Just Eat

Here's a peculiar thing. I came across an article in the FT yesterday on a company called Just Eat. The essence of the story is that "Just-Eat, an online takeaway site, has raised $64m from private equity group Vitruvian Partners and other investors to help it gobble up smaller rivals, in Europe’s largest ecommerce fundraising yet this year." What's so good about that? I had never heard of the company! So I did a search for them and found that they are here in Halifax too. Well, they are everywhere: an online booking service. Not just a link to the local pizza shed but a restaurant's entire menu is online, you choose from it then Just Eat sends a message to the restaurant which then fulfills your order. Good idea and I am not being paid to write this: I am just surprised that I had never heard of it before! I am not sure if you need a subscription to the FT to read it but see the article Just-Eat raises $64m for acquisitions By Tim Bradshaw, Digital Media Correspondent at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c805dd2-9097-11e1-8adc-00144feab49a.html#axzz1tFw6P9cn Duncan Williamson

I really don't like this

The other day I asked a friend of mine a simple question: where does he buy his bow ties? Many years ago I went through a phase of wearing a bow tie until one day someone came up to me and said, "And my next trick is ..." I thought that was a fatuous thing to say but shortly afterwards I stopped wearing them. Then I had a conversation with someone a few works ago and she sent me to a web site where there was a very nice bow tie waiting to be bought. I bought that bow tie and have started to wear it ... Following advice from my friend I went to three web sites this week to look for other bow ties. Some really nice ties on offer too. Five minutes ago I clicked on a link in an email message and when I got to the page I wanted to read, there, top left hand corner of the page, was an advertisement for one of the three bow tie web sites I went to the other day. I don't like that. I know about cookies and so on. I know that google monitors my messages for advertising purposes and so on. These days, though, we are being monitored in a google like way outside our email as far as I can see. For similar reasons I stopped using Facebook and twitter recently: apart from the waste of time these sites encourage, they are far too intrusive now. Everywhere we go and everything we do has a facebook and twitter link. Now we are being hounded even beyond that. What can we do about this? Refuse to accept cookies? Can't do that unless you want to input some things over and over again ... In the end then, be aware of what is happening and watch out for the insidious. Someone, somewhere has made 5 pence out of my innocent click through, haven't they? Which takes me to another point: knowing the way google works, I NEVER click through any of their sponsored ads. NEVER. If I see a site that interests me I will copy and type the address of that site rather than click through it. Do I begrudge google their money? Not at all but it's another way in which the modern world is paying another tax without realising (I am sure that is true, by the way) it and without being able to control it. Duncan Williamson

Death wish

Anyone know why this worm might have been attracted to my hall only to get there and die?

Several worms of this type have done this over the last two years or so.

DW

New HR book from Tony Miller

There are at least two reasons for buying this newly published book: firstly, it's very practical and it's been written by a true master of his craft, DrTony Miller.

The second reason to buy is that the tables, charts and numerical analysis were driven by yours truly via Microsoft Excel.

Here's the link to Tony's site where you can buy the book.
http://www.tony-miller.com/the-new-hr.php

Duncan Williamson

Budgeting: Practical Problem

In the Gulf Times newspaper last week there was an article relating to the State budget for Qatar for 2011. What they said was that the budget for that year had been based on an average crude oil price of $55 per barrel. Over the year the average price of crude oil on the commodities markets was $112.83 per barrel. Imagine the implications for a company, let alone a country, of one's selling prices being around 105% greater than one had previously budgeted. I understand from a conversation today that Saudi Arabia's State budget was based on a crude oil price of $74 for 2011 ... the same applies to them as to Qatar except that the difference between actual and budget is not so high. Just goes to show that the Beyond Budgeting Round Table people have made some fair points in their time! Duncan Williamson

Value Chain Analysis: beyond Porter

For a few years now I have been required to discuss Value Chain Analysis. Like most people I start with Michael Porter's view of the value chain. However, what's wrong with Porter's analysis is that it concentrates only on the organisation.

There is a further analysis to add to Porter coming from John Shank and Vijay Govindarajan.

I have prepared a detailed review of Porter and Shank & Govindarajans' analyses and they can be yours free of charge. Just write to me at duncan@duncanwil.co.uk and put value chain in the subject and I will send you a PDF file that begins as follows:

--oo0oo--

Value Chain Analysis

Duncan Williamson

This article is concerned with value chain analysis and you should find it useful for you as you consider ways of enhancing the services that you provide to your clients. An understanding both of value added and analysis and value chain analysis will put you ahead of many accountants for whom these skills are elusive!

Having defined the term value chain, we will take a look at a series of examples that will illustrate the need for such analysis. Value chain analysis is best used when analysing a company’s competitive advantage, or lack of it. Michael E Porter suggests using the value chain to separate the company's activities in the value chain into detailed discrete activities. When broken down to a sufficient level of detail, the relative performance of a company can be determined. (Have et al)

Shank and Govindarajan provide fascinating insights into value chain analysis that take Porter’s seminal ideas a stage further. This article explores some aspects of value chain analysis using data taken from the annual reports and accounts of British Airways and easyJet.

The article starts, however, by distinguishing value chain analysis from value added analysis.

The following are the section headings I have used in the rest of the paper:

• Value Added v Value Chain Analysis
• Identifying Value Activities
• The Value Chain
• Value Chain Framework
• Strategic Implications
• Supplier Linkages
• Beneficial Linkages
• How Value Chain Analysis Works
• Value Chain Case Study: airlines
• easyJet
• British Airways
• Conclusions
• References

Duncan Williamson