As the Greek economic tragedy unfolds before our very eyes, you may have missed that a Canadian has  been asked to come in and help clean up the mess.  Mark Carney, Bank of Canada Governor, was appointed head of the G20 Financial Stability Board.  The FSB will be responsible to bring in more regulations and oversight to world markets.  (more…)

Normally when you think of politicians the word brilliant does not come to mind.  There’s an appreciable difference between being a brilliant politician and an effective legislator.  You can be a brilliant politician and do nothing for the people you serve.  Brilliant politicians know how to play the game.  One of the best game players was President Bill Clinton.  Think of the scandals he faced, as well impeachment proceedings, and he walked away from it all, unscathed.  Some might suggest that his reputation have forever been tarnished.  (more…)

Maybe it’s my role at Merix which automatically makes me sympathize when bad things happen to other companies.   It’s partly glad it’s you and not me, but the other part is I get it…stuff happens.  Blackberry/RIM has paid dearly, reputation and compensation.  They could have managed the crisis, the outage, better but who isn’t a lot smarter after the fact? (more…)

“If the protests in Canada are here to draw a direct comparison to our circumstances and that of the U.S., I don’t get that.  The protestors in Canada have right to have their opinions heard.  But there are millions of people around the world who would gladly trade their problems with those protesting in Canada.”

Freedom of assembly and speech is the underpinning of a democracy.  The respect for these principles were instilled in me at an early age.    My parents were born and raised in country where freedom of speech was a theory.  In their country of birth, freedom of speech would only  be tolerated if it supported the governments communist propaganda.  Any opinion to the contrary would lead to reprisals, including imprisonment.

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On some level people view Jobs as an artist first, a businessman second.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal” – Steve Jobs.

Sadly, the passing of Steve Jobs didn’t come a surprise to me.  My blog post dated August, 30th, stated as much.  ”Upon learning that Jack Layton had passed, I was stuck by the fact that so many people stated that they were shocked to hear the news.  If you watched his press conference in July, when he announced that he was stepping aside for health reasons, he looked like a man who has been told he should get his personal affairs in order.  Not to sound morbid but I have to wonder if the same doesn’t hold true for Steve Jobs.   (more…)