Fantastic Communication of Numbers

Part of the way through reading the FT I came to a pointer that said, take a look at CEO pay in the oil and gas industry. The link that follows takes you to that page and it's excellent.

An apparently basic and simple chart but you can change the axes in real time, as they say. You can sort the order in which information is presented and clicking on a bubble in the chart will open up and page that flies in to give you a lot more information about the CEO you just click on!

Take a look at www.ft.com/ceo-pay and see what you think.

Duncan Williamson

The Financial Times REALLY Comes Alive

I have been a premium subscriber of the FT for quite a while now and have benefitted from online access, daily emails, an iPod FT Reader and so on ever since. Now, though, I can read a full facsimile version of the paper online every day.

Looks like a fantastic service.

Duncan Williamson

Here's a Tip!

There is some excellent news for anyone connected with an industry where it is traditional to give someone a tip for services.

I only learned relatively recently that it was accepted that people in pubs, restaurants and hotels who receive tips can be paid less than the minimum wage with the difference being made up with the tips they receive.

The benefit of that system was that employers gained and any advantage gained by the employees was stolen from them.

Well, there is good news from 1st October 2009! This is from the UK Government web site, direct.gov.uk

Changes to the law on tips

It will now be illegal for businesses to bring staff pay up to minimum wage levels using tips.

Derek Simpson, Unite joint-general secretary, said:"The Code launched today will help consumers see where the money left for good service is going. Unite wants to see all employers sign up to the Code and ensure that their staff and customers can be confident that staff are treated fairly."

The code of practice will be monitored with a review in one year's time.

See http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_181003

It is a disgrace that the previous situation was ever allowed to exist but now it has gone.

Duncan Williamson

T Rex to take over at M&S

At last that very ordinary man at M&S, Stuart Rose, has found a successor but it's rather an odd choice. While the British press is calling Marc Bolland the £1 billion man, people of my age will know him as a singer with the pop group T Rex from the 1970s.

And here he is: Marc Bolan, the photo ... sorry but the usually reliable Live Writer won't let me add a hyperlink here apart from this one ... http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/7/9/7/5/16295797-16295800-slarge.jpg

Duncan Williamson

A Smoother and more Productive POSITIVE Meeting

We had a meeting at work today on a topic that not everyone knew much about at the beginning of the meeting. Knowing that the topic could have been buried under a welter of negativity I suggested to the chairman that we split the meeting into two parts:

• positive comments only
• negative comments allowed

That is what we did and everyone stuck to the spirit of the split and the negative aspects of the meeting were relegated to the final 5% of it. The outcome was that the meeting was much more productive and, shall we say, positive?

I was very happy with that!

Duncan Williamson

RBS and Bradford and Bingley Class Actions

Interesting developments worthy of a mention are that some shareholders in the Royal Bank of Scotland and Bradford and Bingley are working on a class action for misleading them in prospectuses leading shareholders to subscribe to rights issues.

I have had a look at the RBS shareholders' action group web site and whilst there are some good details there, there does not seem to have been much to report there since August. Still, more power to them if their cases are valid and they make some good progress: this assumes that the shareholders were misled and so on.

For the RBS Action Group web site: http://www.rbsactiongroup.co.uk/

The B&B shareholders' action group has put together a similar case and similar web site and their site seems to contain a lot more up to date information and news. Not that that necessarily means anything. Also, the feel of this site is less professional looking than the RBS action group site: again, that might mean little of substance but I noticed it!

The B&B action group web site is here: http://www.uksa.org.uk/BradfordBingley.htm and you might notice that it is being hosted by the UK Shareholders' Association, which is the leading independent organisation which represents the interests of private shareholders in the United Kingdom.

Now that I have been to the B&B action group site I see there is a site for Lloyds' Bank shareholders as well as for Northern Rock.

Well, could be worth watching this development after all.

Duncan Williamson

Who said railways are dead?

In the business section of today's Gulf Today newspaper there is an update on the development of a railway network for the Gulf.

Between them the UAE and Saudi Arabia are to spearhead a new $20 - 25 billion railway network that will take in their two territories plus Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.

The proposal is for a 1,940 kilometre network that would run diesel powered rolling stock and carry passengers and freight at speeds of up to 200 kph for the passengers.

Whilst it is not yet clear whether it is part of the larger network, the report infers that the newly opened Dubai Metro network is a beginning of thinking about this new railway network.

All being well, work will start on this new network in 2010 - 2011 and I would love to be a passenger at some stage: a forthcoming great railway journey of the world, no doubt.

Duncan Williamson

Oh! Willie, Willie!

I've found another Stuart Rose: remember Rose is that unusual man in charge of Marks and Spencer about whom I have written quite a bit.

Well, here's another man in the same mould: Willie Walsh, boss of British Airways.

Over the summer Walsh asked his staff to work for nothing for a month. He needed to save £1 billion and his initiative saved around £10 MILLION.

Anyway, he has gone one better. Taking a leaf from the low cost airlines' book, Walsh is reported to be wanting anyone who wants to pre book their seat to have to pay for the privilege. No one wants to do that. NO ONE!

Hold on, it gets worse: he even wants business class passengers to pay as much as £70 to pre book their seat!! Remember, while you and I pay, say, £200 - £500 for a medium/long haul seat, business class passengers might be paying £1,000 - £5,000 for their seat. Does any rational person think that asking those people to pay even more for less value is an attractive addition to their business model?

Remember also that he is doing this at a time when business class passengers are relatively scarce. What is this man thinking?

Time for a change? I'll do it!

Duncan Williamson

The Bonus Culture

As the members of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh are about to come to some decision on executive pay and bonuses, I prepared a report for a client on the topic of what I called the bonus culture.

I think it is a good essay that is full of the key ideas with some of my own observations. It is also up to date and thought provoking.

Go here to read what I have written: http://www.duncanwil.co.uk/bonus_culture.html

 

Duncan Williamson

Excel 2007 with Excel Master

It's official: I can now reveal the address of my new web site. This is the web site for my up and coming book which will be called Excel 2007 with Excel Master.

The site is up and running but it is a work in progress at the time of writing. There are some good and useful things there already but there are going to be a lot more.

The book is more than half written now and it's going well.

Take a look at the web site: www.excelmaster.co.uk

Let me have your feedback and let me have your ideas: if there's something you want me to do, let me know and I'll do it if I can.

Duncan Williamson

Oh, Oh! I'm in trouble

Read this semi serious executive summary from the Harvard Business School.

Executive Summary:

The notion of levying higher taxes on tall people—an idea offered largely tongue in cheek—presents an ideal way to highlight the shortcomings of current tax policy and how to make it better. Harvard Business School professorMatthew C. Weinzierl looks at modern trends in taxation. Key concepts include:

• Studies show that each inch of height is associated with about a 2 percent higher wage among white males in the United States.
• If we as a society are uncomfortable taxing height, maybe we should reconsider our comfort level for taxing ability (as currently happens with the progressive income tax).
• For Weinzierl, the key to explaining the apparent disconnect between theory and intuition starts with the particular goal for tax policy assumed in the standard framework. That goal is to minimize the total sacrifice borne by those who pay taxes.
• Behind the scenes, important trends are evolving in tax policy. Value-added taxes, for example, are generally seen as efficient by tax economists, but such taxes can bear heavily on the poor if not balanced with other changes to the system.

Don't believe that I got that from the HBS? Go to this web site then. http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6258.html 

Duncan Williamson

This could be the last time

Here is a post from my Personal Blog: Duncan's Diurnal Diatribe at http://duncanwil.blogspot.com

I am reviewing my online presence as I am now running three web sites. www.duncanwil.co.uk, my original web site; www.excelmaster.co.uk is NEW and I am putting a lot of effort into it; www.oxbow.org.uk is being allowed to die as it was a commercial venture that didn't work I'm afraid.

I also manage two blogs: this one and Duncan's Diacritical Discussion, my business blog.

I have been checking the world's response to this blog and it is woeful: I am gathering readership figures now but no one is linking to it and there are only two followers. If the readership is as low as I fear it might be, this blog will cease to be by the end of this month if not sooner!

In spite of that I do enjoy putting the blog together and will probably continue to do that privately if this one has to go.

My business blog will probably stay as I want to use a blog with excelmaster.co.uk. Alternatively, the business blog will go and a new one, based on Microsoft Excel, will replace it.

DW

The Direct Method

I think I have seen my first ever published Direct Method Statement of Cash Flows. Galp Energia 2008 annual report and accounts if you want to take a look yourself.

Duncan Williamson


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Good for Everyone?

I see a Court in the USA has upheld a ruling that Microsoft has blatantly ignored someone else's Patent as it produced and sold Word 2003 and 2007 and has been given a fine of $240 million plus a cease and desist order.

Good! Let them learn some manners.

Duncan Williamson



Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Rational Behaviour Mr Walsh?

Willie Walsh must have a bit of a death wish these days. The chairman of British Airways has just worked free of charge for a month and saved his company one twelfth of around £730,000 salary costs plus attendant on costs, I think.

Yesterday I read that the airline has just announced a loss of £94 million for the latest quarter. Moreover, Walsh has bemoaned the loss of Business and First Class passengers over the course of the recession and significant down turn in the numbers of passengers.

Walsh's suggestions for cost cutting? Drop the level of services to business class passengers.

Doh!

All airlines and airline analysts say that business and first class passengers are the source of all airline industry profits (I have never seen the PROOF of that by the way and have some doubts about such a sweeping assertion). To cut the levels of service to such passengers is sheer folly then as I have not seen any related cuts in these passengers' fares.

Anyone care to correct/update/upgrade my knowledge? I would be grateful and would publish it here.

Otherwise, Willie Walsh seems to be settling very firmly into the same mould as that Stuart Rose at M&S.

Duncan Williamson

My Spreadsheet Book

A few people are asking me about the progress of my latest book: working title is Spreadsheeting with Mr Sprite.

Good news: I have completed around 7 or 8 chapters now and have carried out my research and preparations for a few more. The book is aimed at Excel 2007 and is a comprehensive introduction to it. More than that, it includes a number of practical examples that people can use as templates for real life work. I am collaborating on part of the book with a manpower planning specialist (the world's number one, no less) and he is giving me material and ideas for what to include in that section.

I am aware that Microsoft is within a year or so of releasing Excel 2010 so I am keen to ensure I get in well ahead of that deadline!

Here is the current contents page ... subject to change. If YOU would like me to include something that you cannot see here, please write to me and I will consider all suggestions. duncan at duncanwil dot co dot uk ... please interpret that! I get enough spam in my inbox so don't want to encourage any more.

Contents

Part One: Introductory

1 Basics

• Introduction
• Pencil and Paper
• Basic Functionality
• The Ribbon
• Screen Resolution
• Minimise the Ribbon
• The Quick Access Toolbar: the QAT
• Basic Rules
• Add Subtract Multiply Divide
• More Complex Calculations
• Try it!
• Built in Functions: SUM ... AVERAGE ... MIN ... MAX
• Auto Fill
• Auto Fill Menu
• Formatting Cells
• Moving Around your Workbook
• Changing Column and Row Sizes
• Moving a Column or Row
• Formatting Text
• Cell Border
• Try it!
• Consolidation Exercise
• Selecting non Contiguous Ranges
• Why Select Non contiguous Ranges?
• Print Areas
• Transposing Data
• Cell and Range Addressing
• Range Names

2 Charting

• Introduction
• The Rules of Charting
• Setting up a Chart the Easy Way: the F11 key
• Default Chart Change
• Creating a Template Char
• Embedding a Chart with the Chart Wizard
• Embedding by Moving
• Titles and Axes Labels
• Copy Charts: make clones an move them
• Other Charts
• Category Axis Contains Labels from Three Columns
• Conditional Colours
• Waterfall Chart
• Create a Stacked Column Chart
• Finished Waterfall Chart
• Alternatives
• Percentage Waterfall Chart
• Radar Chart
• Self Expanding Chart
• Excel 2007 Solution 1
• Excel 2007 Solution 2a
• Excel 2007 Solution 2b
• Selecting Data from a Combo Box
• Spreadsheet Allowing the User to Highlight Alternative Scenarios
• Table and Chart Selection Including a Combobox
• Charts with Scroll Bars
• Basic Chart and Rates of Change Chart
• Ten year financial review of a company
• Double Vertical Axes
• Additional Charting Exercises
• Text to Columns
• Deriving Values from Published Charts
• Dashboards
• More Advanced Chart

3 Introduction to Pivot Tables

• Introduction
• Definition of a Pivot Table
• Why you need a Pivot Table
• Example PTs
• Copying a Pivot Table
• A Copy of a PT is a Clone of a PT
• Copying your PT
• Changing Sum of to Average of to Count of ...
• Moving a Field from Row to Column
• Drag and Move Within the PT
• Drag and move the chosen field within the Task Pane
• Filtering a Field
• Sorting a Pivot Table
• Formatting Fields
• Calculated Fields
• Drilling Down
• Calculated Item
• Other Calculated Item Features
• Adjusting the Formula
• More Complex Formulas
• Forecasting with a Calculated Item
• Values
• Show Values As
• Grouping PT Data
• Starting or Setting up a PT
• The Grouping Process
• When Grouping is a Problem
• Pivot Chart
• Formatting a Pivot Chart
• A Pivot Chart with a Data Table
• Formatting
• Page Fields
• Multiple Page Fields
• Reporting with Page Fields
• Pivot Table from an External Source
• Part Two: Data Analysis

4 Pivot Tables 2

• Expense account analysis
• Double entry bookkeeping
• Trial balance
• Final accounts/reports

5 Ratio and Other Company Analysis

• Ratio analysis of company information ranging from the simple to the complex
• Common size statements
• Growth ratios in ratio analysis
• Z Score analysis
• Using the ToolPak Add-In that comes with Excel
• Descriptive statistics
• Histograms
• Correlation analysis
• Ordinary least squares (regression) analysis
• There is a database of company data to accompany this chapter and the detail of the chapter will refer to that database throughout.

6 Statistical Analysis

• This chapter enhances the work started in chapter 5 above and includes
• t statistic
• Standard Error
• P Value
• F statistics
• Confidence intervals
• Multiple regression analysis
• The relevant range
• Chi square test
• Non parametric tests
• The Box and Whisker Plot
• More Useful functions for analysis
• INDIRECT
• INDEX
• OFFSET
• MATCH

Part Three: Decision Making

7 Behaviour of Costs

• Splitting costs into their fixed and variable elements
• MINVERSE
• MMULT
• Non linear costs
• The linear treatment of costs: true and fair?

8 Cost Volume Profit Analysis

• Building on the work of chapter 1 of this part of the book, we will now explore the practical application of the behaviour of costs under the heading of cost volume profit or break even analysis

9 Marginal Costing and Decision Making

• Continuing with the theme of the behaviour of costs and the application of it to management accounting situations, in this chapter we explore how a knowledge of marginal costs can be used in decision making.

10 Traditional and Activity based costing

• Traditional overhead analysis: absorption costing
• Allocation
• Apportionment
• Re apportionment
• Overhead absorption rates
• Absorption costing
• Activity Based Costing

11 Budgeting

• This chapter concentrates on the preparation of budgets and budgeting reports that include:
• Functional budgets
• Cash budgets
• Master budget
• Budget reports
• Balanced scorecard reporting
• Activity based budgeting

12 Capital Budgeting

• Payback
• Accounting Rate of Return
• Net Present Value
• Profitability Index
• Internal Rate of Return
• Divisibility of Projects

13 Excel Techniques for Analysis and Decision Making

• Goal Seek
• Scenario Manager
• SOLVER

I'm nervous about leaving it at 13 chapters and will probably expand that to accommodate the manpower planning spreadsheet models.

DW

British Airways

Following on from my recent BA case study, I see the airline is calling on shareholders and creditors to stump up a further £600 million ... I want to take a look at why they are doing this when they have £1 billion in cash on the balance sheet already and a further £2 billion available to pay for their new planes.

Of that £600 million, £300 million is to be taken in one form or another from the Pension Fund. Given that CEO Willie Walsh is talking about BA "fighting for its life" I think any tinkering with the Pension Fund is [virtually] criminal and is a sackable offence.

Duncan Williamson

That Ordinary Chap Again

Stuart Rose is under threat at last. At the Marks and Spencer Annual General Meeting today there is a motion that he step down from one of his roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

As you know, I don’t rate this man as a businessman and even less as someone who is riding roughshod over the rules of corporate governance and the whole of Marks and Spencer plc.

Let’s hope the tree huggers don’t prevail and Rose does the right thing at last. A pity he is having to be forced to do this though isn’t it?

Duncan Williamson

Science to the Rescue?

It's at least twenty years ago that I had a notion: the mathematical and statistical worlds of statistics, mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry must have a lot to teach the world of accounting and business. Due to a lack of knowledge of these areas and a lack of time and opportunity to garner such knowledge, I let it lie.

Now, I have been proven prophetic and, I suppose, impotent at the same time. I still know very little of the areas I have just mentioned but articles have appeared over the last twenty years that show how right I was.

For example, I have just read this mini article, officially called a conversation starter, ‘Power curves’: What natural and economic disasters have in common from the McKinsey Quarterly journal. It shows the relationship between frequency and magnitude and so on in terms of power curves. Accountants are wont to use straight lines, with some justification I should add, whilst those of us more gifted can work with power curves, logarithmic curves, exponentials and so on.

Here's one such curve to whet your appetite: the corporate bankruptcy curve

Where X = rank by size of assets; and Y = size of 15 largest US public company bankruptcy filings by assets, 2001 - 2008 in billion real 2000 Dollars

See

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Globalization/Power_curves_What_natural_and_economic_disasters_have_in_common_2376 for a much larger version and the whole conversation starter. Forgive me if you need to be a subscriber to the McKinsey site to see this in full ... I am so I never get a message telling me to sign up!

If you can access that page, you can join in the conversation ... one or two very interesting points being made there!

You should also read Using ‘power curves’ to assess industry dynamics. I am pretty sure you need to be a subscriber to read this one. http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Using_power_curves_to_assess_industry_dynamics_2222

Gradely as we say in Yorkshire!

DW

Ten Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders

Another one from the current issue of the Harvard Business Review. It’s a list along the lines of those things that Tom Peters and his ilk love to tout around the world. Take them for what they are but as you do so, consider whether they are valid, all valid, some valid …

Poor leadership in good times can be hidden, but poor leadership in bad times is a recipe for disaster … Every bad leader had at least one and most had several ... the ineffective leaders we studied were often unaware that they exhibited these behaviours … those who were rated most negatively rated themselves substantially more positively. Leaders should take a very hard look at themselves and ask for candid feedback on performance …

The Worst Leaders:

• Lack energy and enthusiasm. They see new initiatives as a burden, rarely volunteer, and fear being overwhelmed. One such leader was described as having the ability to “suck all the energy out of any room.”
• Accept their own mediocre performance. They overstate the difficulty of reaching targets so that they look good when they achieve them. They live by the mantra “Underpromise and overdeliver.”
• Lack clear vision and direction. They believe their only job is to execute. Like a hiker who sticks close to the trail, they’re fine until they come to a fork.
• Have poor judgment. They make decisions that colleagues and subordinates consider to be not in the organization’s best interests.
• Don’t collaborate. They avoid peers, act independently, and view other leaders as competitors. As a result, they are set adrift by the very people whose insights and support they need.
• Don’t walk the talk. They set standards of behaviour or expectations of performance and then violate them. They’re perceived as lacking integrity.
• Resist new ideas. They reject suggestions from subordinates and peers. Good ideas aren’t implemented, and the organization gets stuck.
• Don’t learn from mistakes. They may make no more mistakes than their peers, but they fail to use setbacks as opportunities for improvement, hiding their errors and brooding about them instead.
• Lack interpersonal skills. They make sins of both commission (they’re abrasive and bullying) and omission (they’re aloof, unavailable, and reluctant to praise).
• Fail to develop others. They focus on themselves to the exclusion of developing subordinates, causing individuals and teams to disengage.

Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (2009) Ten Fatal Flaws That Derail Leaders Harvard business Review June page 18

Duncan Williamson

Key Factors in Executive Career Advancement

The title of this post is the heading of the summary of kep points that we need to observe and live by if we are to try to guarantee that we get the promotion(s) we think we deserve. Take a look at this list and see whether you agree with everything you see there: I don’t. I think we can all find examples of people who fall foul of several of these key factors and yet have still made the grade.

Key Factors in Executive Career Advancement

Non negotiables___________________________________

Factors that are absolutely necessary for you to be a contender

• Demonstrating consistently strong performance a Displaying ethics, integrity, and character
• Being driven to lead and to assume higher levels of responsibility

Deselection Factors________________________________

Characteristics that prevent you from being considered as a serious candidate

• Having weak interpersonal skills
• Treating others with insensitivity or abrasiveness
• Putting self-interest above company good
• Holding a narrow, parochial perspective on the business and the organization

Core Selection Factors_____________________________

Capabilities that breed others' confidence in your ability to succeed at the senior executive level

• Setting direction and thinking strategically; spotting marketplace trends and developing a winning strategy that differentiates the company
• Building and continually upgrading a strong executive team; having a "nose for talent"; establishing an adequate level of team cohesion
• Managing implementation without getting involved at too low a level of detail; defining a set of roles, processes, and measures to ensure that things get done reliably
• Building the capacity for innovation and change; knowing when new ways of doing business are required; having the courage, tolerance for risk, and change-management skills to bring new ideas to fruition
• Getting things done across internal boundaries (lateral management); demonstrating organization savvy; influencing and persuading colleagues; dealing well with conflict
• Growing and developing as an executive; soliciting and responding to feedback; adjusting leadership style in light of experience

Source: John Beeson (2009) Why you didn’t get that Promotion Harvard Business Review page 103 June

Duncan Williamson

Pricing Error?

What do you think of this pricing policy at a cafe in an hotel?

Ice cream choice:

One scoop. 7
Two scoops. 12
Three scoops 20

Answers on a post card please!

DW

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

McCurry

How about this for some common sense at last?

In the UK a few years ago McDonalds persecuted a poor woman called McDonald from Luton I think it was. Ms McDonald, her real name, by the way, opened a sandwich shop and, perhaps unsurprisingly, called it McDonald's sandwich shop.

No attempt at golden arch copycat, the shop was painted blue as I remember it and there was nothing to suggest that Ms McDonald was trying to do anything other than make an honest living for herself.

Big Mac took Ms McDonald to Court and won so the poor lady had to close her business ... change its name ... evil Big Mac.

The same has just happened in Malaysia apparently except that there the Courts are far more sane and McCurry (I think that's the name), a one outlet organisation providing chicken curries to Malay society, has been allowed to stay open and trade as if Big Mac didn't exist.

Let's hear it for the little guy and the rational Courts of Malaysia.

Duncan

Bonuses: just wait, it's going to get worse

Here is a prediction I think you won't be seeing anywhere else, for a while anyway.

The Fred Goodwin debacle at RBS has shown that anyone who gets themselves in a position to manipulate their bonus and pension payouts can do virtually what they like. Just wait, it will probably get worse and here is why:

• Share prices and so on are probably at or around rock bottom and many managers mistakenly relate their performance as a manager to their company's share price. This has been the case for a long time even though everyone appreciates it is far from a rational thing to do.
• Bonuses and possibly pension and even general remuneration packages are probably being set in terms of share prices now.
• Put the two together and you will see in the next two to five years or so that many managers and management teams will be "earning" massive bonuses and pension enhancements as a result of what will probably be major increases in share prices over those periods.

What is wrong with this and why am I warning you that it is going to happen? The share prices are going to rise ANYWAY, irrespective of the abilities and actions of the managers, above and beyond the minimum they can do to keep the business working.

Even if a manager is deemed to have failed due to lacklustre profits and weakening balance sheets, if the stock markets marks the shares higher in the future than now, these clowns will be paid their bonuses and pension enhancements.

This is how the Fred Goodwins on this world get away with blue murder. It's so easy.

Duncan

Why GM Needs Massive Reorganisation

Here's a story I tell quite often even though the full details and source have long since been lost to me. If you know the source of the story I'd be delighted to update my records.

A number of years ago someone asked the major car makers in the USA a very simple question: if you were to make one of all possible combinations of all models of all vehicles you currently make, how long would it take you to do that?

That is, imagine the Dodge Shadow is made as a 1 litre and 1.1 litres and ... 2 litres ... petrol and diesel ... sedan and hatchback ... and so on.

• Toyota responded that it would take them 2.5 days
• GM responded that it would take them 2.5 billion years

Complexity has been the GM watch word for many a long year!

Duncan

Welcome to Duncan's Diacritical Discussion ... DDD2

Welcome to Duncan's Diacritical Discussion (DDD2), a brand new blog that will take the business web by storm.

The purpose of this blog is to tease out from my other blog, Duncan's Diurnal Diatribe (DDD1), the business and accounting things that Iwrite about.

Consequently, you will need to bookmark two blogs now or simply to migrate from DDD1 to DDD2 or even ignore DDD2 altogether if all you need are my insights into modern British life.

Duncan