arteries, and the finding could lead to better drugs to protect against heart disease.“

May ‘08 Google Search Factory Tour

Interesting and informative Google Search Factory Tour video.

Freeconomics - The power of free?

Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson's "freeconomics" seems paradoxically plausible until you look into his arguments/examples as explained in this Financial Post article. On the surface, it seemed like some thought experiments gone bad to me. There are some interesting examples in the article but then the generalization just seemed to be off a bit. After all, "ostensibly free" is not quite free. Worth a read.

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 14 (買手的故事, 第14集)

In episode 14 and the next episode, we will continue the discussion of how to handle things when order size changes (產品訂單有變時，如何處理).

• The steps in handling an exceptional increase in order size (當訂購數量有異常的增加時，如何處理)

You can click here to listen to episode 14 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

BBC SuperPokes Facebook Privacy Risks

From Privacy Commisioner of Canada’s blog (emphasis added),

And while Facebook says it advises its users to “employ…precautions” when downloading applications, any Facebook user will tell you that most applications simply won’t work if you don’t agree to give the developer access to your information.

BBC’s technology program Click decided to test out this security flaw (with news video) by creating its own Facebook application meant solely to “steal the personal details of you and all your Facebook friends without you knowing”.

Q&A with Peter and Nina Munk

Wonderful Q&A with Peter Munk (Chairman of Barrick Gold) and his daughter Nina about Munk's first failed business Clairtone - "The ultimate business school: A Q&A with Peter and Nina Munk".

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 13 (買手的故事, 第13集)

In episode 13 and the next few episodes, we will continue the discussion of how to handle things when order size changes (產品訂單有變時，如何處理).

• Negotiate with suppliers (與供應商討論協調)
• Determining if suppliers have tried their best (using a plastic parts example to illustrate) (決定供應商是否已竭盡所能 (用塑料部件的例子說明) )
• Production and Material Control (PMC) department reviews feedback of rescheduling requests from suppliers using their expertises/experiences of the production process (生產及物料控制部門用生產過程的經驗分析供應商的反饋)
• When the order quantity is increased or decreased abnormally (當訂購數量有異常的增加/減少)

You can click here to listen to episode 13 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 12 (買手的故事, 第12集)

In episode 12 and the next few episodes, we will discuss how to handle things when order size changes (產品訂單有變時，如何處理).

• When products are selling well ==> Increase order size or move up shipment (當產品暢銷 == >增加訂單或提早出貨)
• When products are selling poorly ==> Decrease order size or delay shipment (當產品不暢銷 == >減少訂單或延遲出貨)
• How purchasers can use computer to generate “rescheduling reports” to help process these changes (買手如何可使用電腦 “新調度報告” 來幫助處理這些變化)
• When suppliers can’t meet the revised scheduling requests (當供應商不能滿足 “新調度” 的要求)

You can click here to listen to episode 12 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

Capitalism’s Woodstock - Live

• LIVE BLOG ARCHIVE: Warren Buffett's Q&A With Shareholders (Morning Session)
• LIVE BLOG: Warren Buffett's Q&A With Shareholders (Afternoon Session)

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May 4, 2008 Update: Warren Buffett Talks to CNBC's Becky Quick at Shareholders Meeting (Video with transcript)

Sniffing for the right privacy balance

Interesting article by Ian Kerr,

Last Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released two important privacy-related decisions, both addressing an increasing trend in which Canadian law enforcement agencies use police dogs to conduct random searches of public spaces.

[via Michael Gesit]

Hell in Honey’s Kitchen

The video of Chef Gordon Ramsay (Hell’s Kitchen fame) with Toronto Star’s Food editor Kim Honey at the Star’s test kitchen is real fun to watch. (big smile) Thanks Kim for sharing it with us. It is just priceless!

See Kim’s article here.

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May 10, 2008 Update: More Ramsay interview at CBC The Hour here, here, and here.

The Copyright Myths

The Copyright Myths presentation by Michael Geist (12 minutes video) this Monday. [via Michael]

Errol Morris in GQ

A very interesting profile of Errol Morris in GQ.

Ask film buffs for a list of the greatest living American directors and you may hear the name Errol Morris, the documentarian who created an entirely new way of conducting interviews, made classics like The Thin Blue Line (which helped get a man out of prison), and this month gives us the fullest, most honest look yet [in the film Standard Operating Procedure] at the people who took part in Abu Ghraib

Tales of a Chinese Purchaser, Episode 11 (買手的故事, 第11集)

In episode 11, we continue and finished the case discussed in episodes 9 and 10.

• Use emails to document the reasons/mistakes for the lower-end supplier under priced the quote and high-end supplier over priced the quote (用電子郵件記錄 — 低檔廉價供應商報價太低 及 高檔供應商報價太高 的原因)
• Helping the suppliers (high-end and also the lower-end) to provide more accurate quote (幫助高檔及低檔供應商提供更準確的報價)
• Visiting the high-end supplier’s factory and providing technical assistance to help reduce yield lost thus provide better quote (參觀了高檔供應商的工廠,並提供技術援助,以幫助減少產量損失,從而提供更好的報價)
• Working with the high-end supplier to create a handbook to help reduce yield lost (幫助高檔供應商及寫一本加工手冊,以幫助減少產量損失)
• Passing on lessons learned to the lower-end supplier (教其他供應商)
• Updating US headquarter of the new cost & rationale, plus provide engineering samples (通知美國總部新的成本及原因,並提供工程樣品)
• An important lesson of do not simply pass along quotes from suppliers without some investigations (一個重要的教訓,不應簡單地交上報價,應做一些調查)
• Work together with the vendor (和供應商合作)
• How will Simon handle the “mis-priced” quotes if they are much closer in prices? (如報價近,Simon會如何處理這一”錯誤”?)
• Please send us your feedback, questions and cases (請電郵上您的意見,問題和案件)

You can click here to listen to episode 11 of the program in mp3 (or you can download or stream the program here).

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Program Info: My friend Simon has worked as a Hong Kong-based purchaser for over 30 years before his retirement. Simon has agreed to record a series of Chinese audio shows/podcasts call “Tales of a Chinese Purchaser 買手的故事“ to share his years of experiences and insights in purchasing and working with Chinese factories. (Note: This program has been recorded in the Cantonese dialect.)

Re: The most important statement made by Steven Cheung

Interesting to read what Wallace considers as “the most important statement made by Steven Cheung“. For the curious readers who want to read the complete article where this quote comes from and the statement’s context, you can check out “假若人是不自私的（附后记）” (1984.02.17).

I don’t know enough to pick which is Steven Cheung’s most important statement. But I can say Steven Cheung’s way of thinking and analyzing problems play an important role in shaping my own. And Cheung has written this series of articles to share his insight in 1984,

思考的方法（上）, （中）, （下）

As an aside, some of my friends have commented that I read very broadly. Over the years, I’ve tried to learn from a diverse group of people. If you have time, I encourage you read and learn from people like Warren Buffett, Richard Feynman, and Bill Buxton (with videos and book recommendations). These three people are very different from each other but I believe we can learn from them just the same. For fun, I’ve created a series of posts call “Great minds of our time“ to share my personal picks of some of the great public minds of our time.

Helen Hunt directs

Helen Hunt discusses her directing debut — Then She Found Me

Zimbabwe arms return to China

Very good news.

• Arms destined for Zimbabwe returning to China, official says - CBC News
• Zimbabwe arms shipment returns to China - Guardian UK
• Zimbabwe-Bound Ship Heads Back to China - NYT
• China says Zimbabwe arms shipment to return to China - AP
• Chinese arms shipment to Zimbabwe turning back: Beijing - AFP
• China's Zimbabwe arms ship turned away by African nations - Telegraph UK

An excerpt from CBC (emphasis added),

A shipment of weapons destined to Zimbabwe from China will be returned after neighbouring countries refused to allow them to be shipped through their territories, a Chinese spokesman said.

Countries neighbouring Zimbabwe refused to allow the Chinese freighter carrying the weapons, which included mortar grenades and bullets, to dock at their ports.

"This cargo was not unloaded because the Zimbabwe side was unable to take delivery as scheduled," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

[...]

Jiang said the shipment was a purely commercial transaction that broke no laws and had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis. [K: If China wants to be a true world power, commerce can no longer be the only consideration. Of course, the Chinese gov may have wanted Mugabe to stay in power and that will be a different issue all together.]

There is no international arms embargo against Zimbabwe, and China is one of the southern African nation's main trade partners and allies.

ShoeTube

ShoeTube ? Yes, ShoeTube. If “Live Life. Love Shoes.” describes you, check out “The Daily Shoe” @ ShoeTube. [via AdAge]

P.S. If they are going to be successful, they will have to get shoe lovers to create and post their videos/stories, otherwise there isn’t really a community.

World's best chef

From Guardian UK - "Meet the world's best chef - His restaurant, El Bulli, in Spain, has been named best in the world - for the fourth time. So how does Ferran Adrià do it?"

Pressuring Olympic sponsors

From Guardian UK - "Follow the money: Olympic protest movement turns its sights on to sponsors"

YCombinator founder at Startup School 08

Here is a video of Paul Graham, founder of YCombinator, speaking at Startup School 08 about how to create a successful startup. [Hat Tip: Austin Hill]

Streaming Victims

Here is an excerpt from my friend Trevor Doerksen's insightful blog entry "The Streaming Victims - Canadians" (emphasis added),

Turn Audiences to Customers
Broadcaster and producers refer to their fans as audiences. Unfortunately, these audiences don't want to be told how, when, what, and where to passively view content. I consider these fans as customers. We know their names, their email addresses, and their likes and dislikes. In fact, when speaking to broadcasters and producers in Canada I often ask what they know about their fans. They know very little. This must change. The Internet is a communications medium, it is not just a passive viewing system. Together we must develop relationships that allow everybody: the customer and the producer to benefit from knowing each other better.

Provide content not formats
In music the transformation is almost complete. Customers no longer have to pay for format. Purchasing Queen on vinyl, 8-track, cassette, CD, and digitally rights managed (DRM) digital download is over. Customers don't have to pay for the format, they just buy the content and move it around as they please. TV and movies will need to give customers what they want. They can't keep pretending. I know the customers I deal with are much smarter than that, giving them what they want is a viable business model. Providing seamless, unified, and flexible access to their favourite content is viable.

What Warren thinks …

Great article from Fortune. Here is an excerpt with emphasis,

Before we start in on questions, I would like to tell you about one thing going on recently. It may have some meaning to you if you’re still being taught efficient-market theory, which was standard procedure 25 years ago. But we’ve had a recent illustration of why the theory is misguided. In the past seven or eight or nine weeks, Berkshire has built up a position in auction-rate securities [bonds whose interest rates are periodically reset at auction; for more, see box on page 74] of about $4 billion. And what we have seen there is really quite phenomenal. Every day we get bid lists. The fascinating thing is that on these bid lists, frequently the same credit will appear more than once.

Here’s one from yesterday. We bid on this particular issue - this happens to be Citizens Insurance, which is a creature of the state of Florida. It was set up to take care of hurricane insurance, and it’s backed by premium taxes, and if they have a big hurricane and the fund becomes inadequate, they raise the premium taxes. There’s nothing wrong with the credit. So we bid on three different Citizens securities that day. We got one bid at an 11.33% interest rate. One that we didn’t buy went for 9.87%, and one went for 6.0%. It’s the same bond, the same time, the same dealer. And a big issue. This is not some little anomaly, as they like to say in academic circles every time they find something that disagrees with their theory.

So wild things happen in the markets. And the markets have not gotten more rational over the years. They’ve become more followed. But when people panic, when fear takes over, or when greed takes over, people react just as irrationally as they have in the past. [...]

[Fortune] Your OFHEO example implies you’re not too optimistic about regulation.

[Buffett] Finance has gotten so complex, with so much interdependency. I argued with Alan Greenspan some about this at [Washington Post chairman] Don Graham’s dinner. He would say that you’ve spread risk throughout the world by all these instruments, and now you didn’t have it all concentrated in your banks. But what you’ve done is you’ve interconnected the solvency of institutions to a degree that probably nobody anticipated. And it’s very hard to evaluate. If Bear Stearns had not had a derivatives book, my guess is the Fed wouldn’t have had to do what it did.

[Fortune] Do you find it striking that banks keep looking into their investments and not knowing what they have?

[Buffett] I read a few prospectuses for residential-mortgage-backed securities - mortgages, thousands of mortgages backing them, and then those all tranched into maybe 30 slices. You create a CDO by taking one of the lower tranches of that one and 50 others like it. Now if you’re going to understand that CDO, you’ve got 50-times-300 pages to read, it’s 15,000. If you take one of the lower tranches of the CDO and take 50 of those and create a CDO squared, you’re now up to 750,000 pages to read to understand one security. I mean, it can’t be done. When you start buying tranches of other instruments, nobody knows what the hell they’re doing. It’s ridiculous. And of course, you took a lower tranche of a mortgage-backed security and did 100 of those and thought you were diversifying risk. Hell, they’re all subject to the same thing. I mean, it may be a little different whether they’re in California or Nebraska, but the idea that this is uncorrelated risk and therefore you can take the CDO and call the top 50% of it super-senior - it isn’t super-senior or anything. It’s a bunch of juniors all put together. And the juniors all correlate.

Links: 2008-04-21

1. Tension Over Sports Blogging - NYT - a note on bloggers from credentialed news organizations
2. What Warren thinks... - Fortune interview
3. Edward Lorenz, father of Chaos Theory, dies
4. Brokeback Mountain director warns Bill C-10 means censorship
5. Filmmaker Ang Lee has no love for 'Canadian values' bill, but plenty for Vancouver
6. New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience - an insightful look at the Wii gaming business
7. Our Top Ten list of Privacy Act fixes - by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner

Ad Links: 2008-04-21

1. Chelsea Guitars
2. Neu.de - ad for dating service in Germany
3. Ice-made animals fight globe warming
4. Discovery Channel re-branding
5. ATMA Lights - very neat Ad
6. Don't smoke when kids are around - extremely effective. love the idea

Susur Lee - celebrated Canadian chef

Here is an excerpt G&M Report on Business video interview with Susur Lee (emphasis added),

Celebrated Canadian chef, Susur Lee, moves his East-West fusion cuisine to New York this fall with plans to open with a restaurant inside the new Thompson hotel on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Mr. Lee says that he just couldn’t turn down the opportunity. He will close his Toronto restaurant, Susur, which opened to rave reviews in 2000, at the end of May but will continue the more relaxed eatery Lee, located right next door.

The 50-year-old chef told the Globe, “If I don’t change, I’ll get old. I always love the challenge. I always love to do new things. I’m not sad at all.”

The Hong Kong born chef, who moved to Canada almost three decades ago, is generally credited with developing a new form of cuisine that blends Chinese with French cooking.

Enjoy.

RSA 2008 - Bruce Schneier

Interesting video interview of security expert Bruce Schneier by TechWebTV at RSA 2008 Conference.

Jimmy Wales talks about the future direction of Wikipedia

From BBC - Wikipedia takes business approach

“It is a private meeting” - Tories’ bizarre farce

I am surprised and angry of how arrogant the Conservative government/party has become when it decided to selectively invite some media outlets while excluding some large media outlets including the Canadian Press, the CBC, Maclean's, the Globe and Mail (original scheduled but later canceled) and the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Here is an excerpt from CBC report (with video) (emphasis added),

CBC News requested to attend the briefings, but was rejected and told by party spokesman Ryan Sparrow that it was a private meeting, Boag said, adding reporters from the Canadian Press, Maclean’s magazine and Canwest Global Communications Corp. were also not permitted to attend.

Giving some reporters a briefing before Monday’s court release of the warrant allows the party a chance to shape the story, but it also creates the impression that the Conservatives need to spin it, Boag said.

Here is an excerpt from Canadian Press report “Conservative effort to limit raid damage leads to bizarre farce” (emphasis added),

The federal Conservatives made “false and misleading” statements in their financial returns for the last election and exceeded their campaign spending limit by over $1 million, Elections Canada says in a warrant that led to a raid on party headquarters.

A copy of the warrant and supporting materials was provided to The Canadian Press.

The documents were supposed to be made public Monday, but a bizarre attempt by the Tories to get ahead of the news by briefing select reporters on Sunday led to a slapstick scene that saw party representatives switching hotels, slamming doors and scampering down fire exits to escape pointed questions from journalists who weren’t invited to the meeting. [K: Are they for real here?]

The Conservatives have contended ever since the raid last week that they did nothing wrong and were surprised when the RCMP, acting on a request from Elections Canada, showed up with the warrant at their offices.

Elections Canada officials offered stark disagreement.

“The Conservative party of Canada exceeded its election expense spending limit for the 39th federal general election,” the 68-page supporting affidavit for the warrant alleges.

The document maintains that the Conservative Fund of Canada, the party’s official agent, filed financial returns “that it knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement.”

And the affidavit, signed by Elections Canada investigator Robert Lamothe, alleges that Tory advertising transactions - commonly known as the “in and out” scheme - allowed the party “to spend more than $1 million over and above” its legal campaign limit of $18 million.

Here is an excerpt of a report from The Globe and Mail (emphasis added),

In releasing the abridged version of the documents to select media, the party hoped to give Mr. Sparrow, campaign organizer Doug Finley and party lawyer Paul Lepsoe a chance to explain the Conservative point of view.

In the end, the plan went horribly awry.

On Saturday night, Mr. Sparrow called a number of reporters to ask them to come to meetings that had been scheduled for yesterday at the Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa saying it “would be worth their while.”

But media outlets who were not among those invited got wind of the meetings yesterday morning and began to ask what was going on.

When one reporter asked in an e-mail about the news conference, Mr. Sparrow replied: “No conference, not sure where you got that from.”

The reporter then flipped Mr. Sparrow back an e-mail in which he had told another reporter who was on the list that the briefing would be at “4:30 Lord Elgin, Boardroom 800. Embargo until 7:30 pm Sunday night.”

To which Mr. Sparrow replied: “I meet with journalists privately all the time.”

Shortly thereafter, the Liberals found out about the briefings and advised all of the Ottawa press gallery, some of whom were quite miffed to find they had been excluded. When they threatened to show up at the Lord Elgin, despite the lack of an invitation, the meeting was secretly moved to the Sheraton.

The first briefing for select television outlets took place but, by that time, the excluded reporters found out the new location and began to stake out the hotel.

That led the Conservatives to cancel all subsequent briefings, including the one they had planned with The Globe. And Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Finley and Mr. Lepsoe fled from the Sheraton down a back set of stairs.

CTV News (see its report) and Toronto Star (its report) are amongst the media outlets that got invited. But sadly, they now have, in my eyes, credibility problems simply for the fact that they were the “chosen” media outlets. Can I trust them to report fairly? Or are they known to be easily controllable and are on the “good side” of the Conservatives?

I haven’t gone to J-school and don’t know what is the proper journalistic and ethically right thing to do. But I wonder if and should the reporters from CTV News (Mike Duffy) and Toronto Star (Tonda MacCharles) have done the honourable thing and share their media package (hundred of pages of documents and CD) with their colleagues in other media outlets that got excluded?

Canadian Press said it right, it is surely one “bizarre farce”!

P.S. Here is an article in The Hill Times, "Conservatives confusing public on 'in and out' financing says Prof. MacIvor - It's the content of Tory Party's ads in question", analyzing some of the original issues that Elections Canada is investigating.

*******

Apr 21, 2008 Update: From CBC, "Tories overspent on election by $1M: HQ raid warrant"