Answers on a Post Card

What is this a photograph of?

DW

Subscribe to The Times .., hahahaha!

This is a simulcast with duncan's diurnal diatribe ...

Subscribe to The Times ... hahahaha!

This post contains the text of s summary of my run in with The Times subscription and customer services departments.

Dear Sirs,

Please read this message and do something about it this time.

I posted this on your Facebook page just now as you have been impossible to deal with. Since you have taken money from me under false pretences, you have made this a serious matter now, not just an inconvenience.

"In The Times tomorrow ... how would I know? Try subscribing online and this is what you get. Sign up and complete the direct debit details. Finished? No, they will write and say your email is not registered on their system. They advise you to call them or try again. I wrote and said I am abroad for several weeks so cannot call ... why not call me on +... ... Ignored. I tried to sign up again this time as I typed my email address it said, are you XXX, in that case we'll fill in your details for you and they did. Was I now a happy subscriber? NO! They wrote and said my attempt to subscribe had failed and they had looked through their entire database and my email address is not registered. Call them or try again they repeated. In the end I subscribed for a month on the iPhone from the Apple Store. Happy now? NO! the App keeps crashing and yesterday after a crash, a deletion and reinstallation I am now "enjoying" a 30 day free trial ... I am getting no service for my money. Anything else? YES! I found out yesterday that they have taken money out of my bank account via the direct debit that couldn't possibly exist in their database. Is that the end then? NO! I wrote to them yesterday and asked for action. They ignored me. I wrote again and suggested that since I have received no services for my money AND they are seemingly misleading me, they might be guilty of fraud or theft. So that worried them then? Not a bit of it. I have heard nothing. So, this message comes with the clear warning that The Times has the worst customer service people I have ever come across: no exaggeration. This comment will probably be deleted but I will put it here and there and on my blog so that it can be seen for eternity!"

DW

I Don't Believe it!

On the TV here, sports channel that is, they display a QR bar code thing. So far i have looked at but never scanned to see what it reveals.

I am wstching Swansea v Arsenal and decided i would scan that QR device. As i picked up my iPhone to do the deed the QR code disappeared. I kid you not. That is what happened and it has not returned.

Sod's Law!

DW

Subscribe to The Times .., hahahaha!

This is a simulcast with duncan's diurnal diatribe ...

Subscribe to The Times ... hahahaha!

This post contains the text of s summary of my run in with The Times subscription and customer services departments.

Dear Sirs,

Please read this message and do something about it this time.

I posted this on your Facebook page just now as you have been impossible to deal with. Since you have taken money from me under false pretences, you have made this a serious matter now, not just an inconvenience.

"In The Times tomorrow ... how would I know? Try subscribing online and this is what you get. Sign up and complete the direct debit details. Finished? No, they will write and say your email is not registered on their system. They advise you to call them or try again. I wrote and said I am abroad for several weeks so cannot call ... why not call me on +... ... Ignored. I tried to sign up again this time as I typed my email address it said, are you XXX, in that case we'll fill in your details for you and they did. Was I now a happy subscriber? NO! They wrote and said my attempt to subscribe had failed and they had looked through their entire database and my email address is not registered. Call them or try again they repeated. In the end I subscribed for a month on the iPhone from the Apple Store. Happy now? NO! the App keeps crashing and yesterday after a crash, a deletion and reinstallation I am now "enjoying" a 30 day free trial ... I am getting no service for my money. Anything else? YES! I found out yesterday that they have taken money out of my bank account via the direct debit that couldn't possibly exist in their database. Is that the end then? NO! I wrote to them yesterday and asked for action. They ignored me. I wrote again and suggested that since I have received no services for my money AND they are seemingly misleading me, they might be guilty of fraud or theft. So that worried them then? Not a bit of it. I have heard nothing. So, this message comes with the clear warning that The Times has the worst customer service people I have ever come across: no exaggeration. This comment will probably be deleted but I will put it here and there and on my blog so that it can be seen for eternity!"

DW

Read that Graph Carefully II

Three years ago I wrote a short piece on how the FT had misrepresented the ratings of President Obama by using an inappropriate vertical scale on a graph it was showing.

My simple suggestion was to elongate the vertical scale and reinterpret the graph.

I just reviewed that posting and feel I ought to have suggested that we calculate rates of change values for the ratings rather than just change the chart. That will give us a complete picture.

Here’s the original graph:

Here is my table of data: assumed values from the chart then calculated values of the rates of change. Finally my own graph showing both sets of numbers: look at the impact of the rates of change values!

Year	Month	Change %	Rate of Change %
2009	Feb	66%
2009	Mar	63%	-4.55%
2009	Apr	61%	-3.17%
2009	May	64%	4.92%
2009	Jun	64%	-0.78%
2009	Jul	60%	-5.51%
2009	Aug	55%	-8.33%
2009	Sep	52%	-5.45%
2009	Oct	52%	0.00%
2009	Nov	52%	0.00%
2009	Dec	50%	-3.85%
2010	Jan	51%	2.00%

Sorry the example is so old but it’s a good one because the rates of change are at such apparent odds with the way the chart was originally presented.

 

Duncan Williamson

Bully the Small Ones

A few years ago I got involved in a story concerning a butcher from Liverpool, his tax accountant and the Inland revenue. It was a fascinating story for me as the IR was using Benford’s Law to try to tell the butcher he must have been cheating on his taxes.

That’s fine as far as it goes and I was sufficiently interested to talk to the tax accountant who provided me with the butcher’s bookkeeping information and some of the correspondence from the IR.

The crucial thing was that the IR were using Benford’s Law completely wrongly: they were starting from the right digit (pence) and moving to the left, tens of pence, pounds, tens of pounds and so on. The truth is that they should have started with the leftmost digit whatever that was as it could have been millions of pounds, hundreds of pounds or who knows what.

A lot of correspondence went backwards and forwards including some from a woman who claimed that my approach to Benford’s Law was wrong … I think she was from the IR and trying to defend her friends.

I am happy to say that as a result of my intervention the IR backed down, they stopped harassing the butcher and life returned to normal. What I DID conclude, however, was that the butcher MIGHT have been cheating on his taxes to some extent as his Benford results were not 100%: so the IR might have been right to pursue him. Had they done their job properly I would not have got involved. I imagine the butcher got a shock and sorted himself out.

The point of this story is really that I read in today’s FT that they are naming and shaming tax avoiders and evaders on the IR web site but guess who’s getting it in the neck? Starbucks? No! A high profile comedian? No A Russian oligarch? No! They are targeting tiny SMEs, probably mSMEs.

Yes, these people deserve to be punished if they are doing wrong but landing a load of tiddlers in a large fine mesh net is hardly the same as landing a dozen Marlin using strength, stealth and intelligence is it? I say this because if they have caught these SMEs in the same way that they caught the butcher of Liverpool then watch out for the potential backlash and we hear more and more stories of IR incompetence and bullying.

 

Duncan Williamson

Dublin Here I Come

I have prepared a paper for an international education conference to be held on and between 29th and 31st October.

The paper is on my work in Kabul: the setting up of a TVET college there.

The conference is being held in the centre of the city.

This is my first trip to Dublin and if you are in or going to be in Dublin at that time, why not say hello!

DW

Six Thinking Hats

In the course I ran this week I built in a Six Thinking Hats exercise and I believe it went well from all points of view. I intended to carry out at least one more 6 Hats exercise during the course but ran out of time.

In at least one of my up and coming courses I have made the 6 Hats even more central and will report back.

One of my motivations for using the 6 Hats technique takes me back a couple of years when we had meetings for the project I was part of and I suggested that we start one of our meetings ONLY with positive news and statements! It was a brilliant move even though some of the team found it challenging initially!

Duncan Williamson

This will Shock you!

I read this in an article in the Economist the other day and whilst I knew the essence of the situation, I had no idea that the values involved were so massive:

"All told, the world’s airlines spend $7 billion-8 billion a year taxiing between passenger gates and the runway, says Yehoshua Eldar, who is in charge of business development at IAI."

That article then goes on to describe one possible solution to this massive waste of energy:

"The TaxiBot, though, uses just 20-30 litres of fuel for a typical trip. It also reduces the risk of debris being ingested by the engines and causing damage. Germany’s Lufthansa will trial the system at Frankfurt Airport from May 2013."

Look here and then take a look at this video on YouTube on the taxibot. Fascinating!

Duncan Williamson

Book Three Arrived

My third book of the summer has just arrived ... Here it is and it's available from amazon.co.uk in Kindle and print format.

This is a much shorter book than The Excel Project book and it is aimed at beginners.

DW

Depreciation ... real case examples

In my new book, Introduction to Management Accounting, ready for publication within two weeks of so from now, I will provide up to date car price information for three cars:

• BMW 320d
• Volvo S80
• Porsche 911

I mention this because my web site includes a page in which I provide two examples of how to use real car price data to estimate a depreciation function. The reason for doing this is to test whether we are using the appropriate method of providing for depreciation.

There is nothing wrong with the examples on my web site but as I was writing the book I felt I ought to use up to date data ... I might leave the old data there too, I will decide later.

Anyway, watch out for the book and the updated web page; but there is nothing wrong with the web page as it is as the methods I use there are still appropriate.

Duncan Williamson

Book Number Three: Excel Work Book: introducing the basic concepts of Excel spreadsheets

I have just finished my third book of the summer, Excel Work Book: introducing the basic concepts  of Excel spreadsheets.

It's only one tenth of the size of my magnum opus, The Excel Project but it is full of great ideas and examples.

The book is, as the title suggests, aimed at beginners or raw recruits to the world of spreadsheeting and it will appear on Kindle at just GBP1.99 within 24 hours or so. I will add the link here as soon as I get it.

Take a look if you are a spreadsheet beginner, you won't be disappointed!


Duncan Williamson

Excel Book Submitted

I have finished my Excel book now and I have uploaded it to Kindle.

It is being reviewed now so I will have to wait to post full details here.

Within spitting distance of 600 pages.

DW

Excel Pivot Table Slicers: be excited!

This post has a two fold aim:

embedding an Excel file in a blog post
showing you how Pivot Table Slicers could change your life

Look at the work sheet that follows!

As far as I can tell, the embedded worksheet that you see below is not interactive in this post so ... Click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner of the embedded file here ... View full size workbook: you will see the whole Excel file then and it IS interactive.

Click on the buttons in the work sheets ... select two or more buttons by ctrl+left click ... then watch the way the chart changes ... take a look at the linked Pivot Table too ... it changes as you select and deselect the buttons ... click on the slicer buttons and see what happens to the Chart! The chart looks terrible when this file first opens ... it's meant to as it's all part of the effect!!


Feedback??
DW

The Proof of my Book Arrived

Here is the cover of my book ... proof copy. Found one error :(. Small mistake and so easy to correct.

Buy it from amazon.co.uk in Kindle and Print versions.

Duncan Williamson

My new book is available NOW!

I have published a new book: Business Cases for mSMEs.

So far it is available from the Kindle book store: just go to there to find it.

It costs just £5.99 and is available for instant download.

This book is for budding entrepreneurs looking for ideas, for teachers who teach entrepreneurship. There are cases on ecommerce, franchising and advertising as well as entrepreneurship.

The cases are short, easy to read and understand and every cases comes with questions to help you to review the case whether for the classroom or to help you with your own business ideas and business plans.

Available from the Kindle book store NOW!

Duncan Williamson

My New Book and Youth Unemployment

It is a sad fact that there are far too many young people unemployed in the UK. For a long time now I have felt that there are several reasons why young people are not getting jobs

• welfare state
• unrealistic ambitions
• poor education

Many young people who live at home are receiving unemployment and other benefits and they may well be satisfying: there is no drive for them to need work.

I talk to young people whose first ambition is to become a manager ... this is before they have any experience and, indeed, education, training and experience. Parents, teachers and others who discuss these matters with their young people need to convince them that starting at the bottom is the reality and not something that was fine in the old days ...

There is no doubt that young people are leaving school in the UK undereducated relative to a generation ago. The people who say, for example, that if someone can communicate, it doesn't matter whether they can spell and so on: complete tosh. This is a recipe for people to be trapped at the lower levels. After all, the average middle and senior manager in the UK needs good communication skills as they have to give speeches, write reports and so on. Mathematical abilities are nowhere near what they were: I have met 18 year olds who wanted to use a calculator to find the answer to the question, "What is 10 as a percentage of 100?"

New Case Study Book: a recipe for success

I believe there are, however, a lot of young people who should be encouraged to take hold of their lives and look after themselves. The book I am writing at the moment is a case study book: lots of examples of MSME businesses that even school and university leavers can take a look at and start. Many of the examples you can read about might even need no capital, or very little capital. One of the fascinating aspects of the cases is that most of them come from the Far East: the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia ... If you would like to see specimen examples from the book before it is published, just write to me at duncan_at_duncanwil_dot_co_dot_uk with Specimen Cases Please as the subject and I will send you three examples from the book free of charge.

DW

Target Costing: new page on my web site

I have written a page on Target Costing. I was inspired to write this page when I found a perfect example of target costing being discussed, accidentally, in a self building PC forum on the internet. The page includes this example and others, including the Mercedes M Class.

Go to this page on my web site and click on the target costing item in the menu under Cost Accounting.

Duncan Williamson

Using Monte Carlo Simulations with CVP/Break Even Analysis

Take a look at this video ... demonstrating the use of Monte Carlo Simulation for CVP/Break Even Analysis. The video is relatively low quality and I am working on uploading the full quality video.

Your feedback is eagerly awaited!

If you would like the spreadsheet that is featured in this video, please send me an email to duncan@duncanwil.co.uk and PLEASE spell out exactly what you want! Sorry but I have received BLANK messages before and messages that say send me the file ... so please be specific and you can have it!


DW

Graphs/Charts ... do it right!

On my web site you will find a lot of examples I put together a few years ago of drawing graphs and charts properly. Anyone who has read those guides will be interested in this page on the Economist web site ... I hope the page is not behind a paywall as it is a good set of examples:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/06/mis-charting-economic-history%20?fsrc=nlw|newe|6-21-2012|2278741|36353618|UK

DW