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From the Apple website as of 0430 UK : Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an aspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company which only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
@thefabians summer #fringe #DragonsDen #Lab11 #conf
Four pitches were presented to the three #Dragons from @thefabians at lunchtime today. The Dragons were Luke Akehurst, Hazel Blears, and Anthony Painter, with Emily Thornberry MP, as Chairman.
David Goodhart, ‘Editor-at-Large’ of Prospect, urged more skepticism about mass immigration. He argued in his short pitch that Labour should remain a “pro-immigration” party, but should have a ‘pause’ (and consider net flows); the inward immigration flux hds put pressures on less paid people. David cited that very important skilled work for the Olympics is being done by non-citizens; this leads to the impression that we are not protecting national citizens.
David felt that there must be more emphasis on citizenship – there should be “a five-year wait” of citizenship depending on successful National Inurance contributions. Anthony Painter – co-author of Searchlight’s Fear and Hope report – reported that he had indeed identified this as cultural problem, as well as insecurity regarding macroeconomic factors. Anthony argued that it was now necessary to unpick the problems. Hazel Blears MP liked the idea a lot, feeling that David’s pitch resonated with her immediate experiences on the ‘doorstep’ at Salford, and mentioned briefly that it was perhaps a very good idea that Turkey should become more involved in Europe for both economic and socio-cultural progresion.
Daniel Elton, Managing Director of Left Foot Forward, presented a superb solution to an emergent issue energy management. The ‘energy crisis’ has witnessed bills going up, with reater fuel poverty, according to Daniel. Daniel felt that the energy market is “somewaht broken.” Daniel urged for a need ofor a practical solution in breaking up the power of the suppliers, encouraging competitive rivalry and a more balanced power relationship between the customer and supplier. Daniel advanced his thesis that the current market ha the actual effect of stopping new entrants to the market. NHS should utilize economies of scale and buy a huge amount of energy.
The pitch was extremely well received by all four Dragons. Anthony Painter loved this argument, because he felt that this would indeed be a great way to introduce new entrants into the economy. Anthony also provided that there is a strong nvironmental rationale for Daniel’s proposal. Hazel said rather pointedly that public utilities are perceived as being “mono-lithic” or “anti-competitive”, and that this provided a reason why they were broken up according to Blears. Furthermore, Hazel provided evidence that energy bills had recently gone up by 18%. Luke Akehurst, himelf a member of the NEC, believed that “there is a kernel of an extremely good idea“, as “fuel prices impact upon absolutely everyone in society“.
Two further political entrepreneurs attracted the attention of the four @thefabians Dragons in a good way. Sally Gimson, who recently won the Highgate by-election, urged the need to set up “victims commissioners” who could represent victims. Sally felt that such victim commissioners should be affordable in this “age of austerity”. In many places, this would allow a greater representation in #accesstojustice, through a personal statement. Finally, Will Cook, a very active Labour activist, pitched the right of every worker to start to business after five years’ worth of National Insurance. Will felt that the majority of people should start their own business.
Daniel Elton won the informal competition overwhelmingly with 27 votes.
The problems facing Lord Sugar in BBC The Apprentice Final 2010 by Shibley Rahman
I am not a successful businessman. This does not mean I am an unsuccessful businessman. I am a company director of my own e-learning business for law and medicine here in London. However, I will be starting a two year MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree at BPP Business School in London in January 2011, as I am genuinely interested in both the theory and practice of business, particularly leadership. My brief interaction with the legal world, which has been through a thus far successful Master of Law at the College of Law of England and Wales, has taught me that the business and legal worlds are incredibly closely-related, but it is important to me the impact of successful team-building as well as leadership; I see corporate law is being built by a plethora of highly effective managers, but with few leaders. The corporate mentality is undeniably potentially stifling unless in the right hands, fostering a rather stifling a suffocating anti-intellectual atmosphere, unless corporate law can encourage equality, diversity and inclusivity with some of the clients it is supposed to represent.
Lecture over. Here is the knub then of the problem faced by Lord Sugar on Sunday, in the final of the BBC series “The Apprentice”. Having blown out Stuart Baggs (the ‘Blagger’), one has to feel some genuine disappointment that Lord Sugar has chucked out Liz Locke through having been innocently taken in by the bullshit of Stuart Baggs. Baggs was outed as a confidence trickster, albeit a very technically-minded one, who would do anything to achieve his aims. I like Gordon the lawyer loathe the fact that he would be allegedly willing to break the law, defamation, in rubbishing a business partner to achieve his own ends. This is both illegal and unethical, and certainly would do not thing for Alan Sugar the Brand, let alone Stuart Baggs the Brand.
Stella English is impressive for very many reasons. She doesn’t do emotion as such professionally, and is meticulous in her organisation and discipline, hard work and genuine commitment. She has taken on board incessant criticisms about being ‘wooden’. She has been incredibly successful in the corporate management environment, and the question now for Lord Sugar is to find a suitable role for her in his organisation. Therefore, if she can pull off an inspiring demonstration on Sunday, that will go a long way. She needs to demonstrate that she is a potential entrepreneurial leader; she can have followers, has a set of responsible ideals, can take risks, can work in teams and demonstrate some emotional intelligence, and of course create a superb business plan. However, Christopher Bates has demonstrated entrepreneurial flair in the past in the course of the series, but his track record in not sticking at a job or a course has to be some cause for concern. It’s no good waiting for the quality of what Chris says if he drones on for hours in a pitch on behalf of Sugar’s organisation to a client, but I have no doubting that his skills are understated. For what it’s worth, I think both Stella and Chris would be a ‘safe pair of hands’ at board level, fulfilling the requirements of the Companies Act (2006) in both letter and spirit; in their duty to promote the success of the company, the duty to avoid conflicts of interest, and, especially given their high degree of sheer competence thus far in the competition, a duty to practise with due skill, care and diligence. The words of Peter Drucker continue to haunt me – leadership is doing the right things, management is about doing things right. Where Alan Sugar is superb is that he does both.
Lord Sugar said he didn’t want a ‘steady Eddie’, but this is ironically exactly what he might need in vast quantities in these turbulent economic times. A fairly close decision, and it could be tipped either way. Jamie’s poor interviewing came as a surprise to me yesterday, and definitely cost him a place in the Final. Sunday’s performance does matter therefore. I feel it go in anyone’s favour.
